Our First Time

Kelli told me I had better take my kids to Disneyland before they were too old for the magic. So Daniel and I decided to take the kids this spring break. Ann stayed in San Diego with Chloë and Lula while Daniel and I took the 2 older kids and enjoyed the magic. Sam is so excited I could not even get a picture of him looking at the camera, he was trying to process everything around him!

Here is Sleepy Beauty's castle. It was amazing!
Later in the day we took the grand tour and even found Sleeping Beauty with her Prince.

Our first rides were Dumbo, PeterPan, and Casey Jr.'s railroad ride. Then we headed to It's a Small World boat tour and ended up in Toon Town. We were so lucky to see Goofy. Sam just wanted to watch, but Olivia wanted a picture!

Sam was waiting for a picture with Micky Mouse. That was very exciting!

By now the kids were getting the gist of the rides and having such a great time.

At this point we had been at Disneyland for about 5 hours. Sam and Olivia, for some reason, made a big deal about taking turns riding with Daniel and I. It was cute, they wanted to make sure they were being fair riding with each of us. Everything about the park was so nice. Daniel was commenting on the amount of details that had been thought through. Another nice thing was the short lines. The longest we ended up waiting was about 20 minutes for the submarine ride and race cars.
I am glad we came mid week. The weather was great as well.


By now we had eaten all our snacks and we were ready for some real food... well some of us were ready for real food. Olivia did not want pizza or salad so she had an apple and Cheetos. She was in heaven!

After lunch we went on the Buzz Light Year ride. Sam and Daniel loved the gun to shoot the targets. Of course, Daniel blew everyone away with his score in the hundreds of thousands.
We were still trying to rest up from our exciting morning so we went on the Jungle Cruise. For some reason Sam was scared of everything. Throughout the day if he was scared he would put his finger in his ear.

Our afternoon was spent on the Big Kid side of the park. We took the kids on Space Mountain, which they just loved. Olivia had the time of her life, wanting more fast dark rides. Sam really liked it as well. He is funny; he looks serious while on the ride, but then he says how much he LOVES the roller coasters and wants to go again.

After the fireworks show the park was basically empty. We went over to Splash Mountain and walked right onto our own log. The kids loved that ride and, since no one was around, we ran back around and did it again, and again. Then we tried the Winnie the Pooh ride. We were the only ones there as well. The worker said Sam and Liv would be alright alone, so we let them sit together in front. They were so proud of that.

We were about to leave because it was almost 11pm, but we decided to see if Peter Pan was still open. It was, so we went on that ride one last time.
It was a great way to end our first day with Sam and Liv at Disneyland...where dreams do come true!

day 2

The next day we went to a park in Sea Port village to fly our kite, but I forgot our kite and decided not to buy another one. Grandma did buy us these fun toys that pop a ball up in the air to be caught by the other cup. It was a little too windy for the ball to be caught easily, so we will have to use it some place there is less windy.
Thanks grandma!

It was a beautiful day just to run around and be us!

While Lula was napping, Olivia and I went to set up Daniel's surf lessons and get her a wet suit. Olivia is a great boogie boarder. We thought a full body suit would protect her knees from the sand and body from the sun. How do you like their new glasses?

Spring Break in San Diegp

For Spring Break Grandma Ann met us in San Diego for a week of sun, surfing and Disneyland. I drove the kids down to San Diego alone. Which was so much easier for me than when Daniel drives with us because I did not have to continually turn around to help the kids. As soon as we arrived in San Diego we headed for the airport to pick up Grandma Ann. Our timing could not have been better!!

Then we went to Costco for some groceries and dinner.
The next morning we organized our things and then went shopping to look for dishes. Ann know I have grown tired of my blue dinnerware and thought a great anniversary gift would be new dinnerware. I did find a set I loved, but of course it is out of print. One the way to the dishes we stopped in a children's store and Ann bought each of the kids a present...or two!
After Lula's nap we went to Belmont Park. The kids had a great time on the bumper cars, sailboat ride, submarine ride and carousel. Well, Olivia did not like the carousel as much as she use to. Which made me sad because that means she is growing up.



One fun fact about Belmont Park is that Poppie Mike worked here when he would visit San Diego for the summers during high school. I added a picture of Belmont Park from Poppie's era...just kidding.

Lula loves Pico

Todd and Sam's birthday dinner

Before dinner we got to rest on the new couch and play with Pico. We love him, but Daniel is, of course, allergic to him. By the time we got home he was sniffily and wheezing.

Todd's birthday is 2 days after Sam's so they usually have a family birthday dinner together. This year Andrea hosted us at her house. As usual she made a yummy dinner and dessert. The meat was so good poor Todd had every little time to eat b/c my kids kept requesting more meat.

Sam opened some great gifts. Thanks everyone. The Miner's gave him a cowboy costume complete with chaps, a vest, hat and boots. Sam came out the next day dress completely backwards. The chaps were over his neck and one arm and the vest was over his chest and open in the back. I gave him a little cowboy giddy-up lessons and he was good to go.

