Isaac Discourses

Isaac woke in the middle of the night with an ear ache. After uncontrolable crying through medication and a mommy prayer, I asked if he wanted daddy to give him a blessing. He nodded his head and said, "Yeah, but not a super long one."

Explainig to his cousin, Beth, about Adam and Eve in a book on the creation, Isaac said, "You know why they're naked? Because they been in the water."

My wonderful husband frequently watches church videos with the boys on Sunday. He was watching To This End Was I Born with Isaac. Isaac asked, "Who is that?" Matt replied, "Judas Iscariot." Isaac crinkled his nose and asked, "Why is Judas scarey?"

Singing and Dancing With the Stars

Saturday night I went with a group of friends to watch and participate in the Mama Mia! sing-along at the movies. I hadn't seen it yet, so I didn't know what to expect from the movie and more especially from the sing-along part of it! Other than being a little distracting from watching the show for the first time, the singing part was fun and weird. Our group was all on the back row, so we couldn't hear anyone else in the theatre (not many, anyway) since they were all in front of us facing forward. So, we felt like it was just us singing. Weird but fun, especially if Natalie is sitting next to you!

More fun with friends!!!!

Monday Nat, Meli and I got to go to the Premier for Dancing With The Stars. It was a 2 hour show and we got to see all of the dancers perform. It was very entertaining (if you saw it you know what I'm talking about) and we managed to get on the camera a few times too! Oh, and we shook the host's hand as he walked past us before filming. Thanks Melissa for getting the tickets and inviting us!

♫ Happy Birthday To Me ♪

Today is my birthday. I'm 33. Whoa! It seems so much worse when the numbers stare you in the face! Anyway, some years are better than others as far as birthday celebrations go. I usually feel weird about my birthday and have mixed feelings regarding it. Of course, everyone wants a big to-do for their special day, but often it doesn't turn out that way. Well, over the past few years, I've found a way to celebrate that doesn't require that your birthday be a perfect day, which usually brings dissapointment in some way or another. This isn't the way my mother did it one time by buying everyone else in our family gifts for her birthday because at least someone would be happy and gifts would be given on her birthday. No, I'm not so philanthropic. My self-ish new-found way to celebrate is to spread the cheer over as many days as possible and eat as many birthday "treats" as necessary. So, here's how I did it this year:

THURSDAY...lunch with some of my closest friends at The Crab Pot with Strawberry Rhubarb Cake and icecream for a birthday treat.

FRIDAY...Dinner with more friends at El Torito that turned into 3 hours of fun! Laser tag would have to wait for another night. We were surprised they didn't kick us out as it got close to 10 pm, but we're not sure they even knew we were out there anyway! And, yes, Chrissy, I LOVE flan!

SATURDAY...we went to Knott's for some family fun and had to celebrate with a funnel cake.

SUNDAY...Natalie made a delicious chicken cordon bleu dinner with twice baked potatoes, homemade bread etc., etc. We ate some chocolate cake and then we headed over to the Browers for their daughter's birthday celebration where we ate more cake and icecream! By this time I was more than happy to share the celebration with my sweet friend Audrey, who turned one on the 13th, but had her "friends" party today.

Of all of the great presents I received (THANK YOU everyone!) I'd have to say my most favorite gift, by far, was this telephone message left by my fellow birthday girl.

I'm so lucky to share my birthday with my sweet niece, Lillian. Ealier in the day I had left a birthday message for her on her phone and I'm so glad that she did the same for me! Thanks Lil!

I'm so thankful to have such wonderful friends and family to make my birthweek such a great one. Thank you so much!

To D, or not to D?

Matt and I call Disneyland "the big D" when we're around the boys (so as not to instigate unwanted whining regarding going to said park).

It has been about a year now that Isaac has loved going on the rollercoasters at Disneyland. That's about all he cares about. He doesn't seem to know or care about all of the other wonderful things about Disneyland that people pay big money for. He doesn't know ANYthing about Disney. Granted, I don't spend much time reinforcing disney character's names, etc. (No, I take that back, I tried pointing out a Woody character one time when we were walking around and he looked at his gargantuan mask and flailing arms like, "what the heck is that?") But, honestly, he has never showed one INKLING of interest in any of it....and our passes were about to expire.

Hence, the BIG decision: To D or not to D?

Now, on the other hand, Isaac LOVES trains (still). He is also very interested in all things "old and fashioned" as he says. He also talks a lot about mining since we got to see some first hand gold digging during a mountain trip and went to the Kenecott copper mine in Utah this summer. So, I found myself thinking, what better place than Knott's? It's got everything Isaac wants.

Well, the decision came in the summer when I showed Isaac a rock shaped like Mickey Mouse and asked him what it looked like to which he replied, "that Disneyland thing." At that exact moment my decision was made. Knott's it is!

So we went for a quick preview on Monday and here's what we did:






SO, here are the pros and cons to Knott's for our family:

CONS
~ All the questions that come along with Isaac's interest in everything he sees there (like trains and old fashioned tools, etc). Should've seen that one coming!
~ It really is pretty ghetto (as my good friend Jackie has pointed out), but nothing we can't handle!
~ I'm guessing we'll be dealing with more teens.
~ Not the best place for a romantic-ish night out with hubby. (Like Dland)
~ No Dole Whips. =(

PROS
~ Super easy to park and walk into theme park. (compared to Dland) I feel like I could do this any day alone. I never did at Dland.
~ No one plans major vacations involving Knotts=rarely crowded.
~ Therefore, no waiting in lines!!!!!!! We basically walked on every ride on monday. That's a necessity with 2 little boys.
~ A great place for a super fun date night.
~ Much better food (Johnny Rockets, TGI Friday's, Panda Express, Dippin' Dots, Funnel cakes)
~ Supreme Scream and more big-kid rides. (Bummed they took out the Scrambler, that was my fav!)
~ Characters Isaac can actually recognize what they are and likes them.

As you can see, it's a pretty close call, but perhaps the biggest determining factor was when I found out that I could get four season passes (with NO blockout dates) for LESS than one deluxe pass to Disneyland, I almost flipped.

I feel like I'm explaining why I left all that I believe in or something! Don't worry, I haven't lost the faith. It was just time for some change$. ;)

If anyone has Knott's passes let me know and we can meet up sometime!

Labor Day Weekend

We took a last-minute camping trip to Buckhorn with some of our AWESOMEST friends for the weekend. Luckily we found a beautiful, humongous shared site. We had lots of fun and enjoyed it so much, we found ourselves wishing we could stay just one more day.

Labor Day Weekend

This is a little oasis we found off a hiking trail near the campground (you can hear the water dribbling down the rocks in the background). The woman helping me is someone I met earlier that morning at the campground who happened to be there as well.

Sequoia

Butterfly-catching in Sequoia