DISNEYLAND!!

WOOT!! We spent last week in Disneyland!! It was SOOO fun!! We were supposed to come home Tuesday but stayed until Wednesday because we were having so much fun! We stayed at the Portofino Inn which is just down the street from Disneyland so we were able to walk there every day without having to worry about parking etc. and they were VERY nice and upgraded our room for free because the people above us were SUPER loud the first night. We ended up staying in a little three bedroom suite which was twice the size of the kid's suite we originally were supposed to stay in! The kids and Matt LOVED the pool too and spent quite a few hours down there!

The first two days in the park were a little rough for Tyson as you will see by the pictures. He has the "incredible sulk" face in most of the pictures from the first day. He spent most of the time whining and crying because EVERY ride scared him (including Peter Pan) but, once we got him to ride each ride at least once, he was good after that! We went to California Adventure (which none of us had ever seen before) and the first ride we rode was the Hollywood Tower of Terror. Let me tell you, Tower of Terror is an understatement! It was freaking awesome! When we got off none of us could really walk well because we were shaking so bad but it was worth every minute! LOL Tyson had a complete meltdown afterwards and was yelling at Matt and I and saying that we were trying to kill him. LOL Matt said he had never seen someone's face SO ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED until he saw Tyson on that ride! Poor kid! I had to bribe him with two containers of Tic Tacs to get him to ride it again but once he rode it a second time we went 2 more times after that and he loved it and even said it was kinda boring the last time! LOL

On Monday, we went to Huntington beach and saw the ocean. It was FREEZING and after walking out to the water I went back to the car to get warm while Matt and the kids walked out on the pier. We ate at a place called Dukes while we were there and Cory, Tyson and I all got food poisoning so it is good we took a day and stayed longer! Good info for anyone going to the beach in Cali, if you plan on going to a resturant by the beach... don't buy burgers at a seafood resturaunt!

It rained a few times but we were able to time everything so we either had fast passes or only had to wait about a half an hour to get on every ride! We also invested in some hand warmers and that made all the difference in keeping everyone warm! Matt bought some AWESOME ponchos for us before we left so we stayed pretty dry for the most part and they came in handy when we rode Grizzly Rapids or as the boys like to call it Grizzly Rabbids! hehe Anywho, it was TONS of fun! (minus the barfing Tuesday morning and Dillan's puking all the way home.. hehe) But hey it wouldn't be a vacation without some hiccups right?
There that is all our pics... well most of them anyways!! Enjoy! :)

Trip to Whitewash

I know I should have gotten this up a LONG time ago but I am a slacker! We went on a trip to Whitewash with the Burr family last year, and it was AWESOME!! Absolutely gorgeous and SOOOO fun we actually stayed an additional day! (We always bring TONS of food so that wasn't a problem! hehe) Anywho, here are some pictures from that trip (and maybe a video if I get brave, since it is of me.. hehe) Dillan was a NUT when we let him drive Britt's machine! It was either go or stop, nothing in between! hehe Tyson however is VERY cautious, VERY slow and VERY deliberate! Poor Britt has outgrown her machine so, lucky her, she got a new one for her 12th birthday but she hasn't driven it yet! Cory wasn't real happy about riding a bike there, but for the first 2 days he was able to ride one of Doug's 4 wheelers and he LOVED that! I was told (after the fact) that one of the rides they went on was really intense and scary and Cory was driving down some stuff that none of the girls would drive down, only hike, or in some cases slide on their bums down. Lisa told me she was telling Doug, Camie will NEVER forgive us if we kill her son (if that gives you any idea how bad it was). I think I am glad I wasn't there! Britt, Tyson and I, only like to drive down and around the nice smooth NONscary parts! hehe We did have a small hiccup while we were there... Cory tried to ride his bike up this INSANELY steep rock and ended up wheely-ing (is that a word?) his bike over but, he jumped off and got out of the way safely! He was actually standing on the rock with his bike in the air above him for a little while and Matt and I both yelled "let it go!" and he did thank goodness! Lucky for him too it only bent a few parts (he had a fin similar to one's they have on cars for a little bit on his rear fender) but Matt quickly fixed it all! YAAAY! Anywho, we are going back for spring break and I CANNOT wait!!

I know it doesn't look steep in the video but IT WAS!! I was sooo scared, but proud that I drove down it! :)

Here is video of the kids just driving around. Cory is on his bike, Britt on my machine, Tyson on his and Dillan on Britt's all while Matt was packing everything on the trailer. (He is VERY particular and we can't do much to help, sooo we RIDE! hehe

Britt and her Flute

Brittany loves playing any instrument and this year she is playing the flute. Her band teacher is HORRID and doesn't do very well and we are looking forward to getting her into Mapleton Jr. High this next year so she can have a better opportunity to learn and play it better. Her concert this last year was pretty interesting. There were only 2 other girls playing flute and so it was very difficult to hear the flutes. :( We were fairly disappointed with the program in general but we were able to hear a solo flute part and Britt was awesome!! Too bad all the other instruments were there! haha Poor Britt... Anywho, here are some photos of our gorgeous flute player!

Cory's Christmas program

Cory's program was BEAUTIFUL!! He LOVES his chorus teacher this year!! She is amazing and does an amazing job!! Everything was so beautiful and FUN!! It was really tough to get good pictures though! We ended up further back in the auditorium than I wanted to be and they kept the lighting fairly low so there are only a few pics and most are blurry!

Matt also got some video! The first song is one that I just sit and cry when I hear it! It is about a boy who is very poor and trying to buy some shoes for his mother who is very sick and going to die soon. But he really wants her to have some new shoes to be buried in. Sad but VERY BEAUTIFUL!



This video is about Christmas dinner and is HILLARIOUS! The kids LOVED it so they sang it EXTRA loud but it's still funny!

Christmas Eve Breakfast

Here are my favorite pics (with the exception of the one of me! haha) from our Christmas Eve Breakfast!