Escape

Due to a great deal of stress (mostly imagined) in our family, we decided to take off on an impulsive vacation. We splurged our tax refund on an emergency trip to Disneyland! The trip did provide the relief we needed, but only after it provided a few stressors of its own. The trip started out where we discovered that we had forgotten my shoes, and my scooter rental fell through. But we were able clear those hurdles fairly easily. We got a new rental company for my scooter (and it worked way better by the way) and I just spent my time in Disneyland in slippers--it was totally awesome! I'm never doing another trip in shoes!
   One of the very first rides we went on was California Screaming. Evelyn hadn't ridden it yet--she was just tall enough to--she was excited to try it because I had told her it was like riding a dragon. She showed absolutely no nervousness the entire time we waited in line and skipped onto the ride with a smile. But as soon as it "Zoomed"--in her words, she screamed, "I HATE THIS RIDE!!!!" over and over until the ride was over. Then she cried for 20 minutes. Poor crushed dreams.
   We spent a lot of time doing Piratey things, standing in line, me trying not to run over anyone on my scooter (people love to cut off motorized wheelchairs...I don't know why! I don't have brakes, people!!!). We watched the parades, the fireworks (which were extremely disappointing after the 50th anniversary one) and Fantasmic. We traded pins--mostly on Friday because the pins were all boring the rest of the week. We ate churros, a turkey leg, gumbo, Ghiradellies, and went to Tortilla Joes 3 times. We gave Evelyn glow sticks to wear and pass out at her leisure at night, and Marde Gras beads in the day. She made quite a few friends that way, and found courage to go on quite a few rides that used to intimidate her. We played twenty questions with Disney characters. We came up with a Disneyland Scavenger hunt while riding Pirates for the 12th time.  It was a great vacation.
  Here's my picture diary:

 

This was Evelyn's original feelings about Thunder Mountain, but as soon as she got off the ride she yelled, "LET'S GO AGAIN!" She did this every time we rode it. It is her new favorite ride, even though she can't remember its name.

 Evelyn was hesitant to get up and participate in the street performances, so Michael got up with her. He was the only adult who did, but it didn't stop him for playing around with the green army men and kids.

But when they had him salute, he was really the only one up there who looked like he knew what he was doing. He made those green army men look like...well toys.

I think they knew he was a real soldier, so of course they had to use him more. They gave him a tambourine and called him "Private Tiddlywinks." The rest of the day random people would pass him in the park and say, "Hey! There's Private Tiddlywinks!"

 

That wasn't the only show Michael got to participate in. They also called him out of the audience in the Golden Horseshoe Review as the "Town Drunk." Michael had fun playing up his part and stumbling around and calling out, "I'll drink to that!" every time someone finished a sentence--literally. He was only supposed to say it when they tapped him on the shoulder, but he threw in a few more just for fun.

 

These pictures turned out really funny/cool. It looks like we escaped from the haunted mansion.

 

 

Merry Christmas to All! 2014

   This was the year. We've been expecting it for the past three years. Evelyn didn't sleep last night. She finally drifted off, and then woke up and ran into our bedroom at 1 AM to ask if it was time to wake up yet. She only got about half-way through her sentence when she noticed the clock. She sighed a long-suffering kind of sigh and slumped back to her bedroom. She came in again around 3 AM and exclaimed, "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SLEEP THIS NIGHT WITH ALL THE EXCITEMENT?!?!" We found out this morning that she had been in her room between 1 and 3 listening to Christmas music and daydreaming about today's promised treasures. She did eventually drift back off to sleep, but she might need a nap today.

   We finally crawled out of bed at about 7 AM. Penny woke us all up when she discovered that we had hung a blanket to block off the view from the hallway, and she thought it was the scariest thing she had ever seen. (She also did this to the snowflakes we hung up two days ago.)

 We peeked out the window and what to our wondering eyes did behold, the white Christmas we've all been waiting so anxiously for. We had our ritual Christmas morning prayer, thanking Heavenly Father for the gift of His Son. Then we pulled down the blanket and turned up Mannheim Steamroller's "Joy to the World" full blast. Sorry neighbors, but we have to dance to  it every Christmas morning. This year was especially fun because Penny joined us in the dance.
 

