Kids and Their Dogs

Rocks & Indoor Soccer

Tyler has been playing indoor soccer this winter.  They have a bunch of big rocks outside the rec center that the kids love to play on.  They really wanted their pictures taken on the rocks.  Good thing for camera's on phones.
Tyler really enjoys playing soccer but hasn't seemed to been playing as good as he normally does.  He just hasn't been trying as hard as he used to.  His stamina just hasn't been very good.  After we signed Josh up for Little League we asked Tyler if he wanted to try baseball.  At first he said no he didn't want to play baseball, only soccer.  But then a few days later we talked him into it.  In baseball you don't have to run the whole time and he might actually do really well.  Tyler is really good at practicing and he wants to get better at skills.  We're excited to see how Josh and Tyler do playing baseball this Spring.

Megan's First Cavities

The dentist found a few little cavities on Megan at her last dental checkup.  I checked her out of school early and Allie and I took her to the dentist to get them fixed.  Allie had fun playing at the little play area and with their tablet.  She did good entertaining herself while Megan was back with the dentist.
Megan did a great job.  They were able to just use some gas to help her relax and they said she did a great job.  Even Josh needed to be sedated last year when he got work done.  She is such a big girl and I am so proud of her and and how brave she is.  Hopefully we wont have to get more dental work done for a long time, but it's good to know that she can take it like a champ.

Indoor Baseball Fun!

We have been practicing catching every night so the boys can get used to using their gloves.  Sometimes the girls want to get into the action and play with their little gloves and balls.
Allie was playing in her tutu earlier that day and then added the hat later.  Then when she grabbed the glove I thought she was just the cutest thing.  Megan likes to play dress up and thought Bat girl might want to play baseball.  My kids are too cute!

Ouch!

We went out to eat as a family and as we were opening the door to the restaurant Megan didn't move her foot fast enough and the door hit her toe through her Crocs.
The poor girl cried and cried, it was so sad.  It took a couple minutes to show where it got her but then the purple came in fast.  She was in a good amount of pain and I wanted to prevent too much swelling so I gave her some children's motrin.  Within 5 minutes she was feeling better and didn't complain again.
She really wanted a picture when we got home and Allie was more then happy to join in the fun.  Pretty sure that her nail is going to come off, that'll be cool.  Megan says that it is a really pretty color.  I guess if you are going to be hurt it might as well be pretty!

A Few Sundays Ago...Cuteness!

Day 3: Rested & Day 4: California Adventure

On Friday we woke up to rain.  We checked the weather and it was suppose to rain until around 10:00 and then possibly through out the day.
Since it said it would stop at 10:00 we thought we would drive down to Disneyland and then it should stop by the time we got there.  Well it didn't stop and didn't show any signs of stopping.  They were not letting us park in the parking structure and rerouting people to a field away from the park.
We decided that since it was still raining that we would do California Adventure on Saturday before we had to be at the airport and just do other things on that rainy day.
So while we were at Costco on our first day there Tony found some pants that he really liked so we thought we'd go to some other Costco's and see if they had some more in his size.
We didn't find anymore.  We also went to the Walmart close to Disneyland to see what Disney stuff they had for the kids.  After shopping we ate lunch at Chili's.  It was yummy.

After lunch I really just wanted to go back to the hotel and take a little rest.  I had a cold that started the day before and I wasn't sleeping very good at nights.
Tony played on his computer while I rested.  After about an hour I was ready to get going again.  Tony found us a place to go to the movies.  So we went and saw La La Land.  It was pretty good.  A little different then I thought it would be.
After the movies we video chatted with the kids and Margie.  Then we went back to the hotel to relax.  I also got us all packed and ready to leave early the next day. 
Since we had to leave early to get to the airport we wanted to make sure we were at the park when it opened.  We got a good parking spot and we were able to get right in.  The park opened like 2 minutes before we got there so we were there quickly after they moved the ropes.

