Crazy Skateboarders!

Oh, the things I let my boys do! Last week while the weather was nice the boys wanted to go outside and play so after dinner was cleaned up we went out. I don't let the boys go out in front of the house by themselves because there are a lot of crazies around so I have to sit out there and watch them. It's nice sometimes to just relax while they play and Jaron has been such a good brother, he helps Jantzen ride his bike. All the boys wanted to do was ride their bikes, so I thought. Not too long after they got bored so they decided to play on their skateboards. Even though they hate it I make them wear their helmets, and it's a good thing I do! I turned my head for just a second and then I saw Jantzen going down the driveway on his skateboard on his toosh. After that it was fair game for the both of them to do that. That's all they did the rest of the time we were out there. They would try to race, but Jantzen wouldn't wait for the start, he would just go. I just hoped the whole time that I wouldn't have to call Josh again for another trip to the ER.





Everything turned out good, no injuries. They had a really good time and I even got some video footage of them playing around. Of course they have to hamm it up for the camera.

Do I Really Look Like That?

So, as everyone knows, I have a mini-Josh (smart donkey) in my life and he goes by the name Jantzen. He loves to play and joke around with everyone about everything. Most of the time he's so cute and funny doing it and other times he's frustrating (mostly when Josh is trying to deal with Jantzen acting like him, which is when I think it's funny). This was one of those times that I didn't know whether I should laugh or cry.

The other day I caught Jantzen sticking his mini basketball up his shirt. He informed me that he now had a big tummy like me with a baby inside. Just a little FYI, his baby's name is Boba Fett, who would've guessed that. I thought it was cute that he had taken such an interest in his little sis, but then he stuck the ball somewhere else. He put it in the back of his shirt and then said, "now I have a big butt like you". OUCH!! He, of course, thought it was hilarious. I know I've gotten a little curvier since I got pregnant, but I tell ya, it's the water retention!



I really didn't take any offense to his latest comedy routine. He's very proud of himself for this. He does keep all of us laughing and that's what we all need in our lives. Now, if I start seeing Josh trying the same thing he will need a new place to sleep for a while.

Easter Camping Fun!

Last weekend we went with the Ashby's camping for Easter weekend. We went just past Valley of Fire which should have been a short ride, but apparently NOT with me! I was fine until we got to the dirt road. It was bumpier than I would have liked and I started having a few contractions so I decided to walk part of the way in the dark with Josh driving the car behind me. A drive that should only have taken about 15-20 minutes took us over an hour. I really thought the Ashby's were going to regret inviting us up there. When we finally made it we had to set up camp in the dark, we were hoping to have been able to do it while it was still light, but that didn't happen. Jantzen , of course, fell asleep on the way so we let him sleep in the car until we could get his bed ready. That doesn't look very comfortable.


It rained a little throughout the night and for a good portion of the day on Saturday, but that didn't stop us from having fun. The boys, minus Jantzen, climbed on the rocks all day. The only time we saw them was when they were hungry. Poor Jantzen had to wait until Josh could take him up because I couldn't climb very well, so he mostly went for rides on Jaron's dirt bike and the four wheelers. Jaron got in a few rides, but not many.





After the rain stopped and the boys went out to climb again the adults, plus Jantzen, went for a ride on the four wheelers. We found some really cool rocks to climb, I had to have some help from Josh, and got some fun pictures. The best ones were of Jantzen posing like he was a model. He climbed sideways and braced himself for one of the pictures. It was so cute!



I told Jantzen to make an onry face in this picture and this is one of the few times he listened to me and did what he was told. He makes the funniest faces.


We had to climb on a big rock to get a picture of us together. I needed a lot of help getting up there. If Jaron would have been with us this would have been a cute family picture, but he was too busy climbing his own rocks with the boys. I don't think Jantzen wanted to get another picture done, he was getting tired and just wanted to ride the four wheelers again.


I tried to get Josh and Gregg to make this a Brokeback Mountain moment, but they didn't want to.


he rest of the day we spent playing games in the trailer and hanging out. It was nice to just be able to relax when we weren't cooking and cleaning up. Saturday night Josh cooked our "Hobo" dinners in the fire and we enjoyed some dutch oven cobbler for dessert. They were both really yummy. After dinner we sat around the fire, enjoying the heat, and just chatted all night. We even got to watch a little mouse run around the fire, I think he was trying to get warm too. I told the boys to keep their legs up or the mouse was going to crawl up them. I love to harrass them! The only kids that ended up staying up with us adults was Jaron, Jantzen, and Caden. The rest were worn out and asleep quickley.


