First 8th Birthday Party

 We are so fortunate to have some really great friends here in Renton.  The Allen family came over to celebrate Bryant's eighth birthday with us.  We had chicken drumsticks, mini corndogs, a couple of salads and a vanilla cake and icecream per the birthday boy's request.  It was my first cake I ever made from scratch and it was good, more dense, but still good.  Everyone ate it so it must not have been that bad...

 The boys playing Lego Star Wars, that is all Bry is into lately!

 My friend did something really fun for the gift.  There were eight gifts in the bag all tied together on ribbon and you took out the first one and saw it then tugged on the ribbon to bring out the next gift until the end!  All the boys checking out the big Lego Star Wars set from Mom and Dad.  Dad had fun putting it together "with" Bryant. 

 This is a typical scene as of late.  The kids are on spring break and we are watching a lot of Star Wars movies, like all of them over and over again...while playing with lego!  Happy Birthday Bryant!

Basketball fun!

This year Bryant wanted to play basketball so badly!  He had a great coach and super nice boys on his team.  I would say he learned a lot playing and had too much fun.  He always had a smile on his face!

 Nice D Bry!

 At least Coach was looking...

 



More Disney

 Taylor would not look at me while on this ride, she didn't want her photo taken.  At night it got cold, real cold.  I'm glad we got a locker for our winter coats during the day because we sure needed them at night.

 We waited a half hour to see this little fairy!

 We played a lot of hand games to keep Bryant busy and not too bored.  He would pick on Sydney when he had nothing to do.  This is a game that all the elementary kids do at recess.  It is a shooter game, but hey whatever works!  We were inside winding all around to get to this ride in toon town.  Below, Bryant decided he needed a nap and chose to lay in Pluto's bed at Mickey's house in Toon Town.

California Adventure

 This is the big Mickey Wheel.  We are in an unstable car that rocks.  The funny thing is that none of us knew just how much it would rock!  Taylor started freaking out and there was nothing to grab onto!  Her face was priceless!  I didn't quite get the fear photo though...

 I think we'd been in line over half an hour at this point to ride the Cars Racers ride.  It was getting hot out too!

 At this point we are still waiting in line for the Cars Racer ride, it has been over an hour now and we are done.  We ended up watching fast passers getting on the ride non-stop!  Two hours later we made it and it was cool, not sure two hour wait cool though... 

 This ride the little cow tractors whip you around super fast!  Sydney is holding onto Bryant so they don't fall out, not really...

 This is the third and last ride in Cars Land.  The big tire is full of air like a hover craft and you lean to go where you want and it is like bumper cars.  This was fun watching them try to get us!

The Rides... The Real Reason We Go!

 

Well... we remember these cars being way cooler then they are.  They should at least change the body of the cars to update them a bit.  It was raining on this day at Disneyland and this was a good thing.  The rain cleared out the park and the lines were a lot shorter!

 

Gotta' love the Matterhorn ride.  All the kids loved this ride, even Taylor, our scaredy cat!  I was trying to take photos while we were moving and this is a good one of Taylor's face of apprehension!  Sydney just didn't want her photo taken and we can't see Bry who is in the far back!

 

The California Screamn' is by far the best ride ever!  In the first photo Bryant is happy to be on this ride, Taylor is waiting for us taking photos.  I totally didn't even think about the harness NOT fitting him properly even though he was technically tall enough.  In the second photo you see his eyes are closed...

Now look at his face, and mine too for that fact, the ride is starting and this thing takes off so fast and directly uphill at super warp speed! YEE HAW!

Here I am counting down with the guy on the speaker and looking like Jack Nicholson!

Carlsbad, California

 Even though it was upper seventies that day, Bryant always chooses the hot tub to play in!  This Sheraton Resort was very nice and right next door to the back side of Legoland with our own special guest entrance!

 On Monday we headed to the beach.  It was starting to cool off a bit as a storm was on it's way.  It was still beautiful as you can see the kids had a blast.  I knew I should have had them put their swim suits on first.  I thought it was too cold, little did I know.  Within minutes they were soaked!  So we changed...

We're going to California!

Last Friday after school we left town to head to Portland where Grandpa Ryan was flying in to watch the children for a week while we flew to Hawaii, because it was "cheaper".  Haha!  Then Grandpa called to say he missed his flight as he had to see the doctor and wasn't coming afterall.  So we went to Nana's for dinner and to decide if they could watch the children because we were going to Hawaii.  We were all stumped, what would Nana say?  Would she do it? They kept asking so many questions, it was a hard secret to keep.  Once we arrived at Nana's house to visit while we were in town, we had the children open a gift which was a Mickey Mouse t-shirt, sunglasses and a Mickey mug with candy in it.  They didn't quite get it, so we told then we weren't going to Hawaii, Grandpa wasn't flying in, he wasn't sick and we were going to Legoland, the beach, Disneyland and California Adventure!  Yay!!

 Bryant got his driver's license!

 There were Lego everywhere!  It was really cool!  The weather was wonderful and they even had a lego play area with thousands of lego to build with.  Taylor and Bryant made this two level thing while Dad and Syd hit the big roller coaster.  I tell you this place in the park was a life saver for sure!

 Are you ready for the REAL story of Legoland?  At lunch time we let Bryant go inside this huge play area and got a table  near the entrance.  Sydney and I left to go get food and the other two were supposed to be watching for Bry...shall I leave it at that?  Okay, so we get back and ask where Bry was, no one knew.  So the frantic searching started with leaving the girls at the table watching the entrance to the fort and Todd and I tackling the park going opposite ways.  I was half way around the park near the entrance about to get help from the park and Todd called to say that Bryant just showed up, crying and trying to be tough about it.  He went looking for us and we all had a scare.  Then we all had a big talk about what to do when lost in a park... needless to say, Bry was right by our side the rest of the day and week at Disney too.  He didn't take his eyes off of us!  Thanks to answered prayers and a loving Heavenly Father who looks out for us!  He said he prayed three times to find us and I know I was praying constantly too!