It's a Jolly Holiday with Joshy

Happy Holidays everyone. I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season.

We spent Thanksgiving with Josh's grandparents in St George, UT this year. Josh wanted to take his jeep offroading so we all took a little adventure in Kolob canyon where Josh managed to find some mud in dry Southern Utah. For a bit there it was looking like we might get stuck in the mud and get equally as muddy as the Jeep to get it out and back home again. Thankfully, Josh got us out and home again. On Thanksgiving Eve we went to a Chinese buffet in Hurricane that Josh loves because of the crab legs. We had a quiet Thanksgiving dinner with the four of us and watched 4 Christmases.

The next day Nana and I did a little shopping after the Black Friday crowds had died down a bit and the boys took Pa's new Razor out for a ride. Josh fixed the lights on the tree and I helped Nana with a little decorating and before we could believe it our week was over and we were headed back to Salt Lake.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, that nearly took my sanity.

We came home and Josh must have caught a little Christmas spirit helping Nana with her decorating. Without me asking him, he brought in all the Christmas decorations, hung the outside lights, the garland, and the mistletoe, and even started to put together the tree until almost all the lights on our tree were burnt out. He checked the fuses and when that didn't resolve the problem left the rest of the decorating to me. He told me to either put new lights on or get a new tree. It seemed like a waste of a 4 year old tree so I decided to take all the lights out of the prelit tree and get new ones. When they string the lights on a prelit tree ever removing the original lights must not be the manufacturers intent because I spent the next several hours cutting zip ties and undoing clips before I finally cut through the cords and pulled the strings of lights out in pieces.

After that ordeal I took a much needed break from Holiday anything and didn't decorate the tree until the next day.

Originally our tree started out with all gold and purple ornaments the first year. I loved it since purple is my favorite color and Josh surprisingly never said anything about all the purple on the tree and even in the garland on the entertainment center.

Last year I decided to add lime green ornaments and loved it. That was how I planned to keep it this year until I bought a red Norwegian ornament while we were at Epcot. So to tie it in I decided to try adding some red this year. I loved how it turned out. I love our tree a little more every year. I think the addition of the red made some of my sentimental ornaments look like part of the scheme as well, the nutcracker, my ballerinas, the Disneyland castle ornament, my handpainted Santa and angel ornaments, and even the fishing Santa I bought for Josh and our little red A Angelina made for us 3 years ago.

My parents were in Seattle for almost a month and came back a week before Christmas. We did our traditional trip to see the lights at Temple Square that we've done since I was little. My mom bundled up quite attractively. If it were in black and white she would look like she could be in the movie Defiance. It was very cold but a lot of fun with just the four of us this year.

We spent Christmas morning at Josh's brother Rob's house. We watched the girls open presents and play with their toys. Josh played with the PlayDoh set he got for Lexi a little as well. Madi got a little of the green on her bum. Lexi got a little 3 wheeler that you can ride on and would use her feet instead of the button when she needed to turn. It was especially funny when the girls both got on it together.

Madi was my favorite to watch open presents, she was as excited about clothes as she was about toys and the look on her face when she pulled it out of the box was priceless.

Josh's younger brother Darin was there as well and ate a pound of Summer Sausage before noon! No crackers, no cheese, just straight sausage. He would cut off a large portion of it and just eat it. It kind of nauseated Lisa and I just thinking of eating that much in a short time by itself with nothing else.

The girls also got this toy that shoots the balls up a tube and then around the track and the air pops it back up the tube again. Madi could have played with it all day and I think Darin could have as well.

Josh and Rob also played on Rob's new Ipod touch they were playing that game like Guitar Hero. The girls also got some cute dressups. Lexi's was Snow White and Madi's was a ballerina.

We headed over to my parents' house after that and opened gifts there. My mom sent us all on scavenger hunts for our big presents. My dad is not very good at figuring out his clues. Josh and I were supposed to be looking together but he read our Christmas cards and newsletters in the livingroom with my mom instead.

My cousin Amanda and her family stopped by and we all hung out and played with her little kids for a while. They just turned 2 and 3 and are both potty trained. Rather impressive. They are two of the sweetest little kids you'll ever meet.

We helped set up for dinner with my dad's brother Gary and my mom's sister Judy's families. It is always so nice to catch up with everyone especially at holiday dinners. My parents got a Wii that my cousin Rusty set up for them and after dessert we played. Wii golf is very hard compared to Tiger Woods on the Xbox.

After admitting defeat to the Wii we headed back to Rob and Lisa's to spend some time with Josh's dad and his girlfriend Katherine. We played games like Snaps that I can only play in slow motion and Black Magic. We had a lot of fun. After a long day we headed home and opened our presents to one another around 1230. About 3 1/2 minutes after that we were fast asleep. It was a great holiday season and thank you to everyone who helped make it memorable for us.

