Vacation Time

I had to rewrite this one because it was way to long. 

The kids and I headed out to Utah for a break from the heat.  We did the annual apple tree pictures so we could see how Lincoln has grown with the tree.  This tree is the best climbing tree ever.

Anna and Brinley posed on the stairs, such cute little ladies.

We had a little birthday party for Brinley.  Thanks to Mom, Katrina and cousins for putting it together.

Notice, Lincoln isn't there because it was a pink birthday party.  He did manage to peek around the couch throughout the whole party.  They had lots of fun and ate lots of frosting.

I managed to get a few pictures of moms fun yard with all the pretty colors. 

We went to Lagoon with Moniques family and had a blast but we didn't take the camera.  We also went to Lava Hot Springs and my kids had the time of their life.  Brinley spent most of her time with cousins on the waterslides and Lincoln spent most of his time on the diving boards.  I was able to relax.  It was very nice.

This is Shenay in the front pulling all of the little cousins on the floaties.  I think Shenay won best cousin award for the day.

Then it was off to Blackfoot for the Ellis reunion.

The kids play and play in the beautiful park like yards all day.

They also spend a lot of time on the 4-wheelers.  This is Lincoln and Dallin.

This year uncle Ron added to his property.  He got alarm clocks so that we would all be awake at the crack of dawn.  These roosters were hilarious.  (Really, they didn't wake us, it was Aunt Jan's car alarm along with uncle Lonnies, they won't admit it but it's true) They didn't care that we were there, they just joined in with the festivities.  At night they climb in the trees to sleep.  Apparantly Ron started out with eight and now there are three and a lot of happy foxes.

We also had the privelidge of watching these nice looking horses pass by.  What a treat!

We had a pinewood derby with some pretty cool looking cars.  There were some great rewards handed out and we also did the annual duck race down the ditch.

This year the Aguilar family was over Thursday night dinner and for dessert we made homemade icecream.  It was quite the treat.  Below shows a few of us starting up the makers and then next to that is Denny with Ice cream running down his face. Behind him,  Monique and I serving and serving and serving until we ended up pouring it (melted) into cups. It really was good, a little rich but good.

Doug and Caleb were enjoying their ice cream and so were Shayne and Lincoln.

  Below is the old swingset that everyone grew up with.  It has many memories such as me falling off the top and breaking my arm.  Lincoln breaking his leg and so on.  Anyway, when you add water and a great big tarp at the end, it is a rip roarin good time.  My Aunts were keeping everyone entertained with their totally hip moves on the slide.  They are fun energetic and very spunky.  I love to be around them and hope that someday, I can grow up to be just like them!

This here is grandma and grandpa.  They have made life so great for all of us.  We all have wonderful memories of Blackfoot, the farm, the toys, the haystacks, the corn, the bulls,  and the houses that Grandpa built.  Everything here has a story or a good memory.  How lucky are we that we are able to share this with our children.  A big thanks to Deb for putting the reunion together this year and also, for sharing her pictures since someone wasn't in camera mode for the trip.

She had a birthday shout hooray!

Brinley is such a big girl since she turned five. Lincoln checked her when she woke up and he could tell that she had grown. He thinks that she might have grown in her legs.
She opened presents first thing, then we played Memory game and watched a movie and then went to Mcdonalds for lunch and to the pool after that.

She was very excited about the cake that I made for her and she was excited that she was able to help decorate it which is why the top is so fancied up.

We ended the day with birthday cake for dinner.

She had a great birthday and we all had fun spending the day with her.

Yellow Belt

Lincoln has been working in Karate for the past 3 months to get his yellow belt and he tested for it this last week and passed.

I have to admit, I wasn't sure about putting him into Karate because I didn't want him in trouble for practicing on his school mates.
It turns out that they are pretty strict about anybody using Karate when they shouldn't and the parents as well as teachers have to sign papers for behavior. They also have to see your report card not only for learning grades but also for character grades. The kids take it to heart and work really hard for their belts.
The above pictures are the class doing their beginning warm ups. They do lots of push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks, crunches and running. They are not aloud to talk in class and they have to say "yes sifu" everytime the teacher talks to them.

This is Lincoln testing in front of the Grandmaster, 3rd Degree Black belt and a Junior Black belt. He did really well. He wasn't nervous at all, in fact he was excited to test.

This is where they remove their white belts which have black bands on them for all the times that they have shared something during class. They learn public speaking as well.

This is Lincoln in his stance ready to recieve his yellow belt.
And here he is, a yellow belt with his teacher, Sifu Mehdi.

Good Job Lincoln!

The count down to happiness!

We made it and all of us had so much fun!

After our fizzled family vacation announcement, Lincoln would ask me how many days until California (very casual) and then he would run into Brinley's room and say "Brinley, only 5 days until Disneyland". I am still a little confused at why they were upset about going in the first place but I guess thats kids for you. They were so excited to get there and they didn't even think of sitting in the hotel room once we were there, in fact we were only at the hotel to sleep.

These are some of my memories of the trip:

I knew that Lincoln would love the Jedi training and planned to get there in time for him to be in the front row so that he might be picked to be in the training group. Well, he didn't really want to do it because he felt that he hadn't been practicing with his light saber enough. He did stand up there with Brinley but neither one of them were chosen. Brinley was in tears after the show because she wanted to fight Darth Vader. I had no clue that she cared.

We took her back the next day and told her to jump up and down waving her hands so they would see her. They didn't pick her again. She stayed for that whole show while Lincoln and I went to look in the stores. When we got back she was in tears again because she didn't get picked for training. I didn't know that she liked Star Wars so much. We tried to avoid the training area from that point on.

I had to put this picture in because.....

