Disneyland!!

This past April we took the kids to Disneyland for a week! Tiff and Seth and the Washburn Clan joined us as did Oma and Opa! We got the California Pass (Disneyland and California Adventure, Sea World, Universal Studios, and the Wild Animal Park) and saw most of southern California in the process.

Highlights:

Spending time with our awesome relatives was so much fun! Don't get me wrong - we woulda had fun without them - but it made it soooooo much more fun with them all there! Most days we broke into two teams - Porter and Conner (aka:the Meatball) on the scary/crazy ride team, and Megan, Jack, Eli, and Dallin on the other more tame ride team. The adults broke up based on who was feeling like they could handle "California Screamin" seven times in a row, or "The Tower of Terror" even once, or who wanted to spend time on "It's a Small World" or in "Bugs Life Town".

Disneyland:

We loved exploring with Jack so wide-eyed and excited for everything! The Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaser ride/game was fun as the fate of the universe was in our hands as we engaged in an intergalactic battle against the Evil Emperor Zurg! We rocked his world!! Space Mountain and Splash Mountain were also big hits and by the second time through we knew where all of the cameras were and made sure to put on our brave faces for them.

Oma and Opa treated us all to a night at Goofy's Kitchen where we got to eat with many of the Disney characters. At one point Goofy came over and started rolling on the ground with laughter at one of his own jokes. Jack saw him on his back thought he wanted to wrestle! He took a running start and while Goofy had his hands over his face, Jack flew through the air and body-slammed him! His knees came crashing down and nailed Goofy square in the goofballs! Goofy just grunted and crawled away...

Sea World

At Sea world we sat in the "Splash Zone" and let Shamu and other killer whales splash us! We watched the animals shows and had fun touching and feeding the sting rays - they were slimy! Seeing the dolphins was also fun.

California Adventure

Besides having the coolest, most scariest rides (like California Screamin' that porter and I went on 7 times in a row and Daddy had to stop because he was getting a little light-headed) it also had the tallest ride at Disney - Mickey's Ferris Wheel (with a view of the whole park). What made this ride different was that the cages slid back and forth while at the same time rotating in a giant clockwise circle. This proved to be a little frightening for Megan who immediate grabbed the sides of the cage and let us know of her discomfort. As our cage began to slide the second time Megan began, "Daddy I don't feel so good - I think I'm going to barf." Thinking quickly I observed my surroundings and tried to distract her when I found the perfect antidote - Uncle Seth. Uncle Seth was sitting across from Megan and me, and he had his legs up on our bench bracing himself. Just as Megan started to moan again I said, "Megan look at Uncle Seth - he has a big hole in his shorts!" She looked down and saw the hole and started to laugh because she could see his Spiderman Underoos!! he quickly covered up, but the damage had been done - Spidey had saved the day and Megan laughed the rest of the ride!

Universal Studios

This was for the most part a disappointment - other than the fact that they had by far the most animated characters for Jack to give hugs to! When he would see one he would run full speed and jump into their arms. In a 20 minute stretch he saw/hugged Curious George, Shreck, Woody Woodpecker, Dora the Explorer, Marty the Lion from Madagascar, the shark from Jaws, Bart and Lisa Simpson, and his favorite - Sponge Bob Square Pants!

Wild Animal Park

Feeding the exotic birds as they would land on our shoulders and arms and eat the nectar out of our hands was very cool. The petting zoo was also a hit as it had reindeer in it. Dad's favorite was the large male lion laying on top of an old truck and staring hungrily at Megan!

In addition to having an overall great time, Porter and the Meatball really bonded - spending as much time together as the could whether on rides, at dinner together, or playing video games in the car. We also loved seeing Eli and Dallin with their awesome expressions as we went from one section of the park to the next! We loved spending time with Oma and Opa and Tiff and Seth too as it allowed for some adult conversations and for games each night! It also meant that we didn't have to eat all of our meals at McDonald's! We can't wait until next time!!

iCarly

I know, it's been over a year since I've blogged!!! Not that I haven't had anything to blog about, just haven't made the time to do it! Well, I think I'm back! This is my new goal anyway:)!

So this one better be good! According to my kids it is! Since Sean started working for a company owning several radio stations he's become the coolest dad ever! Whenever a celebrity/musical group come to town they often do interviews at one of the radio stations and then give a little mini concert and sign autographs for whoever works there. Well, this Tuesday Sam from iCarly (Jannette McCurdy) was in town. We let the kids miss a couple of hours of school (a bonus in itself) picked up their aunt Destiny and drove to Sean's work to meet her. It was all very exciting...Jannette sang 4 songs with her band (she is just starting a career as a country music singer, not bad by the way) and then met with everyone there to sign autographs, take pictures and answer questions. I was really impressed with how nice she was and the time she took to talk to each person who came to see her!

