Pinewood Derby

We are now in the years of making Pinewood Derby cars! Ti had his first one on January 30th. He was so excited about it. He and Ted worked pretty hard at it. We didn't win but we sure had fun trying.

We watched 'Down and Derby' just before we went to get all ready for the event. Ted looks at Ti and says, "You don't think I am like one of those dads do you?" (Hesitation) "Uh, no dad. I, uh, don't!" "Good. I was going to say, you picked out the design and helped cut it out and sand it. You helped paint it, didn't you, Ti? You did a lot right, Ti?" (Now just picture me with beverage coming out of my nose from laughing so hard!)
"Ti, you have just been awarded 'Second in Show,' what do you think about that?" "I don't know what to say! I just think it is cool!"

Girls Gone Wild!

I took my girlfriends up on an invite to go skiing in Winter Park. The fact that I accepted the invite knowing I hadn't been skiing in 14 years, I knew the weekend was already a success. The first thing we did was get my skies and have SUSHI!! Yum! Already, the trip started out right.

As I arrived on the hill the next morning, memories from before started coming back. Oh no! The chairlift! Throughout the rest of the day my biggest problem was the chairlift!! I almost knocked Helen over too many times to count and complete wiped her out once. I made them stop the chairlift twice for me as I sat sprawled at the exit. I even made them stop the chairlift so I could get on the lift because my skies were tangled up in the posts!

But having said all that, I did have fun actually going down the mountain. At first I totally gravitated to the thick powder because it slowed me down. Towards the end of the day there were a few times I avoided the powder because I wanted to fly down the mountain at a whopping 2 mph.!! And, thanks to Ted, I was warm! There is something to be said for all his hunting gear. He does know how to stay warm.

At the end of the day, the freakiest part was walking like I had ski boots on when I didn't. It took me about an hour to walk normally. That was funny.

The rest of the weekend was utter relaxation. We slept in, watched movies, played Boggle and Take 2, ate treats with a side salad, GABBED our throats dry. Boys, doesn't that sound fun?

An important side note: It snowed the entire time we were there- about 2 feet!! Did we think about shoveling the driveway? No!! That is what husbands are for!:)

Sunday morning Becky and I are trying to get back in time for Church. We try to leave quietly so as not to wake the other sleeping beauties. But. . .we cannot get out of the drive way!! We shovel and shovel and shovel. As Becky tries to back out, she slides to the right. So I shovel a new path behind the tires. She slides right again. More shoveling and digging at the ice. By this time, we have discovered that we locked ourselves out and can't get water or another snow shovel. We keep on shoveling and digging. She keeps sliding. By this time, she is completely sideways in the driveway perpendicular to Carol's excursion. We dig new paths (we have shoveled almost the entire drive way by now) and she drives out forward. At one point on the last venture, I didn't thinks she was going to make it. Luckily, she kept gunning it and after smoke and half a tire left in the snow, she pulled out on to the road. WE DID IT!!! Took us an hour to get out but (man grunts) we did it! Whew! I guarantee we won't forget to shovel again- well, that is, if our husbands aren't with us!!:)

After 17 days on the road!!

We are home!! We made it. Life in Loveland seems like a fog. It took me about a week to readjust to life in reality. Cooking, cleaning, kids homework and projects, and laundry!! We had such a good time though. Jam packed with fun and family. But it seems that January has been just as eventful.

-Av's game-
Billy and Lisa took us to an Avalanche hockey game. Their company has a suite. We didn't have any problems filling it up with boys, candy, popcorn and hot dogs! We had a great time!

-Pheasant Hunt-
Ted surprised the boys with a pheasant hunt one Thursday. We pulled them out of school and sent them out to Wray, Colorado with Ryan Behm. No pheasants but huge jack rabbits were shot. Ti and Tate came back thinking they were going to give Daniel Boone a run for him fame. They loved going hunting with their Dad!

No Pheasants. . . but we will take rabbits and geese!

-Ice Fishing-

The next day he surprised them yet again with an early release from school to go ice fishing with the Niko's ward. Again, they were in absolute heaven. I also love when we finally have all the right gear that keeps the boys warm! Major bonus.

