Alamance Battleground

One of the benefits of homeschool is that your field trips are WAY better than the public school ones (at least the ones that our school goes on).  We went to a historic site where they put on an event for a week each year.  There are tons of people dressed up in colonial clothes, and they are a wealth of knowledge.  I hope to be one of those people when me and Travis retire...preferably at a Little House site.  We went with the LDS homeschoolers group and it was so fun to reconnect with friends.  

The colonists used EVERY material that they could.  They carried gunpowder in the horns.  

We got some candy at the end, and Audrey's tongue was the reddest tongue I had ever seen.  Audrey reconnected with a girl that she was friends with when she was 3.  It took them about 10 minutes to decide that they were best friends again.  

Observation Day in Dance

I love observation day, the parents get to go into the classroom and watch the whole class.  I was the Mom who was trying to correct their daughter's 5th position discreetly...and unsuccessfully.  Audrey loves dance and I love that she loves it.  She is known for having the best buns in class, and she puts a lot of pressure on me to do something fancy for her each week.  She is such a cute dancer, and she really improves a lot year to year.  

PA Trip

One of the benefits of living in driving distance of family is that you can make frequent visits.  My newest niece, Emerson, had her baby blessing in September.  Lucky for us, John and Heather and baby Claire were in Pennsylvania visiting.  

I was the one who was playing paparazzi to this little cutie!

Zoey is a special friend of mine, she may be a full grown boxer, but to me she is a lap dog.  Me and this lady love to cuddle.  We are both always so happy to see each other.  

Janae and Jared took us to this charming pumpkin farm. It was great fun for all of us.  

There was a hayride where literally 100% of the riders got bushwacked.  I was laughing the whole time because it was so funny.  I also ducked my head down the whole time.  

Janae has the most beautiful flowers in her garden!! 

Jared was generous enough to let Travis take our kids on a ride.

Addie has quite the artist set up! How picturesque is this?

We had a nonexistant very small yard, and our kids pretty much can't play in it at all.  So when we go to Janae's house they are in heaven with all of the space to run free and play.  Jared made an impromptu fire pit, we had amazing grilled pizza around the fire, John played songs on the guitar.  It was a perfect night!!  We also celebrated Addison's 6th birthday.  She requested an ice cream cake with white cake, cookies and cream ice cream, and strawberry frosting.  It sounds weird, but it was so good!  But then again, everything that Janae makes is SO good!

I followed this happy little girl around for a while.  Aren't her dimples just darling??

Here is a picture of all the cousins after Emerson's baby blessing.  I love how perfectly imperfect it is.  

Here is my beautiful sister in law with her precious kiddos.  

After the blessing Travis, Jared, Heather and John went to a Baltimore Ravens game where John's brother was being honored.  Travis and Jared had an awesome time at the game.  Me and Janae held down the fort with the kiddos.  I got oodles of time to play with Claire, she is such a sweetie!!  I also got some Emerson snuggles in.  It was pretty much auntie (pronounce awntie...not antie) heaven.  

The Last of California

Overall, we had an awesome time in Cali.  It was so nice to get to hang out at Jessie's home with her little family for  a few days, and it was fun going to So Cal after that.  We flew into San Diego to go to Sea 'aWorld.  Just a heads up for all y'all...the Sea World in Orlando is a lot better.  The extra inconvenience of traveling from San Diego to Anaheim just for Sea World was not worth it, but some times you have to learn things the hard way.  We stayed in a super ghetto hotel that first night and the continental breakfast consisted of 2 pastries and a muffin with flies all over them.  So we went to IHOP instead.  Sea World was decent, but it was nothing compared to the Orlando location.  I was surprised that they were so different.  It was quite hot that day, and the sun was beating down.  Me and Leah took Audrey on the only roller coaster there, it was a mild coaster, but Audrey didn't like it.  Jess let Phoenix pet the stingrays in the meantime.  Phoenix really loves sting rays.  He draws pictures of them all the time.  He was in heaven.  We hit up the dolphin and the orca shows.  The dolphin show in Orlando was so amazing, this one was cheesy and disappointing (to be fair, my expectation was really high).  We had a good time overall though.  We were glad to head out to Disneyland.  When we got to our hotel we were so glad that it was nice.  Everyone that worked there was really helpful and friendly.  They treated us like VIPs.  I have a funny story.  When I was checking in at the front desk the guy told me that the parking rate was $12.  I asked if that was for the whole time (even though I knew that he meant it daily), he felt bad when he told me that it was the daily rate.  Then I asked if there was a free breakfast (even though I knew there wasn't), and once again, he told me no, but he gave me a coupon for 20% off.  Then I asked if there was a free shuttle to Disneyland (once again, knowing that there wasn't).  He again told me no.  Later on that night I asked for a few extra towels and that same guy brought them out to the pool for us, and he told me that he took the parking charges off of our account and he gave us complementary breakfast for our entire stay, for ALL of us!  He said he felt bad that the answer to all of my questions was no, so he decided to do something about it.  So, the moral of the story is:  sometimes it pays to play dumb.

