More Comicon

Chad and his spawn! This is his whole team of friends! Doesn't he totally look like Chucky? A little creepy if you ask me. And of course, Bart. It seems like a lot of our trip has been about the Simpsons.

And finally, Comicon

Posing with a Transformer

Luke and Elvis Stormtropper - the "Elvis Trooper"
Jabba the Hutt! Life-size. Go figure! Almost Johnny Depp. Captain Jack Sparrow and some friends!

Doin' Disney Part 2

In line for Buzz Lightyear, Astro Blasters.
A very, very, very tired Reed. Isn't he cute in his ears, though? They're only a little big on him. A sleeping princess (waiting for daddy and Luke to get off of Indiana Jones). The other one already went home with grandma and grandpa.
Our stone on the walkway between Disneyland and California Adventure. We got this when D worked at Disney. Now we need a new one just for Haley and Reed. The one above and to the right is for Derrick's parents, Fred and Helen. We got them one as well as a group gift that year. The "Mickey" that's on ours was only available to employees, so that was kind of special.

Doin' Disney

Ok, so Grandma and I (and Reed and Haley) did stand in line for the new Finding Nemo ride - about an hour and a half - but it wasn't too bad because everybody else went on the Matterhorn and Autopia rides while we were in line, and there was a rock band performing classic 80's while we were in line, so I was loving it!

Of course, we had to get "ears" also (I'm sure each of the kids already has some - I know Chad has like 4 pair, but what can you do?). The deal was that they had to wear them all day, and I don't think that Chad ever took his off! What a great 11-year-old!

California Adventure

Our last few California days

We've had a great time the past couple of days. Done the total "touristy" things. Spent a day at Legoland with Aunt Sherri, Hunter, Nicole and their friend, Hallie. Then D, Chad and Luke went to Comicon, the comic book convention, where of course, they had a fabulous time. Me, Macy, Haley and Reed went to the beach with Aunt Sherri again. It was a lot of fun. Totally ideal California beach! Short beach, not too far to walk; lots of people with pretty umbrellas, but not too crowded; waves, good food, lots of fun. I did, however, use tan accelerator (why? because Sherri was using it, so I thought, why not?) without any sunscreen, and might I say, got a bit toasty. Then, we rounded out the trip with an adventure to California Adventure / Disneyland. Totally the highlight of our trip! It was busy, HOT and crazy, but we still had a great time! Got there around 11 and didn't leave until almost midnight, tired and worn out, but happy. Grandpa and Grandma met us half way thru the day and that made it even more fun! Now we are taking a day of rest, and then driving home tomorrow to prepare for cub scout camp on Monday.

My Little Man

Apparently Reed just rolled over - from his tummy to his back. I didn't see it... D and Luke did (supposedly!)... so therefore, does it really count? If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around, does it make a sound? My point exactly.

Can you say Kwik-E-Mart?

Some of the field trips. First, off to the Kwik-E-Mart. A surefire hit with all! It was actually very cool! There were stand-up characters of Homer, Apu, Chief Wiggins, and Ralph. Lots of treats - Krusty-O's (which they were out of! dang it!), Buzz Cola (we got 3 packs - get excited Bob and Susie!), Squisshy's (think "ICEE"), very frosted, very pink donuts, and other fun things... and of course, we had to be lots of all of it. Even some grafitti of Principal Skinner on the side of the building! D especially loved it!

Pretty girls!

More pics...

Liam, Chad, Macy, Luke, Mia & Haley in grandma & grandpa's backyard

Daddy's here!!!!!
Lukie & Baloo. We miss you Baloo!
Getting all dolled up!

Well...

I'm stylin'!

I'm the queen of the car!

we're still here! Just been busy being Californians! Daddy got here (yippee!) and we were able to go to Uncle Billy's house on Saturday night for dinner and saw our dog, Baloo. The kids loved seeing him! Today, D took the girls (and Reed) to Libby Lu's in the mall where they (the girls - not D or Reed - go figure) got "makeovers" (which they loved!) and I took the boys (and Liam - Chad's best California friend) to see "Harry Potter". We hadn't seen it yet, but D did. It was fun! I still haven't seen the last one, #4; one of these days, I guess. Getting ready to head to dinner, then it's off to Legoland, Comicon and Disneyland on Wednesday. Now the fun really begins!

P.S. Figured out where to upload pics, so here's some random ones...

Day 3 - Can anyone say "Pool Party"?

So, we invited a few friends over today. Say about 16 kids and their parents. Only a couple, really. Grandma and Grandpa were on their way home from Utah, only to find a whole lot of people in their backyard - including the pool man. I didn't invite him, I swear!

We had a lot of fun though. It was just what the kids wanted to do. Swimming at grandma and grandpa's house, In-N-Out for lunch, and lots of friends over to play with. This is what summertime means to us!

Reminder though - next time put LOTS of sunscreen on Chad's cheeks!

Day 2

Woke up... not even too late. Only about 8:30. Went to our old church where we saw lots of friends. That was really nice. Then we cruised by our old house. It looked really strange. They had put up new pieces of trim on the outside of the house, but haven't painted them yet. When D and the boys were down in May, they saw the unpainted trim as well... so don't know if this is some sort of fashion statement. Whatever. They also have their Christmas lights up. Strange. Heard they have roosters too. Just the kind of neighbors you want, huh?

Anyways, then we stopped by our friend, Mia's house, but she wasn't there so we got to see her mom, dad and baby brother. Stopped by grandma Paula's house, and convinced her to feed us tonight. Then we drove to Burbank and surprised Chad's friend, Liam, and Luke's friend, Elizabeth. They were all (parent's included) very happy to see us. Totally made us feel loved!

