Halloween Ready

You mean you all don't have your Halloween costumes picked and frequently tried on in August and September? Huh. Strange. 

Camping Date

Ali and Logan's summer Daddy Date was combined because they both really wanted to go camping with him. They all three looked forward to it for weeks and had a very successful outing.

The first thing they did when they got there was to head to the lake and rent a canoe. Apparently the kids had a great time calling out, "Ahoy, Mateys!" and the like to passing boaters. They are already asking when they can go canoeing again.

Dinner was roasted hot dogs, followed of course by s'mores. They also went on a nighttime scavenger hunt (a walk with flashlights), and made up ghost stories by the fire. It sounds like they had a blast.

Downtown

One of the last things we did before school started was to go downtown and see Jason's new(ish) office. The courtyard of his building has this cool waterfall and trees and benches, so that is where we ate lunch.

Every Wednesday in the summer Millennium Park has a family tent set up with different, fun things for kids. On this day they had a bunch of teenagers who are in a circus showing us how to do some circus stunts. We walked on a tight-rope, rocked back and forth on this big circle thing, and spun plates on sticks. Pretty cool stuff!

Then we walked over to the Bean statue, Buckingham Fountain, and the lake. When we were near the fountain Ali looked behind us and said, "Look! There is Daddy's building!" Sure enough, the tallest one there is his.

It was a lot of walking, but overall the kids did great. Eli even got a little "help" occasionally from Ali. I was proud of myself because this is the first time I've done a totally solo trip downtown--no one helped me map out my route or where to park, no one was there to show me where to go, or even to just be another adult in the group. And we were fine! I was pleased and it was a good day.

It's a Big Sister Thing

It was bound to happen. Eli loves his sister and they play so nicely together, and Eli loves to dress up. They were in Ali's room with her door closed and then came out triumphant to show us Eli's beautiful dress; it is hard to say who was more pleased with the outfit. Eli used to dress himself in the Princess dress-ups all the time, but hasn't in at least a year, and somehow this tickled my funny-bone more than those dresses ever did. It got even better over the next few minutes; Ali chose a dress for herself, then they put on music and danced together. I was taking pictures and videos and laughing. It was great! Sorry future teenage Eli but honestly you were loving it.

Sleep Over

I'm not sure if the kids know it yet, but out family isn't going to be doing friend sleepovers. We love sibling sleepovers, though, and when they asked if their cousins could spend the night, we decided that would be totally fine too. So one night the last week before school Emily and Paige slept over.

We loved that Eli and Paige had matching Mickey/Minnie PJs.The spent the evening reading books:

Playing Dolls, and watching a movie:

Then around 9:30 (WAY late for our kids!) they all climbed onto the air mattresses in the basement:

Everyone actually slept pretty well and we also got to enjoy having the girls with us all the next day too. Such fun!

12 Years

On August 10 Jason and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary. What a blessing this man and our marriage are to me and my life. 

First Grade

Neither Logan nor Ali were excited about school starting because "school is just a lot of hard work" (Logan) and "I just don't want to" (Ali, who I think was actually nervous), but then we went to preview night and they saw their desks which -gasp- OPEN! And that was it. They were totally sold on first grade and super ready to go!

Here they are on the first day, ready to go. So far, first grade is a hit. They come home happy and look forward to going each morning. And the best part, right now anyway, for me, is that since they get a break from each other they can actually play kindly together again! That hasn't happened for weeks! Ah, school, welcome back. We missed you.

Flying

All of the kids had flown as little babies, but this was the first time they flew when they knew what was happening. It nice flying with kids this age because they were excited, and there were plenty of things they could do sitting for four hours that would interest them. They all did great on both flights, and did great in the airports despite a two-hour baggage check line going out and a two hour wait at the gate going home. 

The House and The People

I figured this might very well be the first and last time my whole family could squeeze into one house on a group vacation, so I took it upon myself to find the perfect one. I have to say, the house really was spectacular. It had six themed bedrooms (Tangled, Vintage Mickey Mouse, Princess, Star Wars, Vintage Disneyland, Cars), three full bathrooms, a pool and a hot tub, a good size kitchen, a laundry room, and a nice size family room. It was big enough that the 17 of us didn't feel on top of each other and each family had their own room with enough beds in their room for all of their family members. 

It was so much fun to be there all together. We spend a lot of time in the pool with various cousins and aunts and uncles, played Foosball, took turns making dinner for everyone and for the most part eating them together, playing games, watching movies, and just enjoying each other.