Fuzzy Babies, Lake Tahoe, and the big CA

We went to the Hogle Zoo with my cousin Amanda and her kids on an early day in October that felt more like late November. Jacob sang us songs from DisneyWorld on the way while we talked to Angelina, Savannah, and Juliette on the phone. Breeann and Jacob asked where they all were. I guess after 11 days of being together all day everyday it seemed odd not to have all 12 of us together.

The day was very cold but seemed to be just how the animals liked it. We saw the rhinos very close up for the first time at this zoo. There are all kinds of new babies at the zoo that we got to see for the first time. The baby elephant was so cute playing with it's ball and sticking close to it's mom. We also saw the baby giraffe very close up and caught a peek at the three tiger cubs.

They also have a baby snow leopard that we saw on a live video feed inside with it's mommy.



The next week we were off again. I was off I suppose. I went to Oakland, Ca to see my older sister Corrie with my parents and Aubree.

We drove through Northern Nevada and took a quick side trip to Lake Tahoe and spent the afternoon and evening there. The weather was beautiful but there was no summer crowd. It is so beautiful there and they do have skiing, maybe one day we'll retire and move there. A lake for me and slopes for Josh.

A few hours later we arrived in Oakland. It was so good to get to see Corrie again. I hadn't seen her since Christmas 2006. Wow, that really was a long time! We went to a hot springs resort in the mountains of the Napa Valley and took a day trip to Monterey and went to the aquarium and the Fisherman's Wharf. This is my all time favorite aquarium and Corrie really wanted to see the new seahorse exhibit.

The aquarium was as wonderful as I had remembered and it was a very fun day.

After the aquarium we went to the Old Fisherman's Wharf. We saw some sea lions and sea otters very close and also the pelican my mom had hoped to see.

We were headed home when my dad found out his meeting had been pushed back a day so my mom decided we should take advantage of the situation and head to LA to see Chris. We went to In and Out burger with Chris and his brother that night and hung out with them. His poor brother Erik found out that Chris' talkative nature is a family characteristics. Chris told us about a trip to Catalina where he ended up gutting fish because none of the kids or their parents knew how. I still wish someone had taken a picture of him covered in fish blood and guts and beaming with pride. We went to Downtown Disney and Newport Beach the next day and then had dinner and a sleepover at Chris' that night.

I'm drawn to sunshine and water and family and didn't want to come home again. Thank goodness Josh was home waiting my little silver lining to another excursion ended.

The Wonderful World of Disney

The trip I've been anxiously awaiting for over a year finally arrived and all too soon was over.

September 16 at about 430am I drug Josh out of bed to make a 600 flight at the Salt Lake International airport. We met my cousin Amanda and her kids and ran to the gate. How we all ended up barely making it on time is beyond me. Okay, okay, that's a lie. It was Josh's fault. I was almost ready to just leave him behind, then parking the car in the economy lot took longer than expected... but that's not the part I remember most anyhow. So we dashed aboard and thankfully the flight was fairly empty so all eight of us got to sit together anyhow.

We had two layovers and landed in the Orlando airport a little before 400pm. About 15 minutes after that Savannah, a smiling Angelina, Juliette, and sippy cup in hand Chase rolled out of another gate in our terminal. A quick hug and happy reunitement, followed by a quick bathroom and diaper changing and we were at the Disney's Magical Express boarding our bus to the resort. Yeah! I'm elated. I'm in one of my favorite places with all my favorite people.

