Halloween Time at Disneyland

Ok, so we are a little obsessed with this place.  And since I can't go there again until I have blogged about the previous trip, I'd better get moving.

I decided that it would be a good year to got to Disneyland over UEA.  I mean we have our passes, Scot's parents are down there.  The kids had some extra days off school.  Great time to go.  Plus I really wanted to see the Halloween decorations.

So I talked my mom into going.  Since Scot couldn't go.  She was totally up for the fun and so was my sister Annaliese.  So we spent the first few days at Disneyland.  We had so much fun.  It was great to have Annaliese along because she would ride all the rides.  Since I am pregnant I couldn't do some of them, but there are some I don't do anyway.  Emma and Ben loved having an extra ride buddy.

 The decorations are all so cool.  But we especially loved the Haunted Mansion the most.  We rode it about 4 times.  Even Spencer loved what he calls the pumpkin ride.

 We ran into Jasmine and Aladdin and Lucy and Spencer were thrilled.  There weren't a lot of people around so they really took there time with them.  Jasmine talked to Lucy about her pins and Aladdin talked to Spencer about his monkey on his back and how his best friend was a monkey.  It was so cute!

 Lucy is our little dare devil.  She wants to ride all the rides.  Unfortunately she isn't tall enough for some.  Emma and Annaliese took her on Tower of Terror.  She said "I didn't care for the movie, but I loved the ride."  She's hilarious.  She really wanted to go on Indiana Jones.  But she was definently too short.  Emma and Ben tried to help her be tall enough by pulling her hair up.  Not good enough I am afraid.
I was also really proud of Ben because he gets really nervous about rides, especially ones with scary images.  He practically made himself sick once when we made him ride Indiana Jones.  But this time he chose to ride it himself, more than once and he liked it even.

Spencer is so much fun at Disneyland.  He tells us everyday how he is a big boy because he can ride bumper cars and Matterhorn.  Those are always the top of his list to ride.  But his favorite ride is Buzz Lightyear.  He is so stinkin cute with that astro blaster!  It was also funny to see how well Spencer knew his way around the park.  We were talking about Autopia and he said "that's over by Buzz".  (ok so maybe we go here a little often if my 2 year old knows his way around)

 The kids love having my mom there.  I do too actually.  She is a big help, and the kids think she is so much fun to ride with.

 We love the parade and so we staked out a good spot and got some popcorn in a mickey ghost.  He had a crack on the side and so we named him Cracker Jack.  He was kind of our trip mascot.  He rode by Spencer in the car all the way home.  And Spencer kept talking to him, it was cute.
We had a great time with Annaliese, but then she had to fly home for school.  But we still have more fun to come...

Big Boy

We have officially moved Spencer to a  big boy bed.  He is loving it.  Most the time he stays in his bed and he only falls off about once a week.  But he loves it!  He is growing up so fast.  That has been kind of hard for me.  In a lot of ways I want him to stay my baby, just how he is, only all the way potty trained would be really nice.  That is a baby thing I am not sad to give up.  All my kids are growing so fast I feel like if I blink that I miss something.  And to be honest I am not really prepared for all of the things that growing up means for my kids.  Life is crazier when they are little, but it seems simpler in a lot of ways.  There are less outside influences to deal with and they don't want to do things that make me worry the whole time they are away.  I can pretty much control all the influences in their lives.  But I guess it is just part of life.  My parents let me grow up after all.  Although sometimes not with out a fight.  So here's hoping that as my kids grow they can will be well rounded, functioning citizens, obedient, polite, have strong testimonies, but most of all happy.

Disney Mania

So we decided that since we were in California anyway, we needed to spend some time at Disneyland.

 I always think that one day my kids (or I) are going to get bored of Disneyland.  But it hasn't happened yet.  And everytime we walk in that gate, especially when we are the first ones waiting at the rope in the morning, I just get so excited!  And I can see on my kids faces that they are excited too.  It is just this crazy feeling that I get that is hard to describe.  I know I am nuts, but we love it!

 This trip was especially fun because Spencer could ride a few more rides.  He was tall enough for the Matterhorn and the bumper cars.  He loved it and he was so cute.  Ben wasn't so thrilled because now he has to ride the Matterhorn because if everyone in the family is tall enough to ride, everyone has to go.

This is classic Emma.  She was mad because we told her she had to go with Ben to help him.  She was angry and pouted and Ben was thrilled.  When things do go her way it can be a little rough.

