Walt Disney

While helping Lynsdi with a project, we came upon these two quotes.  I really liked them, so I thought I'd share.

"When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable."


"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island."

First Day of School

The smell of pink erasers,  freshly sharpened pencils, glue, crayons, paper...I love back to school time.  That's before we even get to the fact I send children away for several hours at a time. My house stays clean and quiet.  Errands get done quickly or slowly, as I determine. :)

Ms. 4th Grade

Doesn't like being back in school.
Has her first man-teacher.
Brought home her first text book homework already. 

Mr. 2nd Grade

Loves his teacher.
Thinks his teacher is the best.
Wants to please his teacher.

Little Miss Kindergarten

Has the best teacher ever.
Loves that Mom got homework on the first day and she got cake.
Wasn't scared because "Mom, all my friends will be there." Insert dramatic eye-roll.  (Hers, not mine.)

Miss Mobile

Not just yet.
But she's trying.
Hard.

Random Babblings

Such a lame title.  Oh well.

Just hanging out in my room with Jeff's laptop, once again avoiding the work that needs to be done in the little girls room. I think I have managed to ignore it for two weeks now.  I go in there as little as possible.  The baby sleeps in the library in her pack and play for nap time, and there's a small cache of diapers on the main floor.  Today, though, I can avoid it no longer. Ugh.

Training for the Top of Utah half marathon is on-going and exhausting.  I'm up to 9 miles now and can run anywhere between a 9:45 mile/min and around 10:20.  Depends on who I'm running with.  I'm tired all day long, but a good hard-work kind of tired.  I am noticing benefits though and do enjoy the torture of running.  I'm getting stronger, faster, and leaner.  It's been fun.

The kids are on year-round school and will be starting next Tues.  I think end of July is a fabulous time for them to start.  Then again, they're only on-track for 3 weeks, so we'll get a extra bit of summer break later. 

Sophie starts Kindergarten this year.  I question this decision nearly daily, wondering if she really is old enough and prepared enough to take on being a kindergartner, most likely the youngest one in her class.  The only thing that keeps me sane about it is knowing it was a prompting.  Heavenly Father would not lead me or Sophie astray, so it's off to school she goes!

McKay just informed me there are only 117 days or 20 weeks and 40 days til Christmas.  Just in case you're wondering. 

Me?  I'm still enjoying summer.  I'm not thawed out enough to be anticipating Christmas just yet. Hasn't this been a beautiful, mild summer?  Loving it.

Ok.  Can't put it off much longer.  If I'm not back in 30 minutes, send someone in after me.

Playroom Poll

It's been a long while since I've done a poll.   I've been wondering about the effectiveness of having a playroom, hence the poll to the right.  Always, sometimes, never type surveys never tell the whole story, so feel free to share what works for your family and what doesn't with the kids play spaces.  Thanks!

Visiting Grandpa

My grandpa is not doing well.  My mom suggested that we might want to go visit, just in case.  Jeff and I decided to take the kids over last night and I'm so glad we did. 

Grandpa is at the point where the main goal is to just keep him comfortable.  He's on oxygen and seemed to wheeze quite a bit.  My parents visited with him on Friday and Mom said he barely said two words the whole time.  When we got there he was watching the end of Bonanza with my grandma. We handed the baby over to Grandma (she's a baby-lover for sure!).  As soon as Grandpa saw Chloe, he perked right up, playing with the baby, cooing at her, singing to her.  He held her without dropping her, even though she was a little heavy for his frail muscles.  Chloe was so good for him, too.  She was bright eyed and showed no anxiety being held by a strange old man with tubes strapped to his face. I'm really glad we took the time to go visit.

Denver Day 1-
Leave Salt Lake.
Sleep at Cabin.

Day 2-
Drive.
Stop at Colorado National Monument

Drive.
Clean up car sickness.
Drive some more.
Arrive and bombard G'ma and G'pa with noise and hugs.
Tour the mission home, pick rooms and explore the neighborhoods.
Float "submarines" down little stream and catch them further down

Day 3-
Go for 2 mile run in unfamiliar neighborhood.  (But Jeff came, so it counts as a date, right?)
Head to Denver Museum of Science and Something or other
Enjoy space, dinosaur, mummy, and animal exhibits.



View of the Denver skyline from inside the museum


Visit downtown LDS chapel, State Capital bldg, and the 16th street mall

Playing one of the many pianos down the middle of the 16th Street mall.

Toured some of the mission area
Play Disney Apples to Apples

Day 4-
Attend sacrament meeting.
Listen to Pres. and Sis. Maynes give wonderful missionary talks.
Lazed around out of doors and in on a beautiful, sunny, warm afternoon.
Toured the temple grounds.

