Vacation Day 5,6 & 7.....Disneyland

We spent the last part of our vacation at Disneyland. We had great hotel recommendations from a friend who frequents Disneyland to stay at a Marriot basically across the street. It was great. We walked to the park and they even had a pizza hut inside the hotel and a McDonalds in the parking lot. We will definitely stay there if we go again!

My sister had read a book about how to navigate the park so she was our tour guide. Cody and Marnie were too small to ride most of the bigger rides so we did have to split up quite a bit. I was surprised at how well Olivia and Alex ended up liking the big roller coasters. The only one the would never do again was the tower of terror at CA adventure. There was a heat wave while we were there and was around 95 each day. It was nice we didn't have to wait in long lines most of the time. The characters weren't really out and about around the park so when we did see them it was pretty neat. Here is the girls with Alice in Wonderland.

Here is some pictures of my sister and I with the younger crowd when the big kids went to do space mountain.

The first night we were there we met up with my Uncle Dan and his family to eat at the Rain forest Cafe. The kids thought it was pretty neat. Here they are at dinner. Doesn't he look a lot like my dad?

Here is all of us outside the restaurant.

After we ate the guys took the big kids back to the park to play until they closed at 8. The next day we did most of the rides in Fantasyland that were geared toward the younger kids and ate at the Blue Bayou, the restaurant inside pirates of the Caribbean. Here we are waiting for our table.

The kids were all excited to ride the carousel. Look at these cousins with their hip crops, funny girls. Here is Alex on the carousel. Cutie.The highlight of our day and probably our entire trip for the girls was meeting the princesses. You had to stand in line to meet them but after seeing the way the masses attacked the characters that we did see about the park it made sense. So here are the girls meeting a few of the princesses.

We also stayed late at the park that night. I think the longest line we waited in was for Dumbo, totally lame. Here are the kids at night in the dumbo ride.

After we got back to the hotel that night the kids were exhausted. Here are the girls all passed out.Friday we did CA adventure. They had everything decorated for Halloween and the letters outside looked like candy corns. Here we are outside. My aunt Nancy came up and spent the day with us. We were all exhausted by noon so we went back to the hotel and the little ones took a nap while Olivia, Nancy, Trevor, and I went for a swim. The pool was pretty nice and Olivia had been asking to swim all week so it was nice they had the opportunity for a bit. After our rest we went back to Disneyland and had to get our tourist snapshot in front of the Mickey flowers.

Here is Jon and Olivia in front of the big pumpkin set up.What?!? We are going to see the princesses again in the parade?Of course we had to watch the big parade one night. Here is all of us watching. That concludes our Disney trip. It was a blast and I think the kids had a great time. Thanks for doing that with us Lucas family, we love you!

Vacation Day 4....San Diego Zoo

Today we actually got the kids to sleep in until 7:30, can you believe? Ha! We woke up to a very foggy morning. I think I would hate to live on the coast for that reason. They call it the marine layer (or so my sister says) where it is pretty much cloudy/foggy in the morning and late afternoon when the sun isn’t hot enough to burn it off. I was really surprised how breezy and cool the weather was here next to the coast.With the CA City Passes we purchased for the trip we got a ticket to Sea World, one to San Diego Zoo or Wild animal park, one for Universal Studios and a 3 day hopper pass at Disneyland and CA adventure. It was such a great deal. When we got to the zoo they told us that we also got a free bus tour trip and a skyride with those tickets which was I think about a $30 value. I love good deals! So we started the day on a bus trip around the zoo. When we walked through the kids zoo they had this fun cut out that the kids posed in front of it.

My aunt Kathy met up with us at the zoo this day and we were able to visit and walk around together. They went through the petting zoo next where Alex the animal love was in heaven.

On the opposite end of the spectrum my nephew Cole is terrified of animals. I caught him in action on film.

Here is Kathy with some of the kids at the petting zoo.

