ROCing Out

We climbed up walls, we slid down chutes, we clung to ropes over mudpits, we bounded through tires, we stumbled across the finish line, we bounced across inflateables, we jumped across trampolines, we crawled through tunnels, we took a group shower, we watched marines try to outdo each other in a test of strength, we raced across barrels, we got our picture taken with the Joker, a cowboy, superheroes, a rainbow of people, some midgets, and a man in a wedding dress.  Did I mention we ran too?  Oh yeah, and we ran 3 miles too.  Blech.  Whatever with that....the rest of it was fun though.  Always a pleasure Mrs. D.

Rainy Disney is Fun Disney

Want to know the secret to a great day at Disneyland?  Wait until it rains!  Wear a raincoat and dress warm and you will walk on every ride without lines and get to meet all of the characters that you want.  We got to experience such a day this spring.  Here's a shot of Hubby and I snuggling up on Goofy's chair:


And here's the kiddos meeting Donald:

But my very favorite was when we met Minnie Mouse.  My little ninja boy did NOT want her autograph in his autograph book and neither did he want to meet her, shake her hand, high five, or even be in the same picture with her.  This is, I think, a classic case of "girls have cooties"-itis.  But Ms. Mouse would not be deterred.  She waltzed on over to him, and to his astonishment, took him in her arms and planted a series of loud S*W*A*Ks on him all over his face.  I was beyond delighted with her gumption.  Now there's a girl who knows what she likes when she sees it.  Unfortunately for him though, we all now refer to her as his girlfriend, which he vehemently denies.  The proof, as they say, is in the pictures...

My Little Girl's Two Big Days

There are two skills that my home-schooled daughter has been developing this year.  The first has been her weekly Wednesday morning piano classes and the second has been her weekly Tuesday afternoon ballet classes.  She definetly prefers the ballet to piano but is nicely progressing in both.  She got to perform each this year on a stage, at the end of her school year.  She played "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "This Little Light of Mine" for piano and was one of the washer-girls in the ballet recital titled "Enchanted".  Here she is in all of her glory:

Girls' Weekend

Back in February, we took a weekend away from Daddy and my little ninja boy to go to Disneyland and then the Scrapbooking convention in Anaheim.  A couple girlfriends joined my princess and I and we had a great day cutting, pasting and generating all sorts of awesome ideas for crafts to do and pages to create.  Now we just need to find the time to put it all together...

Trail of Ten Falls

As a last minute decision at the end of the year in 2012, a friend and I took a quick flight North and then drove home.  On the way, we stopped in Salem, Oregon to view several breathtaking sights along an awesome hike called "The Trail of Ten Falls".  If you are ever in the area, I highly suggest making the stop to see these gorgeous landmarks.  We drug my mom along with us for the hike and she is not a hiker.  Somewhere beyond 3/4 through she was cursing at us like a sailor and suggesting we just leave her and save ourselves but in the end she made it the whole way. I was very proud of her and I think she was proud of herself.  So be forewarned.  It is not for the faint of heart, but definitely worth the walk.

A Little Crazy and a Lot of Fun

The highlight of our January this year was a week in Mexico friends.  I couldn't decide which picture to post: the one of us on ATVs, fishing off the shore, the bull my Hubby chased, our favorite eatery, or any of the many other fun shenanigans.  In the end, I think this picture says it all.  Someone is always looking the other way, a couple people are caught off guard, the daughters think it's all about them, the husbands are carrying more than their own, and there we are in the middle, enjoying the crazy and fun ride.  Good times.  This is what memories are made of.

Blessings

In mid-May, a bunch of my girlfriends and I got together in what has become an increasingly rare opportunity to celebrate.  Life has become so crazy for us mommies that it is often hard to find times where we can all find sitters, energy and quite frankly, a clean outfit to go out in at a pre-arranged time.  This happened to be a celebration of a birthday for one of us and it was so nice to take the time to appreciate and uplift each other.  God has been very generous to me on our isolated little piece of heaven up here and blessed me with a few really great groups of moms to share, laugh and cry with.  Cheers ladies, here's to many more nights where we get to clink our glasses together.

