Soccer Mom

I still remember being a little girl of 4 years old, my uncoordinated little self running around a soccer field, my uncoordinated mother my coach. Pink sweatshirt, pigtails, rosy cheeks...... thinking it was fun for maybe .5 seconds. Until I was too cold, until I had to go to the bathroom, until the other kids were menaces, until the flowers were pretty and distracting, and until I realized I didn't want my shoes dirty.

And thus began a life of the most uncoordinated, nonathletic, no natural ability, no interest in sports whatsoever, person you have ever met.

And yet......I have never been more proud to be a soccer mom.

I have a five year old, who has been waiting and waiting for his turn out on the field.

He has practiced hard with his daddy.

He decorated his ball with stickers.

He tried on his uniform over and over again.

We have blue cleats people......I mean this is serious.

His daddy is his assistant coach........

......and I hate to be biased but my kid does not have the same athletic ability his mother has.

Like he actually has some.

Thankfully the spitting image of his father did not end in just his looks. Hard kicks, not afraid to get dirty, goes after that ball, perfect little form.......for a five year old that is.

He was loving every minute of his first soccer practice.

And so were his fans........or two of them, the other was too busy on the playground to be a fan.

Yup I am darn excited for this little phase of my life........soccer mom, I am all over that!

Huntington Beach Part 4

Huntington Beach .........I think it's safe to say was my favorite part of our whole trip.

It was beautiful, it was serene, it was so soothing and peaceful.......

I can count on one hand the amount of times I have seen the ocean. You folks that live around the ocean, don't take it for granted. I don't think I have ever been in such awe of anything.

I went a little picture happy. I think I have more photos of our few hours on the beach than I do of three days in Disneyland. Disneyland was for the kids, but the beach........ the beach was for me.

It was cold, no denying that. By far the coldest day on our trip. Jacket weather for sure.

This look of disgust on my face, that's because I lost my favorite sunglasses on the way to California. So being the idiot that I am I bought a $20.00 dopey pair at Disneyland. That's the pair you see me holding, I am trying to bend them back into shape.

I hate those things.

They fell apart after like two hours. The dumb things wouldn't even stay on my face. I guess that's what I get for buying them at Disneyland. But I was desperate, have I mentioned I am blind without my sunglasses? It's true I am, I have the world's most sensitive eyes.

Group hug......

Oh........sigh.......I want to go back.

These four people, sand in their toes, hands intertwined, laughter, waves rushing, my perfect vision of heaven on earth.

Their collecting seashells which are still in a pile on their dresser in their bedroom. They love the reminder of the beach........so do I.

I have to tell you this is my favorite picture I have ever taken. Not only do I think it's gorgeous, not only is their expressions to die for but I love what it represents. Lance in particular was in awe of the ocean. He could have lived out there in those waves. He was exhilarated chasing them over and over again. While I saw a great many smiles at Disneyland, I saw a great deal more from that boy when the tide reached his knees, drenching him. He watched in awe at the surfers and has now proudly proclaimed he would like a surfboard for Christmas. He buried his toes in the sand and let it run through his fingers .

I love that he was able to find joy in the beauties of this earth more than any man made theme park. I love that what he reminisces the most about our trip is the game of tag he played with Luke in the waves. It was a beautiful morning watching my boys discover and fall in love with something they had never seen before -- the ocean.

We ended our perfect morning with Lunch off the pier at Duke's. We got the best booth in the restaurant directly behind our table was windows and windows featuring nothing but the sparkling blue waters coming in with the tide.

Oh and this was my lunch.

The best coconut shrimp I have ever had in my life.

I have dreams about this shrimp.

Okay.....not really....but fantasies for sure.

It was the perfect morning.

And there you go we began the long trek home after leaving Huntington Beach. We stayed in Vegas for the night. Eric and I both had a good laugh because we arrived in Vegas at like 9 pm and left at 10 am. It was the first time for both of us to be in Vegas and not see one slot machine. Honestly how often can you say that?

That concludes our vacation and thankfully now I can get back to regular posting. This was kind of exhausting!

Disney Part 3

I figured I would have plenty of time tonight to post our last two days of Disneyland. I am being drastically ignored tonight. I have been replaced by a television set, I am getting half hearted responses, eyes that stayed glued to the game even when talking to me, the little boys have pulled down their mini hoop for some shots.

All this can only mean one thing it's the UK game, our home away from home, we will always be Wildcat fans, Go Kentucky!

