More Cousins

The second half of our visit was spent with Eric’s family.  We spent the Saturday before the 4th of July at Stinson beach.  It was crowded, but the weather was PERFECT.  And when I say perfect, I mean it.  NorCal beaches have a nasty reputation for being foggy, having super cold water, and being plagued with frequent shark attacks.   The water was still cold (low 60’s I think)  but we didn’t have any shark problems that day.  It was also gorgeous.  We didn’t arrive till almost noon, but by that point, the fog had burned off and it was a perfect 70 degree day.  The perfect weather for sitting on the beach without getting hot and sweaty!  I did erase about half the pictures I originally uploaded to this post.  I didn’t want to overwhelm you with the millions of wave pictures I took.  But, the kids will never forget what a great time they had together that day!

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

Spring Break

How do you post about a spring break without going into a super boring travel log or picture overload?  You don’t.  I loved my vacation, but don’t want to overwhelm you with gazillions of pictures of my kids in all the places most of you have already seen or been to.  So, I decided I would post one picture per day.  Putting that limitation on myself made it so much easier to choose.  Even though I carried around a 15 pound camera bag all week, I didn’t get as many  pictures as I wanted, mostly because of the daily rain.   But here is a recap in just one picture per day:

Day 1:  Disneyland.  By total chance, my parents and my aunt and uncle were there too.   Just after we rode our first ride, the clouds came in and poured.  I mean it poured!  Thankfully it didn’t last longer than an hour or so, and we spent most of the time it was raining in Pirates of the Caribbean, so we didn’t get too drenched.  It was still fun to hang out with the family and they were very cool about doing whatever we wanted to do.  Thanks, guys! 

Day 2:  California Adventure.  The second ride of the day was Grizzly River Run.  I opted out this time around as I just didn’t feel like getting wet early on in the day.  I’m glad I stayed behind so I could get these pics of the rest of the family going through the water spouts.  Classic moment.  I also want to document for the record that Megan and Ian did go on California Screamin’.  They weren’t thrilled about it, but they got a milkshake at Red Robin that night for their bravery.  Another funny thing about this day was what became known as the “cougar count”.  With Taylor and Eric both wearing their BYU gear that day and BYU gearing up to play in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tourney, Taylor got shout outs all day long from complete strangers.  There were A LOT of BYU fans at CA Adventure that day.  A lot.  It was funny… we’d be walking along and all of a sudden hear someone yell “Jimmer!”  or “Go Cougs!” or “BYU!”  Taylor LOVED it.  Cougar Count for the day in the upper 20’s.

Day 3:  Universal Studios.  This was probably Eric’s favorite park.  While I was off buying meal passes, SpongeBob came around so Eric took Ian and Brayden over to get a photo.  Both boys LOVE SpongeBob, but when Brayden got a chance to meet him in person, he go scared.  So they ended up playing cat and mouse with SpongeBob for a few minutes while Eric snapped away.  One good thing I have say about Universal… they’re characters are super accommodating and take extra time with people.  One bad thing I have to say about Universal… they’re employees are programmed to try to upsell everything in the park and they pushed the annual membership upgrade every chance they could get.  It got annoying after a while.  The morning weather was wonderful, but the rain came in the afternoon and lasted the rest of the day.  Lucky for us, most of the shows and rides are inside.  While the rain was bad, the worst part of the day was driving from Anaheim to Universal and back during rush hour.  Of course, when is it NOT rush hour in LA?  Cougar count in Hollywood:  zero. 

Day 4:  Disneyland/California Adventure.  We split the day between Disney and CA Adventure.  In each park, we let each person pick their favorite ride and that’s basically all we did.  Of course, the favorite rides have the longer lines, but everyone was happy and had a good time.  At CA Adventure, Taylor got to ride CA Screamin’ 3 times all on Fast Passes because the younger three didn’t want to do it at all.  (Well, Brayden wanted to ride it, but came in one inch too short.)  At Disneyland, we made it a priority to go to the Jedi Training Academy, in hopes that Brayden would get picked.  Alas, the Jedi Master favored the other side of the audience much more heavily, and overlooked Brayden when picking time came.  It was still a great show though, and they all LOVED it.  Darth Maul was amazing!

Day 5:  SeaWorld.  This was our first trip to SeaWorld.  It was cool.  I could have gotten some amazing pictures from the shows, but I opted to leave the big camera behind.  I was underwhelmed by the Shamu show, as it was completely overrated.  The dolphin show, however, was really cool.  And the sea lion show was hilarious.  Of all the exhibits, I was most impressed with the penguins and the sharks.  I’m glad we went once, but once was enough.

