Our trip to Disneyland a long play by play!

We drove down Tuesday morning. The trip started uneventful. We got to about the Bakersfield exit when Hannah insisted on going potty...in her chair. We pulled over next to some sheep (unfortunately the camera was still at the bottom of our luggage) where I tried to have her relieve herself...boys have it soooo easy. As I am standing in the mud trying to hold Hannah in a right angle while spreading my feet far enough apart to not be the recipient of unpleasantness. Jeremy was snickering behind me. It was awkward and Hannah refused to go. Then I tried to do the same for Haylie, unfortunately she failed to perform as well and was less then thrilled with the circumstances. We get pack on the road. Hannah had another accident. Oh well. We made due with what we had and there were no more accidents the entire trip. We stopped at IHOP and rolled into Disneyland at about noon. It took about 7ish hours. The park stayed open until 8:00 so we kept going. On the way to the tram Hannah feel asleep sitting, which turned into the nightly ritual.

We did lots of fun things. The park was not crowded at all. In fact I think we only got a fast pass once. It was an awesome trip. Jeremy and I were able to rough it with out any help. Jeremy's sister had met us there on Thursday and spoiled us with her presence. She stayed off some rides so Jeremy and I could ride some together. Miranda and Gwen I think laughed from when they first saw each other at 10:30am until they sadly parted at about 7:30 that night. It was fun, they are so close. We didn't tell the kids that we were planning on meeting up with them, so when we saw them Spencer walked up to Logan and stood next to him. Logan wasn't sure what this kid, with a baseball hat and sunglasses, was doing invading his personal space. Then we told him it was Spencer and his countenance changed. He was also thrilled to be able to see his cousin. That leaves Taylor who dotes on all the little ones. I think the twins actually walked a little this trip. It was fun to be together. One funny moment was when we were deciding to go on Mulholland Maddness. Logan was unsure and then Taylor calmly informs us that Miranda Gwen and Spencer got on the ride. Unsure we said Oh they are in line already. She said no they are on the ride. Sure enough they were cruising! There was no line to wait in, mostly everyone got to go two to three times in a row. We went on the Silver Zephyr where Miranda was chosen to hold a traffic director thing and was the flight commander.

Favorite Ride

Jeremy: The same as always Pirates of the Carribean

April: Thunder Mountain...at night!

Miranda: Thunder Mountain

Logan: Muhholland Madness

Haylie: Winnie the Pooh and Matterhorn

Hannah: Winnie the Pooh

Lauren:...stroller? or Winnie the Pooh

Favorite Food:

Jeremy: Ice Cream EVERY DAY!

April: ...who am I kidding the ice cream!

Miranda: Ice Cream

Logan: Shrimp at the Rainforest Cafe

Haylie: Eggs (I am not sure we had these?!)

Hannah: Chicken Nuggets

Lauren: Ice Cream

Favorite First

Jeremy: The Golden Horseshoe

April: The Golden Horseshoe... for ice cream

Miranda: Riding the Orange Stinger...Being picked for the Jedi Academy ...again

Logan: Astro Orbiters

Haylie: Matterhorn

Hannah: Gadget's Go Coaster

Lauren: Ice Cream, they actually shared with me!

We had an excellent trip that included eating at the Rainforest Cafe and Goofy's Kitchen, which was a first for us.

What a sweet day!

We started the day off in a typical lazy Saturday fashion. Jeremy, along with many others, went to help a lady in our ward (church family) first thing this morning. He brought Logan along, it was the first time that Logan was able to go and be able to be helpful more than a challenge. Both had a good time.

By the after noon we were ready to start earning our Halloween goodies. We headed off to the pumpkin patch to take those oh so loved pumpkin pictures. Our first destination was to see how the kids measure up this year.

We roamed around the pumpkin patch taking pictures in all the wood cut outs. Then we took a few pictures with my pumpkins surrounded by real pumpkins.

