Parole/vacation

The kids' mandatory two-year sentence was up.  Finally they could return to their favorite place

Who: the five of us + Aunt Kymber
When: spring break
Where: the magic kingdom

The preparation:

When was the last time you watched Snow White?  It had been a long while since I'd watched any of the Disney princess movies, but that one in particular surprised me with its huntsman-with-a-hatchet scene at the beginning.  Scary stuff, yo. 

The funny thing is we didn't do anything princess related at the big D.  She didn't know to ask, and in the end we weren't really interested.  Next time, I guess, if we're up for all those long lines.




What we should have done to prepare Millie:
strap her in and out of a stroller fifty times a day,

 



and lose her in a crowd to give her a healthy fear of wandering off.



The digs: Fairfield Inn

Super-duper close to the park, fun themed rooms, clean (which can be hard to find in these parts), family-friendly.  We definitely dug staying in a suite, too, so that the kids had their own space.




sofa bed #1

 


sofa bed #2, happily placed in front of TV #2





As soon as we walked in, Millie begged to be in her "new crib."
Of course the second the lights went out, she was singing a very different tune.


The first priority: Jedi Academy





Bennett got picked to be trained

   


I wondered why Stephen wanted to pack the kids' Star Wars garb . . . 

 


I should have known it was to help them get noticed for the jedi training

 



Apparently it worked

 


Don't you love how seriuosly he's taking it?

 

Here's a clip of Benito in action. 

About thirty seconds in, you get to see him take on Darth Maul.

and Star Tours:




The boys went on it at least three times

 and high scores:



Next up: Fantasyland

for the littlest one of the bunch, even though we all secretly love it.

We wanted to get a shot of the kids in the teacup, but one of the park photographers was already there and offered to get "a" picture of all of us.  That one picture turned into about twenty as he kept asking us, and later the kids, to make all these cheesy poses.  I felt so bad for the mom and kids waiting behind him, so eventually we cut him off and grabbed our kids.  I'm not sure how long that session would have gone on if we hadn't.

Tarzan's Treehouse, which always reminds me of the Swiss Family Robinson one they used to have:

Cheapskates are we:

I packed about a million snacks for this trip so that we'd never be caught empty-handed, although we definitely ate some yummy food in the park.  How can you not?



Outside the new Mary Poppins Bakery, waiting for the evening parade

 


Letting the kids have a go with the camera


Phineas and Ferb:



Our family's favorite show puts on a little dance party

 

The boys knew all the songs but refused to get up there. Too bad Millie was napping in the stroller, or she would have been all over it, like the little girl with the matching costume up there.

World of Color:

After spending a fun-filled afternoon and evening in CA Adventure, we stayed for the water show. 




 

 Growing up:

I love that our kids are getting older and wanting to ride the same rides we do.  We spent the majority of our time on the big ones, and thanks to fast passes and the switch rider pass, which our friends--who also happen to be locals/experts--Bryce and Nancy taught us all about, we got to ride them a couple of times.  To our surprise, not one of the kids asked to stop and see a character, and little Millie just waved hello to all of them as we passed.  We even skipped Toon Town and nobody said a word.  More time for the good stuff.  Yeah, yeah.

We're already excited to come back in two years!

Kicks and chicks

After years of watching his big brother play on soccer teams, somebody in our family got to don his own soccer uniform yesterday and play his first official game.  So exciting.  His team name, which he helped choose: Blue Ninjas.  And after two weeks of rained-out games, you can imagine how excited Mr. Eli felt to finally get to play a game.

Check out these little chicks.  I love this age, where they don't really know what's going on, but everyone around them sure does seem happy about something as silly as picking up plastic eggs.  R & G had the first heat of today's egg hunt.  Watching rather than participating nearly killed Miss Millie, who kept begging for her turn to pick up eggs.  It's good for our little diva to have some younger cousins around!

Then came the big kid heat, and #3 knew just what to do this year.



We call this the ole Grab and Go




Such intensity. 




Look at my eggs!



 Then came the third and final heat of the egg hunt: the grown-up round.  Liz, Kymber and Kendra found most of the stragglers, while Joseph won the prize for Toughest-egg-to-find.



Kymber finding Stephen's well-hidden final eggs



Other Easter highlights include:

Getting goofy on Skype with the cousins

Everyone sitting at the table together

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Liz's helping me cook all afternoon

Coconut Cream Tart

Lemon Bundt Cake

Grandpa's doing all the dishes (there were a lot)

Lime Punch

Bedtime stories with Grandma and Grandpa

Fruit salad, bacon-chive potatoes, roasted asparagus, steamed green beans & rolls

Can you tell we are all about the food?

Green Good Friday

I know, I know, I'm STILL one holiday behind.  I can't ever seem to catch up.  St. Paddy's Day turned out to be extra fun this year, because I got to help throw a baby shower.  Talk about the perfect excuse to take what is typically a kids' holiday and celebrate my friend's little leprechaun-to-be with a bunch of grown-ups!



This is before the table was completely filled with yummy food,
 including our, Liz and my, comfort food headliners, Shepherd's Pie and Irish Hand Pies. 
All cute decorating courtesy of Laura and her mad skills.





Pineapple juice + ginger ale + lime sherbet = magically delicious. 
And aren't you jealous of my rockin' punch bowl?

 


Shamrocks popped up everywhere--windows, tables, desks, counters.




Thankfully we didn't have to pinch the woman of the hour, Amanda, or her pregnant pal Mikila.