Day 6:  San Diego Zoo.  This is Gau Gau.  We waited in a line for 20-30 minutes to see this guy.  He was facing the world and chomping away on some bamboo.  Super cute!  I hadn’t been to this zoo in 25 years or so, and I’d forgotten how massive it is.  (And hilly.)  We enjoyed walking around and seeing the animals.  The lions were disappointing (aka napping) but the polar bears were awesome.  One of them was dancing and giving us a good show.  Some of the exhibits were old and outdated, but many were new and well suited to mimicking the wild.  I really had fun with my camera at the zoo, and got many cool shots.  The photos I got at the zoo made up for the lack at SeaWorld.

All in all it was a great vacation.  Pros: It was our first theme park run with no stroller, diapers or naps.  Hallelujah!  Cons:  I had a sinus infection that made me miserable off and on for the entire week.  The rain was also definitely a con, although it might have been a blessing in disguise if it kept heavier crowds at bay.  I’m always a little sad to leave Disneyland, but never fear, I will be back! 

A Walk Down Memory Lane

This is my Grandma, Bea. (I credit her for giving me the stubborn and independent streak, in a good way.  She is one tough cookie.)  I also love her to pieces.   Growing up just 45 minutes away from Grandma's house meant most holidays were spent there celebrating with my other cousins.  I have the fondest memories of Easter Sunday BBQ's and Christmas Eve's at her house.  Those were the days... my Grandma knows how to host a holiday, that's for sure.

This last visit had me feeling nostalgic about the growing up years visiting her at her home.  So, I walked around and took some pictures of things that haven't changed in her house in the last 30 years.  This clock has been over her TV as long as I can remember.  I don't know where it came from, but I've never seen another one like it,  and I can't imagine her house without it.

This key sticker went up on the back sliding glass door after one of my uncles ran into it and hurt himself pretty badly.  It was a running family joke for years.

Just a sampling of the gorgeous flowers she keeps growing in pots on her patio.  I wish I had inherited her green thumb.  I didn't get that gene.

This has also been in her yard forever, yet I don't even know what it's called. 

The back patio, where many BBQ's and Easter Egg Hunts have been hosted over the years.  It will be a sad and emotional day when this house is no longer in our family.  Everytime I visit, I remember how many wonderful childhood memories I have of this place. 

When we got back to Vacaville, we watched the World Cup game, which Spain won!  Yay!   And then the boys took Charlie outside to learn how to play soccer.  Charlie loved chasing around the giant ball.

Megan and grandma also started working on a Lego house.  Those girls love building their Lego houses.  The boys build armies, but not the girls...  it cracks me up how much my mom loves to build Legos with her grandkids.

The finished product... three stories of Lego architecture... James May would be proud, guys!

A Day in which a slice of Humble Pie costs $75

For years, I've been trying to convince my husband to let me make a trip home to see the grandparents without him.  I'm a good long-distance driver and our kids are good travellers.  Now that Brayden is 5, they are down right easy in the car.  And besides that, I practically have the road memorized between here and there.  It's 800 miles, but it's all interstate the whole way.  This summer, he finally relented.  He knew how badly I wanted to make a trip home and he didn't have enough vacation time to do it.  Being the self-sufficient-spirit that I am, (code for stubborn and independent), I was determined to make this trip and have it be successful, too.

I only told a couple people I was coming.  My kids didn't even know until the day before we left.  I made them take a vow of "radio silence" (code for texting and facebook), and we were off the next morning.  All was going well until we had some car trouble in Santa Nella, CA.  I was only 130 miles from my destination.  We stopped for a bathroom break at a truck stop and when we came back out to hit the road, my car wouldn't start....and it wasn't a dead battery.   Trust me, I've had my fair share of those. 

I called Eric and my parents... not sure what to do, and to my husband's credit, he didn't say, "I told you you shouldn't make this trip alone... look what happened and I'm over 600 miles away and can't help you out."  He was much nicer than that.  The employees at the truck stop helped me get in touch with a mobile mechanic who came to help us out.  He suspected the fuel pump on my car was going bad and it couldn't get the pressure it needed to start the car.  So, once he used his magical "starting spray" to get the engine started, he told me not to turn the engine off until I reached my destination and I should be able to get where I'm going.  However, once I turned the engine off, it would be likely that I wouldn't be able to start it again on my own.  $75 and 20 minutes of mechanical work later, I was back on the road.

