Disneyland in OCTOBER!

At the end of October we went to California and used our "give and day, get a day" tickets to Disneyland. Having gone three years in a row now I wasn't as excited and thought the kids would feel the same way. I was wrong. They were excited, giddy, and so fun to watch.
 
HAHA! Can't help but laugh when I look at this first collage. Jenna and Meagan were finally old enough this year to go on 2 of the rides they were not old enough to go on last year; California Screamin' and Indiana Jones. Last year one of them (i think Meagan) got on Rock-n-roller coaster (the equivalent of Screamin') one time but not another as there was a different person on "guard" the second time that would let her on. Jenna, I guess, was a tad bit shorter than Meagan. It was seriously less than a forth of an inch from where the top of their heads were supposed to touch. She was so sad that she couldn't go with Meagan so we went to the bathroom and tried to stuff toilet paper in her shoes to make up the slight difference. It was a no go. SOOOO, this year they were SO excited! Then, Jenna started getting scared standing in line. She is a very timid child in a lot of ways. The top picture is of her expressing her doubt about the safety of the roller coaster. Of coarse, she went on because Mom is mean and made her and of coarse, just as Mom knew, she loved it and wanted to go, "Again! Again!". I actually took video of her going on it the first time. It is pretty funny/cute. I'll see if I can upload it onto here.

 
I have to say that Tower of Terror is a family favorite. I know it is my personal favorite. I think we hit it at least 3 times that day. I never get tired of that one.




 

Another family favorite and actually the one we always head straight for when the park opens is Splash Mountain. We get a pass and then go on. We always get on with no wait and usually a two minute wait as we get off and go straight around and get on a second time. This time, however, we pulled up and they asked if we wanted to go again because nobody was there waiting. Yeah! Oh, and I took a picture of their picture of us going down the big plunge. Chase is trying to act like he's asleep and I was trying to get a picture of the big plunge from our view (obviously didn't get it in time or it would be on here). My face is ugly/hilarious! What the heck?!?!

 
Every year my brother, Greg, flies out to go to a BYU game. This year it was the BYU/San Diego State game in October. The kids always look forward to his annual visit. He is a GREAT Uncle who loves to spend time with them and they know it. They know that he loves them. First we started out by going down for the free breakfast of blue pancakes and milk. Then we waited for the parade to begin. The triplets were hilarious. I dared them to go out in the middle of the street and dance to the music they had blaring and they did (after I bribed them with money). It was hilarious. Especially Chase. By the 3rd song they had a bunch of other kids dancing with them.

 

After the parade we walked around campus, went to the bookstore and told the kids funny stories about when Dave and I went there. Then we headed over to Fat Cats Bowling lane and bowled to games and ate Costa Vida for lunch, which I had never had before and now LOVE! After that, we split up. Dave took Tyler to the game with Uncle Greg and his long time friend, Mike, and me and the kids headed home to watch it on TV. What a fun family day. Next year I want to go early and run the 5k as a family.

More summer fun 2010!

 
No matter where we have lived the girls find it very easy to make friends. They love eachother and honestly don't know what to do when the other isn't around (really, Jenna was following me all over the house the other day when Meagan went to play with a friend and she didn't becsause she had piano lesson). They are like lost little puupies. They are eachothers best friends. They, however, are also very social and love hanging out with friends. This was a fun night with their friend Eliza Cook. We hung out at Eliza's pool then I took the girls shopping where they picked out these matching shirts and then we all went over to Mimi's Cafe for dinner. Afterward, we came home and watched a movie. It was a fun girls night out with my girls and Eliza.


 
I think this was actually in September but I can't remember. That's why I try hard to get things written down as soon as possible because I don't always remember everything I would like to include. We took the kids up one of the canyons, parked our car and road up 2 more miles on our bikes, then got off our bikes and hiked another mile up to a lake called "Cecret Lake". Except for being a little chilly it was a great activity with the kids. They all did great (after they warmed up on their bikes from going uphill) and we all celebrated by going to Hire's Big H (which, btw, is much better then In-n-Out. Yes, yes it is). Ahh! now I remember! It was Labor Day weekend so it WAS Septmeber. Anyway, what a nice day!


 
Once we got to the Lake we broke out the granola bars and let the kids play. I was waiting for one of them to fall in but we were lucky this time. Everyone came back down the mountain dry. Miracle of miracles!

