Disneyland

Disneyland, Disneyland, Disneyland. What a sweet, fulfilling, "everything I ever imagined and more" trip. Too cheesy? Nah. Just true. After two years in the works and of inundating Kyle with tons of Mickey/Disney movies, we finally made it. It was so worth the wait too. We did more than Disneyland of course. We went to Seaworld, the beach, the Wild Animal Park and just got to do a lot of hanging out together as family. We went with my parents and my 3 sisters and their families as well and you know what, not as chaotic as I thought! So this trip was more than just Disneyland but dang, it was definitely the highlight for me. You will notice the giant grin on my face in the first picture with Mickey. Yeah, I pretty much acted like one of the kids when I first saw him and RAN to greet him. Kyle was so awed by it all too and this is what I loved the most.

Yay! Love Mickey!! Noah's just interested in his stylin' hat.

Kyle and Papa enjoying some chilly waves.

It took a little coaxing but in the end Kyle loved the ocean.

Kyle and Ellie waiting, waiting, waiting. D-land said they opened for early birds at 7am but it turned out they posted the times WRONG and to make a long story short we arrived 2 hours EARLY!! Kyle said at this point "I want to go to a different Disneyland!"

Morgan, Rachel, Olivia, Kyle, Julia, Anna. Who's the dog in the back?

As you can see Kyle JUST met the 40" mark meaning he was able to go on most of the rides which he did! Lucky boy!

Kyle thought Buzz was pretty cool and loved the Buzz ride. In fact, I think we went on it about 5 times.

Kyle's first Disney ride experience "Nemo" and as you can see he is mesmerised.




Nana and Papa really got a kick out of Kyle's piloting abilities with Dumbo. Up really fast, then down really fast.

Relaxing train ride around the park with family.

End of day #1. Our boys were seriously perfect that day.

Ahhhhh, time to pull up a nice, comfy...shoulder. Thanks, Daddy.


Noah now has own special word for rides and that is "wee" (as in the expression one makes while riding rides). He loved every ride he was able to go on. In this picture he tried to climb the fence to ride with daddy and Kyle while crying "Weeee!"


Kyle and Will on Kyle's "favorite ride", "Winnie the Pooh".


Classic teacup ride pic.

Oceanside, CA- This is where one of our condos was located. Thanks Cyd and Eric!!

Noah wanted nothing to do with Minnie. Kyle got snuggly though. :)

One of the D-land highlights for Kyle. "Lightming NaQueen"!



Noah liked being a big boy and riding by himself.


I was so impressed that Kyle was willing to touch and actually loved these starfish at Seaworld.


Monkeying around at the Wild Animal Park.

Well, its pretty obvious after seeing my mass of pics what part we enjoyed the most. Having said that though, the entire trip was awesome. I planned on being burnt out everyday due to ornery kids and tons of waiting in lines but I was wrong. My kids did really well considering naps were few and far between.

Anyone have any suggestions as to where to plan our next trip? I'm ready to get another planned!

Six Years and Counting...

On September 27th Adam and I celebrated out 6th anniversary and I am proud to say that we are still oh so in love. Never mind the fact that my sister Cyd had to remind us that it was in fact our anniversary...(In our defense, we celebrated quite a bit prior to our actual anniversary.) It seems crazy that we have only been married 6 years. So much has happened that it doesn't seem long enough: Meeting in Sounding Joy where my hard work paid off in snagging Adam (I take ALL credit), finally forcing Adam to propose to me (yessss), school, the dreaded first year of marriage :), moving and then moving twice more whilst pregnant (yuck), graduation, baby #1 aka Kyle, dog ownership, baby #2 aka Noah, and now baby #.....JK....seriously and just craziness inbetween. (Wedding ring at the bottom of a lake? Yeah, like I said, craziness.)

In a nutshell, it has been an amazing ride so far and I know its just going to get better. I love you, Baby! (This was the inscription inside Adam's long lost ring.)

The following pics are from the good old dating days.

A really cool trip...

...to a really cool place called Maple Canyon with really cool peeps. (The Wall's, Higley's and Scherzinger's)

Some advice please.