I'm pretty sure that my kids touched every single garbage can at Disneyland and if they weren't pushing the door open, they were hugging it or seeing what was inside. I guess there is entertainment for everyone at Disneyland. Yuuuuck!!

This is my buddy, Peter Pan. I didn't want to go on Dumbo (because it's so boring) so I went and sat down on a bench to wait for Doug and the kids. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed somebody jump on the bench next to me and they were kind of squatting with their feet beneath them on the bench. That someone said "What ya doin?" I looked up and it was Peter Pan. (I was caught off guard and just a little emberrassed because there were no kids with me.) I said, just sitting here. He said, "Why are ya sitting here?" I said because my kids are in line for a ride. And then I thought, I don't care if I'm alone, It's Peter Pan and I need a picture so he posed for me. What a cute little actor, he was one of my favorites.

Here is Doug and Brinley with Lincoln in the green Dumbo behind them. I took these pictures because I didn't dare sit down again for fear that another character would come and talk to me.
This is the parade that the kids just loved. Lincoln was impressed because the characters were singing a song and when they sang "YOU" Peter Pan pointed right at Lincoln. They invited the kids out to dance with them, which Brinley did and then they did the Conga and invited kids to join in and Brinley took off as fast as she could to be a part of that. The above picture is of her in the Conga line.

I know this is a little weird but I was just amazed at being able to see the border of Mexico. This is the Colorado River running into Mexico.
On the white sand hill in the back ground there is a brown line which is the fence between California and Mexico and there were border patrol cars driving all over the area.
This is one of the border stops that we went through where they look in your vehicle and ask if we are all citizens and we say yes, then they let us go. It's kind of interesting. I honestly don't know how they monitor who is coming and going through because it seems to me that anyone could say yes I am a citizen. Oh well.
This was the farm land down in the lower part of Arizona. It was beautiful. I was amazed that they could get things to grow there with the heat and the desert sand. They grow Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Corn, Cotton, Hay and more.

We also went to Sea World which is my favorite place and I love watching the Killer Whales. They are just amazing. I didn't take the camera and really regret it.

The hotel that we stayed in had plywood over the front entrance because the earthquake blew out the windows. I'm glad we missed that.

In the end our trip was very fun and we all appreciated it. Even though I had cold sores all over my lips, an eye infection and ended up getting sick on the Pirates ship (which is the calmest ride there is) I still had fun and hope that we can go again sometime. Doug and I took the kids on the Tower of terror - not sure if that's the name but anyway, it was pretty scary and the kids will never go on it again. I loved it, however, my sunglasses flew up in the air and then down on the ground on the ride so I reached down, picked them up and stuffed them in my shirt so that they wouldn't get lost. Well, when we came out, they had the pictures of us on the ride and there I was with my hand down the front of my shirt. NICE!!! It's a good thing the kids weren't older or they would have disowned me!

We have grown to appreciate the area we live in just a little more since our trip, due to the fact that someone who shall remain nameless didn't lock the front door after putting the garbage out before we left. Yes, our house was unlock from Wednesday to Sunday and either no one wanted our junk or no one tried. Whew!!!

Below is a slide that I put together of our trip and also, while having dinner with the characters, Lincoln started dancing. I caught him having fun and I'm going to share it.

This was not how I planned it....

You know when you plan something out and you go through it over and over in your head and get so excited for the outcome that you are giddy? I did that! I planned our summer vacation for our family to head to the happiest place on earth and couldn't wait until the tickets got here. I also couldn't wait until we could tell the kids about the big surprise.

Well, tonight after dinner we had a family meeting. We all gave suggestions of where we would like to go. Lincoln suggested Connecticut, why, I have no idea. Brinley wanted to go on a hike and go swimming. Okay, I guess.

After a few minutes of suggestions, I brought out these cute travel tags and handed them out. There were no screams of excitement, there were no big smiles, there was simply silence. We asked the kids how they felt and Brinley said that she misses her cousins and friends. Lincoln said that he would rather go to Washington DC and see the white house or go to New York or possibly do the Disney cruise ship because that's where all the fun is. After I tried to add some excitement by telling him that we are going for 2 whole days, he wanted to know if we could just spend one whole day sitting in the hotel room. I decided to read the fun list of rides to them and told them about the fireworks, jedi training, and the goofy dinner that we will attend. At this point, he got furious and said he felt like hitting us for planning this.

Well at this point, the whole plan of excitement was ruined and Doug (with a very red face) sent Lincoln to his room and Brinley stood there still pouting about missing her friends and cousins. Doug loudly exclaimed (per Doug, he did not scream), that we will take other people that want to go to Disneyland with us and leave the kids with cousins and they can't play their cousins WII the whole time we are gone. Then he put the tickets away.

Needless to say, the mood in this house is not what I had envisioned.

What a magical experience we have had this evening! Some days I have to wonder why I put any effort into anything I do.

For the record, I will not be going to Connecticut and I will not spend one whole day sitting in the hotel room. (atleast not with family in tow)

Have a Magical Terrific Day!

It's True!!!!

Our youngest child graduated from preschool. Wow, how we ever made it through those two years, I couldn't tell you. Brinley did her best and loved every minute of it.

From what I have heard, she is the oldest in her class and as you can see, she is the shortest. I don't think the other mothers were aware that she is older than the other kids because they mentioned that she is so smart. Yep she is! (I highly suggest putting your kids in the younger class to make them feel smart hee, hee.)

I tried my hardest to get her to put on a cute little spring dress like the other girls but she decided that her hand-me-over clothes were the best choice for the big day. They are fine but once in awhile it is fun for mom to have a little princess. Oh well.

I honestly have never seen her smile so big and this is how she was during her whole program. Now we get to look forward to all day kindergarten starting in the fall. UUUGH!