Our next stop was to Papa Murphy's were we got Jack O'Lantern Pizzas and the kids got free cookie dough because they were in costume. Our last stop was at Toys R Us where the kids got a small goody bag for showing up in costume. We finally headed home where Aunt Tamra, Uncle James and Hunter, as well as Grandma Bev and Uncle Chris, were meeting us for dinner and trick-or-treating later that night. Hunter looked adorable in his cute Luigi outfit.
Then we hit the pavement with our buckets in hand. Lauren enjoyed leading the pack. She quickly caught on that this night was about her favorite food CANDY! She was such a trooper and walked almost the whole way carrying her bucket. Towards the end she allowed us to carry it. When she reached complete exhaustion she would no longer listen to reason. She wouldn't let us carry her bucket anymore. I think she feared she would not longer see it again if she fell asleep without holding on to her bucket.


After the kids got home, we let them pick out 5 favorite candies that were especially theirs then the rest went into the community pot. This is what was left. Not to mention the four huge bags of candy we didn't hand out. We only had a hand full of trick or treaters once we got home, each got a huge handful of candy, but it wasn't enough to put a dent in what I purchased.
We finished the night by watching The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. It was a great day and I was exhausted. Of course not too exhausted to collect my candy tax! YUMM!

Apple Hill

We have a good friend who had the tradition of going to Apple Hill in the fall. It is a huge area where there are a bunch of smaller apple farms. Besides apples they grow Christmas trees, pumpkins, berries and many other things. We decided it was a great tradition and we now go as well. We like to visit High Hill Ranch. It has plenty of vendors as well as a pond. Our favorite thing there is Fudge Factory Farm. In case you were unaware our family has a major sweet tooth! We also visited Kids, Inc. While this one seems like it would be super kid friendly, it is actually named because the kids run it. It does have some perks like a few animals and a real corn maze, but it's not like a big amusement park or anything. All in all it was a great day. We had lots of fun and we left with our bellies full of Apple Cider milkshakes, which sound a little weird but are delicious, especially the Caramel Apple Cider Shake. Logan couldn't wait to dig into his caramel apple. For the first time we actually bought some apples so I can venture out and try making my own caramel apples. Last but not least we bought a Caramel Apple Crunch Pie (Are you sensing a theme? We love caramel and apples together!).

Here are a couple of my favorite photos of the day.

While this isn't a particularly good picture we also enjoyed a picnic lunch overlooking the fishing pond. I think people enjoyed staring at us since there were 9 children, and four adults.

Some of us were exhausetd by the end of the day, only to head home for Trunk or Treating!

Everyone needs one of these!

A day off! We kept Logan and Miranda home from school today, since everyone is feeling pretty awful. The rules were:

1. They are to rest, all day long!
2. No milk, this was especially hard for Lauren.
3. They must take a nap.

I loved looking out as I was cooking breakfast and seeing this! Doesn't it make you want to be sick so you can join in? Well maybe join in without being sick. Hopefully with a great day of rest they will return to school and normal life tomorrow so we can all enjoy a great weekend. Jeremy and I have a fun something planned. I will enlighten you later!

Lauren's a Big Helper

Jeremy decided he would quickly make some peanut butter cookies before he had to go off to a meeting. Lauren who refuses to eat her vegetables did not get dessert. As I was sitting in the other room, I heard the scrape of her plastic chair. When I looked around the corner I saw this:

She pulled her chair right next to him to observe the process. It was too cute. I had to go around the other side to take some better pictures. I think this girl might choose to make cookies as her first home made treat!

She already knows how to work her audience. She knows how to bat her lashes, pout, ACT apologetic. In this instance she is trying to all the cuteness one can muster because she knows how absolutely fabulous Daddy's home made peanut butter cookies are!

What a bunch of Characatures!

Miranda Age:8

Entering third grade. She loves to sing, dance, talk and read. She is a great big sister and loves to help me cook. She also is testing the waters of teenage hood. She loves the Jonas Brothers although I am not entirely sure it doesn't have something to do with "everyone else doing it" type of thing. I keep handing her a towel to dry off her feet and stay a little girl for a little while longer. At least she is still proud to hold my hand in public, well most of the time.

