Grandma Braska Visit

This past week Grandma Braska got to come to town for a conference for her work. So we took full advantage of being able to spend some extra time with her. She flew in early on Tuesday and spent the day at the house with Mike and the kids celebrating her Bday with a cake for everyone. Wed, we got to see her a little in the evening for a quick trip to the mall and some visiting and then we didn't see her again until Friday night. We had plans that night to go to West Fest but Zaden started feeling poorly with a tummy bug so we decided to nix that plan and stay in with ordering pizza and Red-boxing a couple of movies. We had dinner and watched Ghost Rider 2 and called it a night. And good thing too because the next thing we knew we were up and down all night with a Zaric who was now sick and feverish with the same tummy bug (we think) Zaden had earlier that day.

Saturday morning, we got up and it seemed that everyone was feeling better so we went ahead with our scheduled plans. First we hit up the zoo right at 9 when they opened to try and beat the heat and get our membership renewed. It worked well and we all enjoyed ourselves. We also loved the new exhibit. We stopped in for a carousel ride and Faith got to ride for her first time. She LOVED it. She laughed and chattered the whole time and actually got mad at me when I had to take her off when it was over. It was so cute. Here's a few zoo pics:

After the zoo we stopped off in Sugarhouse for some Training Table for lunch. Yumm-y. Then came back home to catch a break. The twins ended up falling asleep right before we were going to leave for a movie so we decided just to let them sleep and go to a later showing. Once they were up, we ventured off to the theater to see the new movie Brave. I thought it was really cute and the kids liked it. Mike and Grandma weren't real keen on it. Then it was back to the house again where we ate a sporadic dinner and hung out the rest of the evening while Mike got the kid's pool set up and filled with water anticipating a hot Sunday.

Today came and Mike and I took advantage of having a grandparent in town and let her watch the boys while we went grocery shopping. It was super nice for us to get it done quickly with less stops. And I'm pretty sure it was fun for her here at the house as well. The boys played in the pool and loved being with Grandma. Mike then went to help a friend with some computer stuff. So me and the kids played with Grandma some more then I put in the other Red Box and we watched Sherlock Homes, A Game of Shadows. All 4 kids napped and at the same time so it was nice and relaxing. Then once Mike got home we went out for a late lunch/early dinner at Olive Garden. Yum. Then it was back home for some more hang out time and Mike and I did a couple of crafts that we've been needing to get done. Then we sadly took Grandma back to the airport to head home. And just in time too. Turns out now Caleb and Faith have the tummy bug and started with the symptoms right after Mike got back from the airport. Blech.

It was a nice visit overall and the kids are already ready to see her again next month when she's back with Aunt Kari.

More Father's Day Fun

For the afternoon today we drove to Price Canyon to meet my dad and my siblings for a little picnic and picture time. It was super fun and the kids were so excited to see Papa and Grandma Judi and play with the kids. We took a ton of fun pictures. Here's a few that have our kids in them.

Thanks for the fun afternoon everyone and we hope to play with you all again in a few weeks.

Mike's Father's Day

For Father's Day this year we made Dad this nifty sign to hang in his office at work. It says "Doodles for Daddy" on the top then the quote from Picasso "Every Child is an Artist" on the bottom. I then fitted it with some clips to hang the pictures the kids draw for him. That way he can continually switch them out for new updated special pics from the kids as they draw him more.
He also picked himself out a new Superman ballcap a couple of weeks ago.

We made him our traditional homemade donuts for breakfast. It was a pretty good morning for him.

Mushroom Family

Here's the cute little crafty project we did last night. I had the Cricut out to finish Mike's Father's Day project and we decided to play with some software and try it out. Mike did most of the work and made this cute Mario Bros 1 up mushroom family for his car window. We love the way it turned out. Great Job Honey!

Chalk Art Festival 2012

We made it back to the chalk art festival at the Gateway this year. This is something we found out about last year and loved so we were excited to go back. We got there early and took a quick trip from one end of the Gateway to the other while the artists were just getting started for the day and finishing up their pics they started the day before. Once we got to the other end, we stopped and had some lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. The boys were a bit unruly so we were worried how they would do the rest of the time. But they did great afterwards. We walked back along the artist walk and looked at the artist's progress as we went. It was really fun. Here's a few of our favorites from the day.

Once we got back to the other end, we got to pose with a few superhero's since this year's theme was "Foster Parents are Superhero's ."

Then of course it was time for the most fun thing to do at the Gateway any summer- run through the fountains! Caleb and Zaric had a ball. Zaden was unsure and baby girl thought it was hilarious.

After we were done and I made my customary stop at Sur Le Tab, we came home and got in a quick nap. Then it was up and running with a quick craft project and prepping for Father's Day and a nice little BBQ for dinner complete with rocket-shaped popsicles for dessert.