Of course when I say we I mean Eric, I smile appropriately when points are made, give mumbled cheers, and encouraging comments now and then. But my fan hood ends there, I prefer to blog with the game as background music. And hope for the best that they win, otherwise I have to live with a livid bear for the rest of the weekend.

That's not good for anybody......

So honestly day 2 and 3 in the Magic Kingdom were much the same as day 1.

Baby K ate a few rocks, scarfed down a few chocolate frozen bananas, ( have you tried those, so so good), and saw the sights.

Goof ball, but boy he's a cute kid.....

Ran into Lightening and Mater.

And Chip and Dale.......these two were so very funny with the boys. Luke was in peals of laughter and still talks of Chip and Dale even a week later.


Katelynn found something very amusing........

Probably laughing at her dopey brothers sporting their new hats.

Goofy for Lance.

And what else but Dale.......Or Chip? for Luke.

We ended our second day over at California Adventure with tickets to see World of Color. Which I loved, the boys liked it okay, Katelynn hated, and Eric well.......he spontaneously bursts out with his rendition of their song ever since that night........ "it's a world of color, a beautiful colorful world, amazing beautiful world".......yeah he wasn't a fan of The World of Color.

And he really wasn't a fan of the song......it was pretty silly.

Here's a better look at that hat from behind. Doesn't it remind you of one of those big fuzzy Russian hats? This hat cracked me up he wore it for the rest of the trip, everywhere we went. People loved it all over the place we heard "oh look at that cute little chipmunk". And wouldn't you know we somehow lost that little hat on the way home, no idea where it went. My hunch is a rest stop somewhere in Southern California.......

Look at that good sport riding behind the boys.

A picture with Pooh Bear.

And Tigger thought he was pretty funny.......I have about ten pictures with Tigger covering up Lance's face. Lance loved it!

And that's it for the Disneyland pictures, we covered a lot more than that but honestly come our third day there I had had it with the happiest place on earth. I was counting down the hours until we could call it quits. I was tired of the lines, tired of my kids begging for every treat stand we passed by, Katelynn was growing bored of the stroller but mostly I was anxiously awaiting the next phase of our trip.

Which would be this cute girl........

Meet my friend Genn.......

I think I have mentioned her one or two times on this blog before.

Genn lives 30 minutes or so outside of Anaheim. About a year or so ago we began reading each others blogs. After a few weeks I quickly realized she should be named "California Jenny" and I should be named "Utah Genn". It's spooky the amount of things we have in common. After months and months of blog reading and sending long lengthy emails back and forth to each other. I knew I must finally meet my friend in real life.

On Thursday night we had dinner with her darling family, in her beautiful home.

She was sweet, she was wonderful, but of course I knew she would be. Our husbands got along splendidly, our children behaved as if they had been friends their entire lives and the whole night was just so surreal and magical for me.

Her two cute girls Hannah and Claire were so sweet to my boys. They pulled out every toy imaginable, they ran through that house like nobodies business. Oh Genn I do hope it wasn't a nightmare after we left, I cringe at the thought of destruction my boys can do in a nights time?

I am very sad my pictures did not turn out all that great. I have yet to master the art of taking dark indoor pictures without the flash. Oh wait I know what would help the 50 mm lens I have my eye on. Genn thanks to your help I think I almost have Eric convinced it's a need and not just a want!

Lance keeps asking when he will get to see his Disneyland friends again?

The sad thing is who knows? Utah and California are just too far away........

Genn and I.

Honestly friend, just go ahead and tell your next door neigbors to start packing, cause I am moving in. I am tired of this cold snowy weather, I want the warmth back. I want to sit in each others kitchens drinking diet cokes, maybe sharing a few books, a few trips to Nordstrom, maybe some time at the parks with the kiddos, our camera straps around our necks taking pictures of our lunches.

If you want to read Genn's recap of the evening go here......she takes much better pictures than I.

Thank you again friend it truly was a highlight of my trip, I just grew to love you even more than I already did!

Next up Part 4 our trip to Huntington Beach!

Breaking News

I am interrupting my Disney Posting to bring you this little bit of exciting news.......

After 6 days

29 pairs of pants

32 different shirts

4 jackets

25 pairs of pajamas

12 pairs of socks

a whole lot of...... ahem (unmentionable items)

13 loads of laundry

5 days of the drying process (cause I am weird that way and hang dry all of our clothes)

lots and lots of folding while I browse through Days of Our lives (cause I am lame that way)

I am pleased to say......

