Spring Break 2016

We just got home from a great spring break.  We went to Southern California for nine days, and we worked our bodies to the bones.  We needed to get Grandma and Grandpa G's home cleaned out so we worked hard and got a lot of it finished up along with help from Unky, Aunt Francine, Aunt Jen Jen and Uncle Michael.

 

We did carve out a day for some serious fun however!  Unky and Aunt Fran came to Disneyland with us.  Daddy stayed back to work and take care of a sore back. 

 

We started with a traditional tram ride to the front entrance. 

 

We spent the first part of the day at Disneyland.

 

 This is a cool old horse drawn fire engine.

 

Main Street is always so fun - so much to see and do.

 

We got to ride on literally a zillion rides.  We started on the Astro Orbitors.

 

Sam was the pilot.

 

And I got to fly my own rocket too.

 

Here we are in front of Snow White's castle.  It's so pretty!

 

Here we are standing in line for Splash Mountain - it is one of our most favorite rides.

 

And here is our picture coming down the 50 foot drop.  It was soooo much fun!

 

We also loved Big Thunder Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean.  Here we are wandering around the Mark Twain Paddle Boat.  

 

We also rode the Matterhorn and Winnie the Pooh's Big Adventure.

 

 Then we headed over to California Adventure. 

 

We rode California Screamin' - the best or worst Roller Coaster ever.  Aunt Fran and I felt pretty darn sick afterwards, but Unky and Mom and Sam said they could have ridden it all day long. 

 

Sam picked Goofy's Sky School - a less adventurous roller coaster, but still fun.

 

Then we voted for some quiet rides in Bugs Land - here we are on Heimlich's Chew Chew Train.  

 

We saw lots of great characters - here we are with Eeyore.

 

Tigger!

 

Lewis the Gator (from the Princess and the Frog).

 

Sam's favorite - the Goof Master.

 

Minnie Mouse.

 

And, of course, the big Mouse himself . . . . Mickey!

 

Then we did a little shopping in Downtown Disney - stuffed animals and hats all around.

 

Back at the house, the work continued.  We filled four of these giant dumpsters and still have a little bit more to go. 



 

We played with the coolest little lizard that we found wandering in the yard.

 

 

And I squirreled away boxes and boxes of the best National Geographic magazines that Grandpa had kept.  I got to bring a whole bunch of the home with us.

 

And I found the best intersection in all of California - Roosevelt Road (name after my favorite president, Teddy R!) and California Ave (the street Grandpa and Grandma lived on for over 40 years).

 

We got to enjoy a couple of great family dinners too.  It was a week of hard work with lots of fun and family time mixed in.  

 

On our drive home we saw the most amazingly beautiful rainbows - yes two of them.  The pictures don't even begin to show you have vibrant and brilliant they were.  They lasted for a long time and grew from just a short one sided rainbow to a full arched rainbow.

 

Can you see the second one on the left there?  

 

We decided that both sets of our grandparents were watching us and sending us some love.  We also decided that Grandma G and Grandma June sent us the inner bright rainbow that was absolutely perfect.   And we decided that Grandpa G and Grandpa L got together and made the outer rainbow - because it was backwards  - - - - the colors were all reversed left to right.  Those sneaky grandpas!

 

Sam Alert:  Hey everybody - Sam here.  Can I just tell you how much I love Disneyland!  It was my first full day there.  I got super sick the last time we went there.  I loved all the rides and want to go back as soon as possible!  California Screamin' was probably my most favorite!  I loved Goofy's Sky School - especially the nose dives. 

All in all, a great week!  See you soon.

Happy Easter and March Little Things!

Wow - somehow the month of March has passed us right by.  We're going to try to catch you up and treat you to a taste of our Easter weekend.  

First up - Hints of Spring Days.  We had snow this past week, but in between wintry storms, we've had a few days here and there of warm weather.  We took advantage of a recent March warm day to play some mini golf.  

Here's Sam - he loves the holes where the ball has to go in a specific spot to come out in a lower green from a couple of different tubes.  His is trying to figure out where the ball needs to go to come out in the best spot.

He was also having lots of fun jumping over our balls as they traveled down the greens.  

We're finally to the point in our lives where we generally like to play for a good score.  

Sam does more jumping.  Good times!

Check out that great golf form!  Keep my head down, arms locked, feet properly positioned!

March is also the month of our Speech Festival at school.  Both Sam and I made it to our grade finals this year.

Sam's 2nd grade group was up first.  He performed "Sick" by Shel Silverstein.  He did great!  He needed to work on volume - other than that he did really well!  

His good friend Yaw also made it in to the finals - here is Sam with Yaw, his younger brother, and Yaw's parents.

Then it was time for the 4th grade finals.  I did "The Man in the Arena" - an excerpt of a speech from Theodore Roosevelt, my favorite president.  

I also did a fantastic job!  I got tripped up a little bit on one line which kept me out of the top three.  But i did it perfectly every other time, darn it!  I've already started thinking about which speech I want to do next year.  

In Easter happenings . . . . we got to have our traditional Easter Egg hunt at Grandma L's yesterday with our cousins.  It is our most favorite Easter tradition!  

Here's Sam, gathering up eggs.  

And me - loving the eggs and the lure of all the candy hiding inside.

Here we are emptying our stash.  Sam really hauled in the most eggs this year.

Grandma L is so good to us!

 We spent last evening coloring our eggs.  Of course this is another fun tradition that we have.  And how delicious are hard boiled eggs?  We love them!

We love the old classic color tablet dyes and got creative with rubber bands and wax crayons.

Ah - Easter eggs we love you!

And then the big Easter morning arrived.  The Easter bunny was good to us this year.  Sticker books, candy, and games.  Oh, and a cute little stuffed animal for each of us.

We even got a couple of micro lego-type sets that we spent all morning building.

And of course, some breakable erasers.  These are quite the thing at our school!

Both Sam and I made Easter egg hunts for the Easter bunny to do when he visited our house.  He left us notes saying how much fun he had doing them.  

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - Sam here.  Here I am loading up my eggs after the hunt, taking them back out to storage.  We love this tradition and love being with our family.  We got to have Easter dinner with a good friend's family tonight.  It's all about family, isn't it!

Just for fun - mom snapped this picture of me early one morning before I woke up.  

I'm all snuggled up with my stuffed animal friends.  

Ok - Sam out.  Have a great week everyone!