The latest

Quiet moments around here are hard to come by.  One minute there boys are playing nicely and the next minute someone is crying. Sometimes it's me. ha! (Those naughty boys!) Pretty typical of two small boys. I captured a fun moment here of them riding around in their toy box. Erik's Uncle Joe made this for him when he was a child and now we have it. It's SO cool! They emptied it out and we raced up and down the hallway.

There has been a lot of street work/construction near our house lately. Free entertainment. I'm not kidding. we've watched street sweepers, steam rollers, digger, backhoe loaders, dump trucks, pavement trucks, etc. all from our front window (they are taking weeks, it's been about 5, to replace all the perfect street corners to have those yellow bumpy things ...... yet we're closing schools...don't get me started. There must be good reason for it, right?) Anyway...the boys love construction. And it's something different, right? So I shouldn't complain.

Grandma Gail gave the boys a butterfly Garden for Easter. It's SO neat! We ordered our caterpillars and they boys have been watching them closely every day. They say good-night to them every night too. We're anxious to see them change into butterflies. Getting closer!

It seems we've had quite a bit of rain this year. I love it. This day it was hailing for a while. So, yes, I let them outside in their pajamas to collect some ice.
(click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see the hail falling)

I got this idea from a friend of mine (she has three boys). Finger painting with shaving cream. Boys are in heaven, they are occupied and are not fighting. Yay! For like 20 minutes! Complete disaster but worth it every once in a while. Our house smelled like "man" for several days afterwards. I mean, "clean man". But, eh, still worth it.

Be sure to keep scrolling down to find the other two posts I did today. One on our local fair and another on DISNEYLAND!

Fiesta Days 2011

Our local fair was in town recently and we had a little time to check it our one morning before Erik had to go to work. It's like every other fair/carnival. Carnies. Creepy. We tried to look at it through the eyes of the munchkins and let them do a few trusty-looking rides. We saw part of the parade and hit up the Farmer's Market too.

Max got to go on a pony ride.

  The boys got to ride on the "super-fast-race cars". Just like Autopia, Max takes this stuff very seriously.

And the carousel. Home of the creepiest carnies. Erik held onto them pretty tightly (no belts or buckles) and we scrubbed them after they got off. ha!

We gave our last few tickets to another family walking by and we got out of there. The boys had fun, that's all that matters, right? 

Disneyland 2011

I'm finally blogging about our trip. Every single time I try and post pictures I quickly find two little Disney fans glued to my side screaming and squealing from excitement, pointing, naming, and begging to return. I completely understand it all and it turns into a fun little trip down memory lane.

We drove down in the veeeery early hours (after Erik got off work) of a Wednesday morning. We had three day passes that were starting that very day. So we were in a hurry! My younger brother, John, and his wife, Carla, and their three kids were there that day too.....and they had GRANDMA MILLS

(my Mom) with them! It was their "day three" and they were leaving town the next day. So, we were so lucky to be able to spend the day with them.

And...

We got to keep Grandma to ourselves for the next two days! Did you hear that? Grandma got to be at Disneyland for FIVE days! With Grand babies. Seriously, it's her happy place. And when you go with her, it's your happy place too.

One day when we were walking into the park there was another family close-by. We overheard the Mom say "Oh, you guys, I think I'm gonna cry." My Mom and I looked at each other and said, "Yeah, we totally get her." I know, it sounds way nerdy. But it's such a magical place!!!

All pictures are out of order.

And in 99.9% of all pictures, someone is looking the wrong way.

The boys in Toon Town, driving the fire truck.

Alex in Max's new pirate hat.

Wednesday was VERY HOT! At least 95 degrees. Here are the boys trying to cool off with cold treats.

Max posing with his personal pirate.

On Thursday we spent some time at California Adventure. It was the first time there for us (not my Mom) and we had fun exploring. Here are Max and Erik posing in the Toy Box.

Max's favorite ride was Pirates of the Caribbean. We probably went on in a hundred times. He was able to pick out his very own pirate hat. At this dinner, he asked for the map of the park and quickly turned it into his treasure map. He sang the pirates theme song the whole time. And made Erik turn his hat on backwards to be his trusty assistant, Mr. Smee.

 

Erik and Max riding Dumbo.

All of us on Alice in Wonderland. It was pretty quiet that morning so the operator offered to take a photo. Nice guy.

At California Adventure we were able to watch a Disney Junior Live! show. It was all the characters the boys love to watch on TV. They got to dance and sing and they loved every second of it. This photo sums up Alex. Really wants to have fun. But reeeealllly wants to have Mom in sight. At.All.Times.

We sort of surprised the boys with this. The line kind of goes around a little corner so we waited and then BAM! Mater and McQueen. They were SO stinking excited. Max hugged McQueen on his way out.

Erik and Max on Autopia. Notice a trend here? Max wanted to do every ride with his Daddy. Which was fine, since Alex doesn't want me out of his sight. He even puked on my Mom from crying so hard when Erik and I went on a ride together. Sorry, Mom.

I love the seriousness on Max's face here.

Wednesday night we went to dinner at Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney. We snapped this picture of Riley, Max and John while walking there. Super cute.

Payten, Max and Riley on the Jungle Cruise. See their red faces? So HOT!

Okay, so this ride is boring, yes. But the kids love it and it had A/C.

The first ride we (and by we, I mean Erik and Max) went on was The Matterhorn. I really don't think Max had any idea what he was getting himself into. But he did it again. And he did Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Space Mountain too.

Here they are on a jellyfish ride (I think?). I loved that you can see Max's little head peeking out.

At the end of the day, you find this. Pure exhaustion.

We had the most amazing trip. It was quick and busy.

And we can't wait to go back!

Teaser

Here is a little teaser of what we've been up to.

1. Took the kids to the Happiest Place on Earth. (it really is and Max has been asking/dreaming about it since we got home. Alex too, but is more like a muted scream when he see's anything Disney). Best trip ever!
2. Max is three. I'm not sure if I have enough "Mom" in me to handle a three year old. Learning new tricks.
3. Erik still works UHLOT! He's transitioning from the hospital to the ambulance (full time) so we are getting used to new hours, etc.
4. I have a leach. You call him Alex. I call him annoyingly cute. I just want to walk three feet without a hitch hiker (Oh, I'm so not joking about that either)
5. Erik also got hired on with the County Fire District. It's volunteer and he has all that sexy fireman gear. Makes my heart go pitter patter. It's still new so more on that as we learn.
6. Breathing Treatments. Back to those again. After our trip, the boys got hit with illness. Fever, coughs, etc. They sound horrible and we're watching them closely. There might not be anything worse than watching/listening to your babies struggle to breathe.
7. Running. I'm learning how. My niece, Kirra. is going off to college in the fall (BYU!) and wants to run a 5k with all the girls in the family before she goes. We'll see if I can. I love Kirra way more than I HATE running. No promises.
8. We have all been diagnosed with something called PDD. It's very serious and can only be resolved on one way. I'm sure you have all had it at one time, it's very common in my family. It's called.............................................Post Disneyland Depression. It's totally real. We're totally suffering. We miss you, Mickey!
9.Words With Friends. Yes, I'm blogging about it. (It's scrabble on the phone) My sister, Kristen, is a gamer. Like, a big fat nerd when it comes to games (not video game nerd, just so dang good at them! So is her husband. We're talking GOOOOOOOD!). She kicks my booty every time. Now on my Bucket List (cause it will take that long): BEAT HER!
10. Sleep. Please come back to my house!!! PLLLEEEEEEEAAAAAASSSEEEE??? With sugar on top???

Gotta go, the leach is trying to pull my arm off the boys are calling...more pictures later...