Julaugtember



Summer is gone. I blame it on instagram. Seriously, my phone is chuck full of pictures that I took all summer long and I just didn't want to forget that summer 2012 actually existed- hence the collage of random.

 It really was a great summer. Things are still so new and exciting for my kids & I love that.



Daddy's motorcycles. Always a hit & Kingston LOVES LOVES LOVES being in the garage with daddy. Mc always gets up in the action too.



Helping Papa mow the lawn.



A Saturday night cruise.

 

Chatting it up with the Polar Bear @ the Zoo.

Although summer might be over, the Fall in Utah is unforgettable. It just wasn't the same in Arizona. The nights didn't have that crisp fall smell and let's be honest, trick or treating in 100 degree weather doesn't scream Halloween. We headed up the canyon on Sunday for a drive and the colors were amazing. I love jacket & boot weather and it's upon us.







The Land of Disney 2012

One vivid vacation memory I had as a kid was the our trip to California when I was in 2nd grade. I remember opening my suitcase on the first day to all new clothes. My favorite outfit was a mock neck, sleeveless, speckled blue shirt (with matching skorts) that was covered in a neon, puff painted Arizona desert theme- complete with cactus & snake. Pretty sure some hipsters would rock that today. Anyway, we drove to Cali in the back of my Dad's truck- carpet kit, no AC, just Tyler and I. We were there for a pretty long time from what I remember because we visited the beach, Disneyland, Seaworld, the wax museum and Universal Studio. The point of this story- all I really recall of Disneyland was the rain and my souvenir- a plastic cube filled with sweet tarts. I don't remember being wooed by the magic of Disney.



The look of sheer excitement behind LA Gears & sweet denim jackets? The tidal wave bang did not survive the rain either.

The Tea Cups Then

Fast forward to 2004. Mark & I decided to visit our friends Dave & Aish as they lived in Cali and it was again, another opportunity to go to the happiest place on Earth. We got trapped in a mob of people, didn't really enjoy ourselves and vowed we would not return until we had kids. So when the Williamson family decided to plan a Disneyland trip, we were skeptical but knew Mc would LOVE it. The third time really was the charm!

We got up early Wednesday morning and made the drive to Anaheim. The kids maybe slept a total of an hour the ENTIRE drive. The Desert Palms hotel was really nice and we opted for the room with the suite which was smart. The first night we swam, had dinner and chilled before our big Princess Breakfast the following day. Mc chose Princess Aurora to be her costume for the day- it lasted maybe an hour. The breakfast was so great because we didn't have to wait in line to see the Princesses and they came right to our table. I would gladly do it again.



The King

Kingston flirting it up with Princess Aurora

Mc & Belle twirling.

 

This was Mc after the first day as we were leaving the park for a much needed nap. She thought we were never coming back & had a meltdown.

We did end up in Disneyland while there was record breaking heat- 108 & 103 degrees Friday & Saturday. We all went back to the hotel and took naps & went swimming every day- which Mc didn't mind one bit. Saturday we did our Magic Morning and started in the park by 7:30 which made it a lot better. The park wasn't crowded & we got ont to the rides relatively quickly. The coolest part was Thursday (our first day) it was regular Disney and then overnight, the park was turned into HalloweenTown from Nightmare before Christmas. It was awesome! Our kids did SO well & we had so much fun.

 

Highlights:

•  Kingston loved the Small World ride. We rode twice- mainly for the air conditioning.
• Mc's favorites were the Teacups, Little Mermaid (at least six times) and Pirates
• The Dole Whips
• Complaining about our 10 hour drive and then talking to a lady from Israel who flew THIRTY hours to get to there.
• Mc's face when we saw the Princesses
• G crying @ the Princess Breakfast
• The Tower of Terror- my first ride, it was so great!
• Spending time with my two babies who thought everything was real, had no idea that any of it cost money, that the lines were long or that it was hot. They just soaked it all in.

 



Kingston was  a champ and even though it was hot, took a little snooze.




Mc wanted to ride the Tea Cups SO bad! This was our 2nd attempt (after being broken the first time) and it broke again after we got off.

 

Mc chose the baby Pegasus from Hercules as her souvy.

Can't you guess, I'm going to school.