The monkey house was a big hit with our monkeys. We probably hung out here for at least 30 min watching the orangutans and monkeys. Here is my niece Marnie giving him a kiss through the glass, so cute!

Don't hang out there too long or you might come home with a story like this one....

Here is the picture to prove it.....uh, gross!

Here is all the kiddos by the monkey habitat. Cody says, take a picture of me! Here is our family by the elephant tree outside the zoo.And the zoo sign.
Here is a picture of the cousins by the zoo sign.
And my sister's family by the sign.
After the zoo that afternoon we drove up to Anaheim and checked into our hotel for the evening. We passed a cheesecake factory getting off the interstate and went right back there for dinner that evening. It was probably the best meal of the trip. The kids actually ate baked chicken and mashed potatoes. My sister and I looked over the menu before the kids even sat down and didn't even give anyone a choice, it was pretty funny. Just said all the kids will be splitting 3 of of these. There were still left overs so the portions were huge, but it was yummy!

Vacation Day 3....

No sleeping in for this crew. My kids were up bright and early at 6:40 this morning. It was either they aren’t adapted to the time change or having all 3 of them in one bed was a little too close of quarters. Tonight we will try one of them on the floor and 2 in the bed and see if that helps.We headed out to Sea World as soon as it opened at 10am. We got to see the big Clydesdale horses that they have there since Budweiser or I guess Anheuser Busch owns Sea World.Code-man was seriously in a horrible mood for the majority of the day…pill. But we saw a dolphin show, sea lion show, and the killer whale show. I have to say this was pretty cool. The dolphins can jump so high it was amazing.


We saw sharks in this glass tunnel that went under the shark exhibit…. and also a fossil of Megalodon shark which is an extinct shark. I had to take a picture of this because this cute little boy in my primary class is always talking to me about megalodon shark and how cool he is. Marnie had enough by lunch time and was passed out cold in her stroller so we hooked it to this netting by our lunch table so she was leaned back. I couldn't pass up this funny glam shot of Olivia....strike a pose!Here is my hot husband and the kids at the sea lion show.. Cody is still mad....That seemed to be a theme for the trip, unfortunately. Cole and Olivia were the only ones tall enough to ride on the roller coaster and river ride so they were the only ones that had the pleasure of being soaked.

I felt so bad for Alex because she has been seeing those commercials for Sea World and the big coaster and asking when she gets to ride it. She was just a hair too short. Poor girl!

The killer whale show (the Shamu Show) was phenomenal as well. It is so neat we are able to see these animals as close as we do.

The kids also played on this air bounce thing that was pretty funny. They kept tripping each other and falling over one another. Silly kids.

Here is our fam right inside the entrance to the park. Can’t pass up those fun family photo ops, right?

We also wanted the kids to see the ocean while were were here so took them to Mission Beach right before the sun went down. It was cool we got the picture right before the sun set. What a fun day.

Girls Dancing Video

So here is the video from that second day at my aunts. I was having problems with google video so I guess You Tube will have to do.....

We got back on Saturday night in the early evening and I am still exhausted. I will try to update the blog on the rest of the trip this week as time allows. The guys came to install the carpet in our basement today, yipee. It is finally feeling "almost" done. My house smells like new carpet. I am back to work a few mornings a week and so far feel super busy. Tomorrow I am going down to Denver to volunteer with Komen and speak to a group of young adults about my cancer experience. I am really excited and hope it goes well.

Vacation Day 2…Dance Lessons and Swimming

After waking up this morning the girls were treated to an introduction to ballet. My aunt Nancy has been dancing since she was little and teaching ballet for many years. When I was growing up she was in the Colorado Ballet, and we went down to see her dance one year. So in her home she has a ballet room with hardwood and a ballet bar. She had little ballet slippers for the girls and put on a little class for them. Cody was in there for about 2 min before he lost interest.She taught them first position with their feet…..And then their arms….Then they did a little stretching exercise. Alex was funny, kind of doing her own thing and watching rather than participating.
(videos to follow later as they won't upload on the road)

