Splash Pad

June 18, 2011
We went to the local park to hang out. The splash pad is new and we love having the free park to enjoy in our city. It is not quite as neat as the free water parks in California, but is is nice to have.
Andrew, Parker and Caitlyn ran right out into the spray to get wet. We stopped at Little Caesar's for $5 pizza on the way. I love not having to cook!

Aaron wrestled and played with the kids. What a great dad!

Caitlyn and Parker in the water again. Parker would stand right on the water spout and laugh as the water made his shorts poof out.

Watermelon Eating Contest

Saturday June 25,2011 was the Kids Fair at Macey's. I took the kids to play on the jump houses, play games, eat cheap ice cream, snow cones, cotton candy and hot dogs. While we were there the girls saw them setting up for a watermelon eating contest. Alyssa LOVES watermelon so we got all the girls to participate. I was certain Alyssa would win, but half way through it became evident that Mariah has some serious watermelon eating skills. She was killing it! Not only did Mariah win by a landslide, but Alyssa gave up before it was half way over. Caitlyn didn't win, but had so much fun she hung around the booth and later did a soda sip and hot dog eating contests. She didn't win any of those either, but a great time trying.
You can watch the entire contest below. Mariah was the only one with a a pile of juice. Ignore the whiney boys in the video, we had been at the fair for a few hours at this point.

California Adventure

June 4, 2011 we went to California Adventure before heading back home. The first ride we went on was Tower of Terror. The girls loved it, Andrew was scared, Aaron and I jumped and Parker covered his eyes the entire time.

Our first time going down we all got caught by surprise for the first major drop. You go down so fast that even Aaron came up off the seat. After the first time the girls immediately wanted to go again. Aaron said he would wait as it was fun, but he did like hitting the seat on the way down. Andrew told us no way was he going again. It was too scary. He was going to wait with Dad, until he saw Parker heading back with us girls. He was not about the get shown up by his 3 year old brother!

After the ride the boys saw Chip and Dale. We also have pictures with Mr. Incredible, Mater and Lightning McQueen and the Monsters from Monsters, Inc.

California Adventure is great for photo ops. The kids climbed and stopped at everything to take pictures.

We only had about 5 hours at California Adventure and could have stayed a lot longer. It was fun. We loved soarin over California, the water ride, Turtle talk with Crush and the swings. Aaron loved California Screaming. If the line wasn't so long I would have loved to have gone. Instead Parker and I got to stay in line for the Toy Story ride.

Our trip to Disney will not be our last. It was a blast.

Disneyland June 2-3, 2011

We surprised the kids with a trip to Disneyland. We woke the kids early and told them we were leaving to go home and handed them their shirts. It took them a little while to figure out they said: I'm going to Disneyland.
Caitlyn figured it out first and started grinning. Then the others started to catch on a little. They were all so tired, though that the big response came from Alyssa. She wanted to know if they could sleep on the way.

We arrived at about 1 and after dropping our bags at the hotel we headed straight to Disneyland. The kids were finally getting more excited.

Notice our bags? I know we look silly but they are Disney bags that I had personalized. Everyone got their own snacks and water bottle. This was fantastic as it gave everyone control over their own food and they didn't have to but me every time they wanted to eat. Andrew loved the freedom of having a bite after each ride.
This was Aarons first trip to Disneyland so I made a big deal about it and made his shirt that says It's My 1st time at Disneyland. He had never wanted to go as he grew so fast that he quickly became to tall to fit in most rides at Great America and Six Flags. He didn't realize that the rides at Disney are more family friendly and he fit fine. He had a great time and may even go back some day.
Caitlyn's favorite ride was Splash Mountain. I love this picture as we are all in it. You can't see Parker but he is in the back next to me.

The second night Aaron took the boys back to the hotel to rest and the girls and I went back for a second time on Splash Mountain. We were soaked!

My favorite thing about the trip was Parkers excitement at seeing Buzz. Right when we got off Space Mountain Buzz came out of his 'secret' door to go to his photo spot. Parker saw him and took off. He was so excited to see him that he ran around him and tripped him. Luckily Buzz's helper caught Buzz before he completely smashed Parker. By that time I finally caught up to him and we went to see Buzz in his photo spot. Parker spent at least 5 minutes asking him about his buttons, giving him hugs and hi-fives and posing with him.

In this picture Aaron got Andrew to join him for a picture.

I have hundreds of other pictures of our day at Disney, but I won't share them all. We had a great time and it truly was magical for all of us. Parker was tall enough to go on every ride except Indiana Jones. He was a great sport and loved all the rides. The girls enjoyed space mountain and even went on the tea cups and dumbo. I think we went on all but about 5 rides.

Our last morning at Disney we headed over to to Toon town and stopped at Mickey's House to say Hi. All of the kids jumped in for a picture. Parker was to busy giving hugs and wanting to talk to look at the camera.