 

Back in April, for Chase's 9th b-day, one of the gifts he got was a fake ticket to a REAL soccer game. In August, we finally delivered on that promise and took him and a friend (Zack Rhodes) to a game. Wait a minute....I need to call Dave at work and ask him who they were playing. I can't remember. I do remember we won and I do remember the AWESOME goal that one of the REAL players made. Dang it! He's not answering. Must be on a date with his girlfriend ;-). Well, it was a very fun day for him as he stuffed his face with popcorn, hambugers, pop, and cotton candy and rooted for REAL. The boys were SO full of energy on the way home that we let them go at the top of Zach's street and made them run home. Thus, the picture of Chase running down the dark sidewalk and the picture of the boys wrestling in Zach's front yard. Too bad I can't bottle that energy and sell it. I'd be a rich women.

August fun!

I have tried to get in here and catch up a couple of times but for some reason I can't upload my pictures from Picassa to my blog sometimes. I am not sure what I am doing when I can't and I am not sure what I am not doing when I can't. I am not very good at computers. The fact that I even have a blog is thanks to a couple of friends that have helped (thanks again Laurie, Holly and Natalie). Sooooo, on with the summer. I am still behind by 5 months so I'm taking you back to August 2010.

 
Dave's work throws a summer party every year for the families. We had it at Sugarhouse Park and it was alot of fun for the kids; food, games, prizes, jump houses, and climbing walls. I think my kids favorite was the climbing wall. We used to have a Lifetime fitness family membership and we would go do the climbing wall there all the time. It was raining when we first got there but it cleared up by the time we were done eating (under the pavilion, thank goodness).

 
Chase started on a club soccer team this year and had his first tournament up in Park City. They won 2 of their 3 games and were stoked to begin the season. Unfortunantley we had the opposite statistic; only one win the entire season. The great news is that our one win happen on the very last game. That is a good way to end the season. Can you see the rain coming down? It was coming down pretty hard. I had gone out the day before and purchased one of those tent thingy's so there were quite a few parents that we got to know that game since we were the only ones to bring one.
 
Dave and I celebrated our 16th year anniversary this year. It was a mellow one. We enjoyed the day together and had dinner at Market Street Grill. We were going to go downtown to a Steak restuarant but the traffic was awful. I love the Halibut early bird special at Market Street though so I didn't mind at all.
We have such cute kids! We came home and they had made this poster for us and had it displayed as a suprise on our headboard. I love it when they do cute, thoughtful stuff like that on their own.
I wish I had taken a picture of the frame Dave bought me. It was silver with the inscription "happy sweet 16" on the bottom and a picture of us together and Lake Powell". I am lucky to be married to such a good, loving, honest, hard working, responsible man! Lucky, lucky, lucky in love!
 

Right before school started I took the kids to a water park for our last big adventure. It is so much nicer to go to these parks when your kids are old enough to go off on there own. I enjoyed reading a good book most of the time and only had to worry about lunch time and check-ins. I did, however, go off with them at one point and ride some slides. I was trying to avoid it but they kept begging me to come with them. "But it's SO much fun, mom! You have GOT to try it!" I can't say no because I know that there will come a day when my kids won't want me to go with them and hang out. They'll just be too cool for that. Besides, they were right; it was fun! :-)

Funny, funny

We are in Target and Tyler tells me if he had to choose whether his kids would be all girls or all boys he would have all girls. This surprised me so I asked why. He says, "because my wife will have to take them to the bathroom whenever we are at a game or out". LOL! That's the reason, folks.

Chase (my 9 year old) wanted to be apart of the school choir with the girls this year which really surprised me so I asked him why; "because they had a party with food at the end of the performance last year". Really? So, he has been waking up earlier on Tuesday and Thursday morning to get to school an hour early for the last 3months just so he can eat some food? I promise I don't starve my kids.

I was in the car with some of the kids when we pulled up to a stop light right beside a 15ish year old kid who was sitting on his bike 5 feet from us with his back to the street and his pants were so low you could see most of his underwear. It was a nice day and the windows were down so I dared Meagan to tell the kid you could see his underwear (btw, for journal purposes; this is the fad now-a-days...to wear your pants so low they look like they could fall off. Kind of a gangster look). I didn't think she would but she totally surprised me by leaning out the window and saying, "Hey! I can see your underwear". I laughed so loud I'm sure he heard me! The kids turned around and gave her this look but as a looked back after the light turned green and we turned the corner, I saw him stand up and hike his pants up. LOL!