We arrived at our resort, checked in, dropped whatever we didn't need in our rooms, took a half second look around and hopped on a bus to our dinner reservation, The Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show at the Polynesian Resort. It was great I would highly recommend it and it's a beautiful resort. After dinner and a unbelievably long day we headed back to our resort to settle in and get some sleep before our first day at the parks.September 17th we rolled out of bed around 730 to make it to our breakfast reservation at the Grand Floridian Resort. We had breakfast with Mary Poppins and friends at 1900 Fare Park. The kids loved their very first character meal (well character anything since this was the first Disney trip for all of them.) We met the Mad Hatter who told some funny jokes, Alice, Tigger, and Pooh. Chase got a birthday cupcake and adorable souvenir birthday placemat. Then we hopped aboard the monorail and made our way into the Magic Kingdom park. We headed up toward the castle and got to see a parade first thing. We rode the magic carpets and did our first Pirates ride with the kids and Splash Mountain that day. We had a late lunch at The Liberty Tree Tavern, another great family style restaurant. The girls met Peter Pan and Wendy, Captain Jack Sparrow.... aside from getting acclimated to the heat it was such a blast to see the kids take all the magic in for their very first time. We saw three different parades in total that day so the kids saw lots of characters and then met Mickey Mouse and Minnie in Toon Town. It was a great start to a great trip. The next day we were off to Disney's Hollywood Studios. This was one of my favorite parks and I wish we had spent another day there but there is SOOO much to see and do at DisneyWorld it would have been impossible to fit it all in ten days no matter what. We saw great shows, Beauty and the Beast, Fantasmic, Voyage of the Little Mermaid..... The kids loved the Pixar Parade. It was interactive and the kids got to play and interact with the characters. We had lunch at the Sci-Fi Drive In. The booths looked like old cars with the drive in car speakers on posts and there were old Sci-Fi movie trailers playing and it looked like you were outside on a starlit night. There were also some of the funnest rides like Star Tours, Rockin Aerosmith Rollercoaster, Hollywood Tower Hotel... They also have the animation place where you can do the quiz to see which character you're most like and do voice overs on the movies. I LOVED this park. Saturday was a relaxing day at our first waterpark Typhoon Lagoon. I love water parks and so does Jacob. They had sand beaches, a family tube slide we all went on, a killer wave pool, fun kiddy pool for the little ones with a cute little tube slide, and even a water rollercoaster. Juliette was an inch too short but Savannah and I snuck her on... Josh didn't approve. He decides to be so serious at the oddest times. Who cares Julie LOVED it too. We also got her on a straight down body slide and she loved that too. I don't know who was more shocked me or Savannah. They also have this awesome snorkeling area where you swim across a lagoon with fish, rays, and small sharks. My mom and Amanda wanted nothing to do with it so they watched with Jacob, Breeann, and Chase. Awesome experience for the girls. They both loved that as well. Jacob went on the other tube slides for the adults all by himself and loved it. He turns into Evil Knevil when wet. Sunday was Savannah's birthday. We spent the day at Magic Kingdom. We started the day in Fantasyland, the heart of Magic Kingdom I think. Josh wouldn't do the teacups so he sat that one out with Nana so he wouldn't get sick. We had lunch with Pooh and the gang at the Crystal Palace on Main Street. Another great thing for young kids to meet the characters. My mom and I surprised Savannah with a Mickey birthday cake that was delicious. Savannah and Amanda brought the 3 little ones back to the resort for a nap and we had a big kid day the rest of the day. We did the Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder, and Splash Mountain four times. My mom, Aubree, and I were wet enough after the third ride, but Papa, Uncle Joshi, and the girls went one more time. We did pirates again and then headed off to Tomorrowland. After the fireworks the park closed and we got to stay for magic hours. Three more hours after they closed for resort guest only! We rode Dumbo and Small World and several others again. The beauty of short lines. Amanda's kids had their nap so they lasted to the very end even though they were almost 2 and almost 3. I was impressed. We even got a behind the scenes Jungle Cruise Tour. Monday was our first day at the Animal Kingdom. We did the Kilimajaro Safaris that day. Everyone was a big fan. Josh wanted to go again that day and the second day at this park. We saw giraffes, rhinos, ostriches, and elephants roaming around. There were a few very close. We also saw lions, crocs, hippos.... we saw a lot of animals. After the safari we went to Rafiki's Animal Sanctuary. They had a lot of educational and hands on things hear. The kids pet an alligator, goats, etc we saw the cutest little hedgehog. You can easily spend a lot of your day there. We decided to have lunch after this. There had been quick little showers all day, just hide under an awning for a few minutes and it was over. Savannah made the mistake of saying, "This is a nice break from the heat I hope it rains all day." So the rain picked up as we were sitting down. She said, "Well, I didn't want it to rain hard." Within minutes it was pouring buckets of rain. The three little kids were tucked into their strollers and had every closure to keep the weather out of their strollers buckled and fastened securely to keep them nice and dry. The rest of us huddled under the partial coverage of a tree as our milkshakes diluted with rainwater and our sandwiches soaked the rain into every pour of the bread to create a soggy mess. When the rain finally stopped 20 minutes later we were soaked to the bone. Being Florida it wasn't all that bad being that wet in that heat. So after looking through the rest of the African Animals we headed toward Africa and happened to stop on a small bridge parrallel with the road just in time to get a perfect place to watch the parade. It was like a private VIP spot no people crowded around you obstructing your view and the kids got to wave from