disneyland!

22 hours in the car.
5 days in Disneyland.
A handful of meltdowns.
Equals total family vacation bliss.

The highlights, according to each member of our family:

Makenna:  "I loved everything.  But if I had to pick one thing, I would say...I don't know!  It's SO hard to pick just one.  I just really liked doing it all with my family.  Okay, maybe Autotopia was my favorite."  (she's dying to be 16 and behind the wheel of a real car!)

9, going on 16.

Oh, her excitement!  Makenna exudes happiness, in fact we love to
remind her that her name means "happy".  We named her well!

The Mickey Ferris Wheel had puke bags...just in case.  Luckily no puke bags
were needed here!  It was touch and go there for a bit, though, for this
motion sensitive little girl.

Waiting in line for Mulhound Madness, for the 6th time.

Ahhh...If I could only freeze time.

Main Street decked out for Halloween! 

Makenna rocked the Jedi training.  

She was a total pro when she went up against Darth Vadar!

Luke:  "Does it have to be my favorite ride, or favorite thing there?  My favorite thing was making my own Mickey Mouse ears, and the zip line (inside California Adventure's Bear Park).  My favorite rides were Buzz Lightyear, Space Mountain, and Monsters, Inc."

He also loved Indiana Jones, but not during the ride.  During the ride he was too busy either hyperventilating, or possibly peeing his pants.  But as soon as the ride was over he would say things like, "was that IT?  That was AWESOME!" or "That wasn't scary at all", and then I'd ask if he wanted to go again, and he'd quickly answer NO!

I love this picture of Luke, it is so perfectly him!  

Total enthusiasm for everything he does!

It was a blast to ride this ride as a whole family.  Jared rode with me and was
NOT a happy camper when he realized the ride was slowing down for us to get off!  :)

The zip line that Luke zipped down like 40 times.  No joke.

This boy loved the Haunted Mansion so much.

Buzz Lightyear.  It was a toss up who loved 

this ride more.  Ben or Luke.

Luke's really only asked for one thing while at Disneyland.

A light saber. He saw one on the last night we were there,

 while we were waiting in line for the World of Color show. 

And we'll just say he was persistent!

Jared: loved the Pirates of the Caribbean, the Tarzan Treehouse, and Pooh Bear's ride.  And he absolutely loved the World of Color water and light show!  Which we saw on our last night there, what a great way to end the week!

World of Color.  Amazing!

Holy moly. I love these guys!

I so loved this moment.  Way better than any ride at Disneyland...

Mickey came up and just grabbed Jared's hand and walked 

down the sidewalk with him.  Jared didn't seem to

mind one little bit.  He blew him kisses and gave

huge hugs to Mickey!

Jared had a major soft spot of Pooh Bear, too!

This picture cracks me up for a few reasons.  First, hello awkward sitting position.  

Secondly, any time we needed to get Jared to a happy place we would give him

a bag of trail mix.  He would spend 30 minutes carefully picking out the M&M's

and then move onto the raisins until all that was left were the nuts.

It was a price we were all willing to pay!

The highlight for me?  Caption EO.  100%  I must have been a little nostalgic about MJ passing away or something, but I couldn't help but rocking out to it.  Like 3 times.

 

I could have gone on this ride 50 times, but I only got to squeeze it in once.  Makenna hated this ride, but she went a second time with me anyway.  She's cowered over in her seat thinking happy thoughts and trying her hardest not to throw up.

I must not be a teenager anymore because the other highlights were the Tiki Room and It's a Small World. I think it really has more to do with the fact that I could see the magic in my kid's eyes while they watched.  I think I spent more time watching them, than I did watching the show/ride.  Seriously so perfect!

 

Here's proof that she was miserable the whole time!

 Makenna also hated this ride...her face tells no lies!

What made the trip even better was that my Mom was able to come along.  It made the whole trip do-able.  She would take Jared back mid afternoon for a nap, or hang out with kids if they wanted to swim at the hotel.  It made things so much easier with an extra set of hands, and made the trip so much fun!  Her favorite ride was California Screamin' for sure!  Okay, not really.  She only went because Ben was so persuasive!

Having Grandma Ruth come with us was a highlight 

and a treat.  Such fun was had, and great memories made.  Grandma has 

a special place in our hearts. 

All in all, we could not have asked for a better trip to introduce our family to Disneyland. 

The weather was amazing, the kids were fantastic and Disney magic was felt by all.  We're already

scheming on how to make it back out there.  

coast tripping

We were able to stay with my Mom for about a week this summer while Ben was at a conference and we did some really fun things!  On the list of great summer memories was our trip to the Oregon coast.

We loaded the kids into my Mom's TINY car, and endured 90 minutes of sibling "love" in the back seat.  We all were on the look out for the first sight of sand knowing that we would then be just minutes away from a perfect summer afternoon.  It was so fun to watch my little sand monsters play the same way I fondly remember playing when I was their age.  This has really been their first trip to the coast and all things considered (2 hours of sitting in standstill traffic) it couldn't have been more perfect! 

I love how easily Luke and Kenna make "best friends".  

Really anywhere we go, the park, the playground at school, the coast...a new friend

is about to be made.  I love the easy going and accepting personality that allows such

easy and fast friendships.

emergency plan

Luke informed me tonight over dinner that just in case a bad guy came into our house, he had a plan.

First, he would go hide, and make Dad go fight them...such a brave soul.

Next, he would come out and stomp on their feet and squirt them with a water gun...fearsome, I know.

And lastly, he would kick them until they left us alone...one tough dude, yes?

I'm an just glad that we have a plan, as it turns out this is not the first time he's been mulling over this problem.  When Ben asked him what he was thinking about the other day he told him that he was just thinking about what he would do if a bad guy came into the house.

I've been stressing about this one, and it's good to know that we have a plan in place...just in case.

summer lovin'

This is what summer means around here:

Saweet goggles, Kenaroo!

Dripping in watermelon juice is one of my most favorite things about summer!

Notice the bandaged up knees?  You can't see the bandaged elbows,
but believe me, they are there.  I heard about them for days.

The lovely shade of pink that Makenna picked out for me,

and then gave me the best manicure ever.
And not to be missed, the dyed hand from making play dough.  Mom for the win.

66.6%

We have officially become a family with 2/3 of our children being proficient (I use the term loosely) swimmers.  Luke, as of today, swam across the pool by himself and was beaming proud doing so!  He rocked it, really.

This is the pool floating that he will not be hanging onto this summer! 

my luke

Luke, while sitting in the back seat singing to himself, "If you like it then you should have put a ring on it, whut ut oh, oh, oh...if you like it than you should have put a ring on it, whut ut oh..."

I am giving credit to the Chipmunks, and not Beyonce.  Thankyouverymuch.

memories of Grandma Wanda

My Grandma Wanda passed away on the 17th of May.  Here is a picture journal of her life...

Grandma as a young girl

Grandma Wanda and Grandpa Alvin 

Their wedding day

Their family (my mom, Ruth is in the middle)

Photo collage of Grandma in her earlier years.

She was quite the bowler, who knew?!

Grandma (second from the left in the back) with her 6 out of 9 living siblings

Grandma with her children (my Mom, Ruth is on the left)

Photo collage of Grandma in her later years.

Grandma was a remarkable woman, with the will of an ox!  We've always blamed our stubbornness and strong will on her, but I will always be grateful for what she taught me about sticking up for what I feel passionately about and always fighting for what I believe in.

Love you Grandma...