About a month ago I had convinced myself (after having a really bad day the day before) that I was going to have another bad day because I was having to tell the kids over and over again to stop messing around and get ready for school and practice your instruments and stop touching each other, etc... Then I sit down to eat a bowl of cereal and right after I had poured it Tyler (14 yrs. old) comes in and tells me I need to take him to school. Well, Dave was supposed to take him and didn't so I had to leave my cereal to get soggy and take Tyler to school. On the way I was complaining to him about what a bad day this was going to be and then I realized that I was TOTALLY being a bad example so I stopped and apologized to him. I took the opportunity to talk about optimism and pessimism (sp?). I asked him if he knew the difference and he said he thought he did so as to be sure I went to the all knowing analogy on the glass being half empty or half full; "If a glass was filled up half way would you say it was half empty or half full?" "It depends", he says. "On what?", I ask. "On whether or not you see lip marks on the glass". Thanks for making my day, Ty:-).

Meagan (9 years old) and I were coming outside a store when we saw a lady standing there with a couple of kittens...giving them away free. Meagan begged to go see them so we did. She let Meagan hold them and of coarse Meagan begged to have one. I had to say no because both Dave and Ryan are allergic. She understood but was so very sad. We handed the kitten back after a few minutes and she walked sadly back to the car. We get in and the radio is playing an upbeat song. She turns to me and says, "Mom, can you please turn that off. I need to weep". LOL!

San Francisco was WICKED!

If you remember way back to April and the triplets birthday, you'll remember that we suprised the girls by telling them that we were taking them to see "Wicked" in San Francisco. I truely don't know who was more excited; them or us. So, finally the day arrived in August to take off on our mini vacation with just the girls. Aunt Marge was kind enough to volunteer to watch the boys (just Ryan and Chase since Tyler was at scout camp that week). This trip wouldn't have happened without her and we SO appreciated it. You rock, Marge!
I first have to warn you; we learned the hard way NOT to trust Travelocity. They have this "secret deal" thing were they don't tell you where and how much (you do get to pick the "star" though) but they promise you a great deal on a hotel; "just click here". You are commiting when you click though or you can't see the deal. Dave asked me if he should do it and I was nervous too but said to go ahead. We picked a 3 star so how bad could that be? Well, I guess Travelocity's definition of a 3 star hotel and our defintion of a three star hotel is different. You could tell that the hotel was "the place to be" many years ago...,it did have a certain "charm"..., but it was about 2 blocks away from where we, um, felt safe walking. It was a real eye opener for the girls when we first got there. We were hungry and decided to walk down to the Mall to get something to eat (just 2 blocks away). I was a little scared, I don't mind saying. The girls (well, Jenna mostly) kept asking things like, "Mom, why is that guy shouting about Jesus?", "Mom, did you see that guy just litter", "Mom, why is that lady talking to herself", "Mom, what wrong with..." I finally took Jenna aside (cuase if you know Jenna she doesn't have a quiet voice) and quietly explained that we weren't in Kansas...I mean Utah anymore. HA! HA! So funny! Get it? We were there to see "Wicked" and we weren't in Kansas....yea, okay. No really, I just told her that there were alot of homeless people and how sad it was and that some of them had problems with their brains. I didn't explain to her about the transvestite's though. I don't know that they noticed and I wasn't about to point it out.
We made it safely to the mall and back and took it as a lesson learned. SO, learn from our mistake. Don't press that button. We laugh about it though (although not at 11:30 at night when the homeless guy was standing outside our window and shouting at the top of his lungs till I don't know what time. We couldn't laugh about that one until we got a good night sleep the next night as he decided to move to another location).

 

So, here they are; Jenna and Meagan right before the show started. I thought I would have to tell them not to sing to the songs becuase they know every word to every song but they were actually too enthralled to. They did ask why it sounded different though (they were used to the voices on the cd). It was just as good the second time I saw it....No, BETTER! I was with my girls whose face I watched more then the show at some scenes.

