Cali Trip Part 1 - Disneyland and Legoland!

Ahh - the magic of Disneyland! It is definitely one of my happiest happy places! Happily, my kids are taking after me! We decided to take the trip just a few weeks before we went when Brian found out he had to go to Monterey Beach for a week of meetings. We decided not only to tag along, but to extend the trip and start it out down south! I can always find a way to get to Disneyland if we are anywhere close!

Dumbo is still one of my favorite rides to take the kids on! Brian can't figure it out and would likely happily skip it, but I love all the memories that flood back every time I ride it!

It's a little crazy to me that my older boys are now old enough to ride all the big rides - and they absolutely love them! Nathan absolutely loved the Matterhorn - and so did Adam and Matthew! Adam and Matthew loved Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Splash Mountain, but were also very excited about going on the old classics too! Adam's new favorite was California Screamin' - and it was one of mine too!

Nathans favorite ride was the big Mickey Carousel in California Disney - his favorite treat was the Mickey ears ice cream!

At the parade Matt got to dance with Winnie the Pooh and several others - it was fun, but I really missed the traditional Disney parade without the rock music.

I think the greatest highlight for Adam and Matthew was being selected to participate in the Jedi Training Academy. They were chosen, got to wear robes and use lightsabers, and were trained by Mace Windu on how to be a Jedi. When their training was complete the entire stage lifts up and out comes Darth Vader with storm troopers. They quickly got the kids to safety and then let them all test their skills against Darth Vader or Darth Maul. Adam and Matthew both got to fight Darth Vader - I just wish I knew how to put movie clips on here - it was great! They loved every minute!

After the Star Tours ride they had a shop where you could create your own light saber - another highlight for the boys! They both made double sided sabers and then Nathan got his first light saber - a Mickey one!

Nathan couldn't wait for the fireworks and asked for them all day long! Good think Disney is good at putting on a great show - never disappointed!

Legoland!

After two days at Disneyland we went down to LegoLand! It was a lot of fun, however, I do wish we hadn't been so wiped out from Disneyland. That, and I wish we didn't go on a Saturday cause it was super busy. Regardless, we had a really fun day! One of the huge highlights was to see all of the creations out of legos - they were everywhere and they were really cool!

My favorite part was the cities made from Legos - they so many big cities! They had all the main buildings in D.C., Las Vegas, and New York - and many others too! It was amazing the details and the fun extras they added as well. The boys were inspired and now want to create their own Lego city on the train table!

I think Adam and Matthew had the most fun at the race tracks - you got some wheels and you got to create your own car and race it against 5 others! They were in there for over an hour and likely would have stayed longer!

Legoland had some rides that were pretty fun, but the lines that day were awful! Anywhere from 30-120 minutes! Thankfully there were these lego building areas that the kids could hang out in while you are waiting around in line. Thankfully we had been on lots of rides, so we didn't feel like we had to wait in them unless it was a super fun ride.

They were at great ages for this park - they tend to play with Legos in almost all of their spare time! It was fun to see how much they wanted to go shopping too! They had a wonderful day!

Space Needle!

When our good friends, the Rusts, came to visit in early August we got to go with them to the top of the Space Needle! The boys were so excited about this and have wanted to go since we moved here! It's not normal for us to have not done all the touristy things right when we move to a place, but I guess since we had been burnt out of being tourists when we moved here and just wanted to be settled. So, it was a long time coming, but we have now been to the top!

The anticipation...
Such a pretty view! We really lucked out with this view since it had been drizzly until then!

Just hanging out at the top of Seattle!

Brian's Family Reunion

In late July Brian got to start out the reunion a little early - he flew down to LA and he and Anna rode the train along the coast to Seattle! It was something Brian has wanted to do for a long time and they had a great time and saw some great views!

The first thing we wanted to do when we got there was jump into the pool! I didn't get many pics of the pool for fear of the camera getting wet, but we spent a lot of time in there!

We went on a wonderful hike to Silver Falls! We started the adventure with a picnic and then started on the hike. The amazing thing about the hike was that the entire way up the mountain you were following the waterfall. There were some amazing views the whole time and we had some wonderful break points to see the different phases of the falls. I think it could be my favorite waterfall and hike I've seen!

At the top we stopped for a while and cooled off in the pools - Brian loves helping Nathan cool off. :) It was a fun hike and the kids did a great job sticking with it - it wasn't an easy hike!

One really fun evening was when Anna threw an un-Birthday party for all the kids! She was so sweet to plan it for them and they had a blast! It was a surprise party! They all went to Target and got to pick out their own present and then we went back to the house for a pinata and cup cakes and ice cream! It was a super fun night!

We had a great dinner at Brian's grandparents house - the kids love going there to visit!

On the last day of the reunion we got to have a breakfast brunch for Grandma/GiGi for her birthday! It was a really fun breakfast and the kids loved giving her their cards they had all made for her. She is such a special lady, and they know it!

It was a great reunion and so nice to get everyone together!

Olympic Peninsula

I'm going to do my best to catch up on my blog over the next few days! It was an absolutely crazy summer, which left no time for blogging!

We decided that on the one weekend we didn't have guests and that we weren't going to be going somewhere that we would go somewhere - crazy us! Since we live close to the only rain forest in the country, we decided to take a little camping trip there. We started out early on Friday and went first to Hurricane ridge, well, we tried to. We got lost on our way and found this nice little waterfall! The ridge was beautiful and we had a great drive. We had beautiful weather all day, until we got to our campsite...

