Today we Celebrate

 One of my favorite things to do on the Fourth of July is go to the Magna Parade. Not so much for the floats or the royalty - more for the people watching of the people watching the parade. I asked Jamie to take a picture of me and my kids when the parade was over and the above gem is what I got. Not Jamie's fault. My oldest child has a phobia of the camera. He stood there with his eyes closed and claimed he couldn't help it. He's mostly retarded, but he gets that from me.

 I almost didn't get to Old Navy in time to get Erin her "July shirt" this year. They were about out. She calls this particular holiday "July." Not Independence Day or the Fourth of July. Just July. And it is her favorite holiday.

Brynlee, Emma, Kailee, Cambree, Erin and Josh

 Since Josh hides from the camera (or has a phobia or whatever), I made sure it was in his face a lot.All his "frecks" are showing in this picture. Pretty cute.

 Em was good to help Bryn get some candy at the parade. And Bryn was quite the performer. Every time she heard music and/or saw dancers, she was right out in the street dancing with them. So funny.

 The weather was strange for this time of year (shocking, I know). It sprinkled on us just enough to make the day pleasant. Jer stayed home to make some ribs for us and had a bit of a struggle as he stood out in the rain trying to smoke some baby backs. They were delicious - as always. This was the first time he has done ribs in a couple of years so he didn't make a lot so there was no sharing. Sorry. If you've had his ribs before, you are probably really bitter right now for not getting an invitation. I will try and talk him into making them again this summer. And I will invite you (all two of you that read this).

 More pics of Josh. Ha. I win. Though in this picture he is winning at annoying the snot out of his dad. They are good at harassing each other - a lot. Look at the smirk on his face. Turd.

 Tell me she's not the cutest thing you've seen all day. Okay so both girls are adorable. I am biased, but whatever. I'm allowed to be. 

So there is our "July" all summed up. Hope yours was crazy fun, too!!!

Little Stink

My blog posts have been less than consistent and have lacked any kind of personality lately. My laptop died. Boo. It needs a new screen and I'm not sure it's worth replacing it or just getting a whole new laptop. As for our desktop, a little girl named Emma (not the sassy pants in the pictures) is addicted to online fashion games. She has been warned not to go to certain websites, but does anyway and low and behold, my computer has a virus and is shut down until Jer can clean up the mess.

So, I was just going through the pictures on the netbook and found these of Erin. She cracks me up. The top one is the front of her, believe it or not. She put all of her hair in front of her face and put her hat on. Such a character. She's been such a stinker lately. A moody little thing. She is either performing for a crowd and making everyone laugh, or bawling her eyes out over something completely lame. She is usually crying because she is hungry and doesn't know what she wants. I think she is going through a growth spurt but I am just about done with the crying fits. I keep thinking she needs to nap, but even when she has a full belly and slept for 12 hours the night before, she finds a reason to cry. I don't remember my other two going through this stage.

Anyway, just a lame update.  Let me know if you have any suggestions for the crying six year old.

Year End Recital

Isn't she gorgeous? Emma will be dancing this Monday, June 20 for her end of the year recital. I know it may not be some people's favorite thing to go watch a bunch of cloggers dance, but I love it. I am excited for the family to see her dance. Emma absolutely loves to clog. Her feet are always moving. Between Josh doing his soccer drills in the front room and Emma practicing her moves in the kitchen, it's not always quiet around here.

Disneyland Day 4 and 5

Anyone sick of Disneyland posts? Okay well this is it. So take a good long look of Jack Sparrows arm around me. That's right. His arm is around me. Wah ah ah ah ah. So it's not Johnny Depp, but he does look a lot like him. And, this guy was awesome!

When we got to the park on Saturday morning, it was crazy. The cast members had turned the park into Pirates of the Caribbean black carpet celebration chaos. They had the World Premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides on Saturday. People sat on Main Street all day to see the celebs. We, on the other hand, didn't hesitate to leave and go over to California Adventure. Yes, yes, it was killing me knowing that Johnny was across the way from me. But, I couldn't handle the crowds. And, while at DCA, I did get to see Adam Sandler. There were celebs left and right, but most of them just annoyed me because they get to go to the front of all the lines.

And, just like that, Sunday morning they started taking it down. It was a crazy mess. It was cool to see all of it, but there were so many stinking people.

Sunday (day 5) was Mother's Day. I didn't think DL would be too crowded just because of Mother's Day. But, it was. We went to Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast (a favorite of ours). It was awesome and I'm not sure why, but I don't have any pics. I know I do somewhere, so maybe there will be one more post about DL.

We finally got to see Mickey. And the kids were surprised at his height (or lack thereof). Josh is taller than Mickey Mouse (even his ears don't add much). I'm not sure what Emma is pulling that face for... but it's funny anyway.

 Here is our vacation coming to an end... I finally got a pic of the kids at the entrance to the park. 

 And, thank goodness, we got a picture of gay Alladin. His chest is hairless. Anyway...

 We spent not enough time playing all kinds of games and finding out how fat we are at Innoventions. Love this place.

 Emma couldn't wait to go on Autopia. I think she needed to redeem herself after our last trip when she had to have the ride stopped 'cause she had an anxiety attack over driving the car herself. She totally redeemed herself!

Finally, we ended our vacation with the amazing World of Color. We had a great view. We had about 45 minutes to wait for the show, so I played with my camera on manual mode for a bit. Look how awesome this picture is of my favorite ride.