Day 5-
Hiked in and around Red Rock Amphitheater

Picnicked at local park

Took the kids swimming (minus Pres. and Sis Maynes)
Froze.
Relaxed.

Day 6-
Said goodbye.
Met up with Uncle Andy
Drove through windy So. Wyoming.
Thought most of it was pretty (til So. Western WY)
Stopped in Coalville for ice cream
Delighted by the "locals" hanging out for their afternoon coffee.

Arrived home safe and sound.

Our Own California Adventure

A week is never a long enough vacation for me. I wish I had more time to vacate with my little family, but the time we did have was great.

We hit the beach

Sophie is still terrified of someone being thrown in the ocean.  It still makes me laugh.  Personally, I prefer smaller, more secluded beaches like on this trip.

Disneyland was great.  I didn't know how Sophie would do with the meeting the characters.  She can be a little shy and unsure, but she loved it.  McKay and Lyndsi still loved it as well. 

We spent a lot of time in Fantasy Land.  I didn't mind, though.  The kids all (except Chloe who, obviously, didn't meet height requirements) wend on the bigger rides: Space Mountain, The Matterhorn, and Big Thunder Railroad.  Pirates wasn't as scary.  The Buzz Lightyear ride was just as awesome as remembered.  Pinocchio's Daring Adventure gets the award for Most Times Ridden. (Thanks Soph.)  Our time at the Haunted Man was extended due to the ride breaking down for a minute.  Jeff and I happened to get to do that one with just the two of us.  It really was kind of nice.  We were headed down hill (going backwards) in the graveyard section when the ride came to a halt.  There was a nice starry sky, a cool breeze, a cute boy by my side...Oh and the most annoying bird ever screeching "Caw! Caw!) every thirty seconds or so.  Which is fine for a minute, but 10 minutes later I was ready for a BB gun. ;) 

McKay and Sophie spent most of their time clamoring for their dad's favor.  McKay, ever the gracious one, often ended up with a different riding companion and left Dad to his persistent little sister.  Which left Lyndsi and Chloe completely to myself and we had a grand time together.

We traded lots of pins.  My parents, brother and his girlfriend were having a grand time with this and stopped at every pin trader we saw.

Captain Eo was playing.  We were all so excited to see it, but in the end it was a little lame.  At least the dancing was awesome.  We watched the birds and flowers sing in the Enchanted Tiki Room, toured Sleeping Beauty's castle and stood in line for hours to meet Rapunzel, princesses, and Fairies.  Thankfully McKay spared us by opting out of watching Jedi training. :)  The hours in line were worth it though to see Sophie squeal with excitement when she saw Belle.

Of course you can't see the excitement here, but she was SO excited.

Disneyland was great, but we spent a lot more time in CA Adventure than I would've thought.  Not quite the same feel as DL, but much less crowded and had some perks of it's own.  Like the Monsters Inc ride.  We've done it before, but had a lot of fun on it this time.  We met Sully, too!  There were all kinds of fun street performances (including The Incredibles and The Little Green Men drum corps) and outdoor stage ones (That Mickey can really bust a  groove!)  My mom convinced us that we had to see the Aladdin show, which was awesome.  We did the Tower of Terror (McKay even tried it!  but-couldn't convince the girls),

 Bugs Land (still not my favorite place), and the more carnival-ish pier rides.  Toy Story Mania was SO much fun.  Didn't dig the Jumping Jellyfish.  Something about not being in an enclosed car makes me nervous.  (Loved Tower of Terror, though!)  We had a great time on River Rapids, too.

  At least Mom, Lyndsi and I did.  Thankfully we all had on quick drying clothes, though. ;)  And as predicted, my mom loved Soaring Over California.  I was surprised though that the kids all loved it too.

The World of Color fizzled out on us the first night we tried to watch it.  We caught it Friday night (our last night), but by then I was one.  My feet hurt after 5 days of navigating a stroller through two amusement parks, keeping 5 people fed, hydrated, SPF'd and happy, and standing in line.  It was pretty, but I wasn't super impressed.  But don't take my grumpy, end-of-trip, fatigued opinion.  See it for yourself.

One thing we did that was a fun little surprise was the Talk with Crush (from finding nemo).  The kids had a great time.  In the same building, we got to see a demonstration of how the animation was done for Toy Story and the kids and Jeff attended a class where they learned to draw Goofy.  (The results were surprisingly good!)  While they were in class, I stayed out in the lobby with a sleeping baby and watched clips of all Disney's cartoons in their various stages of animation.

It was such a great trip.  (Cue music- "When you wish upon a star")

Now time to get back to reality.