School's Out!

Wednesday was Abby's last day of school and the kids' "field day" at school, so I went a took a few pictures.

Here is Abby with Ms. Annett and Ms. Mindy and Phoenix on her last day of preschool!

I don't think she really "got it" that it was her last day. She got in the van and I said to her "Wow! You're last day of preschool, now you get to go to Kindergarten!" She sat kinda quiet like she was thinking and asked me "But I can still go back and play with my friends, right?" Luckily Ms. Annett told us that any time Abby would like to come over and she has an opening she is welcome. So, we may just do that, or have Phoenix over to our house to play some time.

I found Elise wandering around the field "too cool" to play all the games. Field day had a Hawaiian theme, hence the beautiful outfits.
I found Ethan wandering around from station to station having a great time! Hooray for the return of warm weather!

I am excited about the summer. I love not having to get up and get going and being able to plan fun days outside.

Balloons over Bend

We live right next to the kids' elementary school which is the designated take-off point for the annual "Balloons over Bend" event. So, we reluctantly woke up all the kids Sunday morning at 6am, gave them each a poptart, and put on their WINTER jackets to go watch the balloons take off. It was a very chilly 36 degrees!!
I have to say it was VERY cool though. We got to see 7 balloons take off, and they let you get real close and everything. Very neat!! (I understand they had a bunch more balloons on Saturday, so we'll have to catch that next year) Here are some pics and video we took.

Vacation from our vacation

You all know what a radio junkie I am and a few months ago I won an auction for a nights stay at Sunriver Resort and a massage at the Spa. It expired the end of June, so we made reservations for Friday, June 6th for a vacation from our vacation. :D

Brad thought it would be fun Friday morning to start our weekend with a bike ride. He thought it was fun- not me (for the most part). Don't know if you've heard but it has been sooo cold and windy here, (I had on a long sleeve shirt, my bike shirt, and a jacket with my winter leggings) and that's what we were riding in along with some sleet... just for fun. We DID see a buck on our ride which was pretty cool.

Friday after the kids got home from school we took them to their respective friends and Brad and I enjoyed a nice dinner together out at Sunriver. Sunriver is only about 20 minutes south of Bend, but we felt like we were a million miles away.

The room had a wonderful view and a fireplace in it. This was the view out the window. I think that should we get another house I would really like a fireplace in my bedroom! We only wish it had been warmer!

In case you can't tell, the thermometer reads 38 degrees!!

Saturday morning we went for our massages. Brad had never been, so it was a new experience for him. He was pretty nervous about it, but I think ended up liking it in the end. Alas, all good things must come to the end and we picked up all the kids by 1pm Saturday. It was nice to get away though, even if it was for only 20 hours.

California Adventure- Wednesday- Day 6

Wednesday we decided to go to California Adventure.
Abby and Ethan checked out the cool swing at the "Redwook Creek Challenge Trail"

We enjoyed the ferris wheel ride on the "non-rocking" car, while the other kids went on the cool rocking car. I'll try and get the video posted.

Since California Adventure has a bunch of rides that Abby was too small to ride we ended up splitting up for awhile. Abby and I went to the "Bug's World" area and Abby enjoyed a break running through the water, and some of the smaller rides.

Here's one of Flik's flyers (once we got back together)

Churro break!!
Chillin' with "Frozone"
Riding back to the parking lot on the tram, another long day.Abby spent some of her money on her Minnie Mouse hat and Ethan bought his huge sucker.

I think one of our favorite things there that day was the Animation Studio. The Crush Turtle talk was so cool, and the kids loved doing the voice overs for the movie clips.
The Tower of Terror was also very thrilling; Abby and Elise both backed out.
Another great long day!

Back to Disney- Thursday- Day7

We decided that Thursday would be our "early day", get to the park early and leave early. Despite our best efforts we couldn't drag ourselves out of bed early enough for the "Magic Morning" at 8, but arrived at the park instead at 8:45 and ended up standing in line with the throngs waiting for the park to open.
We decided to head straight over to Nemo so we didn't have to wait in such a long line. Seems like everyone in front of us had the same idea. We still ended up waiting in line for an hour, but that was OK, because we were fresh and the day hadn't warmed up yet. Was it worth it.. sure, but not if it was any longer or in the heat.
Since we spent most of Wednesday in "Tomorrow Land" we spent Thursday checking out the rest of the park.

