The Annual Trip

We got back last night from our six day trip to Disneyland. We had a fabulous time, as always!! I'll try not to make this long and incredibly drawn out like I always do with our vacation pictures. I'm like the annoying relative with the slide show, aren't I? Oh well...

This year we flew for the first time. As much as I hate flying, I did like the fact that the trip took us two hours instead of two days. Here are the kids waiting at the airport.
We got to Disneyland around 11:30 am on Monday morning and hit the ground running. From there it was six days of rides...


characters...



and fun...

The game

We went down to Colorado Springs for the BYU game yesterday with 30 of our closest friends. We had a tailgate party in the lot before the game. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of all of us, mainly because certain male members of the group were too anxious to get to their seats for the pregame whatever it is that men like to do before a football game...

Traffic was horrible, so we did get to the tailgate party later than we had anticipated. We ate quickly and then headed over to the stadium. Nevertheless, it was a rockin' tailgate party.

Complete with root beer.
(We are BYU fans, after all.)

And I brought BYU mint brownies for all.We had good seats with great friends. Here I was trying to get a picture of my girls enthralled in the game, but I really mainly just got a picture of my friends' husbands. Thanks for sharing, ladies.
We all dressed and accessorized appropriately, but even our school spirit didn't help out the Cougars yesterday. It wasn't the best they have ever played, let's just put it that way.
Even so, we still had fun--the Air Force does put on a pretty good show. And you can't help but have fun when you are with 30 of your closest friends!!
Better luck next week!

Soccer season again

Isaac has a new coach this year.

Just another day on the farm

On Thursday I took all the kids over to the Littleton Historic Museum. And of course, you can't spend a day on the farm unless you are dressed like an Indian or a pioneer. Right?! Here is Chloe in the schoolhouse.

Right after we saw this large sheep/ram, Isaac found a cat that had just caught a mouse and was playing with it. I think the kids would have stayed all day and watched that cat play with that poor little mouse. They were enthralled. The girls were upset, but I explained that the cat was just doing his job. Kind of morbid, though.
As Audrey explored the garden, I looked over and noticed the perfect lighting. I shouldn't have gotten her attention--she immediately struck a pose. Vogue.My cute (and weird) kids.

Day One

We had a fun, low-key first day off. We spent the morning outside enjoying the incredible weather at the park with some friends. Isaac gets to go to his math class every afternoon while we are off, so that was fun for him. Then we all got pretty silly...
Meet Albert and Bob. Here's Bonita.

Labor Day

Well, we didn't finish our backyard by Labor Day, but look at how close it is!! Maybe by Halloween...

I worked for a few hours on Monday morning, then I came home and worked on the house while Ryan kept going in the backyard.

Then we went and had a fun evening with our friends. It was a great, beautiful day! It was also the first day of the kids track off--three weeks of fun ahead!

Don't mess with my girl.

*I should point out before you start reading (and/or judging) that I do not condone violence under any circumstances. I am generally a peace-loving individual. But I just think this is funny.

Chloe has had a feisty streak in her since the day she was born. She is one tough cookie and we have really learned that we have to choose our battles with her. And choose wisely. For the last few days she has been telling me that the little boy that sits next to her, Javier, has been messing with her--pulling out the pages of her notebook, spitting on her desk, just generally being an annoying little boy. I guess by Friday she had had enough, so she turned around and decked him. Javier did not choose wisely. Unfortunately this type of behavior doesn't fly with school authorities and she had to change the light on her behavior chart to yellow.
When I tried to talk to her about what happened she plead the fifth. She literally said, "I will not answer questions about that." I talked to her teacher and got the full story. We had a talk about how she can't do stuff like that at school, no matter how much someone is bothering her. But still, deep down, I had to think "Bravo, Chloe."

Dinos and Tiny Town

On Saturday we went with my parents to Dinosaur Ridge and Tiny Town. Dinosaur Ridge was really cool--you can see real dinosaur footprints up the side of the mountain, as well as fossils and other cool things in the rocks. Unfortunately, my allergies flared up really badly and I literally cried my way through the tour. I had no make up on when we got back down to the car. But it was still really interesting.

Touching embedded fossils
This was so awesome! All these footprints just up the side of the mountain.

I tell Lincoln to smile and this is what I get.
Tiny Town is just that--a tiny town. It is a bunch of little houses surrounded by a train. Kind of like a Disneyland ride, only not quite as well done. The kids liked it. I'm glad we did it, but I won't go back--I just don't see the appeal beyond a one time trip. Although we did get some cute pictures!

On the train ride the kids all crowded into the little caboose--along with about 15 other kids. I got claustrophobic just looking at them!