Tony got us fast passes for Cars while I walked towards the ride.  We rode on Allie's favorite ride first and did that a couple of times before going on Cars.  The line for Cars was only 20 minutes long so we thought we'd go on the ride and then do it again with our fast passes.
In between Cars ride we went and did Woody's Roundup ride.  It's my favorite.  After that Tony went on Screamin' while I looked in some shops.  Tony single rode it and got done way fast.
We then went on some more rides and then got fast passes for Soarin'.  They were having some issues with one side so they only had one side that worked.  We decided to get into line for Frozen and then come back to Soarin' after the show.  We got some yummy caramel popcorn to eat while we waiting in line for Frozen.

The show was super good as expected.  We had good seats and enjoyed the show.  After the show we did Soarin' and then we had pretty much done all the rides we wanted to.  So we decided to walk through some shops and then get some lunch/dinner at an Italian Restaurant outside the park that we had last time we were in California.
The food was super good and way too much of it.  We will have to eat their again too.  After we ate as much as we could we headed to the car rental place to return our car.  We then got on a shuttle to the airport.  We got through security fast and had about an hour or less to wait for our flight.
Our seats were a little better this time and it was a good flight.  We got in earlier then expected but they needed people to check their carry on luggage so we volunteered so we had to wait for our bags at the baggage claim.  Then we got on a shuttle to take us to our car.  Then we came home.  Margie was there waiting for us because she put the kids to bed at our house.  It was so nice having this little trip just Tony and I.  We are so lucky and blessed that Margie was willing to make it possible by taking care of our kids while we were away.  She really is the best!  Tony says next time we go on a trip just us it will be to Hawaii.  Sounds good to me!

Day 2: Disneyland

Thursday we woke up nice and early and got ready for breakfast.  Normally breakfast is super busy with kids and families everywhere, but it was pretty slow and only adults.  I guess the hotel we stayed at isn't a popular place to stay for families.
After we ate we decided to head to the park.  Since we didn't want to go back to Universal Studios another day we decided to buy a two day pass to Disney and go to California Adventure one day.  So we had to do that at the park.

After upgrading our tickets we went and got in line for Disneyland to wait for it to open.  We were there about 45 minutes before the park opened to everyone.  They only made us wait about 15 minutes at the gate before the let us start coming in.  They didn't open the park until 10:00 but they let you walk down Main Street.  We decided to look through the stores while we waited.  I had a couple friends ask me to pick them up some things while we were there, so we went in search of those things.

After the park opened we went straight for Splash Mountain.  It is one of our favorites and you can generally get on the ride quickly because most people don't want to get wet first thing.  We were able to ride Splash Mountain 3 times in a row.  After the first ride their were no people waiting in line so they let us stay on the ride and go again.  So fun.  We didn't get super wet, but what we did get we dried quickly.

Then we just kept going on rides and having fun.  It was nice not having to worry about baby passes and strollers.  We love our kids and we really did miss them, but it was nice to experience Disney just us as a couple.  We got some yummy Dole Whip at the Tiki Room and listened to all the birds sing tweet tweet tweet.
I tried to take pictures of us on the rides that were the favorites of our kids and then send them to grandma.  It was fun thinking about each kid and what they love the best at Disneyland.  We only took the time to see one character...the main man...Mickey the Mouse.  The little boy in front of us in line was so excited to see Mickey and was so adorable once he finally got to see him.  After they left and it was our turn to see Mickey I commented that we were not as adorable as that cute kid and Mickey gave me a big huge as if to say "I was adorable too."  That was my interpretation.

We decided that we wanted to eat somewhere that we had never eaten before but not somewhere that cost $40 a person.  So we ate at the Carnation Cafe.  It is a restaurant on Main Street.  We both had the chicken fried chicken.  It was really good.  I am so glad that we went there and would like to go back there again.  We went a little later in the afternoon so it wasn't busy at all and we were able to get a table quickly.  They do recommend getting a reservation during their busy times.
After eating we did some more rides and we were able to ride all the rides that we wanted to.  The park wasn't super busy and the longest line was Peter Pan at about 40 minutes.  We got almost all the ride that we wanted to before the parade started that night.
Right now they have the Main Street Electrical Parade again at Disneyland.  I got us a spot to watch the parade while Tony went on one last ride that I don't like.  It worked out nice.  The parade was fun but it did get a little boring after a while, so we left early to go and get some yummy grilled cheese and tomato soup for me.  Tony didn't want anything because he wanted to get Joe's Italian Ice after we left the park.
After I ate we went back to the stores and bought the things that my friends requested and then headed to the tram.  After we got to our car we drove to Joe's and got Tony his "dinner."  It was a super fun day and we had a great time!

