Vacation Post #2

Ok, I knew this is what was going to happen. I knew I was going to get busy and forget to blog about our vacation and then I would start to forget some of the details :( Thank goodness for pictures so I can remember most of it.
Our second day in California was Easter. I had brought bubbles and the kids' Easter baskets from home and figured I would run over to Target for the rest, which of course didn't happen after being up before dawn, on a plane, riding a bus, checking into the hotel, and spending the rest of the day at Disneyland Saturday. Duffy spent the night in my mom and dad's room with Auntie A so luckily I could go down to the hotel store and grab a few things. Duffy had spotted some swimming goggles in the shop on Saturday and said that he wished he had some so of course I got those! Sunday morning I brought the baskets down to my mom and dad's room and told Duffy I had found them. He was pretty excited over the goggles and they both liked the bubbles.
We got them dressed in their darling Easter outfits-Duffy had a cute pair of plaid shorts from Grandma and Maisy had her gorgeous tutu that Aunt Aimee made for her. We had breakfast and went outside where we were surprised with a little egg hunt from the Easter bunny. Grandma and Papa had hidden eggs with $50 for each of my kids and $100 for each of us adult kids so that we could buy whatever souvenirs we wanted. I was shocked and thankful!
Joey was still sick so we planned on starting at California Adventure until he could catch up, but we found out that they didn't open until 10 and we were there at 8 am. We headed over to Disneyland instead where Duffy got to ride his favorite ride-The Matterhorn which he calls the "Bominable Snowman" Maisy and I waited to the side while the rest rode and then I got to go with Duffy by myself, he promised to protect me from the snowman, it was so cute!
After the Teacups we headed to Maisy's favorite ride-It's a Small World. She couldn't get enough of the colors and singing and just kept pointing everything out to us. Another trip to Tarzan's Treehouse while we waited for part of the group to go on Indiana Jones and we were off to California Adventures.
Duffy really loved California Adventures because it has an entire section of Bug's Life rides for kids and of course the 4-D show where you get to wear the bug eyes. After a couple hours there Joey finally got to come meet us since he felt a little better. Duff and Maisy love their daddy very much and were so excited to see him there and tell him about the rides and adventures we had. Grandpa even bought the kids cotton candy before lunch, can you say "spoiled"?
During lunch Maisy got a special performance from the Mariachi band, she looked on in admiration with her face COVERED in macaroni and cheese. It was really sweet. They met Mulan right after lunch too, which both of the kids thought was great, they couldn't stop looking at her. Duffy also met Lightning McQueen on our way over to the other side of the park.
We played at the Redwood Adventure Trail for a long time that day, the kids thought it was great that they could run around without being in a stroller or holding someone's hand. Aimee did not think it was so great going over all the nets 30 feet in the air. This is where we were when the earthquake hit. Aimee thought she felt something but didn't know if it was just because she was so nervous. We had no idea for probably 30 minutes that something had happened. While we were in the Adventure Trail we got to meet Brother Bear and then headed out to hit some rides-that's when we found out about the earthquake.
Disney shut down all of their rides for checks and we were already exhausted at that point so we decided just to head out and get in the pool at the hotel. There was a flood of people leaving and Disney didn't let anyone know when they would reopen the rides, we found out the big rides can take hours and hours to check.
Luckily Duffy's favorite thing on Earth is swimming so he was very excited to go back to the hotel. The kids swam with Daddy for a long time, until Maisy fell asleep on the lounge chairs with me and we finally dragged Duffy out.
More soon!