 

   After our dance we opened just a few presents while we waited for our oven to preheat. Evelyn was lucky because her first gift she opened was Santa's big gift to her: her dragon toy. (This year Evelyn asked Santa for lots of dragons and some money.) As soon as our oven beeped, we stopped and made our breakfast: Pigs in a blanket. While they cooked, we opened a few more gifts, then we paused again to eat. It was nice to kind of take things slowly this year and enjoy the individual presents more.

   Evelyn made us a cute calendar for next year. She also wrote me a poem. I should really start compiling those in a book. Those little hand-made gifts are the most special presents I get. --But I also really loved the new outfit that Michael bought me.

  Really, we were kind of lucky this year to get any presents at all. The only reason we did is that I already had Christmas bought and paid for when our water heater went out....and then our fridge died...and then our car needed repairing. It was quite the December! But I chose to look at it that I also got a new water heater and a brand new fridge!!!

Penny spent the whole morning eating the bone Santa gave her, and staying out of trouble.

   As soon as we finished unwrapping the presents and digging through our stockings (Evelyn's had a small roll of quarters in hers!) Evelyn started begging to go play out in the snow. So we bundled everyone up, including Penny and went sledding.

Here is another video of our little sled-dog:

 

And here's a family Christmas picture of us:

 

Halloween Fun

 
 

Lots of pictures to update!  First off, here is our little kitty that we got to pretend was ours for 1 hour while we delivered it to the Johnsons. Their poor little kitty got hit by a car. So we're hoping this kitten fills a little bit of the void.
  The Johnsons named her Narnia.

This is the pumpkin patch where we picked our pumpkins. Evelyn dressed up for this as Minnie mouse, but she really didn't commit to what she was going to be for Halloween until she dressed to get ready for school.



Michael and I decided to dress up this year as well. I put on his old Class A's except for the trousers which I couldn't fit in--I promise I'm not that big! They were his original trousers from when he was 17! So I didn't look completely official, but I still managed to fool all sorts of people. Granted, the official Class A's are blue now.

 Michael decided to also dress as a soldier, He somehow squished himself into his old uniform, but he also wasn't completely kosher. Notice the gray t-shirt, and he also wore cowboy boots because his old boots are at his mom's house. We tried to get him into his Class A's and he couldn't even button it because he's filled out so much--from his neck to his chest--I don't know how he got those things on only 5 1/2 years ago!!

 



 Evelyn decided to be an Ewok from the original Star Wars Trilogy. This is her cute made-from-scratch costume. For the parade at school, she carried her little baby Ewok, who she named "Itchy", but she didn't want to lose him while trick or treating.

 We really hoarded on the treats. Evelyn just about half-filled her pillow-case. It was sick. --Not that we've eaten it already!!! We're hoping it lasts until Santa comes.

Pumpkin Carving

Today we carved our pumpkins! Here's how they turned out:

This one was Michael's design

This one was Evelyn's design, carved by me. Evelyn ate the seeds.

 We also had Evelyn try bobbing for apples this year. We thought she might actually have more success trying it this year since she is no longer afraid to get her face wet. (That just makes life a little bit nicer, doesn't it?) So here is a movie of her bobbing for apples. She did eventually figure out how to get a good bite from watching her mommy try.

  

A Chance Encounter with Superman

This post was taken from another blog I attempted to write years a go....it only had one post. This is it. I think I'm going to let that blog die. But once I thought I might become a genius. So here it is: all my genius:


We know that superheroes need vulnerabilities, otherwise they just become obnoxious. This almost happened with Superman; luckily someone came up with kryptonite so that it would actually go on for more than one episode. Unfortunately, kryptonite doesn’t really do it for me. I mean, I can’t relate to it, so I have a hard time sympathizing with some overly-muscled, x-ray visioned, super-speed (not to mention flying) person struggling so desperately any time a pebble is introduced to him.
But what if Superman had a very recognizable fallacy? I mean, he’s got these super powers, but what if having super powers gave him also like a super active immunity or something? Superman with Rheumatoid Arthritis? Can’t you just picture it? He may be able to burst through walls, but...