Ali and Evan:

Learning to play the Wii:

 Feeling like big stuff playing foosball with his uncles:

A couple of times all the togetherness seemed to rub off on our clothing choices:

The hot tub:

Beach

I love the beach. Any beach, any time, I'm there. After we landed in California, we got our rental car and drove straight to the beach; it was the perfect way to start our vacation. That day we only stayed for a couple of hours and I took no pictures, but a few days later we went back with the whole group. People came and went, but our family stayed the longest, about five hours and if I'd had food for dinner I think we could have stayed longer.

Thanks Grandma for bringing kites! The beach is the perfect place for them, and Ali spent most of her time sitting on a little chair flying her kite. She was so proud that she could do it all by herself and could get it to fly so high. 

Eli spent most of his time pretending the waves were trying to get them and joyfully running away. Sometimes the waves would "get him" and he would fall into a heap on the sand. Other times he out ran them and would do a victory dance. His game was so fun many of us spent time playing it with him.

Logan specifically asked Grandma to bring this raft that he remembered having fun with at the Colorado Reservoir a few years ago, and we were so glad she did because Logan spent most of his day wading out into the water a bit more than waist deep, getting in the raft, and then riding the waves back to shore.

Eli spent the entire day completely covered in sand and was bothered by it not one bit.

Our beach day was one of my favorites of the whole trip. On a side note, I woke up this day with a pretty bad headache, which I get all too often these days, but was determined not to miss one of my favorite things so I came anyway. Shortly after we arrived I could feel it fading and within about an hour it was totally gone. Once we got in the car to go home it came back a little. So, clearly if I want to be rid of my headaches all we need to do is move to the beach! Fine by me!

Legoland

It seems like most vacations have a day that you could have done without, and the day we went to Legoland was that for us. Mostly it was due to some bad moods and huge meltdowns, but there were also mismanaged expectations on my part. I thought we would go there to do the rides, but after waiting in lines an hour long each for a few rides that were honestly not that cool, we figured out we just needed to skip the rides and enjoy everything else the place had to offer. Once we did that, the kids enjoyed the second half of the day.

Logan got there a bit before us because he rode in a different car, so he spent his time waiting for us by studying the map with Uncle Michael and Liam and planning where we should go.

Our favorite lego creations were the Star Wars ones. Not a surprise if you know my husband and children.

Logan had to try out the stocks.

This was one of the few rides we went on-a pirate boat ride where you could spray others on the ride and even passersby!

Their favorite parts were the huge playgrounds and the water area. I am so glad my sister-in-law suggested we bring swimsuits!

California!

We have been planning a family vacation with my siblings to California for over two years, and at the end of July it finally happened! It was everything I hoped for and more, and it will be a week we talk about for years to come. 

One of the things we were most looking forward to was visiting Disneyland for the first time with the kids. We went two days, and on the first day my parents and youngest brother Jesse came with us. It was so wonderful to have them with us on that first magical day!

Here is our picture of the park's Splash Mountain picture. Do you see Ali? Somehow she got right in front and was ducking to avoid getting soaked. And notice the nice random man in the back who is now a part of our family history!

The kids were tall enough to go on basically all the rides, and they did. I felt like a mean mom sitting next to Eli on Space Mountain and Haunted Mansion, both of which terrified him. Ali did not like Space Mountain at all either, but Logan was a huge fan! Their favorites were: Ali- Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin and the Haunted Mansion; Logan- Space Mountain and Splash Mountain; Eli- Buzz Lightyear and Cartopia. Jason and I went back one night without the kids (so fun, and such a different kind of fun), and went on the new Indiana Jones ride and absolutely loved it.

One of my biggest fears before going was how long we might have to wait in lines and how the kids would do waiting. But we were very strategic in our ride orders and made good use of fast passes which made our average wait about 15 minutes, with waits between 5-20 minutes and just one that was about 30. We ate snacks in line and were often silly to pass the time. Not bad at all.

Another one of mine and Jason's favorite rides was actually It's a Small World. Not only was it about a ten minute ride sitting down and in a lovely air-conditioned space (did I mention it was about 90 degrees and sunny every day we were there?), but the kids absolutely ate it up. Especially Ali and Eli squealed and giggled and pointed things out the whole time. Ali would copy the dolls' motions or songs and was generally adorable. 

Logan is very into Tikki Masks right now (not sure how he even knows about them) and rejoiced in finding several scattered throughout the park. 

We took the boat over to Tom Sawyer's island and had fun getting lost in caves and paths (ok, so that part stressed me out a bit, but the kids had fun).

One of the days we went home in the afternoon when we were tired and hot, took naps, had dinner and then came back for the show, fireworks, and more rides. My dollar store light sticks were a huge hit, and honestly cooler than some of the stuff the park had for sell.

It was seriously fun, and we're already looking forward to going back in ten years or so!