 

It was fun to walk down the pier area and see all the performer's entertaining to make money. We also walked over to Coit Tower (a monument to the city firefighter's built in the 1930's during the depression. The paintings were really neat and we went up top and had a great view of all of San Fran.

 

I had never been to a wax museum before so although dear hubby didn't want to go, he appeased me by taking us. It was kinda cool. Some of the wax people didn't look like who they were supposed to but some of them really did and even looked a little real. I think Julia Roberts looked the most real to me. Angelina and Brad looked bad.
While we were there there was this chair at one point that you could sit in with a sign that said something like, "sit in the chair and get a little shock". There was a mirror in front of it that you look in so I thought it would be something that lit up in the mirror and tried to scare you so I was ready to...not be suprised. Well, it wasn't just that something lit up in the mirror, it was a fast blast of air that hit me in the head on the back of the chair. Dave just happen to take a picture of me right as it blasted me with air and scared me so bad a screamed. Great catch, honey.
Well, I am afraid that if I put too much in one post the pics will not all show so I have made two seperate entrees for our trip to San Fran.

San Fran part 2

 
We rode the trolley (gotta do that at least once while you're there but I would recommend only once. We walked most of the time and where fine) and then went to China Town on our way back from Coit Tower. The atmosphere was really fun. We went in as many shops as Dave could stand and got ideas on what to get the boys and Marge for gifts. We always wait until the last day to get souviners cuase I'm always afraid that we will find something cuter or the same thing for less so we look and look and then make informed decisions. Anyway, I don't know where my girls get it but they LOVE to shop. Me, not so much. They loved China Town and couldn't wait to come back and get the gifts they picked out. Obviously from the picutres they decided to get pajamas for themsleves, chocolates and a thimble (she collects them) for Marge, shrits for Ryan and Chase and a key chain for Tyler (he started collecting them). I'm not biased when I say they are they CUTEST things ever, am I?

 
Um, yea; Ghirardelli square. Not quite as exciting as I thought it would be because I thought you'd get to watch them make the chocolates or something but still a must see if you are in San Fran. We bought plenty of chocolate but I still regret not trying the hot cocoa. I love hot cocoa! The entire time we were there I kept mispronouncing the name; we bought our house from people with the last name Ghiradelli's and it was pronounced with a "J" so I kept saying it wrong. Whatever!

 
Yes, "crookedest" is a word. I looked it up before to make sure ;-). The girls didn't really understand how cool it was but the first time they are watching a show or a movie and they see it, they'll be able to say, "I've been there". It was a very busy street but one of the most quiet places in all of San Fran. It was gorgeous too! All the houses we beautiful and it was so fun/neat/weird to see the short driveways. Very cool.

 

Of coarse, we went to Hard Rock Cafe at Pier 39. It has been a tradition of Dave and mine to go whenever there is one when we are on vacation (thus the Hard rock t-shirt blanket I made him for Father's day...going back to June's post). While we were there we ran into a family that we know (and LOVE) from Omaha, Nebraska; The Jones Family. SAY WHAT! Can you believe it? Of all places! It was acutally one of the highlights of my trip to run into them. I love them so much! AND OF COARSE I forgot to get the camera and take a picture. UGH!
Fisherman's Wharf was a fun part of San Fran and one of the busiest places. I felt alot safer there then around the area our hotel was in. Our favorite was the smell of the sourdough bread as you walked down the street. So, we ate clam chowder and sourdough bread at Boudin's. Who could resist? Great marketing!
What a FUN memory that we had with our girls. So glad that we had the opportunity to do this with them.

LaKe PoWeLl!

This was the first year in 17 years that Grandma and Grandpa Boden did not come to Lake Powell with us and they were SORELY MISSED. So, it was just Mike and Riss and their 4 (Kendra-11, Gabrielle-10, Nelson-6, and Becca-4) and our crew of 7. It was a great week to go and we were very excited. We had gotten all things wrong with the boat fixed and were ready to party. We got there about 2 hours before Mike and Riss (coming from Arizona) got there so we decided to take the boat out and let the kids swim and tube. We weren't out there more than 5 minutes when I noticed ALOT of smoke coming out of the back. We turned it off, lifted the "lid" and it was smokey and water was coming in. We let it sit for 10 minutes and turned it on again aiming for the house boat. We got pretty close but had to turn it off again. We floated for about 30 minutes before someone noticed and offered to drag us to our house boat, thank goodness. Mike and Riss got there and they dragged us back to the the ramp so we could take the boat out. By the time we got it out of the water the water was up to the captains chair. We decided that we were not going to pay triple the amount to get it fixed at Lake Powell so thank goodness for Mike and Riss's boat. We just all took turns having fun the whole week. When we got back we found out that it was the lid to the oil (?) that had not been put back on (oops, Dave....expensive mistake). All's good now though, hopefully... :-)
 
LOL! Do you see a theme to this first collage. Yes, we all like to stick out our tongues when wake boarding. You should try it some time. It's helps you stay up better.