My aunt has taken many trips to Italy and has written a book about her travels and I think some of our family history from there. She took the time to show Amy and me around her home and tell us all about where she picked up different things in her home. We got to this statue of David and she explained that she had covered him up since the kids were coming. I thought the “outfit” was hysterical. He looks more like Tarzan now.The kids were in the pool from 9am to when we left that afternoon at 2pm. Here they are taking a hiatus from swimming. They decided they wanted to paint. I had picked up some things to keep them busy at the dollar store and these paint sets were a score. They came with two cardboard pictures to paint and then a set of paints. They LOVED them.Cody has turned into a little Michelangelo.Jon manned this position for most of the day catching the kids while they jumped off the wall. Way to go Dad-e-o!

My cousin Kathy came back over for lunch and to hang out for a bit before we left and Nancy treated us all to California Pizza Kitchen. Yummy! Here is my sister Amy, Nancy and me.

We left Palm Desert at about 2:30 and drove down to San Diego. Most of the kids slept on the way down, but what an ugly drive. Not what I think of when I think of California. It was mostly winding roads through desert-ish mountains with no trees. When we got to San Diego it was probably only mid 60s which was a huge switch from mid 90s out in Palm Desert so we all changed back into our pants and hit the Olive Garden for dinner. Jon and I ended up picking up a navigation system at Best Buy on the way out of LA since the rental car company wanted to charge us 10 bucks a day for one, we figured we might as well spend a little extra and take it home with us afterwards. So far it has turned out to be super helpful. It even found us an array of places to eat this evening that were close to the hotel. Isn’t technology cool? We came back to the hotel and the kids were all past out by 8:30 and we are raring to go and spend a full day at Sea World tomorrow!

Vacation Day 1....

We made it in one piece out here to sunny (and hot!) CA. Jon and I both had an enormous to-do list yesterday so didn't make it to bed until midnight and then were up bright and early at 4:30am. Wow, I don't know that I have ever been up that early for the day, but I was so excited to embark on our trip I was wide awake. The kids on the other hand....grouchy, tired, un-excited-to-be-up-so-early-with-an-in-a-hurry-mom. We made it out the door by 5:15 and headed down to DIA.

We parked in long term parking so had to take a shuttle to the terminal and it made for pretty interesting times having 5 suit cases to check, 3 booster seats, a carry on for all 5 of us and a partridge in a pear tree. Basically Jon and I carrying all of these items plus keeping track of 3 children......I wouldn't recommend it. After we got through the nightmare of actually getting up to the terminal, checking our luggage, and getting through security (not to mention making it on time), it was not quite so stressful. Here is a snap shot of the kiddos running to the gate with their back packs. I still can't get over how small this giant back pack makes Cody look. What a midget.

When we finally got a seat at our gate and a moment's rest they were pre boarding for all the "special" passengers which included families with children so we had our queue to get back up and shuffle the kids onto the plane. All in all they did pretty well on the plane. I was excited to see their reaction to flying for the first time. Take off was pretty exciting but after that the whining started and Cody wanted to get off the airplane because it was boring. We did our best to entertain with Ipods and coloring books. At one point both Cody and Alex were quietly listening to a movie on the Ipods. This didn't last long before mom was up taking kids to the bathroom. I think I made 5 trips to the bathroom on that flight. Which warranted a comment from the stewardess about me having the patients of Job from the bible. I give it my best effort! Olivia actually had a hard time popping her ears on our decent but Jon finally got her to pop them by blowing her nose. She was in tears, poor girl.

We ended up renting a mini van for our vehicle this week because I wasn't about to pay a premium price for an expedition or something of the likes and so Jon will have the pleasure of driving his dream car for the week. Ha! He hates mini vans. I had to take a picture of him while he was entranced in his excitement!