9 Months!

Our baby girl is 9 months old....already! Yesterday was her 9 month appt. We didn't get to see our regular Dr. since he's out on a leave of absence, but the other Dr. worked out just fine. She weighed in at 16 lbs, 14 oz. and was 28 inches long. She's still tall and thin according to the charts but growing, so all is good. She was happy as could be during the appt and only got mad when he laid her on her belly. I warned him that she hates that :). But she talked to him and let him play and mess with her and even walked over to him while I held her hands to show him what a big girl she thinks she is. It was another good visit with a perfect as can be rating. We are so blessed with healthy, happy kids.

Day 7 & 8- Huntington Beach

This morning we all took the opportunity to sleep in for the first time this trip and boy was it needed. We then got all packed up and set off for Huntington Beach. We found it without too much of a incident and parked a couple blocks away and walked on down. We loved, loved it. The twins wouldn't go in the water or even put on their swim suits but the loved spending their last day of vacation playing in the sand and baby girl loved playing in the sand as well. Caleb however was Mr. Dare Devil after a while and was having the time of his life fighting the waves and getting absolutely soaked. He made a little friend who was also doing the same and they played together in the waves for quite some time.

Mike was nice enough to walk up and rent us an umbrella and get us some lunch so we got to eat on the beach as well which is something Caleb told us he really wanted to do. We enjoyed playing and watching the surfers and relaxing a bit before we set off on the big drive back to Vegas. We made it back to Vegas without incident and to our hotel where we decided we were wiped out and ended up using the same strategy as San Diego with ordering room service and bathing the kids. It worked out perfectly again.

Huntington Beach - slideshow maker

This moring, we slept in a bit again and then once we were ready and loaded back up, we stopped by Mike's Las Vegas office and said hi to all of the people there that he works with, then got back on the road to Utah, stopping in St George for lunch and then meeting Papa in Nephi for some dinner and to retrieve our doggie. Then the rest of the way home where we unloaded the car and spent the rest of the evening relaxing and getting slightly reorganized.

Day 6- Disney Day 2

Today was back to Disneyland for round 2. We got to start off the morning with a character breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen where we got to eat some yummy food and see more characters. We saw Goofy again, Pluto, Gepetto, Chip and Dale, and Princess Aurora. We also saw Rafiki walking around but sadly he missed our section. Caleb really enjoyed it. The twins were still unsure what to think about the characters interacting with them. Then we started our fun in California Adventure where the twins got to go on a bunch of rides in A Bug's Life land then Caleb got to go on the water rafting ride with Mom and the Screamer roller coaster with Dad. He also got to have a dance party with Phinneus and Ferb, and give Sulley from Mosters inc. a high 5. The highlight of that area was definately running into Buzz Lightyear though. He was one of the ones we were dying to meet. Too bad we didn't get to see Woody as well.

Once we finished there we went back over to Disney to catch some of the bigger attractions, Caleb and I got to go on Splash Mountain and Space Mountain together and the littles got to go on the Winnie the Pooh ride with Dad. We also caught a Main Street parade and had dinner over in Tomorrowland at the Pizza place. After dinner we took them back to Downtown Disney into the World of Disney store and told them they could pick out a souvenier. The twins each picked out a Darth Maul toy, Caleb picked out a Mickey Mouse Snow globe and we picked out a stuffed baby Dumbo for Faith. Then added a few little items for Mom and Dad in the mix.

Caleb wanted to try for better seats to the Worlds of Color show so we went back over. Even though we had fast passes for this one, we think our view was better last night without them. Especially for us short people that had tall people standing in front of them so we were all a little dissapointed, tired and cranky after that. But we made it through and again caught our shuttle back to the hotel.

We took a vote when we got back for our last morning here tomorrow and told them we could either go back to Disneyland for the morning, or go to the beach. The vote was unanimous for the beach (Mom and Dad included). Do we have the best kids or what?






Disney Day 2 - slideshow maker

Vacation Day 5- Disneyland Day 1

We finally made it to Disneyland. We got there right after the park opened and picked up our tickets and went in. We spent the first couple of hours right on Main Street taking loads of pictures with some of our favorite characters. We got to see Mickey, Pluto, Donald, Max, Gepetto, Pinoccio, the Queen of Hearts and the White Rabbit, Dale and Mary Poppins and Bert right off the bat. We saw Alice too but didn't manage to get in her line fast enough.

After we finally got past there, we got to head over to Tomorrowland and see the Star Wars training academy show, and go on the rocket ride and the Buzz Lightyear ride. Then a quick stop for lunch. After lunch we headed toward the castle and got to see a Mary Poppins street show on the way. Then finally hit a few more rides. We made it to Dumbo, the teacups, and the carousel then up to Toon Town for some fun up there. They rode the Tailspin roller coaster and we all went on the Roger Rabbit ride. Then as luck would have it, we ran into Goofy up there as well.