We hit up both Disney parks in the next two days, and on Friday we went out to lunch and went to see Maleficent.  It was SO good!!!  I loved it!!  It was so nice to have a morning to sleep in, take our time eating our (amazing) breakfast, hangout at the pool, and just relax.  We left at noon the next day.  Another word of warning: NEVER rent a car from Fox-rent-a-car.  We had horrible experiences with them both at San Diego and in Santa Ana.  The only rental car drama that I have ever had.

It was an amazing trip, and Audrey always says "I wish we were getting ready to go to California again", and I always say "so do I".

2nd Day at Disneyland

We went to Disneyland the second day.  Phoenix is not a thrill seeker (that is a nice way of saying "the kid basically cried for two straight days at the parks").  I never would have noticed that a lot of the rides have a creepy edge to them.  Ursala is scary, the witch in Snow White is creepy, etc.  We were going on a ride, I think it was Mr. Toad, and Phoenix asked (through tears) if there would be dragons or hot lava on the ride.  Because that was completely ridiculous I said confidently that there wouldn't be any hot lava or dragons on the ride.  Luckily, the way Phoenix rides on rides is that he gets really close to me and I cover his eyes and ears.  Luckily because at the end of the ride there was not only hot lava, but also a dragon.  It makes me laugh at the coincidence.  Audrey was a better sport and tried out Thunder Mountain with Leah.  She LOVED it!!  I think she liked feeling like a big kid riding a roller coaster.  I took Phoenix on it once, and he was OK, but he cried the whole time in line.  It gets exhausting trying to force your kids to have fun.  

Phoenix got to go on It's a Small World at the end of the night, and he LOVED it!!  It was his favorite ride at Disney World, and it was definitely his favorite ride here.  He also really enjoyed watching the parade.  Leah took Audrey on Thunder Mountain a few more times.  It was nice for me and Leah to have Audrey there because we could take turns going on the bigger rides with her, while the other one would take Phoenix on the lame kiddie rides.  My favorite ride on this day was Indiana Jones...it was really awesome.  I would have loved to ride it several times.  Audrey and Leah both loved it as well.  

First Day at Disneyland

We went to California Adventure on the first day.  Both kids had their outfits planned out for a while, especially Audrey.

Toy Story Mania is an awesome ride!!  All of us loved it (and we are a diverse group, so that is saying a lot).

The main reason for going to Disneyland was for Phoenix to go to CARS land while he was still young enough to be excited about it.  It was really fun, the main ride was SO awesome!!!

I went on Tower of Terror at Disney World, and I did not think it was bad (perhaps because I had psyched myself out a bit beforehand and it was nothing compared to what I feared...and it was really fun with the creepy ambiance).  I had no hesitations about bringing my kids on the ride.  Phoenix started to cry significantly enough that I took him out before we hit the ride.  We waited in the store and about 10 minutes later Leah, Jess, and Audrey came out.  One of them was crying, and it wasn't my sisters.  I kept wondering if I was completely off my rocker to send my 8 year old daughter on the ride, but then when me and Leah went on it we saw a Mom with a 4 year old and a 6 year old, and they both loved it.  So that made me feel a little bit less like the worst Mom ever (because some kids like it...just not mine...so I wasn't totally crazy).  Me and Leah LOVED California Screamin.  It was a really fun day and lots of memories were made.

California: Part 3

Here are a few cute pictures from our stay with Jessie...

I love this one of the two girls looking at each other!

These pictures are from the airport.  Me and my kids, Jess, and Leah flew to San Diego.  Brett got some one-on-one time with Alexis for a few days.  

When we got onto the plane, me, Jess, and Audrey sat in a row, and Leah and Phoenix took the row in front of us.  Phoenix was talking a mile a minute about anything and everything.  Me and Jess laughed when a young guy sat down next to Phoenix because Phoenix wouldn't stop talking.  When we got off the plane, Leah told us that Phoenix had pointed to the guy's earrings and said something like "Why is he wearing earrings?  Earrings are for girls!"  and the guy was wearing a tank top and Phoenix saw his armpit hair and he pointed at it and said that his Daddy has armpit hair also.  Leah said that the guy was busy rocking out to his music with his big earphones on the whole time, so he may not have heard anything that Phoenix said.