Verses:

You know, this is a Superman whose greatest weakness is when someone steps on his toe. This is a Superman who has to sleep in a flying position because he got stuck in that position. This is a hero who has difficulty making a fist, so he head-butts instead. This would be a true hero who would truly sacrifice his comfort for the well-being of "the general good" because of his gifts. This is a Super-hero I could watch.

The Joys of Mismatched Furniture

To get after- Conference wiggles out:

Ipod History

So we just barely figured out how to get our pictures from our ipod onto our computer. Yeah, it took a while. But now we have all these cute pictures I have to catch up on! So here goes!
Last Christmas we cut out snowflakes together, and Michael had cut out a piece that looked like a mustache! So we had to pause in our cutting and color them black and have a photo shoot. So here we are being strange.

Penny likes to nurse her octopus toy named "Woobley." She nurses it so vigorously! I guess it's better than when we had the cat that nursed Pheobe!

We took a tour this summer of Temple Square and the conference center. This was taken on the roof of the conference center.

Penny likes to be the ogre of Evelyn's castle. She used to fit through that little drawbridge but now she has to settle with this. Anytime she can she inflicts casualties in Evelyn's game. And the only thing to get her to stop is by pulling out the dragon. That is a scary dragon! It roars, and bites, and flies! But if Penny happens to pass by a little soldier in her fleeing, she still snatches it up and happily runs into the next room to give it a chew.

 

 Evelyn found an ewok hood in Disneyland. She was so excited! She was pretty obsessed with ewoks because we had her watch the original Star Wars Trilogy in hope she would be less terrified of Star Tours. It worked, but we had to listen to her say "Yub-Yub" for the next 5months. She decided she wants to be an ewok for Halloween this year. I almost wish we had bought that hood!

 This last summer was one quite filled with wildlife. We found these little baby skunks by the river. They were about the size of a six week kitten, so I'm guessing they were about that old. They were exploring the outside world while mama skunk was snoozing in the den--those naughty babies! They were absolutely confident and had no fear of us, while on the other hand, we were pretty nervous of them! I thought they were adorable though, and it made me think of Jane, who always wanted a pet skunk!

Then, in July, we noticed that every time Evelyn climbed her favorite tree, a hummingbird would start swooping around. I figured it must have a nest in the tree, and we found it! The nest was about the size in this picture: like you had cut a golf ball in half. We kept our eyes on it, and pretty soon, we saw some little needle beaks poking out of it! The hatchlings had emerged! Two little baby hummingbirds! We got this picture: they're still a little wet from hatching. We kept watch on them for a couple weeks while they grew. Pretty soon they got too big for their nest. One time when we went to check on them, one of the babies tried to fly away. It had more success falling. Michael got to pick up the tiny thing and place it back in the nest! He said its heartbeat felt like a constant vibration. About two days later, the birds left the nest. We kept checking in case they ever returned, but they never did. Michael and I were sad!! I guess you could say that we got a little glimpse of what it would be like to be empty nesters.

For our anniversary, we bought year memberships to Thanksgiving Point. This is Michael in the Curiosity Museum. We built the legos up all around him, and then he had to break out. It was funny that originally it was just Evelyn and me building the tower, but as people came in, they'd laugh and join in. The tower turned out to be 6 feet high!

 Evelyn  is hanging like a sloth at the Curiosity Museum. It times you to see how long you can hang without falling off. Evelyn hung for over two minutes! This picture was taken right before she fell: hence the face. Michael, by the way, could only hang for about 20 seconds. The hard part about it was you couldn't straighten your arms because your weight would hit the mat underneath and it would stop the timer. So you had to keep your arms bent. That's  a good workout!

Here's our little gremlin again. She always makes us laugh. We bought her that box to store her toys in so the house wouldn't be constantly cluttered, but it became her favorite toy! This is her with her head through the handle. (She gets her head stuck a lot!)

Believe it or not, Penny is asleep in this picture. Sometimes she sleeps with her eyes open with just the whites showing. She is creepy. And she usually sleeps with her tongue out.