We are starting our trip by visiting my aunt Nancy and cousin Kathy in the Palm Desert area so we drove down there from LA. On the way there was this huge wind farm with hundreds of wind turbines. I tried to take a picture but it just didn't capture the massive amounts like I thought it would. They were on both sides of the interstate, it was crazy.When we finally arrived in Palm Desert for the afternoon the kids enjoyed a swim at Kathy's house. I was surprised they swam there because the pool wasn't heated and even thought it was mid 90s outside it was freezing. But they were all in.....

I tried to stay dry but Cody and Alex couldn't touch the bottom so it made it hard to. They had a blast!

Here is Olivia showing off her jumping, what a little fish. She loves the water.

Since I don't see Nancy and Kathy often we had to snap a few photos, of course!

After visiting a bit at Kathy's we came back to Nancy's for dinner and we stayed the night there. Nancy also has a pool and jacuzzi in her back yard so the kids wanted to of course come back and swim there. She turned the heater on in the jacuzzi and the kids played for most of the time with Jon in the "warm tub". This was of course followed by the entourage of when are we getting one of these in our back yard type questions.....in your dreams Olivia! My sister Amy drove down from Sacramento and met us at Nancy's for dinner. Her family is also spending the week with us. We got a snap snot of all of us together. The kids were SO ready for bed by the time 8 o'clock rolled around they went right to bed. Nancy and I sat in the jacuzzi for a bit and got to visit since Jon was also wiped out and went to bed with the kids. It was nice just being able to hang out and relax a bit after a long day. What a fun first day! Now off to bed to do it again tomorrow!

Hurray!

If anyone else is lucky enough to drive a diesel vehicle this is as exciting for you as it is for me. I can't even remember the last time we paid under 4 bucks a gallon for diesel.....

I guess even regular is under 3, so it's good news for all. My nephew had his birthday party on Thursday and so we had to snap a picture with all the cousins that were present for the gathering. What a cute bunch of kiddos! Happy birthday Aiden!

Monday, Monday....

We have had lots going on since my last post. On Thursday I got together with 4 other ladies and did freezer meals. With TONS of pre-preparation (mostly by Michelle--you're awesome) we spent Thursday morning putting together 20 meals that will go in the freezer and then are ready to pop in the oven after thawing. I hope that it is a huge time saver and the family will like them.

Thursday night my mom invited us over for scones because she made home-made bread on Thursday. Scones are a favorite of mine so we all headed over there for dinner. Oh my, yummy. After some convincing and lots of sugar the kids ate them and actually liked them too. Good thing, because those might be making an appearance in my house before too long! Before dinner the kids had a great time playing with grandpa in the backyard. They found a different way to swing, it was pretty funny. My dad looked like he had an extra appendage, or two. (Aren't the trees pretty when they are changing colors?)

Jon hurt his neck last week at work and it just seemed to get worse and worse and so he went to the chiropractor and little by little it has improved. Here is the happy camper icing down his injury.Poor guy! Luckily he is feeling better this week. I received a call last week from my local support group Hope Lives! asking me if I would be willing to go and hang out with a dorm over at CSU (Colorado State University) while they made shirts for breast cancer awareness month. I asked my friend Heather if she wanted to go along with me. The 2 of us headed out there on Thursday evening and joined in making shirts and then told our stories and answered questions. I was surprised at the turn out, there was probably 30 kids there making shirts. I had a great experience just sharing my story, answering questions, and also hearing more of Heather's story. I had such a great time that I came home and researched volunteer opportunities for Komen. Apparently they have a young women's program that promotes education on high school and college campuses. I sent in a volunteer application and hoping to be able to be more involved with the education side of this disease. So we will see what happens with that.

Friday Jon and I went out to dinner and bowling with Courtnee and Seth to celebrate her birthday. We of course had a great time and were home by 10:30. Wow, sad, but alas we are now responsible (most of the time) parents and those kids still are awake early no matter how late we stay out. Bringing me to a new late night past time.....Jon and I now like to play Lego Star Wars on Xbox 360. Jon isn't home very much at night since he works nights and always has a hard time switching back and forth on the weekends so we ended up staying up late playing the xbox and have had fun just playing and hanging out.