Logan: age 6

He is entering 1st grade. He loves his baby brother and can be found sneaking in and carting Jackson back to his room to play. He and Haylie can often be found playing together. He loves to ride the scooter and climb trees like a spider monkey. He is starting to read very well. He likes to taste test what ever I make.
Haylie: Age 4
Haylie is the older of "the twins" by five minutes. She tends to be a tad more confident, but is a follower. You rarely find her playing alone. She loves to color and is getting to be quite a regular at www.barbie.com. She was able to get a library card this summer since she can write her name. She can also spell most of our family members first names.

Hannah: Age 4

Hannah likes to be near me, my little shadow. She is more independant, but is more like the bossy mother hen. She tries to help me out by keeping all else in line! She is easier to understand when she talks, and she does like to talk. Both Haylie and Hannah enjoy helping me in the kitchen by dumping ingredients into the mixer...but only to be rewarded by yummy treats later.

Lauren: Age 2

Lauren is the prime example of terrible twos. She doesn't seem to mind them but they are killing me. She is all spunk, spice, and everything nice. She loves to be outside and her favorite word is NO repeated at least a thousand and a half times per day. She can usually be found sipping her milk and huggin her blanket and Minnie Mouse, a stuffed animal we bought and it actually gets used! Jackson: Age 6 months

When they are this young thisngs change so fast. When this was done, he was barely eating solid foods, not sleeping through the night...again. He was however doing push ups on his toes, he did have great form. Now less tha six weeks later I can tell you he loves cereal but is not a fan of green beans, peas and prunes. As of today he is crawling. He even babbles "mamammmm" and "da da da"

And this last picture is what our little family caboose looks like!

All characatures are done by Zach Trenholm.

A's vs. Rangers

We love looking for cheap things that our family can do and we absolutely love dollar nights at the A's games, $2 tickets, $1 hot Dogs and $1 sodas. We ate before we left so we got treats instead. The kids just wanted Cotton Candy so Jeremy sprung for the multi-flavored for the kids. We threw most of it away. As soon as Hannah got her cotton candy she asked when we were going home. I told here we didn't drive all this way just for cotton candy. We sat in front of some very nice people, the gentleman saw us taking pictures and insisted that we all be in a picture so he took a family one of us, too bad Logan is only represented by his yellow hooded jacket...beggars can't be choosers right?!

Lauren just wanted to run around but we were able to keep her contained for the most part and happy.

I think Jackson will want to go on our next A's game adventure. As always he was a dream.

Miranda remembered her foam finger. It is the only one that has survived in our house. They arrive in great condition but for some reason the green part ends up all over the floor, such a mystery!

When we first got the cotton candy she would have nothing to do with it. As soon as we finished wiping all the sticky fingers and packing things up she wanted some, so we gave in, it's a baseball game right?After the fourth inning we packed it up it was a little chilly and we didn't want to keep the kids out too late. We were able to see 3 home runs the fourth happened as we were walking out. I guess it was a bad game to leave early we could have majorly scored with free Pepsi. If the A's won and had at least 7 runs they gave out free Pepsi coupons. Oh well. Turns out it was a good game to go, we ran in to the Curtis family from church who were sitting in the next section over. We happened to miss our other friends who were about 10 sections the other way. They won home run pizzas, lucky dogs! Some other kids tried to start a wave and it was a flop. Our section did great but no one else caught on, sorry kids! It was a fun experience to go with the kiddos. It is one of those things we have put off because we have so many young kids, but now we will be making it an annual event! Who knows maybe we will bring the A's some luck, from the sound of things they NEED it! For memories sake here is a picture of Logan's cute mug, see he really was there!

Family Scripture Study

As a family we fail at this miserably. We were going great and then I got pregnant with Jackson. We would get up in the morning and we decided to read the Book of Mormon first. Miranda is old enough to read so the three of us would take turns reading a verse then move on. Sometimes we would stop and explain what was happening. It pretty much left the other 4 kids with nothing to do and they would get quite bored. As a family we need to start this again, which has been weighing heavily on my mind. It was a pleasant surprise when Janelle at Mormonwoman.org posted what she does for family scriptures study. Go check out her post, it has encouraged me to get started! It is perfect, simple and done at a time when we as a family make every effort to be together. Thanks Janelle you are such an amazing example!

Ohio Vacation-The drive

NOTE: I edited for typos, this is not a new post!