Porter and Sam (Jannette McCurdy)

Megan made an origami frog for Jannette.

Jannette was really sweet and played with the frog for awhile and named it Goog after Megan's stuffed animal Goog (seen here in the picture above and below). Then she put the frog on her head for the picture below. After I took the kids home Sean went back to talk to Jannette to thank her for being so kind to our kids and she was showing the frog to her band. That made Megan so happy!

Destiny and Jennette McCurdy

Jennette signed Destiny's iCarly shirt, but I think Destiny's highlight was when Jannette told her how much she loved her shoes and asked her where she got them!

*I tried uploading the video we took of her singing, but there was an error message everytime I tried :(.

Third Times a Charm!

This past Monday Porter split his head open while racing Megan around the house. Somehow he fell and hit his head on the edge of a cabinet. There was lots of blood and tears, but don't worry I didn't panic, sadly I'm getting use to this - maybe because this is the 3rd time he's split his head open! (Jack has also split his head, just a couple of months ago!)

Sean was at a Blazer game with a friend and I really didn't want to go to Urgent Care with all 3 kids so I called him and asked him to meet me there. Poor guy only got to watch 20 minutes of the game. He left the game right away and almost got to the Urgent Care Center before we did! Sean took over from there. The doctor saw Porter right away, irrigated his wound and then stapled his head twice (according to her it's a lot less painful then stitches)! His cut was a little over an inch long and deep. The doctor was very nice and let Porter keep the staple gun she used and then said that his dad needed to take him to Krispie Kreme for a donut - doctor's orders! Porter's loving showing everyone the staples in his head and the staple gun that put them there. The kids at school are pretty impressed!

#3 Porter's Stapled Head -April 2009
#2 Porter's Punture Wound in the Head - The day before Halloween 2006
He got to wear this head wrap for 2 days.

#1 Porter Split his Head Open While on Vacation in San Diego -Sept. 2004

Megan's Baptism

Megan was baptized April 11! It was a very exciting day for all of us. Both sets of grandparents were able to be there along with several friends. Megan's Oma said the opening prayer, her Poppy gave the talk about the Holy Ghost, Michelle Wadsworth (family friend) played the violin, and she was baptized and confirmed by her dad.

Time to Make the Donuts!

Last summer Porter had a donut birthday party and Krispy Kreme had donated several dozen of their reject donuts for us to use in our donut relays and other games. I have to say most of those donuts seemed perfectly fine to me and tasted quite good! Anyway we brought in a thank you note for their generosity and the owner was so excited about it that he hung the note up in the store and asked us to come back with the kids from the party so he could give them a tour of the shop.

The kids loved learning how they made the donuts. The tour lasted almost 30 minutes and Alex (the owner) kept the kids captivated the whole time. At the end they each got to choose their favorite donut to eat. Krispy Kreme's is the Best!

I didn't get to hear everything Alex was saying because I was chasing Jack around the store during the tour, but here are some fun facts about Krispy Kreme.... They use on average 30 50-pound bags of sugar each day (that's not including the amount of powdered sugar they use in the frosting)....They can make 289 dozen donuts per hour....They make between 14,000-20,000 donuts on busy days. Again, remember this is coming from the mouths of 5-8 year olds so some figures may be a little off, but who knows maybe they do know what they're talking about!

Ouch!

(Please excuse the camera man, he didn't realize he was filming this sideways. Just tilt your head to the left and you won't even notice:)!)

Megan has been wanting to get her ears pierced for awhile now. We told her she could do it when she turned 8. So the very first thing we did on her 8th birthday was get her ears pierced. We have video of her actually having it done, but it seemed way to sad to put in the blog. She didn't cry, but you can tell she's in pain. I know she doesn't seem very happy in this clip either, but she was still getting over the shock of the pain! She absolutely loves her new earings and will even let me put her hair up so others can admire.

Megan Turns 8!

We can't believe Megan turned 8! For her birthday this year the theme was "Megan's Favorite Things". We did a craft, ate pizza, and for the finale had a volcano cake! I have to say the volcano cake was the funnest cake ever! Leave it to Megan to come up with something like that!

Here we are driving to Rose City Ceramics to paint our projects. We have the Pittsburg Steelers Super Bowl song in our car and the kids wanted to sing it over and over again. It was pretty fun and luckily it was a short ride.

Zoie, Zachary (we're pretty sure Megan has a crush on this boy, but she won't admit it), Cali, Megan, Porter Y., and our Porter
One of the presents Megan got was a Snuggie! Have you seen the commercials? To her it's the best thing ever! Megan's in heaven and sleeps in it every night.

Here's the cake! It may not look very appetizing, but it was fun!

Happy Birthday, Megan! We Love You!