their bridge and get a personal wave from all the characters. It was only two hours after the rain incident and we were hot already. We headed into Asia and rode the Kali River Rapids. Jacob was even tall enough to go. Nana and the little ones watched the Spider Monkeys in an exhibit that reminded me of the temple in the Jungle Book where King Louie lived. Then we saw huge bats and Tigers to end our day. It was a very eventful day. Next stop Epcot. We spent our first day in Future World of Epcot. We did two full days and I could have easily spent another full day at Epcot. We started our day off with the Epcot landmark Spaceship Earth. This was another very educational day for the kids, learning and loving it. We went to the Seas with Nemo and Friends. Another place you could easily spend most your day in. After spending some serious time taking in all the aquatic life and doing Turtle Talk with Crush where Jacob picked up his "Dude!" catchphrase we had lunch at the Coral Reef Cafe. Yum! I had lobster ravioli, Josh's lobster bisque was phenomenal, as was my mom's filet. Great food combined with a huge aquarium with fish, sea turtles, sharks, rays, anemones, and starfish to watch. I will definitely go there again. We did Soarin, and Imagination with Figment. Chase rode this with me and LOVED IT! I wanted to get him a little Figment to take home. The play area after this was fun as well. Mission Space was an awesome ride but not a do it again ride. I really did feel like my stomach had just reentered the atmosphere. We ended our day in Norway at the Princess Dinner at Akershus castle. The princesses were great. The girls loved it especially and Chase got a kiss from Snow White. He was wearing his Dopey bib which made it that much cuter. The food was all Norwegian and was another amazing culinary experience. We headed back to Epcot to travel the world the next day. We started our trip around World Showcase in Mexico. It was fun to meet people from all over the world in each of the different countries while learning about their home. The girls had masked that they had stamped with different countries like a passport and even had their names written for them in Japanese and Chinese as well. The girls got a stamp in each country, Josh got a shot glass for his collection from each country, and my mom and I got a pressed penny from each country. Josh bought a stein in Germany, I got a Norwegian Christmas decoration, my mom got a Norwegian cook book, I got a delicious German gingerbread, Amanda and Aubree got German chocolate, my mom and I had Norwegian dessert..... It was a delicious world adventure. We had dinner that night in Japan at Tepan Edo. So fun. The three little ones loved watching the chefs do there trick and were happy to eat something other than grapes. Josh had his favorite food sushi. We watched the amazing fireworks after dinner and got some delicious pastries from the bakery in France. We had another night of magic hours. We checked out England after the park had closed the only country we missed was Canada. We were picking our last ride at Epcot and Angelina suggested Spaceship Earth. So we took our last ride picked up our shopping bags at the front of the park and headed back to the park. The next day we went to the other waterpark Blizzard Beach. The melted ski resort this was another great waterpark that everyone enjoyed. There was another wave family tube slide we all rode together. The toboggan slides were one of my favorite waterslides of all time. They also have the world's tallest single rider waterslide Summit Plummet. Angelina even went on this one and beat Josh's time. They have a ski lift to bring you to the top of the slopes/slides. They had sand beaches at this park as well. Jacob was a big fan of the tube slides they even had a cute one for the kids in the kiddie pool. He would carry his tube up all by himself it was so cute he would have rode that little slide all day if you let him. The girls and I built a sandcastle to end the day. Nana took the kids the nights after the waterparks and let Savannah and Amanda have a just mommy time those night (I know my mom is the sweetest.) That night we went to Downtown Disney and went to DisneyQuest the virtual themepark. The first ride Josh picked out for us had these head gear masks. We all were so sick afterward we got a drink and hung out in the lounge to regain our balance before checking out the rest. This was a lot of fun my favorite was the bumper car type ride Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. You drive your ship over asteroids/balls and they go into your ammo compartment where you load them into your blaster and shoot the other ships. If you hit them on one of their targets they spin for 10 seconds and can't do anything. I rode with Josh the first time and Aubree the second. It was a lot of yelling directions and criticisms and laughing at each other it was a blast. Our last day was spent at the Animal Kingdom. We had breakfast at the Tusker House Restaurant with Mickey and the Gang. Donald's Breakfast Safari is another great character experience for the kids and the food was African themed, good, and not the usual menu for a nice change. After breakfast we went to It's Tough to Be a Bug and the Festival of the Lion King. Juliette loved the firedancers (we'd seen some at the Lua as well) and was awed to find out her Aunt Corrie can do that. It just happened to be Aunt Corrie's birthday so she got to talk to her on the phone and tell her just how amazing she thought it was. We went to Dinoland and saw the Finding Nemo Musical and rode Expedition Everest. We had magic hours again this day so we spent some time in the boneyard digging for bones and swimming in the sand (Chase literally swam in the sand every chance he got this trip) Jacob was very upset when it was time to go. We went to Downtown Disney and had dinner at Wolfgang Puck's and did some souvenir shopping. That night I tried to talk everyone into staying longer. They didn't go for it! The next day it was up finish packing and hop on the bus to the airport. When we left Amanda asked Breeann if she was excited to see daddy. Breeann's answer, "No, I want Mickey Mouse!" She had a little Mickey beanie baby she carried with her like a receiving blanket the whole trip. It's nice to be home but after so many back to back trips and ending with this one my post vacation blues are DEEP BLUE. Can't wait for the next Disney Trip!