The Sealing and Open House part 5

We went to the San Diego Zoo the day after we went to Sea World. By this time, we are tired! We loved the zoo but we ran our of space on the camera so we only took one picture. We didn't spend a ton of time there but the kids enjoyed seeing the animals. Luckily, we saw the pandas climbing in the trees so we didn't have to wait on hour in line. We took a tour on a bus with the driver saying, "Now this will be the last tour of the day. By this time a lot of the animals are resting as they have just been fed. I apologize for their inactivity so if I don't see them running around then I might not even mention them. I hope that is OK." Ted had a huge smile on his face- just his kind of tour. Quick and to the point.

We drove to Mesa the next day and stayed with the Christensen's. Monday, Ted and Jimmy took the kids and set up the church while Emily and I went shopping for the luncheon after the sealing. We got everything ready and decorated by about 4:30 pm. Later, Jimmy had to go out and while driving past the church noticed all the lights on. It's Monday and no one should be in there. While he's investigating, he discovers that a group of young adults were in there and moved the tables all around so they could play basketball. Ahhhh!! But, not to worry; they put it all back.

-The Sealing-

Tuesday morning, I got up early to go to Patrick and Patricia's hotel room. I was just meeting Patricia for the first time as I came to help her with her hair and make-up. I also had the privilege of meeting Patricia's parents who had come all the way from Brazil. At the temple, Emilee directed her parents to the visitor center where they could watch a movie. It was a wonderful experience to be with Patricia in the bride's room. All the ladies in there were so helpful and complimentary. (I am sorry to admit this, but. . . I have seen some that were not that nice!) I was grateful to know that Patricia was having a very good experience. The sealing itself was very nice. The man gave some wonderful counsel. It is always neat to witness another sealing because it helps me remember how blessed I am.

After the sealing and pictures, we went to the church and had the luncheon. It ended up being hosted by my dear friends the Christensen's due to pictures, etc. They made the punch, served the food and kept up on the refills. I can never thank them enough.

-The Open House-

Later on Tuesday, we drove to Yuma for the start of decorating and putting on the open house. Joe and Sam had been in Yuma for Christmas. Sam had already done so much for us in the way of cleaning. Thank you so much!! They also had strung a ton of lights and that helped tremendously. On Wednesday, amongst decorating and buying food, we put on a mini-graduation and Joe-passed-the-bar party! We had cake and ice cream. Oh, and by the way, it's New Years Eve! We played phase 10 until midnight with Patricia's parents (thanks to numbers crossing language barriers!!) and then rang in the New Year.

Thursday, Ted took Pat and Patricia and her parents shooting. They really enjoyed it as they probably won't get the experience too often. After all the decorating and the stress, the Open House was beautiful. It is always just short of a miracle that it gets pulled off. Dad had a band come and play. Jorge, the band leader, is man that my dad baptized 42 years ago in San Luis. That was something we hadn't done before and it was so fun to have. We all danced- kids and adults. We enjoyed the tamales and chocolate fountain. Emma and Kimball enjoyed the dirt;) It really turned out to be a wonderful night. Everyone helped and we couldn't have done it without you all. Thank you!!

Upon leaving the next day for Mesa, Ted and I were able to take some of the roses and place them on mom's grave. It is always such an honor to be able to pay tribute to her. Somehow we are able to accomplish these huge family events without her. I always miss her so much but it is good to know that we are carrying on without her. I also feel solace in the fact that when I visit her grave I know that she is not there. She has already been with us, listening to us, watching us, and giving us strength. I love and miss you, mom!

Road Trip part 4

-Christmas Day-
The kids woke up late to stockings and they were very excited- mostly because they were accustomed to us starving them until 10 pm and now they had candy to eat. Can we say WIRED!? We packed up and headed out of not so sunny Anaheim. Remember the forecast of an inch of rain? Well, it had arrived. We were totally OK with that because we were not having to stand out in it! When I saw it, I was all the more grateful for a great Christmas Eve in Disneyland. We were now headed to San Diego. We stayed in Emilee and Cody's apartment in La Jolla. I love La Jolla and it was so nice of them- Thank you!!! Emma went around looking at and petting all the baby stuff. She probably wrapped up some things and hid them somewhere! (Emilee, I hope nothing is missing. Just the other day I found a stuffed pig in one of my seldom used pots. Scared me!) On the drive down, the boys kept staring at the ocean planning all the things that they were going to do once they were able to play in it. We unloaded all of our stuff at Emilee and Cody's and then went and had a great Mexican Christmas dinner. We enjoyed the place all to ourselves until we were almost done. We then drove to the beach and got out. The boys quickly discovered, due to the fact that it had just stopped raining and the temperature was still around 48 degrees, that all their plans from the drive down was not going to happen. But they paled in some caves and discovered that the water really does rise- and quickly. It was funny to watch their faces as the water kept coming, and coming, and coming! Oh no! I just got my shoes and pants wet! We then drove by the San Diego Temple which was all lit up. We were there about 10 minutes before it started sprinkling. By the time we got to the car we were all drenched!