130 miles of white-knuckled driving later, we made it to Vacaville, where we drove straight to the dealership and parked my soon-to-be-broken-down-car in the service parking area.  It was late on a Friday night, so I left a note with it and we transferred all our stuff to my parents cars and headed back to their house to crash.  (I must insert a big shout-out to Elise for suggesting that idea to me... I was too stressed to think through the solution logically at that point, and I was trying to figure out how to avoid paying for a tow across town on Monday morning.)

The next day, rested and relaxed once more, we headed over to Elise's house for my mother-in-law's birthday party.  She didn't know we were coming so it was a big surprise for her.  None of the kids knew we were coming either, so I had fun freaking them out when I, not Elise, opened the front door.  And although I took my camera everywhere with me, I somehow didn't take any pictures of my nieces or nephews that day.  I honestly don't know how that happened.  But, we got Jon.  So all is not lost, right?

I'm Baaa-ack!

Well, we survived two weeks on the road. I'm not sure how soon I'll attempt that again. While my computer downloads over 600 photos we've taken, I'll blog about what awaited us in Arizona.

I was really nervous about leaving the heat and living in cooler temps for two weeks. The last time I tried that, coming back was a horrible re-adjustment to the heat. This time wasn't so bad. We pulled into our driveway at 11:30 p.m. on Thursday night. According to our car, it was 100 degrees outside. I was still wearing my heaviest jeans that I had needed that morning in Utah (we were at a cabin nestled at 10,000 feet.) We sweated bullets while we unloaded the car, but, by the next day, I felt re-adjusted! Yeah!

Friday was spent fixing broken things. A week or two before we left, our water softener died. We shut it off while Eric searched online for the right part. He found it and ordered it and we got it the day before we left. No time to install, though, so that was waiting when we got back. Our TV lamp also burned out the night before we left. Literally, one hour before bed, we turned on the TV and the little light flashed telling us the lamp burned out. So, we ordered that part while we were away. I also got a call from my friend who was feeding the dog on Monday to tell me the pool was very green. Thankfully, there were a couple packages of shock in a box on the back porch, so she was able to shock it and keep it from getting worse until we could get home and clean out the filters. They were bad and required two cleanings just this weekend. I plan to take a pool water sample to the store tomorrow to get it properly diagnosed and treated. Never fear, my brother who lives in a cold climate and is coming to visit in just 8 days... I will have the pool ready or I will die trying. ;-)

Yesterday we took Eric's cousin and his kids to the lake. We had a great time wakeboarding, tubing and swimming. My boys love having "jumping" contests. I'm planning to post pictures on Facebook of our lake trip, so if you don't see them soon, nag me! It was crazy hot at the lake yesterday though. We ran out of sunscreen at lunch, and Brayden had a fat lip from a trip on the tile the night before, so he wouldn't drink anything I brought because it hurt his lip. On the way to the gas station, I was really worried about him having heat exhaustion, so I pulled him out of the car (kicking and screaming) and took him into the gas station to buy him a drink and get a straw. He picked strawberry milk, got two straws, and 30 minutes later was back to his hyper happy self. All the kids got burned, even though they re-applied sunscreen halfway through the day. And Grandma Carol, don't worry, no one was severely burned... just pink! Megan finally got up on the wakeboard, which made her really happy!

Last night we finally got to see Transformers. It was a great movie. I totally hated the crazy-stalker-chick decipticon, though. Come on... so unnecessary! The teenagers sitting behind us were almost as entertaining as the movie!

It's going to take me a day or two to organize my photos and blog about my trip, but I will do it this week! Stay tuned for a barrage of travel details, tons of things I don't want to forget!

Help!

Help... just three more days to prepare for our two week road trip...

I'm trying to organize entertainment...

You know...

movies for the car,

books to read,

toys to bring along for the younger ones,

you get the idea!

But, I need two weeks of entertainment for myself too...

I've picked up our current Book Club selection to read while in the car, but seriously, I could finish it in one day (as long as I don't get car sick). It's "The Hunger Games" in case you're dying to know...

What else to bring along?

How will I keep myself entertained when I can't fall asleep for a while because I'm not in my own bed?

When I'm on vacation I enjoy light, entertaining novels. Not deep, dark or disturbing novels. It is vacation after all.

Any suggestions before I go to the library tomorrow?

Road Trip

In just seven days from now we will be embarking on a very new type of adventure!

We'll travel through four states: Arizona, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming and likely drive over 2500 miles...

We'll be spending 14 nights on the road and only one of them will be in a hotel (and that's a maybe)...

We'll sleep on spare beds, air mattresses and RV pull-outs...

We'll very likely not have any privacy for 14 days either, except trips to the potty...

We'll play with 2 sets of grandparents, one great grandma, two great aunts/uncles and countless other aunts, uncles and cousins...