On Easter morning we enjoyed another yummy camping breakfast and quickley after the boys were off to climb again. The day was filled with more rides and Easter fun. Jaron and Jantzen even bummed a ride on the four wheeler with Kylee and her friend. Later we had an Easter treat hunt because we didn't have eggs to hide. Tricia and I hid a bunch of different treats on the rocks and then let the kids loose. They seemed to have fun. After they all got to enjoy what they found. Jantzen enjoyed the Ding Dongs a little too much, he had to have another one.





After relaxing a little bit more we started to clean up camp and get ready to go home. We all needed a bath and Jantzen really needed to go to the bathroom. He had been holding it all weekend because he only likes to go in "his" bathroom at home, poor kid. I ended up riding with Tricia on the four wheeler back down so I wouldn't have any problems, it was a lot smoother than the ride up. After we got home and showered the Easter Bunny decided to come visit the boys at our house. They were so excited! Jantzen got some more "Cars" trucks and cars and Jaron got Mario Kart for the Wii. We had a really good time this weekend and hope to go camping more, especially to get Jantzen to get over his fear of going potty in the great outdoors.

Our Last Day in California...

On the last day of our vacation we decided that we were going to take it easy. The boys played with their new toys while we got ready to go to visit Josh's aunt in Oceanside. They play fought with their light sabers and played with the new Mr. Potato stuff we got. I even caught Jantzen watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while wearing Donald Duck's beak that belongs to the Mr. Potato Head. Have I mentioned how funny my boys are?





When we got to Vickie's house we decided that we weren't going to go to the beach like we had planned, instead we just let the kids play while we relaxed and visited. Vickie has a play house in her backyard that Jaron remembers from two years ago when we were last there that he wanted to play in. We found out that John had started using it as a storage area (and it was full) so Vickie told Jaron if he wanted to play in it that he would have to clean it out. About 20 minutes later she looked outside and Jaron had everything out of the playhouse on the grass. We all thought it was funny how he was so determined to play in it that he cleaned it out. Vickie had also gotten the boys their own Easter basket and filled eggs for them to have an Easter Egg hunt. Jaron hid the eggs and then helped Jantzen and Raeley find them. After that, the boys just played while Raeley ate the candy.

We had a really good visit with the family and hope to see more of them soon. Our vacation this year was a lot of fun. It was nice to get a break from reality for a week and just enjoy being together. We have lots of memories now to share with others and hope to have many more in the future.

Our Last Day At Disneyland...

On our last day at the parks we decided to start at Disneyland since we didn't get to see everything the day before. I really wanted to find Goofy again, I was determined to get a picture with him since I didn't earlier. When we first walked in we saw him. I was so excited! We ended up being the last ones they let in line for a picture. I would've been really mad if we didn't get to have a picture again. Donald Duck was next to him so Josh tried to stand in line and wait until after we got a picture with Goofy, but he was too late, they closed the line. Oh well. Across the way we also saw Chip and Dale, but again we couldn't get in line fast enough. I thought the picture of the boys with Goofy turned out pretty cute.


The first rides the boys did that day were the Tea Cups and the Matterhorn, again! I think they would have been happy just doing those two rides for the rest of the day. After that we went to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I wasn't going to do it at first but I decided to at the last minute. I probably shouldn't have, it was a little more wild than I thought it would be. Jantzen rode with me and he insisted on being the driver, it was cute how he thought he was the one driving. He was really in to it.


We saw a bunch of the Disney characters around the castle so we went there and watched a show they put on with the Disneyland Band. It was fun but a little hard to see because there was so many people. We had to hold the boys up, which kind of hurt my tummy a little. We had our picture taken in front of the castle which didn't make Jantzen too happy, I think it's because he doesn't like princess'.


We then went back to Adventureland so Josh and Jaron could ride on Indiana Jones. Jantzen unfortunately was too short to ride so we just hung out. While they were on it we decided to check out Tarzans Treehouse. I only made it up a couple flights of stairs when I realized I couldn't go any further. I am so afraid of heights and the rope bridges weren't helping at all so we had to go back down. I told Jantzen he would have to wait for his dad to go up with him. After Josh and Jaron were done they all went up to explore the treehouse together. I'm glad the boys have someone who can take them on things like that.


