1st grade trip to the Zoo

The group before we started on our journey!

Today Hayley's 1st grade class went to the Phoenix Zoo...again no camera so I had to rely on my trusty phone for my 2 pictures :-). Oh well its the memories....and at least we have some proof to help us remember. I took Sadie and i think she loved it more than Hayley....she walked around every where and would have nothing to do with the stroller! Hayley's favorite part was the petting zoo...where they got to brush the goats...disgusting was my first thought but at 6 that sounds AWESOME right? When we got to the turtles they must have been playing leap frog because they were trying to climb on top of each other :-)....at least that is the story I am sticking to when it comes to 6-year-old's wondering what they were doing on top of each other.

Family Pictures 2009

This is pretty much what half of the pictures looked like...someone not looking or just a second to late for the perfect shot :-)

Yes...this is me

Someone on another boat took this...little awakard but we asked another boat to pull up and take our picture...oh well it turned out cute!

This chick was crazy...I am sure she was confunsed about why were not in our bathing suits and why we couldn't swim.

The cute little couple...hee hee!

Hayley Hannah

Riley Ryan

Paige Patricia

Every year we take some sort of family pictures and make a Christmas card. This year we sat around the kitchen table looking at all of our old cards and all of the cards we received from are friends and family last year trying to come up with an idea for a fun card....when Ryan said "the lake". We are lake people and we should take our picture at the lake. This revelation came about 2 p.m. and we planned on taking the picture around 4 at our friends house in their front yard. The outfits I had coordinated were not really conducive to the lake but what the heck....oh ya a couple minor problems to overcome we had not asked anyone to drive all the way to the lake on an hours notice on a Sunday afternoon and we have no camera...what are we doing? Anyway after I got everyone ready we borrowed Dusty's camera and headed to the lake on our own and this is the final product...not bad for some rookie photographers :-)

Everybody loves toothpaste

After getting out of the shower this morning I was greeted by this.......

Yep, that is my sweet little 21 month old baby girl who hijacked Riley's tube of toothpaste and squeezed the entire thing and spread it all over her body like lotion...really who doesn't need a good toothpaste body rub right ? I just had to laugh she thought it was so fun! Love you Sader B!

Stolen bike

Riley called tonight from Tanners (his best friend) hysterical....I could not even understand him he was so upset. When I finally got the story....his bike had been stolen from Tanner's garage! OMG...the bike he worked for months to buy after having another bike stolen. I could not take it he has been so responsible he will not even leave it outside while he goes in to open the garage to put it away. The next morning when Riley was saying prayers he said "let the person who has my bike ride it a little longer and then give it back"....only him....We decided to make flyer....and it paid off! Long story short...it was found at the junior high and he got it back. He was so excited....and the kid came over to give Riley a letter he had written to apologize and my sweet 10-year-old boy felt so bad for him he started to cry when he read the letter :-(. The kid was really sorry and hopefully will never it do it again but it was a great lesson on both sides and hopefully all my children realize how serious it is to steal and how many people are effected by each choice you make in life...

Pop Warner Football

At the beginning when we signed up and went to the first 4 hour practice I was trying to decide if I thought this was a cult or just something parents do to punish there kids....but now I have joined the club of ridiculously crazy people to put everything in their life on hold for 2 months of football season and I LOVE IT! I thought for sure Riley would get hit or hit someone and breakdown because he I know how sensitive my baby boy is but no such luck....he is a maniac out there! He played offense, defense and special teams doing kick off blocking and even punted a few times. This kid was made to play football he is a blocking machine. The made a play for him called special B...where they hiked it to him and he would run it. He was so excited and everyone was yelling different orders from the side lines "move up, get low, back up, etc", the ball gets hiked right to his face and he drops it....oh man I could have cried but they ran it again and he held onto and ran it through the gap. He absolutely loves it. For a few years he has always said he wanted to be a professional baseball player and now he is convinced he is going to play football for BYU that way he won't have to play on Sundays. He has loved every minute of this season....from the first month of 4 hour practices five days a week to 8 a.m. away games where he has to leave by 5:30 to get warmed up. We are proud of you Riley!

Halloween

Could that bow be any bigger?

In typical Halloween fashion Ryan, Sadie and I hit the party rotation and parade at the school. Riley was a football player, Paige a diva (totally based on her personality of course), Hayley was a ladybug and Sadie was a dancer....They were all so stinking cute especially Sadie who wore a hand-me-down costume from Hayley's 3-year-old dancing career that was short lived :-). On Halloween we hit a few houses on our street and then went to a couple parties in the neighborhood and even a few haunted houses. Sadie was all about the "nandy" as she called. We were trying to get her to stay thanks each time and by the end of the night she would say but not until was to the end of the driveway...I think she was waiting to try it first! No pictures of Riley as he is way to cool to hand with his family at this age. He hung out for the mandatory hour we requested and then he was off with his buddies to hit pretty much every house in the one square mile :-)....Ryan picked him and a few buddies up later and took them to a haunted house which the girls said was so scary!. All in all it was a fun night

Disney land and cruise adventure..

Was it worth it...took a while but so cute!

Face painting

So pretty...

Aquarium

the only family pic we got all trip

Atlantis water park

Registering to get on the ship

We took this of ourselves...so

Waiting for the shuttle in Orland to start our journey

Magic Kindom...little foggy this morning but sure were excited!

Waiting for the shuttle

What a trooper for the mustard drill

Hotel lobby

Cool girl on the airplane

Character breakfast

DISNEY OR BUST.....

So for the past year and a half we have been planning this amazing Disney land and sea vacation thanks to Papa Bob and Grandma Suzanne. It was literally a trip of a life time. We flew out on Thursday morning to Orlando. None of the kids had every been on an airplane so I don't think they even slept the night before they were so excited. Backpacks full of activities, snacks and DS we were off to the airport. We arrived at the hotel and spent the next three days park hopping to Magic Kingdom and Epcot Center. There was so much to do we could have just stayed there a week. We shopped, rode rides, hung out at the pool, character breakfasts, arcade, room service. One night we went into downtown Disney and ate at Rainforest Cafe. There is this fun pin trading thing that all the employees of Disney do....they have necklaces with tons of different pins and they trade with all the kids...so the kids would stop them and trade the different pins...kind of fun...all the employees were willing to trade anything with the kids, it was great! On Sunday we got on the Disney Wonder....WOW! Anything and everything you could possible think of was there. The Oceaners lab was this amazing kids club where they did activities, played games, traveled around the ship, went to the moves, ate lunch, etc. Our kids never wanted to get checked out it was great! Our first stop was to Nassau...we did the Atlantis excursion which was so fun. We toured the hotel, hung out at the pool, ate lunch...went on the coolest lazy river every I think it took 25 minutes to go around once with rapids it was awesome! We went through the shark tank and the aquarium and did some shopping in down town before we got back on the ship. The next day we went to Cast Away Cay...the Disney Island. This place was so beautiful...the morning we got there they had a 5K run around the island and it was so beautiful. We hung out on the white sand beach with our rafts and snorkel gear, ate lunch, rented bikes and toured around, the girls got there hair braided, and in the afternoon we had the most amazing sting ray experience. We learned all about sting ray's, fed them (Paige was a little freaked out but warmed up) and then we got to swim around with them for a while. It was really awesome....The last day was a day at sea and we watched a movie, hung out by the pool...actually Ryan and I just hung out because the kids wanted to be in the lab all day :-)...All in all it was a trip of a lifetime....Thanks Dad!