There are so many fun stories to share. Thinking of a drive with 6 young kids probably makes you want to tear your hair out. It was surprisingly smooth sailing on their part. The first day we drove from our home to Rock Springs Wyoming. It was a total of I think 15 hours including stops and time changes. They kids were tired but did not complain.
I think Miranda was by far the most comfortable. Logan was our little errand boy, by the end of the trip he could manage to drink a milkshake with one hand, feed Jackson with the other and use his toes to push the buttons on the DVD player. I learned that Haylie is a little instigator and when bored could easily get Lauren to scream. Luckily with a few words she would stop for at least a couple hours.

One of our favorite things was looking at the clouds and finding shapes or images. Logan says this cloud looks like this "guy" is standing on a surf board with his arms pointing outwards, maybe a bear or hippo type creature. Do you see it? See Nevada does have it's own beauty!By the time we got to Salt Lake the weather was terrible. This is a picture of the Wasatch Mountains, the biggest thing on the Utah skyline, that's right you can't see them at all. At this point we started hydroplaining which reminded Jeremy that our tires were fairly bald and he meant to get new ones before we left, alas we got too busy with too much to think about. We made it to Park City by 6:00pm, that was great timing. Got dinner and continued on down the road. Then it got worse. It seemed like every few minutes we would feel the car loose traction and jerk then it would be fine. It was intense and there was no where to pull over safely so we trudged along at about 60mph. People were probably thinking that it must not rain in California so we didn't know how to drive. This picture of Jackson pretty much sums up the atmosphere in the car:The kids seem to respond well to the statement "this is pretty intense you need to be quiet for a while." Jeremy was near the end of what he could handle so we finally came to an exit and had a family prayer. We knew the weather was not looking to change according to the forecast until the morning. We asked for guidance, if we should wait it out, stop at the next Wal-mart we come to or keep on trucking until Rock Springs. If the last was the case please let the weather let up for us. Amazingly enough the weather did let up within 15 minutes. Looking forward we saw this: There were dark clouds to the left and right but light grey almost blue clouds down the middle. Then we were able to finish the kids frosty's that we didn't trust the rear row peanut gallery with. They were more foam then frosty but hey it was a sweet treat to slow down the heart rate. We pulled into Rock Springs at about 10:00pm-ish. It was Fa-reeeee-zing. We let the kids play for 2 minutes (well actually longer) then we all hit the sack. The next morning we were getting ready to leave and realized they would be serving breakfast in 20 minutes. By the time breakfast was done, it was 20 minutes until the local Wal-mart opened with its super fabulous tire center. It happened to be the Sabbath, but we needed the tires. We decided it was really our lives so we hung around for another couple hours and got new tires.

Logan enjoyed the extra time, to which Jeremy responded, just watch your head and don't hit the fan! In case you can't see he is jumping from one bed to the next landing on his tummy.

Jeremy enjoyed his time as wellAnd not to be left out I enjoyed my time by getting on the computer and checking blogs, facebook and making new reservations since we wouldn't be making it as far as we planned. At about 9:30 we were on the road again with brand new beautiful tires. I was bummed Jeremy didn't get to see any of the beauty between Salt Lake City and Rock Springs. Luckily we would be driving through it again on the way home. We got to enjoy the buttes and other rocky landscape of Wyoming. I do have to say Wyoming probably has the most variation and the eastern part was beautiful.
Some where between the beginning and end of Wyoming I got to drive. Unfortunately I had the double chin before we even left so travel food was not helping...back to the point.
We pulled over at a rest stop I believe is a little west of Cheyenne. It was a lot of fun. The kids got to run around and play. We met a nice couple who happened to be driving around this area for fun (weird!) who were visiting from San Diego, CA. They gladly took a family picture for us. I think it turned out quite cute. We still don't know what the statues are for.

Then we moved onto my least favorite state to drive through...Nebraska.

Nebraska has it's pretty attributes and I would probably like it better if it didn't take at least 1/2 a day to drive across. We got to see some variation like this that was beautiful (you can see little tiny things on the top. From a different angle you can see there are three crosses perched up there)

But most of the time it looked like this, flat nothingness. Repeated for most of the 450 miles of Nebraska. I thought it was adding insult to injury when I saw the first speed limit sign that looked like this. I think Iowa and Nebraska are the only two states to have this. It makes you wonder if the population is generally old, then it dawned on me tractors and stuff probably take the highways too!