Day 1: Universal Studios Hollywood

Tony and I decided to take a little vacation.  We started talking about it a few months ago.  We had our Universal Studios annual passes from the last time we went so we thought we would take advantage of having those passes and go to Southern California.

We thought that we would go to Universal Studios  a couple days and then Disneyland one day.  We first thought we'd drive down, but then Tony found some good rates on flights down to LAX.  Those good rates were for the early morning and late night flights.

So super early on Wednesday morning we got up and drove to the airport.  Margie (being the saint that she is) watched our kids for us while we were away.  We parked our car and got through the airport security without any problems.  We didn't have to wait very long before they started boarding our flight.

It was only about an hour and a half flight without any problems.  We landed and then took the shuttle to the rental car place.  We got our car and went in search for a breakfast place.  We had our GPS take us to Universal Studios and we thought that we would find a restaurant on our way there, but we didn't find anything.  Some fast food places, but no IHOP or Denny's.  It was nuts.  The GPS had us take some crazy back streets to avoid the crazy traffic on the freeway.  So we got to see some pretty ghetto places, but some were pretty cool too.

Tony thought he remembered that some of the restaurants outside of Universal Studios served breakfast.  He was wrong and we ended up getting food at Starbucks.  It was better then nothing.  We both got a  breakfast sandwich.  They were pretty good.  We stood waiting for the park to open and ate our food.
We had to wait about 20 minutes before they opened the gates.  We were first in line.  We went straight to the Harry Potter ride that is in the castle.

I walked through it with Tony but didn't go on the ride.  Since I get sick so easy on those kinds of rides I thought it best to sit out.  After that we did the other roller coaster and then walked through a few shops before leaving Harry Potter land.  We didn't see much last time we were there because it was so busy so it was fun to walk through stores and see how ridiculously priced things were.  Good times.

We decided to try one of the big donuts that they sell in Simpson's land.  It was a pretty good doughnut, I thought it could have used more chocolate.  After eating all we could (we couldn't finish it) we went down to do that Back Lot tour.  The park wasn't busy so we were able to do things quickly without many lines.
We went and saw a show on special effects.  It was good, but really loud.  We must be getting old.
After the tour we went down to the Lower Lot to rides some more rides.  Not before taking a picture of the beautiful scenery.  We rode some more rides and then had some lunch.  It was pretty good.  We road the water ride one more time before going back up to the main park.
We had pretty much done every ride we wanted to so we walked through some shops and then decided to leave.  We figured we did everything we wanted to and didn't need to come back another day.

We then drove the hour to get to our hotel.  We checked in and then went to the store to get somethings we needed.  We had such a big lunch we were not very hungry for dinner so we decided to just get some Italian Ice at Joe's (Tony's most favorite place).
Their were some missionaries eating there and we chatted with them for a little bit.  We found out that the owner of Joe's is a member of the church and he lets the missionaries eat for free.  This just made us like Joe's even more.  Yummy stuff.
Then we went back to the hotel where we just enjoyed hanging out and getting to bed early because we were both so tired from waking up so early.  And we wanted to be well rested for our day at Disneyland the next day.

Tyler Received his Bear

Tyler finished all of his requirements to complete his Bear in Scouts.  He got his badge and pinned the Bear pin on me.
Tyler really loves scouts and is always excited to go.  His leader e-mailed me to tell me what a good scout Tyler is.  He said that Tyler always participates and stays on tasks while the other boys goof off.  It is always nice to hear other people compliment your kids, makes you feel like you are doing a good job as a parent.  Tyler is such a great kid and scout!