Alexis turns five

Five! My baby is five! I'm sad. Everybody keeps asking me what I am going to do when she goes to school and I just want to cry and yell I don't know! So, just don't ask me. It kind of ruins my whole day.

Her birthday landed on a Saturday this year. Mom and Pop have been serving at the temple every year so far on her birthday, so we decided to have a party. We rented a giant, inflatable water slide and invited a bunch of kids over. I had Carissa and Caitlyn here while Corinna was on vacation, and Jerry, Laurie, and their kids all showed up too! She had about nine kids from church show up, so it wasn't too big. (There are 30 kids her age). I made three cakes, and they all got eaten up! The main cake was this one. I am not taking credit for the decorating. I baked it, but about half an hour before the party started, none of the cakes were frosted, Mike had disappeared, and I was feeling desperate. I called my neighbor Jaime. I honestly don't know how I would ever survive without her. I just wanted it frosted, she went above that and it was beautiful! Thank you Jaime! Just remember, I owe you!

The kids all had a great time playing outside. We had no drama or crying so I am calling it a success! Here is the birthday girl with her presents.
And blowing out the candles!
I love the kool-aid mustache!

Legoland and Disneyland

This year we participated in Disney's "give a day, get a day" program. We were also able to get "buy an adult, get a kid free" tickets to Legoland, so we took a few days in May and went to both. We drove down to Los Angeles on Saturday morning. I spent the afternoon apartment shopping with Alena, while Mike and the kids went to a mall and walked around. We drove to our hotel that evening and walked around downtown Disney. We got to see the fireworks and we ate at the RainForest Cafe. I got a migraine and spent way too much on a bottle of pills, but it was worth it!

Sunday morning we woke up and drove to Carlsbad. We ate breakfast at a Denny's and went in to the park. It was kind of fun, but definitely not worth paying full price. Emily was a little bored. Dustin liked it. Alexis was scared of all the rides, but we dragged her on them anyway.

Emily ran into the curb and got stuck here. She's raising her hand to get the attention of an attendant.


Dustin cruising along.

Alexis on the little kids track.

See how much fun she was having? I think we made her get on this one. YeeHaw!

Alexis really liked it. It was nice and calm.

Dustin thought it was a little goofy too.

That night we drove back to our hotel only to discover that THE HOTTUB WAS NOT WORKING! I really needed a nice relaxing soak too. The kids swam in the freezing water anyway. That night we went to downtown Disney again and watched the fireworks again.

Monday was Disney day. We got up early and packed up the car then got to Disneyland just in time to... Wait in line! We had to redeem our tickets at a booth. It wasn't so bad. We got into the park about half an hour after they opened. I didn't take very many pictures because I was too busy having fun. This was my first ever trip (since being married) without a stroller. Kind of strange, but much easier to manuver. Emily got picked to do Jedi Training. She fought Darth Maul. I'm telling you, the people who work there must be dying in those costumes with all that makeup on. It was only the first weekend of May and it was pretty warm out.

In the teacups, waiting to go.

Dustin and Emily. They were not with us so that they could go fast.

I think we waited in line almost an hour for this two second picture.

Emily fighting Darth Maul.

The highlight of my day was running into one of my best friends from high school. Her parents moved her away between our junior and senior year. We wrote and talked to each other, but then she all of a sudden dissappeared! So I hadn't heard from her for about 12 years. It was so awesome! We met at about 7pm, and the park closed at 8pm, but we were in there until about 8:30, so we stayed together and talked as fast as we could! The kids crashed before we got onto the freeway, so it was a nice, quiet ride home.

And FYI, this is what happens to a Reeses when it gets lost in the bottom of a backpack for two days while walking around in the heat. Yummy!

Seattle

I went on my annual girl trip to Seattle this year. My friend got us $37 plane tickets (plus taxes and fees, but still super cheap!) It was kind of a last minute thing, but we had a great time. It was actually January that we went, but I took my super cheesy kodak easy share camera which I hardly ever use, and I just now downloaded the photos.

We poked around the city, we drove to Mount Rainier and saw lots of snow and waterfalls, we took a ferry across the bay and walked around, we went to the very first Starbucks, visited Pike Place Market, and I paid $17 to scare the crud out of myself. That's right. I went to the top of the Space Needle.

We were only there for an extended weekend, but we packed it full of activities. It is such a beautiful place. Everything is green and lush. (That's because it rains ALL THE TIME!) Here are a very few pictures because most of them did not come out very good! Enjoy!

Downtown Seattle from on top of the Space Needle. Mt. Rainier is in the background to the right.

The entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park. It started snowing on us not far up the road. It got heavy and scary real fast, so we turned around. It was so overcast that we couldn't see anything anyway.

I liked how this tree was growing out of the rocks. That is one tree split into many trunks. You can't tell, but they are all connected together at the bottom.

I loved how green everything was. Even in the winter when the trees are hibernating, they are covered with a green moss. This picture just doesn't do the beauty of it justice.

A lot of the trees also had ivy growing up them. I really like nature photos, can you tell?

The infamous Space Needle, from below. I was getting sick just looking up it. I don't know how Alena got me in the elevator. Oh, I forgot to mention, you are at the top in less than a minute. Ack!

Little Lies

Overheard by me during lunch:

(Alexis) "Open."

"C'mon. Open."

"It's okay applesauce. I won't eat you."