Also saw one of the 7-11's that's been temporarily trasformed into a Kwik-E-Mart as a promotion for the new Simpsons movie. Very cool. Bart and his friend are sitting on the roof, Marge and some others are painted on the front and sides of the building. It was really neat. There was even a line going around the building to get in. Apparently they are selling Simpson-related treats, like Krusty-O's, and people are willing to wait in line to get them. That will have to wait til D gets here... not the kind of line I want to stand in!

We MADE IT!!! - Day 1

We survived! After 16 1/2 hours in the car, we got to grandma and grandpa's house at 12:30 in the morning... very tired and sore, but happy to have reached our destination! YeeHaw! Now, we just got to sleep it off... so we're not feeling so "jet-lagged"... without the jet!

(Can't plug my camera into their computers, so no pics for now. Will post some when D gets here on Saturday with his computer.)

I'm ready for Cal-ifor-n-ia...

Is it time to go yet? Is it tomorrow yet? (She's been asking this for the past two days.) This is all that Haley believes she needs to take with her for a two-week trip. This is good for swimming (obviously), Disneyland and especially, church.

On the road again...

Getting ready to head to California tomorrow. Just me and the kids... 16 hours in the car. Am I crazy???!!!! Gotta do it though! Very excited to see our friends and family that we haven't seen in almost a year, and besides that, D is going to fly down next weekend and then drive home with us the week after. Him and the boys will head to Comicon, the comic book convention, in San Diego, while me and the girls and Reed just swim and enjoy (????) some of the California heat for a few days. Also planning a trip to Disneyland. Know it will be hot, busy, and crazy and we'll only get to go on probably one ride after spending almost a million dollars to get in... but hey, now we're tourists. Gotta do the touristy things! Wish me luck!

Bowling fun

Ok, one more for today. The field trip for today was bowling! We had lots of fun... and the air conditioning was wonderful! For some reason we have the California weather right now - it's been 103 degrees - so anything to get out of the heat. Here's a cute pic of Haley. Her and I were a team. She got to do the first ball, and I would do the second. She loved it. She would just walk up there, drop the ball, and then wait about an hour for it to get down the lane. Very funny.

(Random side note - notice we finally cut off her hair. It's actually pretty cute! A bit of an adjustment, but I'm really starting to like it!)

Total bed head...

Macy's at Girl Scout day camp this week, and today was Crazy Hair Day. Just wanted to share a cute pic of her and some friends.

You can't really tell from this picture, but Macy is totally sporting Princess Leah buns - thanks to D, of course!

Bambi was here!

So, after my walk this morning, I was on the front porch watering my flowers and looked over the railing to see this deer just hanging out. Very strange for this California girl. I called Macy, Haley and D to come and see, and the deer just stayed there watching us for a while, then finally just meandered off. About an hour later, Chad went out to the backyard to go on the trampoline, and the deer was now hanging out back there. This is our new pet, I guess. Anyone know where to buy deer food?

True Love

Ok, so just a cute picture of Haley and Reed sleeping together in our bed. Just wanted to share! Her head near his belly! She moves a lot in her sleep... that's why we don't like to sleep with her!

Waterworks

Luke getting dumped on!

So up here in the great Northwest, hardly anybody has swimming pools - really what's the need? except when it's 103 degrees like today? Anyways, back to my original thought... so no home swimming pools, so there are lots of community centers with, if I may say so myself, some pretty rockin' pools. Check this out... This was our field trip today. The Firstenburg Community Center. Reeds' first time swimming, and I think he might have enjoyed it. One big giant pool, with two separate pool areas, one with a giant water slide, then a "lazy river" section, and a kiddie section which went from 0 feet deep to 2 feet deep. Perfect! My kind of pool! And it only cost us $12! What a deal!

Happy 10th of July!

Ok, so I'm a little bit late, but this post is really "Happy 4th of July"! I love the 4th of July! It's truly one of my favorite holidays! All the red, white and blue, fireworks and BBQs! What can be bad about that? And truly, to celebrate independence! What a great country we live in!

In Washington, fireworks are legal so between June 28th and July 5th it's pretty much a 4th of July week! Fireworks going off all the time. It makes for a fun (and noisy) week, but we love it!

We had a great time on the 4th! Bob and Susie's neighborhood had a parade which me and the kids were in, then a big BBQ at the lake, followed by "Transformers", and then of course, the BBQ with all the yummy food. We all had a great time!

Happy Birthday America!

Ready, Set, BOUNCE!!!

Ok, so who spent the majority of her day building a trampoline yesterday? You guessed it - ME! And, not an easy task I might add! It's hard work! But, I told the kids that if they helped me clean up the house a bit, we would at least try to build it. So, while I was still cleaning, I told Chad to carry all the pieces (the boxes were in the garage) to the backyard so that even if we couldn't figure it out, when Daddy got home it would all be back there, ready to go. By the time I got down there, Chad had all the pieces out and laid out in the correct formation. He was even following the directions - go figure!

Points I learned -

1. Not a wise idea to use an electric drill while sitting on the trampoline. I was trying to screw together two pieces and the drill accidentally fell out of my hands and onto the trampoline mat while still going, thereby creating a (very small) hole in the trampoline. Hope that it doesn't get bigger!



2. The mat around the edges goes on before the safety net! Once you put the safety net on, pretty hard to get the mat on over it! Left this job for D, so he ended up taking the safety net down to make it easier. That's why I keep him around!



3. Kids are VERY impatient to jump on a trampoline - whether it's finished or not!