Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Propaganda In Schools

I am moving this post over to my political blog because it bugs to be on my main one. So enjoy it over there.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Vacation 2009!

We haven't really had a family vacation in 6 years. Robert and I went to Disneyland for our 1 year Anniversary and we were both sick during the whole thing and raced home to the doctor. Turns out part of my sickness was because I was pregnant in Disneyland and didn't know it. We have always wanted to take a vacation, but work and school have kept us busy and finances have been tight. Things let up for us this year and we have been very blessed. It was time to re-do our Disney vacation and this time bring our 2 kiddos with us. We didn't want to go alone though so we invited Robert's parents and Grandma to come with us. We all had a BLAST!! We are sad it is over. But we have great memories and I took some pictures to help us remember it.

Emily hanging out at our fantastic hotel complete with free shuttle, complimentary breakfast (and not just stale bagels and juice, pancakes, eggs, bacon, cereal, fruit, etc.) and excellent service. We found an awesome deal online and on one morning all the shuttles were full so the assistant manager gave us a ride. They were GREAT!

Did I mention it came with a fridge to keep all our snacks and goodies?

The Disneyland shuttle drop off.


The main entrance!


In front of the castle. They are SO cute! I never knew Disneyland could be so fun until I had kids. It was so worth everything to see them get so excited and talk about what they saw and did.


Lindsey called this "Its a small world after all" and has been singing the song since the first day when we went on it. We only did it once, but she remembers it.

ToonTown is also a good climbing town.


Lindsey chillin' on the stairs of Mark Twain's boat.


Since we went during the "off" season there were only fireworks on the first night we were there. The girls loved them if you can't tell by the expressions on their faces, their eyes big as saucers and their mouths wide open.

We spent a day in Sea World and had a good time there.



The best part about Sea World was the Shamu show. That was incredible and we crazily sat in the "soak zone" and got pretty wet. Lindsey was NOT happy about that and told Shamu that by waving her angry fist in the air. But I convinced her to do the Shamu fin shout and then it was okay.





Robert's Grandma Betty and his mom Arlene and dad Jay. They were the ones who so kindly took us to Sea World. It was wonderful.





In one of the theaters they have some rooms that follow some of the Disney movies. This is Beast's library from Beauty and the Beast. It had interactive books and the fire would go out and the petals on the rose would fall. Then you could go into Ursula's lair and she would steal your voice when you sang some Disney songs. It was really fun! And the girls loved talking to Crush the turtle and Emily was so excited that he talked to her!


Riding in Flik's raisin hot air balloons.

Pixar had an awesome parade of the characters from the many movies. Lindsey loved Boo of course and that was one of the rides she really liked was Monster's Inc. She was afraid of many of the old Disney movie rides, but Winnie the Pooh and Monster's were great for her. Emily went on the Matterhorn and Splash Mountain and hated them both.

Lindsey hopping during the Pixar parade. We were all SO tired every night and my feet were throbbing they hurt so bad.


We saw our good friend's the Bytheway's who live about 20 minutes away in Disneyland on our last day. It was totally a miracle we found them in the crowds of people and neither one of us knew we were going to be there. And turns out they were in Sea World the same day we were there too. It was so weird we had to get a picture of it!

I promised Emily even with my motion sick tummy that I would go on the tea cups with her. I made it and it wasn't that bad.

Dancing with daddy the last night. It was so beautifully lit up it was SO sad to leave. I never realized I would love it so much, but I really did. It felt so magical and special and great to have my girls with me and Grandparents too.


The beach at California. We had such a good time collecting sea shells, wading in the ocean and playing in the sand. We got all disgusting, but didn't care.

We had such an amazing time and just hope to be able to do it again some day. Our girls won't remember it, but we will and it was so worth it. They are only small for so long and then its gone.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Summer FUN

We had a great summer! We played and went with friends to St. George. We swam and had a great time. Here are some fun summer pictures.

St. George fun and Lindsey in her swimming suit.

4 families, 8 adults, 9 kids and 1 baby on the way. It was a fun group and the kids had a blast playing!


The girls on the steps of the St. George temple before heading back home.

One of the many hours of reading these girls do together.



Lindsey loves Elmo and tried on her cousin's costume for Halloween. It ended up being too small, but she was really cute and funny in her red suit!

New School Year



We have started our school year this last week. Though we are taking a week off or so later for vacation. Emily is really excited for a bunch of books we have this year. She has been really enjoying math recently which is awesome! And she is waiting patiently for the mail to send her an educational game called "slamwich". She has also had a lot of fun this summer going to park days with her homeschool friends. She has made friends with a lot of the kids and with a very cute poodle named Peanut. She enjoyed playing games in the trees and climbing them. It was nice to take a break from classes and just have fun. We are also on the look out for a lesson of some kind. She has talked about taking ballet again, but says she is not sure. We better find out soon what we will be doing since sign ups are beginning now. We are excited to join with other field trips and homeschoolers and learn this year. For more regular updates come visit us at our homeschool blog through out the year. Have a great school year to all of the moms and kids!