 
This year was the year that EVERYONE (9 and older) wake boarded. YEAH! Celebrate good times, come on! It sure is fun when your kids accomplish something and LOVE it!

 
The kids had tube battle, got bruises from tube battles (pictures doesn't show how bad Jenna's legs actually were), sunburns from not reapplying sunscreen while doing tube battles, rock jumping, sliding off the house boat slide, watermellon football (where you grease up the mellon with butter, seperate into teams and go for the goal), down time, and sparatic nap times.


 

The first night we were there, Dave and Mike went into town to get a couple of things that we had forgot to bring. We got all the kids down up top in their sleeping bags and matresses when not 20 minutes later DOWN comes the rain....and although it was warm at Lake Powell, it was night time and this rain was not warm. Riss and I were trying to get the tired, screaming (some) kids down in the house boat while we were trying depretaly to hang on to the shade tent so it didn't fly off the boat while freezing our tails off. Where were those men when you need them. HA! We thought we were taking the easy route by staying and sending them into town. Again, I say, "HA!". After that night though, the weather was perfect the rest of the time. It actually ended up being one of the coolest July's in the 17 years that I can remember. Only got up into the upper 90's. NIIICCCCEEEE! What a fun time and what great memories that our kids have gotten to share with their cousins over the years. Tyler was 6 weeks old the first time he went and he has gone every years since. It has become a tradition for our family and we LOVE IT!

Jane and Tom's visit....continued.

I am trying this again....my posts pictures disappeared so I am trying to uplaod them into 2 different blogs to see if maybe I can get the pics to stay.
 
Okay, so the next day we decided to take the boat to Utah Lake. UGH! What a day! First we get there and it won't start. We had just cleaned and checked it the day before. What?!?! We figured for what ever reason it was the battery (since we had just got a new one this year we didn't know why). So, Jane and I waited with the kids at the Lake while Dave and Tom went to the Costco in American Fork. An hour later we were finally piling into the boat....found out that we couldn't put up the shade tent because one of the straps broke, then our propeller hit someones trailer under water (all turned out ok, thank goodness), then when we finally got everything taken care of we get out in the middle of the lake and go to blow up the tube for the kids and...the connector was broken. REALLY? Seriously! SOOOO........,


 
...we all got over it, prayed nothing else wrong would happen and knee boarded the whole time. It was fun because Tom's kids hadn't ever done it before. Reili did great all by herself and Amberlee did great (with me holding on to the back and being dragged behind).

 

After all that we took the kids to dinner and ice cream. Moms and Dads needed a break! It was fun and well worth it though. I kept looking at the bright side; we were leaving for Lake Powell in 3 days and at least we could get it all taken care of and fixed for that trip....but, well..., that's for another post. Stay tuned ;-)

Friends and Family in the Month of July

Yes, I know....it's a miracle. After 4 months of nothing I will be trying to catch up in the next 2 weeks. On with the show that is here ....
 
In July we had some friends from Omaha, Nebraska visit. We missed Jason but enjoyed having Megan and her daughters, Calista and Sarina, stay with us. They are great friends and great guest and are welcome any time!


 
We also had my brother, Tom, and my sister in law, Jane, and their four kids come for a visit. Yes, we had a very busy month with company and loved every minute of it....and got plenty of use out of the fire pit. What kids doesn't love roasting hot dogs and making smores?

 
While they were here we decided to go spend a day at the Aquarium in Sandy. We were trying to decide between that and the zoo and since it was an extremely hot day we opted for air conditioning :-) The kids LOVED to touch everything. Well, almost everything. Meagan doesn't look to thrilled to touch the beetle. I was happy with the way some of the pictures turned out. Caught some of the brillant colors of all the fish.