Our Upcoming Trip

To break up this really long, boring, wet winter, we have decided to take our annual vacation a little early. Plus, I don't want to be driving on a long road trip when I'm 20 months pregnant. So...we figured we will just take it a little early. Another change is that my sister and her family are going with us, as well as our good family friend. This way, the kids will have playmates and there will always be someone to go on rides with. This year, we have decided to visit Disneyland again...yay!! We went last time when Rylee was 2 and she hasn't stopped talking about it since then.

We've decided to leave when I get off work at 4 pm and drive straight through to San Diego where we will stay the night and go to Sea World the next morning. My family has never been to Sea World and I must say that I am very excited to go! Right now, I'm excited to go anywhere that the sun is shining :) From there, we will drive back to Anaheim and stay the week there. We're also planning on visiting California Adventure this time around. We didn't go last time because Rylee was too small to be able to go on hardly any of the rides which in turn would mean I wouldn't be able to go on anything. I don't really mind this fact (since I won't this year either) because I'm not much of a "ride" person. I send myself into a panic attack and freeze on the spot. The most I can do is the Ferris Wheel and a roller coaster as long as it doesn't go upside down or in a loop. There are a few in between, but I have been known to wait in line for an hour and then walk away when it's my turn. My poor family! This is another reason why I am glad there are several of us going. I'm also hoping for splendid sunny weather so we can go on water rides as well. Can you tell I'm excited? Now if I can only wait until the end of February....

My mom's family is from southern California and it was so much fun last time when we found my grandmother's old house and pulled off the side of the road for pictures. So many childhood memories came flooding back of walking down those streets and all of the smells from different shops everywhere. We didn't get to visit too often but when we did, it stuck with me for a long time. Maybe one of these days I'll look up one of my cousins or aunts and stop by for a visit.

I'm hoping that my morning sickness will be gone by then so I can enjoy everything. I'll be 4 months by then so I'm planning on it going on vacation (forever) as well. I had my first real appointment this morning besides the ultrasound I had a couple of weeks ago. It was the fun one where they poke and prod everywhere (sorry if that was TMI). Anyway, I got to hear the peanut's heartbeat and my midwife said that everything looks perfect. She said the word "perfect" about 6 or 7 times so I'm guessing that's a good thing :) Even though this was a huge oops and surprise, I find myself getting past that finally and looking forward to what is to come. I still can't believe I will have 4 children when all of this is said and done. I always saw myself with only 3 so I'm a little nervous. Obviously God had other things in mind. Luckily my two older ones love love love babies and I know they will be a tremendous help.

So, we're really looking forward to our trip and hope that time flies until we get to leave. Until then, is a little sunshine too much to ask for? I need to move to a sunnier state!!

Cars, Trains, and Portland

This past weekend, Mike and I decided to get away for some very necessary relaxation...and some Christmas shopping. So on Saturday morning, we got up early, dropped the girls off with my sister, and headed to the Amtrak station. Mike had never been on a train before but I had taken a couple of trips prior, including one with my mom several years back, to Los Angeles. Talk about a long trip! Anyway, a couple of years ago, my employer took all of us employees down to Portland via the Amtrak, gave us each $200 and a sack lunch, and set us free to roam the city for the day. We also got paid for the day as it was a Friday. Such generosity!

I had so much fun that day that it has stuck around in my ever turning brain, waiting to be repeated. So with our bags in tow, we sat awaiting our late train :) We were only a little over an hour behind with no time frame so we just enjoyed spending time together. We never got the chance to go anywhere for our anniversary this year and then Rylee got sick so it was certainly time to get away.


When we finally arrived in Portland, the station that greeted us was much bigger than the one we had come from. Union Station had an old fashioned look to it that made us feel like we had stepped into another time.

We headed out the doors to the city and began our journey of finding the visitor's center. Portland has this great light rail system that is free to ride all around downtown. Luckily, it also went across the bridge to our hotel. We didn't pay a cent to travel around the city. After we found our way to Pioneer Square where the visitor's center is located (not knowing which tram to take, we walked about 15 long blocks), we got a map of the city and directions to our hotel, where we promptly dropped off our luggage. I'm not exactly sure how, but I managed to talk Mike into heading to the nearest shopping center almost immediately. After a couple of wrong turns, a man finally asked us where we were headed and if we needed any help..lol. We were obviously tourists so he pointed us in the right direction. Since we had forgotten the camera, I took a few (blurry unfortunately) pictures with my phone. Very cool mall!

After shopping for a few hours, we decided to head back to the hotel and check out the Skyview Lounge located on the 6th floor. Luckily for us, it was basically deserted and we had the nice old bartender to ourselves. He tried out a couple of his homemade concocted martinis on Mike and after our unscrupulous bill, we took his advice to take the tram back downtown and find a fun place for dinner. We ended up at the Rock Bottom Brewery and had a great meal and a couple too many beers :) I don't remember giggling that much with my honi in quite some time. It was very nice...

Our train didn't leave until 4:20 the next day, so we had the majority of the day to explore. I have not walked that much in a long time! We took our bags back to the train station and put them behind the counter for $3 so we wouldn't have to lug them around all day. Again, I was able to drag Mike around a couple of malls without any complaints! It must have been because there was no tax. We had lunch at Paddy's Bar and Grill and I've never seen so many choices that were not in a movie.

We finally made our way back to Union Station and got onto our cushy comfy train to come back to reality. Not a bad weekend get-away! I highly recommend it for holiday shopping and a lot of fun. One more cute picture to leave you with:

Loaded Weekend Part 2...