It was a great way to spend Christmas Day- quiet, together and mostly RESTING!!
Merry Christmas!

-Sea World-

Sea World was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. Again, Jarom came down from LA to spend the day with us. We went to the dolphin show, the sea lion show and of course the Orca show. We had front row Splash Zone seats to all of these- thanks to our rain gear! It was so fun. Later, we to the night time Christmas show with Shamu. We had 2nd row seats behind the platform in the middle of the pool where the orcas swim up on their bellies! We staring down the throat of a killer whale! It was awesome. The Christmas show was fabulous. The guy and girl singing were right in front of us. Emma thought the girl trainers were Ariel and the boys want to be trainers now! We were able to talk to one of the girl trainers afterwards and she told Ti all he needed to do to be one. I can still the dream in his eye.



After the show, we continued on to see the rest of the exhibits we hadn't seen yet. We came to one of those areas where guys are drawing character sketches. They have all the examples of different people they have done up on the wall as advertising. Ted was immediately excited to have one done of our family. But I am too much of a cheap skate to ever want to fork over the dough. He was pretty persistent and I finally relented. I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. What ensued was probably the funniest experience of our family's life!!!

The guy suggested the finished product be one where all 6 of our heads will float on a blue background. So Emma was first up, she sat still but had this funny little grin on her face. She knew she was the center of attention and LOVED it. We stood behind the guy who was drawing the picture and watched him. She was turning out pretty cute. I thought, "This is cute, this is fun!" Next up is Joe. He is sitting there also with this weird look on his face and the boys are making him laugh. I was wondering how he was going to turn out. But after he was done I was thinking, "Ummm. . .well, yes, I guess that looks like Joe." He was still pretty cute and both he and Emma had big blue eyes and curly hair. Then the fun began.

Tate was next in line and what happened after that was a blur because it turned into a sea of comments and 'making you pee' laughter. Now, what you have to envision is this. All of the boys are crowding around the guy- who is trying to draw!- making comments and observations every time his pen touched the paper.



Ohh! Tate, your teeth are funny. Your chin is pointy and big.
Tate your eyes are small.
Oh, you are not going to like this- well it's OK. I guess.
I like Joe better. Emma is the cutest.

Ti, you didn't like my teeth, but look at your teeth. Ti your. . .
(Ted mimes to me to look at Ti's ears)
Ti responds, "Hey, I saw that. You are talking about my ears aren't' you!? What do my ears look like? Is he making them big and pointy?"
Ti gets down- "I knew it. You were talking about my ears. I belong in Santa's workshop. Hey, you made me into an elf!"
Joe and Emma are the cutest, me and Tate are the weirdest.

"Mom it's your turn!
Ohh mom, your nose is funny. It has a triangle on it- it is a triangle.
Mom, your hair looks weird- oh that's better"
Your teeth look. . . um, big and pointy.
(Ted is in the back ground looking at me like he just stepped in something disgusting and pointing to the picture and mouthing "Wait 'til you see it!")
Mom, you look hideous!
Yep, it definitely goes, Emma then Joe then Tate and then Ti and Mom you look the worst.

Dad, your turn.
Dad, you have a big nose.
Dad, you look funny. Your head is big.
Are you going to draw his eyes?
Dad's eyes are closed.
"Well at least you all have eyes. I don't even have eyes and my nose is as big as Joe's head!"

I was laughing the whole time until I was breathless. Jarom's comment on the finished product was the best: "Well, it is a character drawing. You can either make the people cuter than they really are or uglier. I guess we know what he does." (I actually went home and smiled in the mirror wondering if you could really see my bottom teeth while I smiled.)

