March 25, 2020

This is a different editor of this blog. It is 2020, and the family is into our 2nd week of quarantine. We have all caught a secondary infection, family fever.  The symptoms are much the same as cabin fever,  and stopping one raises the other. 🀧😷 orπŸ˜‘πŸ‘¨‍πŸ‘©‍πŸ‘§‍πŸ‘§. Which do you like more,  sanity or your lungs?

March 3, 2019

Disneyland!

For ski week we decided to finally take the kids down to Disneyland. I did a bunch of research before and we ended up having a great (if not exhausting) time. Over three days, Travis calculated we spent 38.5 hours in the park and walked 38 miles. Whew!
Day one was Disneyland

Autotopia


Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Travis may or may not have gone on this ride while on a work conference call (muted, of course -- I have no idea if he ever told them)

Delish clam chowder in bread bowls for lunch

How could we miss the teacups?


visit to Mickey Mouse



And don't forget the churros. We rode that churro ride many, many times :) 
The third day (I think?) Nora would happily tell anyone we were standing near that she had eaten a churro for dinner that day. Parenting win!

Funny story: We didn't think Nora would be tall enough to ride a lot of the big rides, but she was just 40" so we took her on EVERYTHING -- whether she liked it or not. And most of the time, she didn't. 
I do love this picture of us riding Space Mountain. Benjamin looks scared out of his mind, while that's Peter's 'I'm having so much fun I forgot to smile' face, and I was basically reassuring Nora the entire ride too. Good times.

probably Nora's favorite ride: the carousel 


Day two: California Adventures
We were all pretty stinking tired after that first day but everyone woke up bright and early for another go at Disney magic.

Sadly we didn't get to ride as many rides that day because it started raining in the afternoon and lots of things closed down. 
Including Radiator Springs Racers which we had been waiting for our fast passes to come up all day long. Oh well :(



We were pretty beat and any chance we got to take a bit of a break you'd find everyone sprawled out like this. So tired. 
Luckily, we caught the amazing Frozen show and enjoyed some quality down time. The show was amazing!

Guardian's of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout (my personal favorite ride and Nora's least favorite)

Day Three: Disneyland
surprisingly the kids chose to come back to Disneyland for the last day. 

Nora did love the Small World ride


The boys went a rode a few more big rides like Indiana Jones while Nora and I did Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and the Teacups again.  

Taking a dance break outside of Space Tours.


It started raining again that afternoon and Nora found this little umbrella on the ground and was walking around holding it up like a crack-up.

We took a break back at our hotel while it rained and came back nice and refreshed and happy to see that the crowds had mostly thinned out. We rode lots of rides and even managed to walk right on several -- even if it was FREEZING!



 Benji really wanted to pull this sword out.

Obviously we were the life of the party.
We were glad we took the kids -- hopefully they all will be able to remember at least some of it, because I don't know if we'll ever go back ha!

February 23, 2019

Peter growing up

Back in January, Peter turned 11

The pinewood derby was on the day of his party and with his research from last year, he took 2nd place overall this year. (and Nora blinged out her ride and took most detailed)

For his birthday party, Peter decided he wanted to have a giant Nerf war for his party. It turned out really cool -- we invited a bunch of his friends and bought some inflatable bunkers and over 1,000 Nerf bullets and let the kids have at it at the park. 
Peter kept telling us it was the 'best party ever!'



Peter has had a lot of big things happen this year he got to go with all the 5th graders to science camp for 4 days. It was at a YMCA camp in the mountains and I think he had a blast. It was weird not having him home for a few days but it was such a great experience for him.

He earned the science award at the school awards assembly. Love my little science nerd.

Peter has been working really hard in cub scouts to earn his Arrow of Light by his birthday. 
At the Blue and Gold dinner our campfire cake won Best in Show! The prize was a ride in a Waymo car so we were determined to win :)



January 1, 2019

Winter Break

Over Christmas Break we took the kids skiing at Donner Ski Ranch and had a blast.
The boys took a lesson in the morning and by the end of the day they were flying up and down the lift by themselves and having so much fun. 








I was so proud of the boys going up the lifts by themselves.


We also met some friends, the Hansens, at the Exploratorium in San Francisco.


Sometimes the kids play together so well -- they've spent several days enjoying Nora's Calico Critters together.