Vacation Post #1

I'm going to try really hard to remember all the little things that happened during our vacation so that one day I can look back on this. I don't know how many vacation posts there will be but here's #1.
We have been counting down to this vacation since December and life was a little crazy before we left. Just trying to get ahead on homework, make sure the kids had summery clothes, finding a place for the dog, etc. was a lot of work. Duffy had been saving up change for a few months too and any money he found immediately went into his money jar. Eventually we had to move it into a second jar and even that ended up overflowing into a ziplock bag. We had decided it would be his souvenir money for our Disneyland vacation. The day before we left we went to the bank to cash it in. I truly thought it would be like $50, so when it added up to $204 I was shocked, it's amazing how change can add up! He thought he was awesome! Later that night Duffy got into his Mickey jammies and Maisy into her princess castle jammies, the kids went to bed as usual, they didn't really understand the big week ahead of us. I, on the other hand, slept like it was Christmas Eve-which means didn't really sleep much!
Our flight was at 7:05 am so we figured we needed to leave by 5, meaning I woke up for the last time at about 4 and we got the kids out of bed at about 4:45. We met at my parents' house and rode down together. The ride was an adventure already, they drive an Expedition which has 8 seats, exactly the amount of people going, leaving us little room for luggage (we really didn't want to pay for parking for 2 vehicles!). We went Beverly Hillbilly's style and strapped some up on the roof. The little ones got jammed in every empty crevice of the car! Aimee had to basically sit sideways with the stroller standing up at her feet. We finally left my parents' house about 5:15, running late already. Since Duffy was still half asleep when we left, he hadn't gone to the bathroom and decided around Centerville that he really needed to go, which meant we had to stop right then! Finally we made it to the airport pretty much right at 6, but thought it would be pretty calm in there since it was so early-it wasn't!!! Everyone in Utah was heading to Disneyland for spring break, and the airport was a mad house. We literally RAN through the airport to make it to the gate, it was not pleasant to say the least.
Finally on the plane things calmed down. Duffy was super excited and watched out the window as everything was loaded up and while we took off. He really thought the whole thing was cool. Luckily it was a short flight because Maisy is not a sitting still type of girl and got really restless and grumpy toward the end. This is also when Joey started to get sick, making the flight even more interesting. All of our ears really took a hit on this flight and Duffy was crying that his hurt, it made me feel so bad!
Once we landed we rode a shuttle to Anaheim, Joey was sick the whole time. The first shuttle stop was the Disneyland Hotel and we wanted to get out right then! All the lampposts on the Disney property have the head of Mickey Mouse on them (just in the same metal as the post so they look kind of like silhouettes) and Maisy kept looking at them saying something we just couldn't understand. Finally we figured out she was saying "Toodles" from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, it was so cute!
We got to the hotel and basically just got changed to go to Disneyland. We were so excited but I felt terrible because Joey was REALLY sick and had been throwing up pretty much non-stop since during our flight. There was no way he could leave the hotel and had to miss the first day at Disneyland. He felt bad too and I think both of us had a little cry about it. By the time we got there Disneyland was CRAZY packed, it was a Saturday after all. We forgot the sunscreen and had to stop for that, then we were so hungry since all we had were airline pretzels up until that point, so we stopped for lunch in Tomorrowland, it was actually pretty good. Finally we got to go on a ride! About a month ago I had asked what ride Duffy wanted to go on first and he thought carefully and finally asked "Is there a Buzz Lightyear?" I told him yes, but didn't give it another thought. Guess what we actually went on first? Buzz Lightyear! I found that pretty funny, it just happened to have a decent line. I think total we only hit 4 rides that day because the lines were so long but it was fun. We did hit Pirates of the Caribbean that day, not Duffy's favorite because of the drops in the dark, but toward the end he was ok and Maisy just rode along like nothing was even happening, she was so good on everything! We went into Tarzan's Treehouse (the first of a few times) and poor Duffy tripped and cut his knee pretty bad. It had gravel and sand all over in it and all I had was a water bottle and wet wipes, and a bandaid that was too small. So we took a trip to first aid. Let me tell you, if you are going to get hurt somewhere, Disneyland is the place to do it! They have regular old doctor's offices in there and the nicest nurses ever! They cleaned it out really well and hooked him up with a bigger bandaid. Bad for Duffy but definitely memorable for our first day!
Ok, that post is long enough, more tomorrow maybe :)

California Pictures!!!

Ok, I am anxious to post these pictures! I'll have to do the blogging on our trip over the next few days so stay tuned for that. I am warning you, this slideshow is LONG, but it's less than half the pictures we took! We had the best time, I can't believe it's over already!

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A Terrible Blogger

Ok, so I have been a terrible blogger recently and to tell you the truth I don't have time to blog today either. We leave for Disneyland and Sea World in two days and I need to get a million things done, including a 14 page paper that is due the Monday we get back. Wish me luck since all of us are also getting sick :( I PROMISE to blog like a mad woman when we get back!