Monday afternoon my Mom and Cleadus, Lisa and their girls joined us at Disneyland.  It was so great to have them.  My mom loves Disneyland as much as us and Lucy was so thrilled to have one of her best cousins Grace with her.  I wish I could share more pictures, but I still can't edit the sideways ones and apparently I take a lot of those.
Scot and Cleadus flew home but Lisa stayed with us for awhile and my mom stayed an extra day with me and then we drove home.  We had a great time  and we are definently getting our money worth out of our annual passes.

Spending time in San Diego

On Sunday, after we surprised Scot's parents, we all spent the day in San Diego with them.  We all went to church together. 

 Then we hung out at Scot's parents apartment.  It was a little crazy and crowded with 17 of us in a little 2 bedroom.  The kids were rather crazy.  But they loved being together.  They built a little fort to play in.  And even though it was crowded it was fun to be together.
Finally we decided to get out of the house and visit a lighthouse.  It was an amazing area.  It overlooked that San Diego bay and was so beautiful.

 Emma is interested in photography and really enjoyed following Uncle Jon around, using his camera and learning photo tips.

 It was great for the kids to have a place they could run around and be a little more crazy.  That way all of us didn't go crazy too.

Our kids had such a great time with their aunts, uncles and cousins!
After our adventure, we went back to the apartment and had dinner all together.  Then it got even more crazy because Spencer had 3 potty accidents and I was about done.  So as much as we loved being all together, it was time for us to make our exit.  We loaded everyone up and headed North to Anaheim...

The big Surprise

This year Scot's parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.  We decided that it would be really fun to go and surprise them in San Diego on their mission.  Most of Scot's brothers and sisters were able to make the trip so we planned it out and we all left with in a couple hours of each other.

We did hit a major detour however.  There was a huge fire in San Bernidino and we ended up waiting on the freeway for over 2 hours.  Fortunately we had plenty of snacks and the kids were amazing during the whole thing.  It was not very fun and made it very late by the time we made it to San Diego.

 We had our surprise planned for later in the day, so we decided to spend the morning at Sea World with Scot's sister Kim.  It was pretty busy, but we still had a fun time hanging out there for a few hours.

 We planned our surprise for the end of Scot's parents shift at the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center.  We were all hiding up in the tower. A sister missionary sent them up there.  As you can see they were very surprised and emotional.  It was so great to be part of a fun surprise like that.  We were so glad we made the trip!

 Then we took a tour as a family.  We love taking the tour.  I would think my kids would be bored of it by now.  But they love it, especially when it is done by their grandparents.  This one was really special because they got to be with their cousins too.

After our tour and the all important group picture, we went to one of Scot's parents favorite resturants for a fun dinner.  It was a little crazy with all the kids, but it was great to be together!

Emma's Birthday

I am desperately behind and in no hope of really catching up how I would like. I didn't help that we got a new computer and so I had to transfer all my pictures and now it won't let me edit them, so rather than looking at all the pictures sideways. There will just have to be less for the time being. And we will just have to catch the highlights of the last couple months.

We had the family over to celebrate Emma's birthday. She chose cheesecake for her cake, because she doesn't really like regular cake. It was a hit. And as always, we love having our family around to celebrate with us.

Emma turned 11. I really can't believe it. And this fine picture is the best I could do from her birthday because all the others were turned to the side. Emma is growing into a great young lady. She is becoming more responsible and really developing her own personality and idenity, especially with her friends. She still has her moments of complete and total dramatic melt down, but I don't really expect those to totally go away.

She is a great big sister and loves her younger brothers and sister. She is trying to be more independent and do more things for herself, like her hair, even if I wouldn't do it that way. It is a little bit of a struggle, but I am trying to allow her that independence.

Emma is very smart, a great reader and an exceptional writer. She would really like to be a published author someday. She is often found typing away on the computer writing her stories.

She is also growing like a weed. I feel like I have to buy her new pants every few months!

Most importantly, as parents we are so proud of her and the choices she is making!

We love you Peanut!

Emma's birthday boating

I am so desperately behind on this blog. I have been trying, but we got a new computer and I had to get the pictures off my other computer and it is slow and has been a big pain. But now I can do this, except life gets in the way. But we will try and catch some of the highlights of the last 2 months.
Since it was not a birthday party year for Emma, she chose to go boating for her activity. We invited my mom and sister and it was so great of my dad to drive the boat to Utah lake and come pick it up again. My kids love riding on the boat. But our true love is tubing. It is the most fun. It also turned out to be a fantastic day, even though it started choppy and overcast.

Emma invited her two very best friends, Sage and Lauren. Emma introduced them both to the triple tube. They loved it!! Those girls spent most of the time in the tube and had some crazy rides. Scot started them out slow at first, but by the end of the day they were going so crazy. I guess they adjusted fast. We had a fun day out on the lake celebrating our 11 year old girl. She is growing up so fast!