Blanch

I didn't know either of my own Grandpas.  Luckily, my husband's grandfathers both welcomed me with open arms.  We lost one of them this year and he used to call me Blanch.  Not because it was my name, because he knew it wasn't.  And he played golf with me and beat me at poker and laughed with me and gave great hugs and loved us all SO much.  I will miss you Grandpa. 

That's all I have to say about that.

Roasting by an open fire...

We had a bonfire last week in one of the neighboring cities and here's my kiddos appreciating the hot cocoa and heat from the fire.  What a fun community night.

Pearly whites

In the hopes of teaching my kiddos the value of brushing their teeth, we did a science experiment using eggs and a variety of liquids to show the effect on the shell over time.

Vinegar - dissolved the shell.
Soda - stained the shell brown (unable to brush off eventually)
Dye - stained the shell green (able to brush off but also stained INSIDE)

Moral: BRUSH YOUR TEETH REGULARLY!!!

Haaaayyyyyyaaaaa!

Congratulations to my little man for starting his journey in karate by getting his white belt. 

The River Jordan

We recently took an amazing trip to Israel with some folks from our church.  While there, we got to go kayaking down the Jordan River.  Here's a shot of us relaxing in the beautiful Israel sunshine.  Ask me when you come over to visit next time and I'll show you the scrapbook I made of the rest of the pictures.  It's just too much for one little blog.

Ouch!

Here's a quick shot of what my hubby did to his hand the night before we left for Isael.  Ooochy-ouchie!

Horney Toad

Nope.  He did NOT learn that from his mommy.
 
We were out on a hike while camping in the local forest when something by my foot moved.  I instinctively jumped away from it (think - rattlesnake freakout) and that obviously caught the other three's attention.  Daddy was excited to see a horney toad (I have to say I was a bit relieved as well).  He explained to the kids that it was not poisonous and so my brave little man reached down and picked it up.  Right on buddy - way to come to mommy's rescue and slay the dragon (okay, he didn't KILL it, but really, being brave is what it's all about, right?).

Daddy's girl

I get her for shopping.
I get her for nail appointments.
I get her for pretending.
I get her for dessing up like princesses.
I get her for cooking.
I get her for crafts.
I get her for...well, all sorts of other GIRLY stuff.

So okay, FINE.  Daddy can take her riding on his quad.  She is an eclectic mix of cammo and sparkles and dirt and nailpolish and wonderful and I love that I can share her with her daddy everyday.  He is what makes her unique and this is precisely why God made Daddies.

Love love love them.

Girlfriends

When we got back from our cruise to Alaska recently (what, I didn't blog that yet?  Okay, maybe soon), my princess stopped in Seattle and bought a bunch of special beads for five of her bestest girlfriends.  She picked out special charms for each of them and invited them all over once we got home so that they could spend an afternoon playing together and catching up after a summer apart.  They were all so sweet and well mannered that it just reminded me how lucky us moms all are to have raised this beautiful group of girlfriends.  I hope that in 12 years we will have an almost identical picture of the same girls all loving on each other the way they do now.  FYI - the date stamp is off on my camera, don't judge me, I have other priorities.

See Boy Fish

See Boy Fish
See Daddy Lose Fish.
See Boy Reprimand Daddy.
See Boy Fish Again.
See Daddy Land Fish.
See Boy Delighted.
See Daddy Catch & Release.
See Boy Devastated.

Yep.  That pretty much sums it up.  I think that he thought we were going to take it back on the cruise ship and ask them to cook it up for us in the galley.  I've gotta say, it was a highlight of our stop in Juneau.

When is 54 = 300,000?

When it's the 54 pounds short that your catch is to winning a big fishing tournament.  Man, that must have been ONE EXCITING catch and then drive back to the docks.  This is my hubby's dad (and fishing partner).  Well, there's always next year guys!  It sure sounded like they had fun.

Sweet Sweet Berries

The kids had a great time with their friends over the summer going to places like the berry patch to pick some fruit right off the bushes.  There's few things better than a day spent working with friends in the sunshine.

Already 5

We spent a day decked out in Red White and Blue for my son's "Transformers and America" birthday.  I'm not sure where the theme originated, but he was convinced that was what he wanted.  So we did what we could, decorated the place up good and invited a zillion of our closest friends over to celebrate my little man turning a "whole hand of fingers" old.  From the looks of this picture, I think I hit the nail right on the head: