Happiest Place on Earth?

Quite possibly.

The nightly fireworks were SPECTACULAR!

Oh Boy, saved by your cowlick! All to ride this... I regret to say that when faced with riding this, I chickened out. Now that I'm a safe distance away I can say that I'm disappointed in myself for not riding it. DON'T you JUDGE me! You didn't hear the people screaming for their very lives... None the less, it went down in the books as a radical Father/Son thing, and they have me to thank.
More fun @ Universal

I love the look on the kids face in the background of Sam's picture. I'm pretty sure he's thinking something along the lines of.. You crazy!

Argh! And Oh how I love Cinderella's iconic dress!

Argh again! Oops, put it in two collages, oh well, the ride was great fun

On to Hogwarts!

Our first stop once we hit Orlando was Universal Studios. Home to the new Harry Potter Theme Park. This was an especially fun surprise now that Reese has taken to Harry Potter so much so that he claims it's his favorite, even surpassing Star Wars and Indiana Jones. For Reese, that's really saying something! This activity was also kept under wraps until we got there, It's just so much more fun that way.They really did an amazing job making this park incredibly accurate with the details in the books. ( So I'm told, I have yet to read them...) Every last thing seemed to be in place, down to the delicious butterbeer that can be purchased at the Three Broomsticks. It was like an amazingly yummy cream soda with a dollop of whipped cream goodness that causes the drink to bubble uncontrollably. The kids loved it, for all the obvious reasons... :)
Reese very early in the day decided he must have a broom and a wand for his souvenirs. Each of the kids had an allotted amount of spending money for the entire trip. Reese's allotment would be completely used up with the purchase of these two items. I did try to remind him that there would be Star Wars and other exciting things coming up at Disney World but to no avail, he decided to blow the whole amount in our first day. To his credit, I don't think he regretted his purchases; not even when faced with all the star wars memorabilia at Disney World. He was one Happy guy.

Even the selection of the wand from the shop was quite the procedure just like in the books. We had to wait in a LONG line and finally got into the wand shop where the shop keeper inquires about your birthday etc.. and then proceeds to let the wand "choose you". Reese ended up getting Harry's wand. To his delight.

Here you can see some magic happening in the wand shop, the inside of the Three Broomsticks, Zonko's the candy shop, complete with every-flavor beans and the puking pastilles. Then of course there was the biting books which the kids loved no doubt.

Inside the Hogwarts castle was a really fun ride ( Audrey's favorite, only after I forced her to go on it..) All the details were really incredible. Oh, and everyone who worked in the park spoke with an English accent.

It was a great start to our vacation. My only suggestion to anyone else thinking of going would be to not go at the end of August. It was H.O.T.!! But otherwise awesome!

A Pit Stop, and Then ~

After our stay in Coeurd'Alene, we drove home, only to have one day here to do laundry and jet off to Florida. One day in which I discovered our toy room flooded and we were in need of a new hot water heater. But that's another story. This story begins with Audrey being too chicken to get her ears pierced, that is until she made a pact with her soon-to-be eight year old neighbor and friend Reagan. The kids didn't know we'd be leaving the next day, but Reagan's mom Kate did. So we set up an ear-piercing date and away we went. Our family rule thus far has been girls must be 8 years old before getting their ears pierced. Elle came along ready to choose some clip-ons until she decided she was tough enough to get hers done too. She had already asked me several times before this particular outing.

So, I buckled. For a couple of reasons. First, I figured how often do sisters get to do something like this together? I also figured I was going to be cleaning/monitoring one set of earrings, I might as well do two; and there you have it. Elle was very brave. Maybe more brave than her older sister. It was a fun night, especially with all the moral support. The girls have really enjoyed their new earrings, and they're so cute!

All we could do with the water heater was shut it off and let it sit until we came back. The kids had no idea we'd planned a trip to Florida. They'd just gotten home from Grandma's and School was starting in one week. I told them Sam had to fly out the next morning and we were going to all go to drop him at the airport. On the way, Sam told the kids he'd met a pilot who gave him some "special passes" to come see the airplane that he would be flying on. I had stayed up into the wee hours of the morning the night before, packing every needful thing and putting it all in the trunk. We dropped Sam at the curb, he gave all the bags to the skycap while the kids didn't notice or suspect a thing. When we were going through security, Reese kept saying "too bad we can't really go on a plane, that would be fun..."

We were all the way onto the plane, the flight crew was very accommodating; showing the kids the cockpit and even insisting they sit in the pilot's seat. I kept wondering if this was actually legal. Sam had gone to our seats to put the carry-ons away when I ushered the kids back to say "goodbye" to Dad. Reese kept saying , "Mom, we need to get off! " Once the kids had given Sam his hugs he said, "well, why don't you all sit down? Would you like to go for a plane ride today?" Reese said, "no, we can't!" He kept insisting until the flight attendant told him, "ok, we'll all ride up here and put you down underneath with all the luggage." That got him to sit down. It was so much fun to surprise them, none of them had any clue.

For some strange reason, my phone pictures are loading in miniature form tonight... So, these few pictures of my little jet-setters will have to remain in thumbnail format until I can figure out how to fix them. Thanks for stopping by our blog!

That's What Friends are For...

To be there for you, (or at least try...:) stand ever-supportive, laugh at your jokes, want to hang out with you and much more while still including all of the above? Check. No visit home is complete without reuniting with our friends. This year was special because one of my best friends, Heather, is (finally) oops, did that slip? Getting Married!! Woo hoo, way to go Heather! Apparently the new trend/rage in bachelorette celebrations is to do a destination weekend with all of your closest friends.

Well, since Heather's parents' home pretty much counts as a desirable "destination", she decided to have the festivities there. After excusing her parents to the neighbor's for the entire Friday-Sunday celebration, the fun commenced. They were very gracious to let all of us girls take over their beautiful home and guest house. Needless to say, we had a Par-Tay! and it was so great to spend time with these girls again as well as meet some of Heather's friends who joined us from New York, Chicago and LA. They were a classy bunch o'gals.

On another maybe slightly-less-classy note, Sam has become a loyal fan of the MMA (Mixed Martial Arts?... or something?) fighting events. Lucky for him his friend Chris had him covered; and lucky for me, I convinced my friend Nicole to be there to support me in my boredom, I mean, through the excitement! It was great to get all of us together. Chris was in our Wedding, as was Heather, and I was in Nicole's. It's always a good time to see any of them. Fun fun. As you can see, the guys felt it necessary to do a few push-ups together (for old-times sake?) out on the deck. Maybe to see who's toughest? To protect the pride of both parties, I decline to share the results, however, I will say that my significant other did prr-eee-tty good.

Fun, Fun, and more.....Fun?

Yup. I think so. Back to the vacay postings. So, here we are up huckleberry picking. We have our favorite spots, my Dad always knows where the berries ought to be. For those of you unfamiliar with the huckleberry; it tends to grow in specific climates and is similar to a blueberry only with bright purplish/red insides and is at least 20 times more flavorful & tart. I LOVE them. Each year we go picking and I carefully transport them back only to ration them out (sometimes quite stingily) over the span of a year; hopefully to run out just a week or two before going home again. The kids did their best (ahem...or their best playing/eating while the adults picked) We have one rule: One for the mouth, five for the bucket.

This was a fun night. Sam had to fly out for work and it was family night. I decided to put together a night hike for the kids to follow clues while learning the lesson. It was a lot of fun and definitely one for the highlight reel of the trip. I'm thinking we can for sure pass off something in Reese's scout book from this!

Many great days were spent just being at Mom and Dad's. I've said it before but they really have made the house a grand kid haven. We even got out my old pair of stilts, they were a big hit, - and I might add, that I beat Sam in a "stilt off". Hey, when you got it, you got it. Thanks Mom and Dad for having such a peaceful, awesome place for your family to enjoy. We're so grateful.

A few more lake pictures that I missed. This is my friend Liz. I've known her since I was three. We took Liz and her sons out on the boat for a day, it gave us a chance to catch up, which was fun. Then at the very end of our stay, my sister came up for the second time this summer so that Jessica, (seen below in B&W) her daughter, wouldn't miss out on all the fun. I was so glad she came, although she somehow convinced me to run a half-marathon this Oct. Not sure how that happened.... She'd been spending her summer semester in Europe and still had to make it back to our little beloved town in North Idaho.

Good times

This Rocked!

Just to have a little reprieve from my vacation postings, I decided to share what we did this weekend because A) I was so excited to finally get rock climbing again, B) because the kids loved it and thought it was awesome, and C) It's good advertising to get some of you locals to come join us or D) All of the above. Correct answer, D) All of the above.

Here's the back story. Sam introduced me to climbing back when I was a teenager. I love it. When we got married, we lived in Logan. Logan Canyon has some Nationally recognized rock climbing. We loved to climb as much as possible, even with the addition of kids we kept it up. That is, all until we moved to our current location. I don't know if it was a partly due to my being upset at being relocated, just not knowing where to go, or a combination of things; but we have never climbed here locally. Until this weekend.