We have a preschooler! Mckinley started at the Little Blue School House on Thursday. She was SO ready! I walked her to the door, she walked in and headed right downstairs without looking back. I waited in the car for a minute and watched another little girl with her mom & grandma. They stopped and took a picture of her smiling so big and that is when I got a little teary- my baby, my firstborn is now in school-but she is still so little. She had a great first day! She also started dance the same day so it was a day of firsts for her. She was a trooper (yep, still taking her afternoon naps, YES!) and is excited to go back next week. Mark gave her a sweet blessing the night before to make friends, be kind & to learn lots of new things. Can't wait to see what this year brings for her.

 

 

We had a "back to school" dinner and Mc could pick whatever she wanted. She chose Hot Dog on a Stick & to ride the carousel- she was pretty happy with her choice, as you can see.

Mc picked out her outfit (pretty stinking cute if you ask me) and Alex did a fancy double twisty, amazing-as-always, braid for her hair. Serious hair envy with this kid.

The cheese (because her "eyes hurt" from being outside) & her My Little Pony backpack.

Who's who at the Williamson house.

Bet ya didn't know that we have 3 children in our little family. Yep, Mckinley has been talking about her "older" sister Kiley for a few weeks now. We know she is 5 years old, she doesn't really like going to church and Mc talks about their adventures to the "quarium" and the zoo constantly. Little did I know, this person had been tagging along.  It is kind of creepy sometimes when you hear her playing and "talking" to Kiley, "you be Pinkie Pie, Kiley". She did inform me last week that Kiley has pink hair, blue socks and pink Toms. Research has served that "imaginary friends" are completely normal and actually quite indicative of a healthy imagination and excellent social skills. That sounds WAY better than creepy :)

Hammered however is another story. Yes, Hammered- as in the synonym one uses for an inebriated person. This my friends, is Mckinley's "boyfriend". We have yet to get a full description on him but apparently he comes swimming with us, pulled out all her library books and put them on the floor and can sing. For now, I guess the imaginary boyfriend variety are OK. Here's hoping she meets a REAL boy in pre-school that can serve in the boy-who-is-a-friend capacity.

You can't fault the kid for having an imagination. She can play for hours by herself, re-enacting the My Little Pony episodes or playing "festival" with her princess dolls. For now, we will let Kiley and Hammered stay to keep the peace.


We also find it quite funny that she names all of her squinkies- a few of my personal favorites (who get prayed for EVERY night): Stinkah (the skunk), Tigress (the Tiger), Kilah (who the heck knows), & Famous (the Lion). Thinking we may just let her name our next "REAL" kid (no, this is not an announcement).

Party in the city where the heat is on.

We lived in Phoenix for six years. It was hot. Really hot. The hottest day while we lived there was 126 degrees. I could deal with that heat- it was comparable to putting your face directly into a blow dryer or that feeling where your eyelashes curl up when you look into the oven. Florida however was completely different and I had never felt that type of heat in my life. My hair was undoubtedly a hot mess- I could feel the frizz and it took 45 minute to blow dry it. It constantly felt like  I was perspiring from my forehead and let's not talk about how uncomfortable it was to be fully clothed (unlike the rest of the people *ahem- Argentinian girls wearing only thong bikinis).

I got to meet my good friend Jen from work who lives there and spend some quality time at the pool basking in the warm glow of 100 year old ladies who had enough tan for 10 people. She was pregnant and handled the heat FAR better than I did.

Despite the sticky climate, Florida offered the Williamsons & MacDuffs a great time.

We got to ride on some air boats in the Everglades. We got rained on and pretty much stayed moist the rest of the day.

The Hubs and I on the air boat.

Holding a 3 year old baby gator- hot mess hair exhibit one.

 We then ventured to a place called the Coral Castle. Mark had visited this place while he was on his mission and said it was weird/cool. So some dude from Romania left his love there and built her this shrine out of coral. The crazy part, he was a small guy. Like maybe 5 feet tall and figured out this crazy pulley system to move these pieces of coral that were 6,000 lbs by himself. We indeed saw "unusual accomplishment".

Us in the Coral Castle "sitting room"

 We also got to visit a mansion called Vizcaya. The owner/name sake of John Deere built the mansion and these were the gardens. We decided that a manion makes you rich, gardens make you loaded.