More family

Another dinner visit with family. This time it was Uncle Don, Aunt Cathy and their daughter Sarah and her boyfriend. Aunt Linda and Danielle also joined us.

Sarah pulled out her mom's ipad to play angry birds and Parker immediately became her best friend. He loves the bird game.
Sarah is currently in school in Monterrey to become a Marine biologist. I can still remember when she was just a baby with a head full of crazy hair. She is all grown up now and is a beautiful, responsible young adult.
Her boyfriend Chris was so great with boys. Sethie climbed on his lap and started wrestling and he took it like a champ.
Aunt Cathy, Aubrey, Sarah, Parker, Chris and Sethie.

I am so glad we were able to see so much family while we were in California. We love them all and it means so much to have time to reconnect.

I don't have pictures of all the friends we saw but I was able to hang out with Sarah, my bff and most awesome business partner, Mimi, my lovely, wonderfully strong, friend. Aaron was able to hang out with goods friends Mike and Sarah. Of course we also saw tons of other friends at our park day. Just in case I don't blog about that one we had a great time seeing everyone.

The Zufelts

Our last night in Sacramento we got to visit with Uncle Clint and Aunt Connie and their kids. I love my Aunt and Uncle. I have great memories of going to their house to ride horses, swim and hang out. One summer I was able to house sit for them and help watch the twins. It was a great time. They have huge hearts and a very lovely, fun home.My cousin Tanner playing with baby Millie. Tanner was there with his wife Kim and their great kids. Caitlyn, Aubrey and Claire. So fun to have so many girls so close in age.

My cousins Scott's wife Sueanne and I are probably the closest out of all my cousins. We got married about the same time and our kids are all around the same age. We both have 3 girls and then a boy and they are all within 6 months of each other. We ruined it, when we went on to have one more boy. Sueanne has a special spot for little Parker and loves to play with him when we get together.

Jen

and her twin Steph. The twins are my brothers, little sisters. My brothers and the twins are all natural siblings that we adopted.

Calapp Cousins

We are so lucky to have such great family. Melissa had no problem with our family of 7 crashing at her place for an entire week. The kids all crashed on the floor, turning it into a huge camp ground. A few nights they even set up a tent in the backyard and slept there.
This is Melissa with her youngest of 6, baby Millie (aka Amelia). She is the cutest thing ever. I loved palying with her and watching her laugh.
Caitlyn and Aubrey are very close. They loved getting extra girl time, especially since Aubrey is surrounded by boys in her family.

The boys: Sethie, Brennen, Logan, Parker and Andrew. These boys are full of energy. They were constantly jumping, climbing, wrestling and being boys!

Alyssa, Kamron, and Mariah. The older 3 hung out together, often with Kamrons cousing Justin.

The last night with all the kids in the front room. It was a little like Where's Waldo? finding each kid in the pile of blankets. We would hear the kids up till well after midnight most nights talking and laughing. They are going to have some great memories of their time at the cousins.

Visiting family

Part of going to California is that we get to see all the family. We spend Sunday with Grandpa Guy and Grandma Connie. We went to the Wilton ward and then spent the day at their house.
The kids love seeing Grandpa. We were especially glad we got to spend the day as he left, to go to Iraq to work as a civilian mechanic, the week after we left.Grandpa Guy's little sister, Aunt Linda (Grandpa and Linda are exactly 1 year apart! How neat is that!), her daughter Jalynn, and her little baby Dominique.

Jalynn's daughter Danielle and Caitlyn. They had a great time catching frogs.
We took a few minutes to stop at the cemetery to say hi to Grandma. We love you and miss you every day Mom.

Stinson Beach

Aaron's Family has a tradition of going to Stinson Beach whenever possible. As we were all in town this weekend for a baptism we spent Memorial Day at the beach. Despite the cold weather in town, it was a perfect day at the beach. It was warm with minimal wind.
The girls and I. Did you notice that I am not the tallest?
Aaron and the boys.

My sister and her sister in law and their kids also joined us with Aaron's side of the family. There were 18 kids. The older ones spent a lot of time digging holes and walls.

Andrew and Parker loved the water.

Parker ran in and out of the waves for hours.

My sister and I!

Me and Andrew being silly.

Parker with his Mommy.

The kids and Aunt Melissa.

Andrew.

Caitlyn and her cousin Aubrey riding the waves.

Digging cousins.

Uncle Jeff buried Parker before we had everything unloaded! He thought it was great.

We had a perfect day at the beach and can't wait until the next trip.

Alyssa's Band Concert

Alyssa has been playing the trumpet since 4th grade. This was her 2nd concert on May 14, 2011 at the junior high. She is first chair and the only girl that plays trumpet at her school. Next year she will skip intermediate band and go straight to advanced. I love to watch her play.