Our Week in LA

We are having a blast! I survived the 11 hour drive by myself and we made it to San Pedro in one piece. The kids were fantastic. Jaden was my co pilot and did a great job passing out snacks and keeping the rest of the troops happy. Kyla and Ella did not fight the whole way here. Kyla would use her camera to make movies of Ella playing with the my little ponies. She would direct and yell directions to the cast and crew. Jaden and I spent our time listening to The City of Ember on CD. We are almost through, so don't tell me how it ends. We got here a day before my mom so were able to pull off the surprise. After that all we have been doing is playing. On Monday we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific. The kids loved touching the giant sting rays and watching the scuba divers feed the sharks and other fish. Their favorite part was probably playing at the water play ground where Jaden preceded to get totally soaked. It didn't matter to him that he was wearing jeans and we weren't going straight home. Oh well, he didn't complain the rest of the day so how can I.

On Tuesday we spent the day at Magic Mountain. The weather was perfect, sunny but not to hot. Kyla and Ella both went on there first big roller coaster, The Goliath! They both said they loved it, but neither of them wanted to go again.

On Wednesday we went a little more low key. We went to the distribution center and took the kids to see the LA temple. Later we met Nate and a great little hole in the wall Mexican restaurant for lunch. We were going to go to the markets downtown but I guess there was a huge Lakers parade going on so we decided to skip the madness. On Wed night Jeanine took my mom and I to an awesome spa for the evening. We all took advantage of the hot tub, steam rooms, and sauna, then my mom got a massage while Jeanine and I got pedicures. It was so relaxing and fun. Thanks Jeanine!
Today we are going to spend the day at Hurricane Harbor. I will remember to take my camera and get some pictures. These are all from Jeanine's camera because I have been to lazy to dig through my suitcase and find mine. We miss you all and are looking forward to coming home tomorrow, but vacation has been a blast.

Welcome Spencer!!!

My friend Kathy just had a beautiful baby yesterday morning. I am so excited for you. He is absolutely adorable.

(Not a yell, just a yawn)

Ragnar Weekend!!!

Sorry it has taken me so long to regale you all with tales of my adventure in LA. But happy day you do not have to wait any longer. This is not where my adventure started. That was on the taxi ride from the LA airport to my sisters new home in San Pedro. Considering the only other taxi ride I have ever taken was on my honeymoon, I feel like it went pretty well. Having Cathy and Tom along made it much easier and eased my anxiety. Our cab driver was from Armenia and spent the 1/2 hour trip telling us about all the famous people who were Armenian. That was fun for me considering my sister served her mission in Armenia and I was able to learn a little about the culture she had served in. This is where are 22 hours of fun started. Jeanine was our runner #1 and had her game face on. That was until 8 min before the start of the race she goes to the bathroom and drops her ipod in the poopy toilet. As horrible as that sounds it didn't suprise me at all. Things like that have a way of happening to Jeanine.

(re-enactment pose)

Our fearless team captain (Nate) smiling for the camera.

Cathy and Patricia getting their pre race groove on.

The girls of van 1 (Jeanine, Lissa, Cathy, and Patricia) Poor Nate had to spend 22 hours with us. On the upside though I am sure our van smelled alot better then van 2.
Tom standing with decked out van 2. Nate's company Clark Construction sponsored our team. 9 out of the 12 runners were employees. Cathy is enjoying a well earned piece of chocolate cake and our dinner stop around 9 pm.

Well I can tell you that there was no sleep to be had during the night. We tried to catch some z's in the van, on the grass, on the beach. Jeanine even tried to sleep in the parking lot right outside our van door until someone opened it trying to find her and almost stepped on her. It was one of those night were I was just praying for morning to come. I was so tired and uncomfortable. I think Nate was the only who actually fell asleep for more then an hour. My favorite part of the evening came at about 3 am. Jeanine and I were sitting in the fromt of the van looking at our leg maps because we couldn't sleep. I told her that i was going to be running by the LA river and she laughed at me.

"It's not a river" she said, "It's just filled with sludge"

"We'll if I don't come back soon, come look for me. I probably fell asleep and fell in."

Jeanine starts the maniacal laughter and says, "and the homeless people will eat you!" She just keeps repeating herself and laughing. It freaked me out slightly. But what else do you say at 3 am. Then she got out of the car and turned the radio full blast and danced in the parking lot to warm herself up for her 4 am run. Got to love her!

Cathy and Patricia enjoying a swim in the ocean to celebrate being done with their legs.

The finish line! 22 hours after we started we crossed the finish line as a team.

ODA conference

We'll we didn't actually go to the ODA conference, but Jeremy did. Me and the kids just played in Portland all weekend. We went to OMSI and to the zoo and ate at lots of fun places. Since this is kind of a perk trip for Jeremy's staff we stayed at the Embassy Suites and were spoiled. I had a made to order, cooked before my eyes omelet every morning for breakfast. The kids loved the waterfall in the lobby. Jaden said, "Does dad stay places like this every time he travels? Not Fair!" I'm sure Jeremy wishes all his accommodations were this nice. The highlight of my trip was seeing my friend Rachel. We have been friends since we were 12. We went to The Cheesecake Factory, it was great to catch up since we only see each other about once a year.

Home school Month 1

We have officially been home schooling Jaden for one month! We love it. We are having so much fun and I am loving getting to spend so much time with him, plus I like knowing about everything he is learning. I have learned a lot too, so hopefully this will keep my brain from getting rusty. Her are some photos from our first month. It has really been a lot easier then I expected. It could be because in Math we are doing a lot of review for him because I wasn't exactally sure where he ended in school, but oh well. History is our favorite subject I think. We have learned about Alexander the Great, and now we are learning about the Romans.

Pharo's lighthouse in Alexandria, one of the 7 wonders of the world. I love this project because I didn't have all the supplies to finish it so I told him to just do the best he could. I thought he would just jerry rigg it, but he went around the house and collected supplies and did a great job finishing it on his own. I was impressed with his ingenuity.

January picks and March updates!

I am so far behind on this thing. I am so sorry to those of you check frequently and find nothing new here. I just have lacked the motivation to put pictures from my camera on to the computer. As you probably know we have been working on remodeling our kitchen. We have gotten a lot done. The new cabinets are in, the counters, sink, and dishwasher are all in. We finished the floor and on Mon my new stove got installed so we are up and running now. We still need to do things like change the lighting and change the trim around the windows to match the new cabinets but I am just happy we aren't eating out anymore ( I love eating out, but every meal was ridiculous).

3-D Ella watching Coraline

Scout snowcapades was a blast.

Jaden and Kyla both loved the sledding and the friends.

Jaden breaking a board before he got his brown belt in January. I don't know if I posted about it before.

Suprise!! (Delayed considering this event took place a month and a half ago)

This is my father in laws reaction to his 60th birthday surprise. My sister in law, Jennifer, flew in from Indiana. It was killing the Grand kids to wait for him. I think he spent 10 min outside talking on the phone before he came in. I was proud of the kids though, they kept quite when it counted.

Jennifer with her little brother.

Kristen waiting for family pictures
Cousins!!!

Grandpa and Rachel

We started with Grandpa and we'll end with Grandpa. I know he'll love this picture.