Including second cousins, third cousins, second cousins twice removed and all that...

We'll visit 6 temples... Rexburg, Timpanogos, Provo, Oquirrh Mountain, Salt Lake and Manti. Four of these temples I've never been to! I will need no less than three sets of church clothes!

We'll do lots of hiking... including a trip to the top of Mt. Timpanogos (I hope bad weather doesn't cancel our plans!)

We'll take our kids to Ricks College (now known as BYU-I) and reminisce about the good ol' days when Walmart was still under construction and all we had for shopping was Broulim's and Maverick...

We'll marvel at the beauty of Old Faithful and other wonderful sights at Yellowstone National Park...

And we'll shop and eat... lots of eating I hope! I don't want to visit places like McD's or Applebee's... I want to eat at places we can't get anywhere else. My favorite places to eat when I lived in Orem were RD's Drive-In (which was gone last time we visited) and Sensuous Sandwich. We've also discovered The Mayan and Tucano's on more recent trips back to Utah. My kids love the Mayan, but the grown ups love Tucano's.... ah the Brazilian BBQ can't be beat!

Here's where you come in... please leave me with a comment telling me your favorite place to eat in the following areas: Rexburg/Idaho Falls, Salt Lake, Provo/Orem, Manti and Richfield.

Also, I'd love any shopping tips, too. We are hoping the Artco stationary outlet is still around in Rexburg and I vaguely remember someone telling me that Provo/Orem has a scrapbooking outlet that's pretty amazing... but I don't know the name of it, so if you know, please share the love!

For the Love of Family....

So, we got back last night from our 11 day trip to CA to visit "the fam". This is a loaded statement, since there is so much "fam" to visit. Eric and I love our family dearly, but trying to cram in a "year's worth" of get togethers in one visit just isn't possible... We do our best to make our "visit" time as fair as possible, but someone always gets the short end of the stick. Thanks to everyone for being so understanding about it! Maybe next year we'll make a "pie chart" of our time and show it to everyone so it's fair! Thanks to my mom and dad for once again providing the "Rossiter Hotel". Most days, we get up, shower, eat breakfast, take off for an adventure with someone else, stay out late, come back around ten pm and then crash and sleep just to repeat the cycle all over again the next day! Visiting the family is exhausting to say the least, but always worth it! When it was all said and done, we logged over 2200 miles in 11 days! I have a Suburban and you don't even want to know what my gas bill was for this trip, especially with gas costing $3.50 in Ca right now! More on our travel adventures tomorrow... today is a day for laundry and catching up on life at home.... oh the mail pile I have to sort through!

Just a little OBSESSED...

Brayden has entered the "obsession" phase of toddlerhood. The one where they are completely obsessed with something for a few weeks (or months) and then out of nowhere, they just change their obsession completely and move on to something new to be obsessed with. Brayden's current obssession is "Leo" from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... it all started with that cute little blue ribbon he wore on his head. Then we finally got that off his head, but he still would point to his forhead and say, "Leo! Leo!" I felt bad that I had "made it disappear", but I felt like I had no other alternatives. Then, Sunday after church, Ian found Brayden's Halloween costume from last year. Brayden had NEVER actually worn it. I bought a cute little fleece Yoda robe that was just adorable, but Brayden would have NOTHING to do with it. On Sunday, Ian told Brayden it was a "ninja turtle" robe and next thing I know Brayden is wearing it around the house and won't take it off! But, since it's fleece, by dinner time he's sweating bullets and we had a fight like you wouldn't believe getting it off his body to put jammies on. So, another obsession item "disappears".... then on Monday, I was washing laundry and his winter jacket had been washed. He saw it and grabbed it and put it on his head, only he wasn't satisfied unless it was zipped up and the hood was on his head. It's a warm jacket and just like the day before ended up having Megan pull it off him when he was so hot he couldn't stand it anymore. As soon as it was "off", it convienently disappeared as well... today we found a pair of boy's sunglasses that are "ninja turtle" themed.... YES! This is an obsession I can handle. He's been wearing these sunglasses all day and keeps pointing to them and saying, "Leo! Leo!" It's so darn cute.... can't wait til he's older and I can tell him about his crazy 2 year old antics and obsessions!

Today I went back to the dentist to have a cavity filled... it's been 2 1/2 hours since I left the dentist and I'm still numb and just starting to tingle/thaw out. This afternoon I get to pack and clean and then finish preparing for our big Relief Society Dinner tonight. Never again will I schedule one of these events the night before a road trip- this is the second time I've done this and I'm really regretting it! Tomorrow we hit the road for "home"... it's always nice to go back to the Bay Area... we love it there!