Brian had this great vision of camping right on the ocean. He found a place in Neah Bay right along the coast. The sad thing was that we had beautiful weather until the last mile driving toward the coast, at which point it started to drizzle and sprinkle. I had to go back to the town about a mile away to get something at the store and it was still beautiful weather there - it was just yucky on the coast! That was a little disappointing since we always seem to end up camping in the rain! The boys barely noticed :) and had a great time! Brian's other wonderful idea was to set off fireworks bought on the reservation on the beach. I was nervous about it, but the boys had a blast!


Saturday we headed through Forks to the Hoh Rain forest. It was fun to see all the Twilight sights in Forks - however, a bit comical too - do they know that Dr. Cullen doesn't really need a parking space?

On our way into the Hoh Rain Forest we saw this ginormous tree - the kids thought it was simply amazing!

When we got to the visitors center we decided to take the Moss Trail hike - it was super mossy!

On our way back home we had to stop and take in one last hike and waterfall. This waterfall was amazing - it was about three times as tall as the picture shows. It was such a fun trip and we realized that there is so much more of the Olympics that we need to see!

Family fun and the 4th!

Happily our trip to Utah for the 4th of July was moved up! Since my mom broke her leg (just a slight fracture, so not too terrible) and Brian was in Japan I decided to brave the road trip and go to Utah alone! I drove to Boise the first day and then to Orem the next and the boys did a great job! It was so nice to be there early, but it still somehow never seems to be long enough! Since we arrived early, it gave us time to go to St. George to visit my Grandparents - it was so great to see them again!

The family reunion was a blast! The kids absolutely loved playing with their cousins! We decided to take the kids to Lagoon and they loved it! The down side was that it rained half the day, but we took advantage of the rainy part and had the kids take an old fashioned picture - they loved dressing up!

We were also so lucky to be in town during the Temple open house. It was really nice to be able to take the kids through all of the different rooms and explain it a little better to them. It was great to be there with the family, but it made us miss Cam and Lori!

On the 3rd we had a really fun dinner and evening at the Christensens! Lots of fun outdoors including games, roasting marshmallows, and fireworks. Caryn showed true ladder ball skills!

The 4th of July never changes (well, only slightly changes) which is what is so wonderful about it! We got up early and headed to the hot air balloon launch breakfast, where my Dad has served us breakfast for about as long as I can remember! Brian and Jon ran the 5k, so they skipped the breakfast, but met up at the parade. Brian was 6th in his division - go Bri! After that it's off to the parade! We got bleacher seats in the shade - the boys loved it and as much as I enjoy watching the parade, I think I am watching the boys even more just to see their reactions to it all.

Next we had the picnic in the park, followed by an afternoon in the sprinklers. Then we had a super fun BBQ with some of our cousins and a fireworks show of our own! It was such a fun day! It made it hard to have to leave, but we have some super fun memories now!

We also got to stop by Brian's Grandparents, the Cooks, and his Aunt Sandra on the way home - it was great to see them again!

10th Anniversary

Brian and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on Thursday, June 18th! It's amazing that it has been 10 years, however, when we were talking about all that we've done in the past 10 years it amazed us both! We've lived in 7 different locations - Provo, Portland, Indiana, Boston x2 - two different times and places, Scotland, and now Maple Valley, Washington! More amazing than how many places we've lived is just all that we've experienced together - the good and the hard. I wouldn't say there have been any 'bad' times in our marriage, but definitely times that we've been tried. At least we've gone through it all together! Brian is an amazing husband and I couldn't ask for anyone better and I couldn't imagine anyone else being able to put up with me as well as he does! I know I complain about the little things at times, but he balances out my high strungness with his laid-backness so well that we just work. I'm the luckiest girl in the world to have a husband like him!

We couldn't really justify a big trip since we just did Japan a few months ago, so we decided to enjoy Seattle kid-free for a day! I picked up Brian from work and we had a wonderful lunch at Maggiano's - yummy Italian and they brought us champagne and fried zucchini to congratulate us. :) The zucchini was good! Brian then super surprised me with a Shutterfly book of his 10 favorite memories of our first 10 years together! A Shutterfly book (needed to repeat that)! That stuff is always me, so it was so sweet that he would do that - it was the sweetest book and the best present ever!
We then did a little shopping and then took a little cruise of Lake Union, the locks that take you from there to the sound, and the Puget Sound and waterfront. It was really interesting and fun to see the actual Sleepless in Seattle floating house. We had a wonderful dinner at Anthonys, went to the movie Angels and Demons, and stayed at the Edgewater on the pier.

It was a wonderful day and full of fun reminiscing of the past 10 years and speculation for the next 10! It will be fun to see what the years to come will bring!

We came home to a pretty sick little Nathan. He had a cold when we left, but was wheezing really bad when we got home. After a few breathing treatments and a doctors visit I was off to the hospital with him. They have stabilized him well, but he was admitted and kept overnight. He did SO well - he was so polite to everyone and so cooperative. He is such a sweet boy and it was sad to see him in there. He seems to be doing better, but still needs to be watched and treated often. Hard to feel helpless and not be able to do more to help him.