Long Time, No Blog

I just wrote 4 posts. As much as I'd like to believe my life musings are vitally important to someone I suppose that's not true. But in case you don't have google reader-there are four updated posts below this one. And you know how much it feeds my ego to have readers/commenters :)

The Happiest Place on Earth

The real reason for the trip to CA-Disneyland!! It was fabulous and fun. We couldn't have picked a more perfect day. We didn't have to wait more than 5-15 minutes for anything. Partly because it wasn't a busy day and partly because we really exploited the fast pass system for all it was worth-it was great! We focused on kid rides as we have in the past but Samantha is tall enough for everything now so we also went on a lot of rides as well. We did almost everything and a few things we did twice!

Probably everyone know this but if not-did you know Disneyland does stroller passes where tall enough people can take turns on rides while others wait with little ones? First Samantha and I would go and then Tom would take a turn with her straight through to the end of the line. By getting fast passes for a busy ride (say...Space Mountain) then Samantha and I would skip to the head of the line, and then Tom would do the same with the stroller pass. It was great. We stayed all day until dinner. Then we left and put the kids to bed to come back and do some fun things without the kids! Here's our day in a nutshell:

Obligatory entering Disneyland photo

See Samantha's button she confiscated? That's my proof of being a volunteer to get the free admission!

First we went on Finding Nemo and then autotopia-Tommy's favorite (we went again later)! You can just see Samantha peeking her head out on the left.

Then the Buzz Lightyear ride, see my score-that's high for me :)

Then the rockets

Then Tom and I took turns with Samantha going on star tours (Samantha reported that this was her favorite). Tommy took this opportunity to sleep. Eliza took that opportunity to crumble crackers into his hair and then pick them out and eat them.

Then we took turns doing Splash mountain. Do you want to know something-I've never opened my eyes on Splash mountain. I'm kind of a scaredy cat. Tom took lots of pictures of sweet Eliza.

Winnie the Pooh ride (Eliza's favorite) twice and photo op

There was music blasting out of this honey pot-thus the jazzercise Eliza's engaging in.

Then Haunted Mansion, Pirate of the Caribbean, The Tarzan Treehouse (RIP Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse) Indiana Jones, and Jungle Cruise

Then finally on to Fantasy Land. If anyone at Disney cares what I think then I would tell them that kids' rides need fast passes too. There was no way I was going to wait 40 minutes for Peter Pan's Flight. My limit is 20 minutes. We did the Tea Cups, Carousel, and It's a Small World.

Nick and Katie were there too, but we did our separate things for most of the day. Nick hadn't been since he was 5-incomprehensible for someone as Disneyland spoiled as me!

Then we went on Space Mountain and left for dinner and the kids to bed. Tom and I came back to do Space Mountain again (Tom's favorite), Matterhorn and watch Captain EO (oh that was gloriously cheesy and horrible-I loved it!)

So I listed all my family's favorite-mine is Big Thunder Railroad which was closed but my real favorite....and this is ridiculous but I'll tell you anyway...It's Tiki Room.

In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki room all the birds sing words and the flowers croon

In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room!

Mother's Beach

We just went to California for a trip to see the family and of course...Disneyland. But before we got to the good stuff we wanted to go to the Beach. I suggested Mother's beach (really an inlet so the waves are small and it tends to be warmer). My sister had never been and wanted to so we went. It water wasn't as toxic as I remembered so good for Long Beach for cleaning that up. It was FREEZING and WINDY though!! No one even got in the water, we played in the sand, threw a frisbee and left.

Proof of the wind

Proof of the playing in the sand. My sister's boyfriend Nick was in town to meet the family. He was a good sport to not get to go to the "real" beach and still play with the kids

This was the only thing Tommy did besides snuggle up against his dad-eat

And that's me in the blanket-proof of the cold.

Trip to the Zoo!

Samantha's preschool plans an annual field trip to our local zoo (not Phoenix). It's normally very pricey so I'm thrilled with the group discount. And we can invite friends-so we did which was super fun. I went last year (but didn't post about it....so did it really happen?)

First stop was the petting zoo. We fed them the little pellets, but they seemed much more interested in eat all of our shirts

Poor traumatized Samantha still has nightmares about deer.