 Here we are at Jungle Island. You could get up close to ALL of the birds and feed them and pet them.

So for 3 days, we kept driving past this "graffiti district" that was off the 95 in Miami. There were buildings every where covered in AMAZING graffiti. Finally, on our last night, we braved the ghetto and headed down there. It was pretty awesome. There was so much these pictures don't even do it justice. Those G's have some talent.

 Also on our trip, we came across an unfortunate living thing called a Sausage Tree. It was nothing nearly as magical as something from Willy Wonka but rather, this large tree with gross, alien, sausage-like pods.

We went on a Millionaire Mansion Boat Ride. This was someone's famous house(Shakira, Puff Diddy, Enrique Iglasias..can't remember)..one lot was left for sale. $7 Million just for the land alone and then you get boats full of people touring past your house all day.

One night we decided to eat at the beach side restaurant at our hotel. We finished eating late and had yet to walk on the beach. We headed down and I saw a woman shining a red light on these tags outside these roped off areas. I of course had to ask her what she was doing and that is where it started. Her name was Della and she was checking the baby sea turtle nest AND we were in luck, some would be hatching tonight. Ok, so when I was like 10, I watched an episode of "Reading Rainbow" and saw those darling baby turtles with their huge flippers making their mecca to the ocean and I knew then, I HAD to do that in my lifetime. I was going to have my chance. I stalked this lady for no joke like a mile and finally Deb, Jim & Mark asked what I was doing..I proceeded to tell them I was going to be "camping out" to watch the turtles hatch. They thought I was nuts. Deb was in and we set out to wait until these babies were ready. Mark & Jim decided to stay & about 3.5 hours later, the babies made their way out. At first, we were told not to touch them because we weren't "certified" but as the babies came pouring out (all 105 of them) in the wrong direction from the ocean, we got to start scooping them up to save their lives. They were so little and paddling their little flippers as fast as they could go. We got to scoop them into buckets and then release them one at a time into the ocean. We were there with the "Turtle Lady" Betty who had been saving turtles since 1984, a couple from France, the IT guy who tracks the turtles and lots of other tourist just as excited as us to welcome these babies. It was seriously SO awesome! Mark & Jim even said it was one of their favorite/accidental parts of the trip. This was the only picture we had of us @ 1:15 in the morning, on the beach. Save Baby Turtles..check!

I think next time we hit up Florida it will be in January and we will go to Orlando. Harry Potter World is still on the bucket list.

Summer of Firsts

So far, the summer of 2012 has been a great one. Last summer, we were kind of  holed up in the house as we had just had Kingston so we took the opportunity to branch out this year. Mc took her first swimming lessons. She surprised me by courageously putting her face in the water, floating on her back and really getting confident in swimming by herself. Her teacher, Lilly was really great with her and she LOVED going- especially since she got to see Avery and Boston three times a week.

We have had sleep overs with our cousin Brynlee. Played at her house with her new puppy, Toby and swam in her Zebra pool.

The boy is now forward facing. We figured we would wait until we leave for Disneyland to make the change but he seemed to be getting frustrated with not being able to see. He loves being able to see his sister and the DVD player. Seems like such a big boy. I love that he crosses his feet at the ankle.

We love the swing at Mimi's. Kingston laughs and laughs as he goes back and forth. He is totally brave like his sister and loves to go as  high as we can push him.

We got to venture to what AF residents so loving calls "The City of Scum" Carnival with our besties The Blackhursts. Mc LOVED it! At first, she seemed a little bit nervous about the loud roller coaster but once she was on, the "rocker" hand came out. She loved to go fast and with her BFF Kate by her side, she wasn't afraid for long. If this was a sampling of what Disneyland will be like, we are in for a treat.

The King's first Ferris Wheel ride with daddy.

First time on a two wheeler. This kid is fearless! She loves to go fast and Mark can't wait to start her on something bigger.

This was our first family picture of the summer @ the zoo. The new exhibit is really cool and we had a fun family home evening watching the Polar Bears and riding the train. Our kids are at such fun ages and summers in Utah (after spending a week in Florida) really can't be beat.