The second day of our mini-vacation was much more fun than the first. We woke up early, grabbed a bite to eat at the local Fred Meyer (everyone was pretty much sick of fast food all ready) and headed to Silverwood. The girls, of course, had no idea where we were going to spend the day because....I love surprises! Of all times to be doing road construction, Idaho picked the Saturday we were visiting. We sat in a long line of traffic for a good 40 minutes in the heat. When we finally arrived, we could hardly keep everyone buckled until we got into the parking lot. We unpacked our gear and began the long trek to the park. We had purchased our tickets at Costco the week before and saved ourselves almost $50, as opposed to buying them at the gate.

We arrived around 11:00 am and it was all ready well into the 80's so we slathered sunscreen on and decided to go to the water park first. We thought maybe we'd beat some of the crowd that waited until it was a little warmer. We did, but there were still plenty of people that obviously had the same idea as we did. The kids didn't seem to mind though and we spent a few hours playing in the water. There was even a bar with bar stools in the water serving fresh margaritas....wish I would have taken advantage of that! Oh well, my water tasted just fine...

Alyssa helping Colton...

Connor looking so cute...

Rylee went on the water slide all by herself...




Notice there are no pictures of McKenzie and Maddi....they were way too cool to hang out with the parents! Wherever we were, they were around the corner acting like they didn't know us..lol. Ahhhh...to be young and popular again.

We soon felt the beginnings of hunger pains and found a quaint little eatery called Cowboy BBQ to rest our all ready weary bones (well the parents anyway). Everyone was mostly thirsty but of course refills were NOT free. They even had a guy sitting right next to the soda fountain watching everyone and charging. Geez!! Toward the end of the day, we finally got smart and got a refillable sports bottle. Talk about getting it's use!

Since it was such a nice warm day, the water rides and roller coasters had the longest lines. When we asked Rylee which ride she HAD to go on, she said the ferris wheel. Oh my gosh....I don't think I've ever waited so long for a ride! We stood in line for almost an hour with only 10 people in front of us! I would have walked away but she was so excited that I just couldn't break her heart. When we finally got our turn, she had her hands in the air and giggled uncontrollably...priceless!






And then, at the most in-opportune time, stuck at the very top....she had to pee. And it wasn't just a little bit...she had to go right now!! She started bouncing and whimpering...what do you do?? My first thought was to let her just pee her pants because she had waited so long for this ride and now it was being ruined..and then I came to my mommy senses and looked below us. That would not work. There were many people underneath us..can you imagine getting peed on from 100 feet up in the air?? LOL!! I did consider it though.. Anyway, she somehow managed to hold it until we reached the ground thank goodness. After a very fast run to the bathroom, we were off to the other rides.

Mike looks a little apprehensive!





Yeah, that's Alyssa, McKenzie, and Maddie in the hot pink, white, and purple shirts...SICK!!!



Kenzie & Maddi are directly in the center section, front seat...We were laying underneath them in the grass and they came swooping by upside down and Mike was able to snap it right at the perfect time!

Alyssa riding the bumper cars (it's a little dark in there)

Here are a few of our relaxing times between the rides:

Rylee didn't want to let Garfield go! She said his belly was buzzing...lol

We didn't end up leaving until almost 10:00 that night and boy were we pooped! I think two out of the three kids were asleep before we even left the parking lot. So much fun, but so much packed into 11 hours! Well worth it though....

Loaded Weekend Part 1...

So I haven't blogged in a very long time because 1) it's been so darn hot and 2) I just can't think of anything to say! I have a ton of pictures but I just have no words to go with them. This past weekend however, we made our way over to Idaho again. My friend that lives in eastern WA picked McKenzie and Alyssa up on Sunday the 19th and kept them all week. So on Friday, we made our way over to Cheney and picked them up. We then headed to Idaho for a quick, jam packed weekend. We took over 600 pictures so I think a couple different posts are in order or I may break my computer!

On the way over, we of course stopped in Vantage to view the horses on the hill and the beautiful view offered by the Columbia River. It was very windy (as my sister can attest to~her dress flew up almost over her head!) but it was so hot, the wind was a blessing. Here are a couple pics of the kids:

After we picked the girls up, at which point Rylee could barely contain herself from the excitement of seeing her sissy's again, we drove into Idaho and found our hotel. It was right on the water and had a great view from the balcony. We decided to go find some food and let the kids run off some pent up energy in Coeur D' Alene. Before we left, Rylee had to use the restroom and since we were right outside of Bobbi's room, she used theirs. Big mistake! The toilet overflowed and got all over her legs and feet....YUCK!!! Number one issue with hotel...

Anyway, we decided to go down to the boardwalk in Coeur D' Alene and the kids loved it! It was getting a little dark, as we didn't get there until pretty late, but we managed to grab a few good shots. I think I had a few almost mini heart attacks every time Rylee took off running on the dock. McKenzie and Maddi were way too cool to pay much attention to the rest of us, Alyssa was busy keeping track of the little kids (because she thinks we are not capable), and Rylee and Colton just wanted to be as close to the edge as they possibly could. It was lots of fun but a bit stressful. I almost wished I had brought their lifejackets so we didn't have to worry as much.

















When it was finally too dark to take any more pictures and the kids started to whine because they were tired, we decided to head back to the hotel. After a bath and clean jammies, the room quickly fell silent. Gotta love the calm after the storm! It was definitely an end to a good day...