And here are Tommy and Emma petting turtles

Then there's a whole lot of things we didn't take pictures of - like other animals, and feeding giraffes, and taking one of those sky rides across the zoo. They were all very fun.

And I love this-there is a Lory bird feeding session a couple times a day. I remembered it being frustrating last time but if you're just patient at the end the birds do flock to you to get apple bites. I was happy one eventually landed on Samantha.

And then we did more fun things like go to the Aquarium portion of the zoo and spend like 3 straight hours at the touch ray tank in which my children got soaked and my back was incredibly stiff the next day for staying in a leaned over position holding Tommy or Eliza.

I love this place-it was wonderful.

A Goal 13 Years in the Making

I have just completed all 88 Newbery Award winning books. It took me almost 2 years (although I read other things too so as not to lose my mind) but really it took me a lot longer than that:

When I was 14 years old I made a goal to read all the Newbery Winners (and there would have been 13 fewer to read back then). The goal was because of an annual program for the young woman at my church called "Young Women in Excellence" But part of the time-honored psuedo-tradition of that program is that young women, including myself, don't actually pick their project until at best 1 month before the event. I've also known those who choose it at 6:30 PM the night of the 7:00 program too. Anyhow, I started with my lofty goal of reading 75 books in a month. Now, I'm a fast reader but I don't know what I was thinking. I think I read about 1/4 of that many. I presented my unfinished goal with the best intentions of continuing, but... if I ever read another one it was by accident.

So-2 years ago when I moved to Arizona with the sum total of 0 friends and a very pregnant body in this very hot state I restarted my goal, from the very beginning. And now I am finished! Sometimes it was fun, and sometimes it was hard and more than once it was boring (I had to start and restart the first one History of Mankind because it's just as boring as it sounds). Now I just want to say 2 1/2 things-

1. The Newbery committee is obsessed with the Middle Ages, dogs (with horses being a runner-up), and to some extent-ships

2. If you want to win a Newbery may I suggest that you have a good shot with a non American teenage boy (11 books), preferably a poor one that works with livestock (4 out of those 11).

1/2: The above is true but I think it's interesting that it's the GIRL versions that have been popularized and studied-ie: Julie of the Wolves and Island of the Blue Dolphins

I'm a Superstar

I know, I know, it's kind of trendy/cliche to post about your deals but I haven't done it a while. Plus-it's a time honored tradition among women throughout the ages. I'm sure that cave women sat around the campfire (or lack thereof) and said things like "I totally got this animal hide and only had to give up one pinky finger in the process. What a deal!"

So just bear with me for one minute:

I got all four snuggles for free

The skippy peanut butters were .79 cents each (3.16) but I got 2 dollars back in Fry's money making it 1.16

The dog food was a dollar each. That brings my total to 5.16

BUT I got a 12 dollar movie voucher that Tom already used last night. Thus....I made 6.84 on the transactions. Come on, tell me how cool I am.

Mom's Visit: Children's Museum!

My mom is in town (yay!) and it has been so, so much fun. It seems like even though I've been in AZ for almost 2 years she's only been here when: 1. It's really, really hot and 2. When I've had some life-changing event like a baby or a move. So we finally got to do something fun! We took her to the Phoenix Children's Museum. I love this place almost as much as the kids do. So here is a very photo heavy blog post. Most of them are Eliza-centric because she was old enough to enjoy it now and so cute to watch. She absolutely loved it. This makes up for all the times we go to events and she doesn't have a single picture taken of her because she's in a stroller the whole time.

Eliza-like all babies her age it seems-is obsessed with chairs.

The bean scooping (incidentally what Tommy made a beeline for)

All the kiddies

The ball room. We spent a lot of time in here, Eliza spent the whole time playing with this toy-just the right size for her.

Tommy's favorite room-he could send balls down chutes all day long.

Samantha making a pizza...or a calzone maybe?

Livvie too

"Painting" on the rock

The noodle forest behind her was Samantha and Olivia's favorite feature

Serving ice cream to Samantha

The bikes

Love this face!

The fort making room

And this was by far Eliza's favorite room. she could have climbed in and out of her little fort all day long if we had let her.

Play doh outside

It was a really fun thing to do. As Samantha summed up before going to bed "I had a really fun day today"