We think this is Shawna's brother Rex in the Pluto outfit

(Shawna, did you ask Rex if he saw us?)

Sword in the stone Why you need to have 4 children... so when you are too old and get sick on the spinning rides your kids can go on their own and you get to just watch :D

We went for the "Dole Whip" break that day after our visit to the Tiki Room. Again, this was a treat I vividly remember LOVING when I went in '85 and it was still just as yummy!

I couldn't help but hear Grandma Reeder sing "In the Tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room"
Must get a shot at the front entrance
I'm a pretty good shot, don't you think?

We left around 7pm, just as all the "Grad night" buses were arriving. Boy, was I glad we had decided to end the day early!
We went back to the Marriott (thanks to Brenda's super saver Friends and Family rate :D) to have a BBQ and chill out on the patio.
Phew another 12 hour day!

California Adventure Revisited and Disney Fireworks- Friday- Day 8

We decided Friday would be "Late day" since we wanted to see the fireworks, so we didn't get to the park until 10:30, but of course ended up staying until 10:30 that night.
We went back to California Adventure to see the Alladin production (thanks Becky for the recommendation) which was really well done. Soarin' Over California had been shut down the last time we were there, so we caught that, as well as another trip down the Grizzly River Run, the High School Musical show, as well as some other rides we had missed before.

While I took my turn on the roller coaster with the big kids Brad took Abby back to "Bug's World" and went to the bumper cars. Brad said to Abby "Let's go on this one" (pictured below) and Abby refused. Brad asked "Why not? What's wrong with it?' to which she replied "It has a unibrow! I don't like unibrows?" LOL, what a weirdo!

Here she is on an acceptable bumper car----) grrr... I still can't get the videos to upload... I'm working on it.)

We decided to eat at "Downtown Disney" for Friday night, and we ended up with what I believe has been our most expensive family dinner ever at Rainforest Cafe. We then had to go back to the stores to spend the remaining money the kids had left.
Overall they ended up with
Samantha- pair of Mickey Mouse crocs
Elise- a Pluto mug & Mickey mouse cap
Ethan- the long sucker, a pirate hologram "necklace", a football, and a mickey mouse watch
Abby- her Minnie Mouse hat, a princess wallet, and a sucker.

There was a cool lego store in downtown Disney with this big giraffe made out of legos

We returned to Disneyland for the fireworks, which were really great. They do a fantastic job! Again, we thought after we were done with the fireworks, we would beat the crowd and head over to Fantasyland for the "kiddie" rides, but again, everyone had the same idea and we ended up waiting for 20 min. in line for Dumbo. But I figured we HAD to go to Dumbo because a trip to Disney is not complete without a ride on Dumbo!! Right??

Best Of Disney- Start home- Day 9

Saturday we sadly had to pack up and made our last trip to Disneyland. We didn't get their until around 11 since we had to pack up in the morning and we had been out so late the night before. It was quite a bit busier since it was Saturday, but we did some no line stuff like Tom Sawyer island and the River Boat while we waited for our last run on Splash Mountain.

Our last, and I think 6th time on Splash Mountain. Abby was so brave on this last trip she put her hands up in the air like the big kids for every drop (and even as we were just floating around (LOL)) except the last one... as you can see.
Yeah! We finally figured out where to sit to get Abby in the picture!!
We had tried to get on Thunder Mountain Friday, but it shut down, so we made it on Saturday.
Bye Disneyland! It was a great trip!
We finally left around 4 pm, so we had a good 5 hour day and drove the 7 hours to Sacramento that night. Sunday we got back to Bend safe and sound, and tired. The last 2 hours of the trip the kids were driving us batty, but we survived.

So glad we did it! It was a great time!