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."

And now, deep thoughts, by Alexis Taylor

Alexis comes to me the other day and asks,
"If I cut my finger off, will it grow back?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I don't know, they just don't grow back."
"Well, my arm got better, and my owies get better."

Ummmm, I could not think of a response for that. Why is it that we can injure ourselves horribly and our bones will heal and our skin will regrow. Our blood vessels can mend themselves, and our nerves regeneraete. But our limbs don't grow back? So I replied,

"I'm not sure why. It doesn't make any sense, does it?"

I guess that was enough for her because she didn't ask any more whys. I'm going to have to start reading some deep science books to answer this ones questions.

I'm still alive...

I kind of dropped off of the face of the Earth for a while. Alexis ended up having surgery on her elbow and it was like having a baby again. Even though it was her left arm, I had to help her to eat for a while, and I had to take her to the bathroom every time. (She couldn't get on and off the toilet by herself, couldn't balance once she was up there, couldn't wipe, and couldn't wash her hand.) I also had to help her get dressed. It was not fun trying to find clothes that I could fit over the huge cast. For a while she wore a tank top and a shawl. We just took a blanket with us everywhere to keep her warm.

For Christmas, Santa had already gotten her a scooter, so he had to scramble at the last minute to find something else. (He didn't think it would be very nice to give her something that she would not be able to use for a long time.)

She only had the cast on for three weeks. They had to put pins in to hold her elbow in place. The pins were sticking out of the skin, so they had to remove them before they got infected. After that she was in a sling for another three weeks. We have to take her in for x-rays every couple of months for a year to make sure the elbow stays in the right place. The way it broke, it went through her growth plate and if they had not fixed it, her arm would have either stopped growing or would have retarded growth.

Right now both Emily and Dustin are in baseball, so that is keeping me busy. It's kind of a pain on school nights.

For Spring Break we went to Portland, Oregon for my niece Amy's wedding. She is the oldest granddaughter (of my parents) and the first to get married. Alexis was the flower girl. Since I am smart and organized, I forgot my camera at the house we were staying in. All I have is a picture of her in the dress when I tried it on her.

I am hoping to be able to get some pictures from the bride and groom once they are settled in. We had a good time seeing the sights. The kids traveled well, which was very nice. This is the first time they have ever been in the car for more than three hours. I take them to the beach, to the mountains, and to L.A. and that is about it. They watched a lot of movies and played with the DS's. It kept them nicely busy.

On the way home we hit a huge snow storm over Mt. Shasta. There were a lot of people driving badly and sliding off of the road. We were scared that someone was going to slide into us, but decided to keep going. They closed the road right after we got over it. It took us an extra three hours to get over the summit. Here are a few pictures of it.

It was beautiful. If we were the only cars on the road it would have been okay. We just got really stressed about the other drivers.

Today was Alexis' last day of preschool. She got out early because her teacher (unexpectedly) got pregnant at the beginning of the school year. She has to have her babies by c-section, and they just bumped her date up to the Monday after next, so she decided she wanted a week off to prepare her self and her house. At the last minute (literally after school started today) she decided to have a little graduation. So once again, no camera. I took a few pictures after we got home.



They made cute little hats and diplomas.
And a few days ago they made these cute hand print stepping stones. We got to bring them home today. She had a great time in preschool and learned a lot. She is more than ready for kindergarten. Thanks Miss Michelle!

We recently made some blankets for Project Linus and donated them for Disney's "give a day, get a day" so up next an (almost) free Disney trip!

November

This month Dustin got the student of the month award. It was a surprise for him, so that is his pleased grin. I made some turkey cupcakes for the ladies that I visit teach and some for Alexis' preschool class. I thought they looked like turkeys, but my kids asked me what they were.

We spent Thanksgiving at Mike's dads house. The day after was Dustin's birthday. Since it was black Friday, Mike had to work. So we let him open his present that morning and had his cake on Sunday. Unfortunatly, uncle Eddie had a little bike accident (and broke both collarbones) on Friday, so Alice was going to stay home with him and my parents were going to bring the kids over, but...

Miss Alexis decided to climb up on the kitchen counter and fell off. Mike and I were both cooking dinner, so we were right there when it happened. Mike picked her up and I lifted her sleeve. The arm was already swollen and had a nasty lump on it. And she was screaming. We decided we'd better not put her in her carseat, so we called an ambulence. We were having friends over for dinner and they pulled up right when it happened and heard the screaming. We let them in and immediatly gave her a blessing. When they sat her in the ambulence, she was very pale and was swaying. She looked like she was going to pass out. That's about when my parents pulled up. Mike rode with her in the ambulence. I went inside with our friends and we went ahead and ate dinner, then did the cake and icecream for Dustin. They had to cut Alexis' shirt off of her. It was new. She cried about it, so the EMT's went back to the hospital and took her a teddy bear. They xray'd her and could not see a break, but her arm was sooooo swollen, and she flinched and yelled and almost cried every time it was touched. They put it in a hard splint and a sling and sent us home. We were told to see an orthopedist today. So today, they took her out of the splint and straightened her arm to xray it from all angles and she started crying again. It is still very swollen and black and blue. It just looks wrong. It looks like her elbow is broken, but with the swelling as bad as it is they cannot cast it. They put her back in the splint and sling and told us not to touch it for a week. They will re-xray it next week and decide what to do. They said that when they are this young, the bones are still pliable, so they can go up to two weeks before something needs to be done. It is not hurting her as long as she doesn't move it. Too much excitement here. Let's hope for a quiet December.

The end of October

Emily turned ten! We had a little party with just us, my parents, and my sister Alice and her family. She chose chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, so I added a sprinkle 10.
Next came Halloween. It started with Alexis on Thursday. Instead of having a dress up day at her preschool, they had a scarecrow day. This is how she looked when I picked her up. So cute!

Friday morning was the traditional Halloween parade at school. It was a complete mess as always, but the kids have fun.



Dustin, Luke Skywalker.

Emily, supergirl.

Alexis, the little mermaid, Ariel. I have always let the little ones dress up when they go to the parade, they like it. And finally, Saturday night. Here are the kids in front of the house before we left to go trick-or-treating. Mike made our porch scary, so that is a tarp that says "keep out" behind them. He had the spiders and the strobe light going on. He probably had more fun than the kids.