Flash forward to today, when I realize how remiss I have been in taking pictures of the kiddos. 

Time for some quick, early-morning photos. 

The oldest = at school, of course.



Little Miss Millie
With her hair in a pony, you can see the growing-out progress of her bangs.



So sweet and feminine, right?



Suuuuuure.




Look how tall she's getting. 
We keep telling her to stop growing up, but she just won't listen, dang it.




And then there's this child. 
You'd never know he's on a time-out (at 8:30 in the morning, for crying out loud), would you?



Good News/Bad News

1) Eli took a rock climbing class at Planet Granite which ended 2 weeks ago. Good news...He was a rock star. The teacher said he had the best repelling technique and had made the best progress in the class. The bad news...I brought the camera to document his talents, but without the memory stick.

2) Bad news--Stephen has had problems with his tonsils since November. Good news--he is just well enough not to have his tonsils taken out.

3) Good news--Although Bennett is taking the season off from playing soccer he has been practicing with his old team. There was a scout there from the US Youth Soccer Development Acadamy to see Danny play. They liked Danny, but only extended an invitation to Bennett to go to Carson, California this summer for 2 months to play on their U9 team. We are trying to make it happen.

http://www.ussoccer.com/Teams/Development-Academy/Academy.aspx

4) Eli has enjoyed investigating creatures in the backyard with Bennett and their friends Peter and Christopher. Good news--he ended up finding a salamander. Bad news--Eli had a Lenny moment from Of Mice and Men and squezed it a little too hard. I'll let you guess what happened.

Guess what....It's April fool's today :). Two of these accounts are true. Can you guess which ones are playing tricks on you?

Good luck.

Stephen

March Madness

Part of March Madness this year is the fact that it is not as easy to watch the games. Therefore I had to follow the box score on espn.com to "witness" BYU's NCAA tournament record comeback against Iona Tuesday night in the first round.

http://espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=320730252

BYU was down by 25 and ended up winning by 6. It can now be considered one of the best comebacks in sports. Unfortunately, it was on TruTv and even watching replays of the game have been nearly hopeless. So here is hoping they continue the magic against Marquette today. And here is hoping I can catch some video of it.

http://www.ncaa.com/mml/player/console.html

Stephen

Day Trip Week

Ski week, mid-winter break, Presidents' Week.  Call it what you will, it's a week of no school, a week of nothing on the calendar, a week full of possibilities for a day trip-lovin' gal like me.  I'm sure the kids would have been happy to just hang out at home the whole week, but I guess we'll never know.  Their mama had other plans. :) 

The hubs actually kicked things off by wanting to hike on the Monday holiday--music to my ears--so we picked a new spot and hit the hills.

Sunol Regional Wilderness surprised us with its proximity--not quite a half-hour drive, near Pleasanton--and its beauty.


Thankfully, Liz thought to bring a camera






 

Sausalito and Fort Baker

Talk about a g-g-gorgeous day in the city.  I could have just stood there and gazed at that view of the city for hours.  Or the view of the bridge.  Or the sailboats all sailing by on a Wednesday afternoon.




I wouldn't mind retiring to this little town (Sausalito)

 



I also wouldn't mind living in one of these houses at Fort Baker

 


where you wake up to this





and this

 

Moss Beach

I wanted to take the kids tidepooling and decided to hit this spot near Half Moon Bay, because not only does it have tidepools but also a colony of seals that you can watch sunbathe on the rocks and beach.  I looked up an online tide chart,  found the time for high tide, and planned to arrive as close to that time as possible.  Did you catch my dumb mistake?  Seriously, I continue to amaze myself.




Have you ever sat this close to the water?  Yeah, we hadn't either.



The kids were a little nervous that they and their lunches were going to be washed out to the ocean, what with the waves lapping right up against us when we first got there.  We did get to watch the seals swim at pretty close proximity, however, which made for some good picnic entertainment.  After lunch, Kymber and I were treated to our own personal spa treatments, thanks to the boys' burying out feet and legs in only the finest, freshest, c-c-c-coldest ocean sand.  They had fun making us shiver and shriek.




Millie joined in the rock-collecting action, brning Aunt Kymber all her favorites

 




A rare moment of sibling harmony and love



The wind picked up after lunch and gave us a good beating.  We snuggled up, skipped some rocks, ran a few foot races, played soccer, walked down to see the seals up close, watched Millie pick up a still-slightly alive, gigantic crab, and bided our time until at long last, tidepools!  Of course I forgot to pull out the camera for that most-anticipated and important part. 




Kymber and Mills sharing the picnic blanket

 


Can you tell these two are related?

 

 Big Basin Redwoods State Park

We'd been talking about going here with Liz, who'd never been, for weeks.  Stephen and I camped and hiked here several times when first married and pregers with Benito but hadn't been back since.  I told Liz, "Yeah, it's really close.  You just drive up Highway 9 until you hit it."  The part I forgot was the long and winding road from the park entrance to the actual trails and visitors' center.  REALLY long.  REALLY winding.




A few redeeming views from the sinous drive in

 



Good thing these pretty giants make all that tummy-turning worth it

 




This view never gets old





The kids had fun playing house inside these trunks

  We got spoiled with the weather this year, so I know I shouldn't expect to be able to do this every year for the February break. I'm afraid it's too late for that, though.  My mental list of day trip destinations just keeps growing and growing.  And I can't help but look forward to the next time we get a chance to have another day trip week.