I wanted to get a picture during World of Color, but I wanted to enjoy it too. So this is it. What an amazing way to end our vacation. It was perfect.

Disneyland Day 3

 Our 3rd day of vacation wasn't just at DL. Amazing, I know. We actually do take our kids to see something in the world other than Mickey Mouse. We went to Crystal Cove. It was beautiful. I love the beach. And we pretty much had this one to ourselves. Emma was a little unsure of all the jumping little bugs (which is funny to me because she is my nature girl), so she wasn't too keen on the idea of staying longer than a couple of hours. Jer took the kids to a couple of little tide pools to look for creatures, but it was a little high and there wasn't much to be found. Erin was a little disappointed about having to leave the sea shells there for others to enjoy. I'm actually thankful that some of the beach is considered a state park and remains awesome.

 Of course, after the beach, we went straight to The Crab Cooker. Oh how I love this place. It is a Johnson favorite, but Jer and I are always introducing it to everyone we know. So, if you are one of the lucky friends that have been there with us, wait till you hear what Erin did.....

 .... She sat there.... and didn't eat a dang thing! Look at that amazing grub and she wouldn't even try it. We ordered extra cheesy potatoes... and there's buckets of butter... and she refused. So when the rest of us were done stuffing ourselves, we went to McDonald's for Erin. Can you believe her? Food was pretty much an issue with her the whole time we were on vacation. Such a pill.

 

We did find that she loves frozen bananas. As do I. But there is just this picture that I can post here. (Though I've heard that a certain someone has been showing another frozen banana picture to a handful of people). 

 And, yes, even on our beach day, we went to DL and California Adventure. It was Friday so we had to go experience the street party ElecTRONica. It was awesome. They start with a little performance on the street and then move it back by Flynn's Arcade. It goes for hours with music, clips from the movie, video games, arcade games, drinks, a laser show and dancing. This would be my kind of place if I didn't have 3 little rug rats with me. I didn't want to embarrass them so I stood still... trying very hard to not party with the rest of the lunatic DL freaks.

Disneyland Day 2

 Erin has been to Disneyland lots, but has never gotten an autograph book (I think Jer and I put our foot down on these a while back when they started determining how and where we would spend our days in the park). Even though I hate that you have to wait in line to see characters now (not like in the olden days when they would all just be wandering the park), it was fun to see her get excited about having her picture taken with them. And, yes, we even waited in a few lines for her.

 Erin kept telling us she didn't want to see anymore movies - she just wanted to ride rides. But, we talked her into the Bugs Life movie and it was great. She was my entertainment this trip.

 Josh bought a penny collection booklet and just about filled it while we were there. They had fun finding the penny smashers and adding to his collection. Erin had to be the one to get it out of the machine every time. And, Josh sounded like he was celebrating Cargo Pant day every day with his change stash in his pockets.

 This little vending machine is in Monsters Inc. I think they should start packaging "snacks" like this. Just say what it is - sugar, salt and fat. Then maybe I won't be as tempted.

 It was a good thing we went to both Disneyland and California Adventure on Wednesday and Thursday because it got so busy on the weekend! The kids got me to go on Mickey's Fun Wheel. I hate Ferris wheels. I am afraid of heights. I don't like being in those cages and no one being buckled in. We got to the top and the kids thought it was funny to trade seats ... ugh. I was not okay. So to keep my mind off of the little poops, I took pictures of the Cars construction from up top. Hopefully you can see what I am talking about. So much of CA is under construction right now, but the biggest area is behind Tower of Terror where they are working on the new Cars attraction. The mountain is on the right side of the picture. It is 15 stories high. I can't wait for it to open.

Disneyland Day 1

I know it seems silly to post a picture of the hippo in It's a Small World, but since this was my first time riding this attraction in a bazillion years, I had to share. It seems like it has been closed forever so every time we go down, we don't get to ride through and get the song stuck in our heads for the remainder of the trip.

We finally figured out that it goes so much faster if we leave our house at 3:30 in the a.m. and drive straight through. Well, with one exception - we did stop in Mesquite for a breakfast buffet. It was great. I will admit, I was a little worried about whether or not the kids would actually sleep on the way down. But, they did okay. All three of them slept for most of the drive and Jer and I were able to listen to Harry Potter on cd (thanks to our awesome friends that let us borrow them).

We got to Anaheim around 1:30p.m. and checked into the hotel. We dumped our crap and started our vacation. We walked over to Subway for a quick lunch and we were in the park by 3:00p.m. It was great to be there on a Wednesday night with so few people and 90 degree weather. I so was not going to complain about the heat after our lame weather in Utah this Spring. It felt so nice to let the sun beat down on my face. Ahhh.

Of course, we stuck with tradition and went right to Pirates of the Caribbean. There's something about the smell of that ride and the walk through the line... love it. This was our first trip to DL without a stroller/toddler. We didn't have to take turns on rides and there were only two that Erin wasn't tall enough for. It's amazing how much you can do in five or six hours when there's none of that stroller parking and ride swapping going on.

I actually spent some time curling Erin's hair the first day. Notice how the humidity took care of that? I didn't bother doing anything special with her hair the rest of the trip.

So there's a sneak peak of our trip. I am going to have to do it in several posts so hopefully ya'll don't get annoyed with all my Disneyland pictures. I can't ever leave any out. :)