Polar Plunge 2010

My sister Aimee is going to school to become a special education teacher. She is wonderful with "her kids" that she works with now and is going to be the best special ed teacher ever! She decided to start volunteering for the Special Olympics and when she went to their website she found this Polar Plunge fundraiser they do every year. The goal is to get people to pledge money for you to jump into a frozen lake. Crazy right? So Aimee, Jordan (our brother), and I decided to do it together. We woke up early on a Saturday and got to Deer Creek Reservoir in Heber at 9 am. The temperature gauge on the car said 19 degrees outside and I began to wonder what in the heck we were thinking.  Then we walked down to check out what we'd be jumping into. They had cut huge blocks of ice out and had a ladder on the other side of the hole for us to climb out on. The water in the hole was already getting a film of ice on the top. It was really cold already and we were still dry! After registration they had a costume contest, Aimee was Pippi Longstockings, there was a Mr. Clean, a leprechan, a figure skater, and a whole bunch more. Then we all walked down to the hole. There was a big crowd around and they read our names one at a time, taking turns jumping in. It was fantastic cheering everyone on as they took the plunge. I had asked if Aimee, Jordan, and I could go together so finally she called our names and it was our turn. Walking up to the hole together I held my pants up so they wouldn't get wet, don't ask me why, just habit I guess. I could see my parents and Duffy and Maisy on the other side thinking we were nuts. A few seconds later we all jumped in together. It was instantly cold. Imagine thousands of needles poking into your skin, your lungs freezing up, and being barely able to move, it was cold! I didn't go all the way under like Aimee and Jordan did but next year I promise I will. Jordan hit the ladder first (so much for ladies first) and I was saying "Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!" I was next and got about halfway out before I bailed out onto the ice so Aimee could get on the ladder. I still have a huge bruise on my knee! The hole was not close at all to the trailers where we were getting dressed so we had to run, soaking wet about the length of half a football field to get dressed. There was only one safe place to get onto the boat ramp we had to walk up so there was a huge traffic jam of dry people and I yelled "Seriously?!?" Finally some of them let us through, I was freezing by this point. By the time we got to the trailer my feet literally felt like blocks of ice clumsily tromping along. Once inside the trailer and semi-dry though I was really surprised at how not-cold I was. The whole experience was absolutely amazing and I plan to make it a tradition. There were several special needs kids there and a few even took the plunge, it was great to see them there supporting us. What a life experience, there aren't too many people who can say they have jumped into a frozen lake (on purpose especially). Can't wait until next year!!!

So I Can Look Back and Remember

Life is stressful right now and the blog's taken a hit. I really enjoyed November I just need to get back into the habit! Anyway, yesterday Duffy had been upstairs playing for a while and when he finally came down he was in a pair of warm-up pants and his Vance Bennett Construction hoodie. As he climbed back over the gate he asked me if I knew why he was in those nice clothes. I said "Why?" and my 3-year-old little boy replied "Cuz I'm taking Sharon out to dinner tonight"! I about died laughing. He was so serious talking about going on a date with his imaginary friend. This kid is going to be a ladies man. He also said they were eating at a restaurant so they didn't have to go to her "dang house". What? Haha.
Maisy's latest obsession is getting completely undressed, diaper and all. In fact I just had to take a break from writing this post to get her dressed again, this time she's not getting out, I put her in some zip-up jammies and she hasn't figured them out yet. I know it won't be long until she does. I remember Duffy going through this stage and me walking into some yucky messes in his room after nap time. I used to have to put him in his zip-up jammies backward so he couldn't get them off, I'm anticipating I'll be doing that with Mais soon too.
Something that's been stressing me lately is waiting to see if we are going to be approved for my dream house. I haven't wanted to post about it because it will truly be a miracle if we get it and I've been working very hard not to get my hopes up, but since this blog is a sort of journal for me I want to look back on this time some day. I'm growing weary of renting and the two bedroom town home we are in now is in no way big enough for the 5 of us (dog included). The house we are looking at is all we'd ever need and since the market is so bad we would be paying about $100,000 less than it was selling for 18 months ago. It was built a year and a half ago but hasn't been lived in so it would be all ours. I'll post details if we get it, no need to do it if we aren't going to end up there. I just want to know one way or another, this waiting is not healthy for me.

Hogle Zoo, A Little Late!

I just realized that during all the craziness that was the holi-daze I totally forgot to blog about our trip to the zoo in November! We went early in the month, before it got too cold but it was just cool enough that the animals were actually being pretty active. I think it was the best trip to the zoo we've had! We saw so many of the animals roaming around and playing, there wasn't an absurd amount of people there, and it was Maisy's first time (other than in-utero!). Really, I suggest you all go to the zoo in the fall. We walked around, rode the train and the carousel, and had a picnic. Duffy has always loved the zoo and it seems that Maisy does too, she was so cute looking at the monkeys especially. Duffy loved the bears and penguins the most this time I think. I know I always do collages but there are so many cute pictures this post would have gone on forever! Like I've said before, if you want to see them bigger just click somewhere on the collage :)