The best part is to watch peoples facial expressions as they look at the picture. They naturally look to the center of the picture at Joe and Emma and then start glancing sideways. Their faces go from a soft smile of "that's so cute" to "ohh? Ahhh! That's funny" with an "I am so sorry" look on their faces. That makes me laugh harder each time.

Road Trip part 3

-Universal Studios-



Tuesday we get up early and headed to Universal Studios. We met Jarom (my brother) there and already we could tell it was going to be a fun day! Whoville was set up with snow and scenes from the village. The Grinch was walking around glaring at everybody. The kids had their picture taken with Shrek. The Simpson's ride was responsible for my kids saying "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" every two seconds. I almost pulled a Homer and strangled them. We loved the Jurasssic Park ride (Give it up for. . .ponchos!!!:)) and the tour of Universal Studios. The tour was better and more entertaining than I thought it would be, right down to our darling (it was a him) tour guide. We saw where they filmed parts of Jaws, King Kong, a ton of Westerns, and of course the famed Wisteria Lane of Desperate Housewives. We saw a car chase and explosion, we were in a flooding subway and on a bridge that almost collapsed under the wieght of the bus. Not to mention all the cool props from famious movies like the 'DeLorean' from Back to the Future!! How cool is that? My kids were like, "What?"
"OHHH! The 80's! You gotta love 'em!"


The DeLorean!


Entrance to Jurrasic Park ride


Just escaped T-rex taking your head off!


I think he asked Joe to pull his finger!

We ended the day with the Water World show. That was the coolest show I have ever seen! I thought it was going to be about how they made the movie but it was a 25 minute version of the movie. Very cool special effects (obviously) and great actors who got the audience involved in the show.

On our way out of Universal Studios, we passed by the Haunted House. Ted grabbed the boys and were off before they knew what they had gotten themselves into. Ti and Tate both came out crying!! Ted then took me in. But you got to understand- I am a veteran. When I know they can't touch you, what is there to be scared of? Besides, I will forever be spoiled by attending the greatest haunted house known to man in Provo, Utah. Universal had nothing on them. But, I did my best to calm the boys down and prayed they wouldn't have nightmares.

Last Day at Disneyland-

Christmas Eve was our last day at Disneyland. The forecast said it was supposed to rain an inch that day! I was a little concerned. An inch is a lot of water! But, to our glorious surprise, it didn't rain. Well, maybe a few spirnkles that night but, on the whole, it was dry! It was cold- but dry. I will take cold over cold and wet anyday. We started off in Toontown where we met Mickey Mouse. You can't go to Disneyland without meeting The Mouse, right? Emma wouldn't have anything to do with Mickey but she was loving Tinkerbell! We rode the monorail, ate long sticky suckers, and thorougly enjoyed the 'Happiest Place on Earth.' We cought most of the show "Fantasmic" -which is incredible!! We rode Pirates, Indiana Jones, the Haunted Mansion, etc. Toward the end of the day, we found ourselves back at CA Adventure loving Mulhollands Madness, Soarin', and of course Screamin'. Ti finally succumbed to peer pressure and went with me!! And what did he say when he got off? "That was the coolest ride ever!!!" We then got all decked out in our rain gear and rode the River Rapid ride a ton of times.


Try not to notice that the guys cut Joe and Emma's heads off!


Disney's Main Street with Christmas tree


MICKEY MOUSE!!


Toon Jail!


Joe enjoying his sucker;)


Ted and Ti on Screamin'


Julie and Tate on Screamin'


You know you are in DL when even the benches are Mickey Mouse shaped!

About 9:30 pm (Disneyland closed at 9) we sit down at Tony Roma's and realized how hungry we were. Ted ordered so much food that I almost didn't order anything for me. He said, "Will you please just order something!!" I then sat back in utter amazment as Ti, Tate, and Joe didn't waste any time pounding their food. They each ate an entire adult meal, plus 3 baskets of bread and a side order of ribs! Then they were all over the giant brownie on top of a giant chocolate chip cookie with 5 scoops of ice cream and chocolate and caramel sauce drizzled over the whole thing. I wonder if we starved them? Poor guys.

Happy Christmas Eve! Farewell Disneyland!

Road Trip part 2

Day 1 at Disneyland-

We are so excited to get there we can hardly stand it!