THE LAUNDRY IS DONE.....(UNTIL TOMORROW)

Next vacation I am limiting my family to one pair of pants each. They can wear them a day, then turn them around, then wear them inside out, then turn them around inside out, that counts as four days, right? Except me, I still get 7 pairs of pants, cause I am the mom, so that makes me the boss.

(Please note this is in no way thanks to my little helpers, you see above. In fact they were more of a deterent. I walked into Katelynn's room to see all 10 of the soft fluffy blankets I had spent twenty minutes folding while watching the drama of Salem unfold, that darn EJ........ destroyed in a pathetic heap on the floor thanks to a little Baby K.)

I will be back tommorw with Disney Part 3 right now I am off to celebrate with a little light reading.....

I know Brad and Emily are old news to most of you but give me a break I just watched the season finale of the Bachelor yesterday. It's new to me!

Eric brought me a prize home from Costco.......fresh pineapple. So I decided not to clobber him for the other purchases he just had to have, I like fresh pineapple.

Me, pineapple, and Brad and Emily, that's a pretty good celebration if you ask me!

Disney Part 2

I was going to do days 3 and 4 tonight, but day 3 has way too many pictures, so this is our first day in Disneyland only.

On the other hand I laughed at the comments that mentioned 210 is not that many pictures.

I know right?

That's what I told Eric, for me this is an all time low.

Turns out it's quite hard controlling three little munchkins in an overcrowded Spring Break environment. I either had mobs of people in my way preventing a good shot, or my hands were full with Katelynn squirming to get down or Luke doing his mad dash everywhere he went. Put those two things together and I found it rather hard to get a lot of great pictures.

Well that and my memory card ran out and I had to start deleting some in order to make room for new pictures.........sad........right?

One more funny thing I brought my lap top along with full intentions of keeping myself updated on this blog so when I got home I wouldn't have a bazillion pictures to post.

Isn't that a cute idea?

Quaint?

Clever?

Yeah, go ahead and laugh heaven knows my husband did...... blogging in Disneyland! Please!! I had a hard enough time just sitting down leisurely with a nice cold coke, I had to sip it on the go of all the horrors. Let alone keep up this blog.

Silly me.

Tuesday morning was probably one of my favorites. Breakfast with the Characters, Mickey Mouse and five friends which included Pluto, Minnie, Daisy, Stitch and Max (Goofy's nephew, obviously a C list character, according to my boys anyway. They were not happy Goofy sent his nephew instead of himself). Mickey is Luke's fascination in life, he loves that Mouse. Which made this little episode all the more sad. We walked into breakfast and Mickey Mouse is front and center ready for his picture with our family. Poor little Luke had never seen a giant Mickey and wigged right out. He would not come near him, so the four of us got a picture...... minus Luke, who hid in a corner.It was sad......especially considering once we sat down all of the other characters visit the tables and Luke loved that! He missed out on his favorite mouse poor little guy.

Katelynn was stinkin mad Daisy Duck dared interrupt her breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs, yogurt, strawberries, and orange juice (why yes my girl does have a healthy appetite). Look at her fit in her picture.

Now let the rides begin!

Baby girl went on a few rides, Peter Pan's Flight, It's a Small World, Monsters Inc, but mostly she ate lots of food........

.......and hung out in her stroller. She loved the crowds though, she may have been a nightmare in the car, but she was an angel for the three days we spent at the Park. A fair trade I would say.

The boys mapping out a game plan......

I might have some Disney lovers not liking me for this next statement. But I actually liked California Adventure a whole lot better than Disneyland.

Gasp!

I know, I know it's not right, where is my Disney spirit?

But I will tell you the crowds were not so crazy, the lines moved faster, my kids love Handy Manny, Cars, the Incredibles, and Monsters Inc more than Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh and Cinderella. We spent the majority of our time in California Adventure. Plus I had never been there before so it was all new to me. I kinda loved it.

I think my boys loved meeting the characters more than the actual rides, they were more than willing to wait in line for an hour in order for Goofy to sign their autograph books.

Bugs Life was darling, I loved that area the best.

Baby K snoozing with her daddy. I tell you what she really was an angel, not one peep the whole day. We were pretty happy we didn't throw her out that window after all.

We called it a night about 8:30 or so, we were exhausted from our 8 am breakfast with the characters. But we couldn't end the day without a couple of souvenirs........

Day 1 in Disneyland was definitely a success!