If I could have any chore taken from me right at this moment (it changes day to day) it would meal planning and shopping. I don't mind the cooking at all but coming up with the menu just about drives me crazy! Forget the fact that it needs to nutritious and actually TASTE good. Oh, the stress of it all! This is where you come in. All I am asking is for you share with me your secrets. Do you plan meals in advance or is at all last minute see whats in the meager food storage supply type thing? Do you plan something for every night of the week? Do you have a theme for each night? Tell me. I'm desperate and so is my husband!

All good things must come to end...

...and this includes summer. I LOVE summer and there is no doubt that 3 or even 2 1/2 measly months is no where near long enough. Hence, my-

"Ode to Summer":

Sprawled on the grass on our backs, cloud gazing with my Ky-ky, where we see dragons, bunnies, cars, you name it. Watching his imagination come to life.

Popsicles in the shade of our big walnut tree. Tommy gets the leftovers.

Camping, getting away from everyday life with my family to see the beauty that surrounds us.

Noah's pudgy knees in shorts.

The hammock, life chats, swinging, reading, snuggling, more popsicles.

My favorite, warm evenings outside on the porch, where ever.

Sunlight late at night. No more 6pm curfews.

Summer, we shall miss thee.

Noah's Chompers

Ahhhh, chilly relief!

Poor Noah...Poor Me. :) This past week has been extremely rough for my youngest filled with tears, screams, Motrin, popsicles, drool, drool and more drool. Can you guess what Noah's problem was? Two istsy-bitsy tiny teeth. All this drama for two little teeth. With all the drool continually cascading down the front of Noah's shirt it always looked like he had just run a marathon. Neither Noah or Kyle have ever reacted this way to teething so I was a bit at a loss. This is a new week though and Noah is now the proud owner of two sparkling white teeth and is happy and content. Thank goodness! Too bad he still has like 4+ teeth left to some in.... *sigh*

WhAt'S uP wItH tHe ShIfLeTt'S?

The Messmakers

...We had Ellie and Coleman over for two days while their mommy was at girl's camp. I was really worried about how it would go over- two babies!- but it went really well. I enjoyed bonding with my niece and nephew, especially Coleman who liked to get snuggles from me every hour. I think he was missing his mommy. Kyle enjoyed the two day visit most of all though. He ADORES his cousins and these two are no exception. Kyle and Ellie enjoyed trashing Kyle's bedroom and the basement and I was decidedly content to let them. Coleman found a good friend in Tommy who let him ride a top his big, furry back. Coleman was even found laying on top of Tommy happily sucking his bink and giving Tommy snuggles. It was way sweet. Looks like someone needs a dog.

...Adam, unwittingly, backed into our garage door. "Hey, who closed the garage?!" Ugh... it ended being okay though.

...Still doing the finishing touches on the bathroom. Again, ugh. This has been a 5 month project! One day I'll post pics.

...Olympics! Michael Phelps. One-one hundredth. Olympics. 12:00 AM bedtime *yawn*. Michael Phelps. 8 Golds. World records out the wahzoo. Nastia Luikin. Gymnastics. My life for two weeks.

...Noah is still trying to decide if walking is really that cool.

The boys going for a ride.

Flamin' Good Times!

Flaming Gorge! This was my first visit. It was gorgeous leaving me wanting more (and a boat!). It isn't too far away which was nice since we just went for a little weekend visit. My parents, Ethan and Tracey and Dawn's families came as well. We missed the "ditcher's" though. :)


We went on the dam tour, fed the dam fish and had a dam good time. We also went to the Sweat Ranch, fire watch tower -a great honeymoon place, hubba, hubba-, and even got to do a little wave running- my favorite!!




Tommy was totally worn out by the time we got home as was everyone else. It was really fun to see Kyle and his cousin, Samuel become good buddies especially since they live so far apart.

This was possibly our last camping trip of the season and I'm sad. Anyone up for another trip???

WhAt'S uP wItH tHe ShIfLeTt'S?

...Noah has become quite the walker. I hope this is the real thing. We thought he was going to start up a month ago. Yay for cleaner hands!

...We went Flaming Gorge this past weekend with my family and had a rockin' good time. (Don't worry. More details to follow.)

Thump- THUMP (the sound of my heart)

I own it. Its mine. I am excited. I shant talk to anyone about it until I'm DONE! Here's rootin' for you, Edward!

P.S. Thanks Kerr!