Sam's 5th Birthday

Sam's birthday will always be on General Conference weekend and this year it happened to be on Easter. So this year we celebrated it the week after. Sam had a few of his friends come over. I tried to get the kids organized to play some games, but they would not have anything to do with it! Oh well. The kids did organize their own tug of war.

After not playing games we broke open the pinata.

Then the kids enjoyed the candy and we went for the cake and ice cream. Thanks to the Dots gum drop in Sam's mouth he can't give the camera a very good smile.

Sam had a great day. He gave each of his friends a big ball with their name on it which he had written. After opening presents the kids had free playtime with Daniel in the backyard.

Easter time

In my opinion the egg dyes have changed since I was a kid. I can remember sitting at our glass kitchen table just WAITING FOREVER for my white egg to turn a deep turquoise color. But now, the egg doesn't even need to be in the dye for a minute to turn the egg the deep color. I feel like my kids have been robbed of the skill to sit and wait with your arm at a funny angle so they can dye 1/2 the egg one color and the other 1/2 of the egg another. It is so easy now. Everything is so much easier than when I was a kid! (Oh Drama!!)

Oh well, we still had a great time dying eggs just with our own little family.

Very opinionated

Lula might be my most opinionated child yet. If she sees something she wants and she doesn't get it...she freaks!!! Some items wouldn't surprise you, like cake from the birthday party, cookies, or milk, but her latest must-have item is her new bicycle helmet. We were trying them on for size at REI last night and she HAD to have it!!

newly found...

makes it as good as new. The kids found these stickers Grandma Ann sent us and had a good time doing whatever with them.

Sam and Liv keep the stickers on their noses until shower time, but Lula, Chloë and I did not like the way it felt. Oh well it was fun at the time!

New trailer for Sam

Well, technically it is not for Sam, but he really wanted it. Sam always wants to ride his bike to school, but that is hard to do with the two little girls, so a bike trailer was the only way to get Sam to school on his bike with the girls.

Actually, I wanted the trailer so I could exercise and take the kids on rides. Last year I joined a swim team, which was great, but I felt like I was away from everyone for so long. It was good exercise for me; I might start it again. But for now I will take the younger kids on bike rides while the older kids are in school. In the picture below dad and the kids are putting it together for FHE. Our theme for tonight's FHE was Work, Play and Pray together (3 Nephi 18:21). We worked together to put the trailer on my bike so we can play and then we had a closing prayer!

****WARNING**** the picture below may cross the line for some manly men (cough,cough) Daniel.
You may or may not have noticed that we are gender unspecified around our house when it comes to some things, meaning Olivia wears her boy cousins' jammies and pants, Sam wears his sister's jammies and Chloë and Sam share pink and blue undies, Olivia likes Thomas the train and Sam likes Strawberry shortcake. So I did not think it would be a big deal for Sam to ride the bike as seen in the picture below. But apparently I have gone too far... Daniel does not want Sam to ride a pink bike. He (and Sam) plan on painting the bike this weekend! I am not sure how Daniel plans on masking the sparkly hearts on the BANANA seat or the heart tire tred! By the way, Sam LOVES the pink bike. When we arrived at school he said, "Teacher, do you want to see my new pink bike?" Then when school was over he said to his friend, "Hey James, do you want to see my new pink bike?" Maybe the fact that he LOVES his new PINK bike so much is what makes Daniel cringe.

By the way, this bike is a hand me down from a friend. I did not let Sam pick out a pink bike at the store.

then and now....

While looking at my pictures from Happy Hollow I found some interesting pictures.
By the way, I think our first trip to Happy Hollow was the beginning of my blog.

This picture was taken on March 22, 2010. This is Olivia and her good friend Miles.

The picture above reminded me of their St. Tim's preschool graduation picture taken June 2008.

Then Kelli took this picture at Happy Hollow today.

We had switched places from 2008. Now Kelli is pregnant and I am NOT!
Look at the difference in Chlover and Josh.

Happy Hollow

No school... let's go to Happy Hollow! I went with my friends, Mandy, Kelli and Jenny and their kids to this great little park that just reopened after 2 years of renovations. We were quite the group. Sam enjoyed some BOY time.

The kids were anxious to get on every ride.

While we were there we ran into some of Olivia's friends from school.

What better way to spend the day than with friends and family!

Happy Hollow is a good mix of zoo animals and rides.

Daniel and Tom's birthday party

Last year for Daniel's birthday we went to Sky High Jump. So this year we thought it would be fun to have a small party. But after each inviting a few friends we have almost 20 people! So much for small.

Here is Mandy and the birthday boy Tom.

Lindsay and birthday boy Daniel.

Daniel did a great job bowling and I did the opposite of great. I think I got the lowest score and Daniel got the highest! Daniel also challenged some people to a game of air hockey.

Yeap...

they look alike...

same eyes, same nose, same smile, same eyebrows, same chin, same happy disposition

Here I am with the birthday boy!