We have our itinerary in hand and off we go to Space Mountain! Joe had never ridden big rides before and he came off that ride white as a ghost and did not say ward until he saw me. Then he burst into tears and said, "That was scary, Mom!!" Oops- maybe we should have broke him in first on the Matterhorn. We ran all over Disneyland that day being swept up in the Christmas festivities. It was wonderfully decorated for Christmas with garland, Christmas trees, lights, holly, etc. Christmas music playing and a north Pole land. The kids met Santa and Mrs. Clause, saw the reindeer and played in the sleigh. Then we were just in time for the Christmas Parade. They were loving it.












We went back to the hotel for a nap (that way we were ready to go until midnight!!)After snoozing we went to CA Adventure, where we loved Soarin' and Mulhollands Madness. I went on Screamin' with a fast pass- ALONE- the first time. I finally talked Tate into coming with me and we went 2 more times. I talked, begged and pleaded with Ti but he was not having it.

On our way back to Disneyland, we stood and watched the wonderful Electrical parade. It was awesome. We caught the firework action from Disneyland and while everyone was exiting after the fireworks we were heading in to enjoy Disneyland practically to ourselves until midnight!




Day 2 at Disneyland-
We wake up to the sound of a pretty hard rain! We had all intentions of getting to Disneyland early but the rain held us off until 9:30 am. It didn't really matter because there were not that many people! We decided to split up that morning and I went with Emma to the Princess Faire. She met the princesses, learned to dance, wave and curtsy. Belle came to a special chair and told the children her story while they were sitting on carpet rounds. She was in heaven. We couldn't get away from the Princesses without a Sleeping Beauty nightgown and crown.

By this time it was no longer raining and we enjoyed the rest of the day running to and from rides. The boys were breathless when we met up with them. They hadn't stopped the whole time, unlike Emma and I who spent 3 hours at the Princess Faire!

We spent the rest of the day just like the previous day. The kids again fell into bed in a tired heap at about 12:30 am. I stayed up and did laundry until 2:30 am. Ted was out trying to find a Walmart or the like and couldn't find anything open! We couldn't believe it. Then he found a store that looked like a homeless shelter and didn't dare go in. Is this California or what?! Well, it happened to be another day of eating out and park food.

One Massive Road Trip!!

-We Tell the Kids-
For Christmas this year we decided to surprise the kids with a trip to Disneyland. The trip wasn't completely out of the blue as we were headed to Arizona for my brother's temple wedding. (He married a girl from Brazil named Patricia. But more on that later!) We decided to make it a trip of a lifetime. We kept it a surprise until Wednesday night so they could be super excited for a day before we went. We told them their surprise by having them open up their SoCal City Passes in a letter from Mickey Mouse telling them he was excited to see them. It was so fun to see their faces go from confusion to total excitement. (A side note: The SoCal city passes allow you to have 6 days in 5 parks for only a little more then the price of a 3 day park hopper pass. A great deal!!) Anyway, they were yelling and jumping up and down and hugging us.

Surprise!

We left early Friday morning (pulling the boys out of school) and drove to Cedar City ahead of a big storm coming to CO. Whew! Because we are heading to warm and sunny California!! We stayed in Utah with my Uncle Harold who helped set the mood for Disneyland by showing them the movie of Br'er Rabbit. He told them that they would go on this cool ride called Splash Mountain where there was Br'er Rabbit, Fox and Bear. We were up early the next morning to drive to Anaheim- the boys flew out of bed! But so much for sunny SoCal. We had snow from Loveland to Bakersfield!! We stayed on the top floor of a hotel across from Disneyland. We could see the park and watch the fireworks over the castle. I didn't think they were ever going to go to sleep that night- even after swimming for 2 hours!



Looking down from the balcony.



The view of the Disneyland from our room.

The Weather!
Before I continue with the narrative of our trip, I must take a moment to mention the weather. We wanted warm and sunny SoCal but what we experienced was cold and wet Seattle. Luckily, we read the weather forecast and knew it would be raining. We brought ponchos and other rain gear but we were not mentally prepared for it to be so cold!!! While others may not have been prepared for rain and decided to leave, we enjoyed the "Happiest Place on Earth" with few other brave visitors. Which meant we rode a lot of rides with hardly any wait time! Wahoo!! The rain ponchos came in handy at Universal Studios and at Sea World. We certainly did not get nice sunny weather but we had a great time anyway.



All grins, even in the rain!!