We then went back toward the front of the park and took a break on some benches where the twins fell asleep for a nap after a long day. After letting them nap for a while, we went walking to Downtown Disney where we took in the sights there and got to meet up with a cousin of mine that lives in Cali, also named Rebecca Schade whom I had never met in person. She brought along her neice Kymberly and her roomate Shari. It was a really fun visit and she spoiled all my kids with goodies from her work with the Fire Authority for Orange County. They got firefighter hats, stuffed dogs, T shirts and other various toys.

We then went over to California Adventure park and took in the Worlds of Color show. We were too far back for my camera to get any good pictures, but it was absolutely beautiful. After it was over we boarded the shuttle bus back to our hotel for some rest so we can go back and do it again tomorrow!








Disney Day 1 - slideshow maker

Day 4- Legoland

Today we loaded up the car once more and headed North to Carlsbad to check out what Legoland had to offer us. It was AWESOME! All of the boys were so excited (Mike probably the most so). They were in Heaven most of the morning running around looking at stuff, seeing characters and going on some rides. We spent all day playing and playing. With a couple of breaks for lunch and an ice cream break. Then we ended the day there by letting them run wild in the Lego Duplo play area and taking them in the gift shop and letting them all pick out a little something. Caleb picked out a Star Wars ship to build, Zaden got a Ninjago sword and Zaric a Ninjago guy.

Legoland - slideshow maker

After leaving the park, it was back in the car for the rest of the drive up to Annaheim. We checked into our next hotel and walked down to the Red Robin for some dinner then to rest up for the main event....Disneyland!

Vacation Day 3- Seaworld

Today was Seaworld day. I got a nice surprise last night when a long time friend of mine noticed where I was on Facebook and sent me a text letting me know she was also in San Diego and going to Seaworld at the same time. What are the odds?

We took off early in the morning and went over to the park. After getting in and doing a little looking around, we ran right into her and her cute family. So we spent the rest of the day with them. We went on rides, looked at the animals, and caught a couple shows.

The highlights were Mike and Caleb getting soaked by the orca's, Zaden getting to feed a dolphin a fish and Caleb getting to go on his first real "grown up" roller coaster with Dad. He discovered a new found love for coasters and is making all sorts of plans to go on more over the next few days.
Here are some pics from today's fun.






Seaworld - slideshow maker

After they were all exhausted and ready to head back to the hotel, we grabbed a little fast food and ate in our room again and then went and played a little in the hotel swimming pool until it got too cold. Tommorrow....Legoland!

Vacation Day 1 & 2

The day finally arrived! It was the last day of school and the start of our trip. We took off right after school yesterday and headed off toward Vegas, making a quick stop in Provo to hand the doggie off to Papa and then we were off. The first leg of the trip went really well with a couple of quick pit stops and a stop in Cedar City for some dinner. Once we hit the gorge after St George though, trouble struck and we blew a tire on the car. We were able to rearrange kids and seats and get the spare on and went into Mesquite just to find out we were about 30 minutes later than all of the tire shops closed. We called a mobile service who was absolutely no help and told us just to keep going on the spare. So we headed back off and drove all the way to Vegas and our hotel on the donut with our fingers crossed the whole way. It was late so we just unloaded what we absolutely needed and headed off to bed at the hotel.

Luckily for us there was a Discount Tire right across the street (literally) from our hotel in Vegas. So first thing in the morning when we got up and ready we were there, getting the tire replaced and ended up replacing one more as well. So 2 new tires and refreshed, we set back off.

We made pretty good time and ended up stopping at this cute little 50's diner in the middle of the desert for lunch. It was called Peggy Sue's Diner. It was really fun, but the camera was buried so no pics. All of the waitresses and other diners swooned over our kids and entertained us all and we spent some time walking around their little gift shop checking out all their fun stuff, then it was back in the car. From there we went straight on into San Diego, only hitting a small amount of traffic for about 25 minutes and then it was smooth sailing to the hotel. We got checked in and decided we were determined to still make it to a beach even though we got into town later than expected. So we set off to Coronado Beach. The weather was a lot chillier than we expected but we still had a really good time and it was a fun way to stretch out after a long trip. I also got to put Faith in her cute mermaid outfit I talked a girl at my work into crocheting for her for a couple pics.

After the beach, it was time for dinner. We attempted to head downtown to find a spot, but it turned out there was a Padres home game going on so it was packed. We got a nice little taste of downtown though. We decided in the end just to go back to the hotel and bathe the kids and order room service. It worked out perfectly and the boys enjoyed sitting on the floor eating their pizza and checking out the views.

It was a semi-rough start but so worth it once we arrived.