All the kids absolutely loved going. We weren't even sure exactly where to find this fabled location we had been hearing about. I think I was skeptical that I would get to climb at all, hence my jeans and normal everyday attire. Not exactly what I'd typically be climbing in. But find it we did, and it was definitely an afternoon well spent.

This location turned out to be perfect. Plenty easy enough for the kids to have fun and close enough to go on a whim. There really are so many things that are close by to enjoy if I only look. Something I'll have to keep in mind. It was a good experience simply to squeeze/force my old climbing shoes on too. They're meant to be extremely tight fitting and ooh la la, did I forget the pain those shoes can inflict. It was all in good fun though, this is living :)

So who's up for coming with us next time?

Gone Fishing

This was a great fishing day by all accounts. My Parents work in the Spokane Temple, which is how my Dad met one of his good friends that happens to have a private, stocked fishing pond on his property. So pretty much 99% guaranteed successful fishing for kids.

Successful it was!

Nothing beats fishing with Grandpa

Thanks Dad for the awesome day! We loved it!

Lazy Lake Days

These were our favorite days, the kind of days where we got out to the lake about lunch time and stayed until it got dark. The kind of days where everything seems right in the world? Pretty much. The kids were more and more brave this year, especially with my bribing (10 dollars to try wake boarding at least four times ) and we even had a few successes! Thanks to Sam the kids didn't even have to go it alone, he just bobbed out there in the water for hours. I'm pretty sure he's going to get some kind of medal for his efforts.

Dad is always so great to come and stick it out with us on our "Marathon Days". This is what my Mom calls them. She's learned to either bring dinner out to us or simply remain home with it knowing not to bother keeping it hot and ready until at least 9 pm. We had a few days where the water was absolutely perfect, and plenty when it was really choppy. It's all fun to me, that's what the tube is for I guess!

Sam's Mom, his step-Dad and his sister joined us for some of our time on the water. Grandpa Tony was such a good sport he decided to give wake boarding a go. He and Sam's mom Mary were even up for tubing with the grand kids which was a big hit. Both Audrey and Reese were able to get up on skis this year! Yeah! Go kids! It was awesome to see them conquering some fears and trying something new.

The days spent out at Sam's house are always peaceful and boat aside, the kids could probably keep themselves busy forever just swimming and fishing off the docks. Here's Sadie, Sam's cousin with Audrey in the golf cart. She had the best way of keeping track of her little dog that I'd ever seen. She would simply tie his leash to a milk jug full of water. That way he can move around but won't be going anywhere quickly anytime soon. It was pretty funny to see.

It's been a great summer, and it's easier to leave the Lake behind feeling like we got our fill of time on the water. That and knowing that by now, this first week in September, we'd likely be using wet-suits to do the exact same activities. The lake can cool down in a hurry. Til next year!

Here we go...!

Well, well, well.... Here I find myself sitting, wanting to get caught up on this seemingly endless task of chronicling our summer adventures. I figure I'll be doing good if I can at least get started on our two + week stay in Coeurd'Alene. There's always another day to start up blogging about our Florida trip, during which of course I took a ridiculous amount of pictures. How could I not? So, I've decided to group together plenty of collages, and knock out a few of these posts one step at a time.

Ah, time spent in the good ol hometown. Nothing finer. Mom and Dad were gracious hosts as always and we loved every minute. As we do each year, plenty of time was spent perusing around the art-fair, the street-fair, the pig-out-in-the-park-fair. This is what we love to do.

Along the dyke road, (the road literally serves this purpose..) we walked past this amazing yard/antique sale. So many cool, quirky items. This coat was magnificent, that is until I asked what it was made of. "Chimpanzee" came the proud response. What?!! Ew. How sick could a person be? At least the coat was made about 75 years ago. Booo, hiss. Triumph was ours though when Reese stumbled upon the exact thing he'd been begging Grandpa to make. A mini skateboard ramp for his tech-deck skateboards. There it was just sitting, waiting, a modern toy in a sea of antiques just for my boy with a can-do attitude. :)

Mom and Dad kept the kids one of the evenings while Sam and I were off to explore the streets on our own. Here we are in front of the famous Sand Castle, the same guy comes to make it for all to marvel at each year. The art fair wouldn't be complete without it. I had to include this picture of one of our favorite places. This beachy house belongs to the parents of our good friend and is also where we spent many a day hanging out back in our dating years. The house is right across the street from the beach. You can see why it'd be a popular teenage hangout. Brings back fun memories.

You can click on the collages to enlarge them, (or once you've done that you can do it one more time to super size them! if you really want to...) . If you folks who frequent my blog are unaware of this by now..... I'm not sure I can help you any further... ;)

Enjoy! More posts to follow!