The first day

The first day of school was exciting. I was glad to get me kids back on a schedule, but sad that the summer seemed to go so fast. Too fast. The kids were excited too, but Emma of course had to remind me that school isn't so cool when you are a 6th grader.

Ben was so cute! He wanted to have his picture taken with his new teacher Mrs. Hansen. We have heard such great things about her and so far I am really impressed. She loves M&Ms. And she does so many fun things with them. They have been challenged to read 100 books this year. Ben took this challenge seriously. He is already over 60, but is a little sad because he was not the first one to 100.

As I mentioned, Emma is too cool for school this year. All though she is a very good student and always gets her homework done right away. But she wouldn't have her picture taken with her teacher and rolled her eyes when I took one outside the classroom. She has a male teacher for the first time and was really excited about that. So far I think he is doing a great job. Emma seems to like him and he is "funny like her dad" she says.

A couple weeks later Lucy started preschool. She loves it!! She has a few little friends that carpool with her and they have such a great time. They love to play together after we get home. She tells me everyday that she has to look cute and wear her best clothes. Such a funny girl.

Spencer is missing the other kids. When Lucy is gone, it is a lot harder to keep him entertained. He misses her a lot. But he is adjusting and we try to get out of the house, that makes it easier on him.

We are looking forward to a fun school year. Good luck guys.

Reflections on a fun summer

I realize that summer actually ended a few weeks ago, but there were some fun things I wanted to remember. We got to go to a fun swimming party with Cleadus and Lisa that they had won at an auction. It was at one of their neighbors houses. It was fun! Spencer was a little unsure about the pool at first but I made him get in with Scot and soon he was loving it. Lucy didn't go in the pool at all, she just sat on the side and dangled her feet.
The three older kids had swimming lessons in August. Lucy still didn not pass the beginning level. So next year she and Spencer will be in the same class. But at least this time Lucy would get in the water without spending half the class sitting on the side. Ben also conquered the water slide and the diving board. These are big things for them.

Scot had a comp day off right before school started and we had a free pass to Discovery Gateway. So we invited my mom to come and spent the morning there. It is such a fun place. I was glad to actually get to spend some time there this time. Spencer loved the ball section. He could have spent all day there. Lucy really loves the house and store part. Ben and Spencer both loved the building parts. Emma loved the play and story parts. There was so much to do it was a lot of fun. And it was fun to have Grandma along and Dad off of work.

To finish off a fun summer we had our friend and neighbor Kenny Favero sing and play in our backyard. We invited a lot of the neighborhood and had a party. He did an awesome job and it was fun to get together. We did a couple of Adventure Days with Grandma Pam. One to see Cars 2 which we all loved and to ice cream afterwards. And another to Classic for games, bounce houses, and swimming. They were both lots of fun. My older kids love Classic because of the water slides. I hardly saw them at all and Spencer loves the little slides at the kiddie pool. Lucy even tried a couple of the blow up slides. That was huge for her.

Since Scot works downtown now we tried to go and visit him for lunch and tours of different things downtown. We toured the conference center and got to see the underground tunnels. It was a different thing to do and we liked seeing from a different perspective. And we loved having lunch with Scot.

Many of our mornings, this summer, we went on bike rides. Ben really started to get into it. Most days we would go 3-4 miles. Then we would stop and the kids would play at the park. Emma was kind of a whiner about it but the other kids really looked forward to it.

Overall it was a busier summer than I was planning on. But we had so much fun and made lots of memories!

More of the Happiest Place on Earth

We spent 2 more days at Disneyland and California Adventure. On day 2 our kids had a few selfish issues, but we reminded them how lucky they are and gave them a little time out and it was a lot better.

We love Toy Story. Even though the line is so long. And the glasses provide lots of fun while you are waiting.

One of our new favorite things to do is the Animation Studios. It is a fun way to draw the characters. And my kids are so cute when they do it.

Ahh, our emotional Emma. We had just found out that there was some flooding in our neighborhood, but we didn't know the details. Emma was losing her mind with worry. I kept reminding her that there was nothing we could do so she might as well enjoy herself. So much for that. Our kids got a little creative while we were waiting in lines. Lucy and Emily danced through pretty much every line. Scot had to leave half way through our last day and so I had a harness on Lucy. Emily loved to hold the harness for me. It was pretty funny.

They older kids did a lot of climbing and crazy walking. Whatever keeps you happy I guess.

We were so glad that we got to go with Joseph and Amy's family. It was so much fun to be together and our kids loved being together especially. We were so glad it worked out to go together. Thanks for a great trip guys!!