We did go on Pirates of the Carribbean again and this time we got stuck right as we started. We sat there for about 20 minutes before it kicked up again. Then a little while later it stopped on us again for about another 10-15 minutes. It wouldn't have been too bad if we weren't in the same boat as a bunch of high school kids that kept taking pictures with the flash right in our faces and also were singing dumb songs while stomping their feet. Not to mention the couple sitting behind us were getting so mad that we had to listen to the man complaining, I don't think he knew any other words besides the "f" bomb. Luckily the boys weren't paying attention to him. We moved on to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad where Jaron started having a panic attack because it was a roller coaster. I reminded him that this was my favorite ride when I was little so he went on it and both boys ended up loving it. They, of course, wanted to do it again.


Jaron really wanted to go to Tom Sawyer Island, so we did. It seemed to be more of a pirate island with lots to explore. There was another treehouse for them to climb up and some cage like thing that they loved. Jaron, of course, can't have a serious face in the picture. Josh even got in on the action. One of the last things they did on the island was find the pirate treasure. If you are wondering what Jantzen is doing, he's acting like Captain Feathersword from the Wiggles and saying, "arrr". It was cute. This was like a big playground for the boys and they didn't want to leave.




There was still some things at California Adventure that we wanted to do so we headed back that way when we saw Pluto. Jantzen was really wanting to meet him and luckily we were one of the last ones, again, to get a picture before he had to leave. I think it made Jantzen's day to get to be that close to Pluto. We then saw that the street parade was about to begin so we stayed for that. The boys got to see more Disney characters dancing in front of them. Jantzen even got a high-five from Pluto. I think that was the best day of his life. The regular dancers tried to get Jaron to go out in the street and dance with them, but he wouldn't do it. He's really shy that way. Jantzen got to see Woody and Jessie, but we couldn't get a picture of the boys with them because you have to eat at one of the restaurants in Frontierland to do that. We were going to do it so the boys could meet them until we found out how much it costs. It would have cost us $100 for the four of us to eat lunch just to get a picture. It's wasn't worth it.






We then left Disneyland and went back to California Adventure. This time we went to the Hollywood Studios part. We saw the Muppets 3-D show and did the Turtle Talk with Crush (from Nemo) which was awesome! It was all animated, but Crush was having real conversations with the kids. We went on the Monsters, Inc. ride which was fun, and then explored a bunch more.


After the boys were done looking around we went over to The Hollywood Tower of Terror ride. It's a ride that drops you down really fast. Jantzen was worn out so he didn't want to ride it so it was just Josh and Jaron. I'm such a bad mom, I told Jaron that it's just like the Frog Hopper at the Adventure Dome (I just didn't say that it's a lot higher and faster) and he loves that ride. The whole time we waited for them to get done I was worried that Jaron was going to freak out and get mad at me for kind of lying to him. In the meantime, Jantzen and I played eye-spy and had a fun time doing it. If you guess right he'll say, "ding, ding, a ding", and if you guess wrong he'll make a buzzing noise. He's so funny! When Josh and Jaron got off the ride Jaron came up to me and said, "that was awesome!" I'm so glad he liked it. I tried to get a picture of them in front of the tower acting like they were afraid but it turned out kind of dark.



We decided to go on the Toy Story ride again and the boys were being so cute with their 3-D glasses that I had to get a picute. Jantzen is my cheesiest child, he loves to have his picture taken. On the ride this time I totally beat Josh's score, last time he won, but I was helping Jantzen too. After the ride we got Jantzen a Bullseye (Toy Story horse) and Jaron didn't want anything from there. He just wanted Star Wars stuff, go figure.



Josh tried one more time to convince Jaron to go on the California Screamin' roller coaster, but again Jaron wouldn't budge so Josh ended up going on it by himself. He said it was fun and told Jaron he missed out, Jaron didn't care. We were finally done with rides. It was getting late, again, and we were all tired. I think we had had enough of walking around all day for the last three days. We left California Adventures, but got a few more pictures first.


Before we could leave we had to go back to Disneyland so the boys could get a make-your-own light saber. It was kind of a pain making it because Josh didn't know what he was doing and it was very crowded. Luckily an employee came to help everyone so the line wouldn't be so backed up. Jaron made a Darth Maul and Jantzen a Darth Vader light saber. They were happy with the result and we could finally leave! The fireworks were about to begin, but we were too tired to stay for them again. We told Jantzen to watch them while we walked out since he missed them the night before. It was a pain getting out of the park because it was so crowded, but we eventually made it out alive. Jantzen, of course, had fallen asleep before we made it out so again he missed the fireworks.

We should've gotten a picture of us at the entrance to Disneyland earlier in the day, but we didn't. We got it as we left in the dark so you can't see it that well and Jantzen was asleep.


There are so many more pictures that I took (about 120 total), but I didn't have enough room to post them all. These were the ones I thought were the cutest.