We ended our day in Lincoln Nebraska. When we woke the next morning the weather was terrible. Jeremy went down stairs to talk to the Clerk at the desk. I got out of the shower about 5 minutes later and he said I had to take a look outside. I opened and was not surprised to see that it looked like morning blue skies. Jeremy was in disbelief and said that it was just pouring so bad it looked like hoses coming off the roof tops, he could barely see out the window there was so much water. By the time we ate breakfast and were on the road at 9:15 am there was a heat advisory, it was 90 humid degrees outside and Jeremy was sweating. He also said something along the lines of "what kind of crazy state is this that has severe thunderstorms and heat advisory at the same time?"

We made it into Iowa and they had wind mills. Big deal we have them here too. I never realized how massive these were. We got to see a few that were being put together. Each arm was probably 5- 6 feet wide and at least as long as a semi-truck.

As a midway point of Iowa we drive through Des Moines. I assume this is their capitol building. It was very pretty.My two favorite states to drive through are Iowa and Illinois. Both have deep rolling hills covered with trees and corn fields. We stopped in Iowa at a rest stop for lunch. Haylie looks cranky but the humidity and heat got to everyone. We were all excited to be back in the car.Illinois has the added bonus of rivers and creeks. At this point you can drive through a state in a couple of hours, so it feels like you are making progress.

Like always Jackson was just along for the ride and didn't complain, but absolutely shined when he was held and talked to.

We planned to be in Ohio but again got a late start. I was so tired and couldn't get up with my alarm so instead of making it to my mom's house we made it to Indianapolis, Indiana at around Midnight.

At about this point is where the most bizarre thing happened. It was about 11:00pm and Jackson needed to be nursed to sleep. He had enough of the bottle and needed me (ahhhh, isn't that cute!) I didn't want to pull over at a rest stop it just seemed unsafe, so we pulled off and parked in a McDonald's well lit open 24 hours parking lot that was empty. I made Jeremy move because there was a huge swarm of ants and I jumped back into the car quickly. I think he still laughs at that image. When the parking spot suited me I decided I should change Jackson's diaper as well. As I was changing him a 1980's model boat style four door car drives past us slowly and parks right next to Jeremy. The older man with a brown handlebar mustache kind of waves and smiles then gets out of his car and approaches Jeremy's window. He says hello like he knows us. Jeremy quickly states that we are not who he thinks we are and that we don't know him. He then say "Oh, I thought you were my son!" His reason for thinking so was that we had California plates. He was actually supposed to meet his son at the nearby hotel but saw the plates and thought it could be him. So he chatted and gave us his son's itinerary and drove away. About 15 minutes later Jeremy says this car has been following him, every lane change, it was kind of creepy. Then we change freeways to go to our hotel and the two headlights were still following us. I demanded that if the car follows us off the freeway he is to keep driving. He jokingly says "What am I supposed to do keep driving until I see a policeman?" A firm yes that is exactly what you are to do was my response. Needless to say the car that was following him had turned off a while before and he was well aware I was not watching the same car I thought I was. But still creeptacular! Then we pulled into the hotel and it is surrounded by trees like a horror film even though it was in the suburbs of Indianapolis. I was so creeped out.

The next morning we slept in until 9:00 stopped at Wal-Mart and got some needed things like diapers and stuff. We were back on the road at noon and stopped for lunch at about 2:00 right after entering Ohio. My camera was packed in the back so there are no more photos. We pulled up at my mom's house at 4:00pm. It was perfect!

Another highlight was discovering a place called Culver's. It is like a dairy queen with better food. The Concrete mixers which are like blizzards were not quite as thick as Dairy Queen but nice and creamy.

And that folks is how it is done, traveling 2400 miles, 4 brand new tires, about a dozen movies, 7 tanks of gas, 3 hotel rooms, 500 trips to wal-mart and 6 kids smiling at the end. I will be posting some more of our adventure, because it was a jam packed two week visit!