Saturday and Sunday Jon was on call so gone for most of those days. He has been working a ton and we are both really excited to be leaving for our big vacation on Saturday....yeah! Saturday night we went over to my friend Abbey's house to hang out with friends. So all in all a pretty jam packed weekend.

Today the twins started back to preschool after having a week off and I started back to work. Since my hours with work have been getting cut back from work slowing down I am going to be going into the office to work part time and then picking up what I can at home still. Hopefully this will work out well with the kids school schedule and not be too hectic. Well off to bed to get my beauty sleep and be ready for another day back at work tomorrow!

Buddy Check 9

Hey ladies here is our buddy check nine message for this month. Remember to do your monthly self exam and go in and be seen for ANYTHING abnormal. Better to be safe than sorry!!

Hello Everyone!

What a day. What a race. What a crowd. For 16 years now men, women and children have come together on a Sunday morning to show their commitment to finding a cure for breast cancer. Every day, important steps are taken in research, treatment and education. These steps are best understood with the image we will hold in our memories of hundreds of women and men with pink hats crossing the finish line.

They are our sisters, friends, mothers, grandmothers, neighbors, fathers, sons and daughters. They are our inspiration and strength to keep walking and running for this goal. This is a movement that cannot be stopped or silenced. Every day more people join this battle. In Colorado, the statistics show 1 in 7 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. If the cancer is in an early stage, it is very treatable. While no one can change the diagnosis statistics, we can help with early detection. Please get a mammogram and please do regular self exams. Today is Buddy Check 9 day. We ask you to do a self exam and tell someone else to do the same.

Join us and keep the faith!

I AM....THE CURE.

Yesterday I participated in Race for the Cure in Denver. Amazing, awesome, a truly moving experience. My friend Heather who I met at the beginning of the summer and who is currently under going chemotherapy decided last week that she wanted to go down with me. What a strong lady. I was feeling so crappy during treatment that it didn't even cross my mind to try and participate in the race. I "slept in for the cure" the last 2 years. Which is just registering but not actually participating in the race. They just mail you a shirt. I was so excited when she called and wanted to participate with me. Since neither of us had participated we had no idea what to expect.
She picked me up about 6am and we drove down to the outskirts of Denver and parked her car and rode the transit bus into the city since traffic was a nightmare. I really enjoyed just being able to visit and get to know her better during the whole day. What a great experience not only for the race but just being able to strengthen our friendship. We had registered for the co-ed walk which started at 8:30 and the women's race started at 7am. While on the bus into the city we went under the overpass as the women's racers were starting. I was astounded at the sheer volume of people that were participating. We hiked over to the Pepsi Center where the race was and had some time to walk around in the survivor area. We scored some free stuff and they made us these really fun buttons. I have a picture of it on my slide show above. We were both cracking up because when we sat down I told her I felt like we were "partners" if you know what I mean and maybe next year we should come in wedding veils. Ha! I think that the 2 of us were joking around and laughing for a big part of the morning.

We started our race at 8:30 although we were a ways away from the actual starting line and it took at least 10 min to get to the starting line after they let us start. It was a 5K and I think we walked it in about an hour and a half. Heather and I had a blast just taking it all in. Seeing all the signs telling why everyone was walking, laughing at all the funny costumes, laughing at each other and just having awesome conversation the whole time. I must say that the actual walk kicked my butt. I am so sore today that I can barely move, but it was well worth it.

I cannot even put into words the overwhelming feelings that I experienced. Being one in 62,000 people attending either the biggest or 2nd biggest race in the country, I just felt so lucky to have all those people there racing for a cure. For research dollars. For me and every other woman ever diagnosed with breast cancer. Wow. I hope that in my life time we will see a cure for not only breast cancer but all types of cancer. It brought such mixed emotions when going to write my back sign. I thought, gol. It really sucks when I know so many women, some survivors, some still fighting, and some that have lost their battle with cancer that I don't have enough space to write them all down on this piece of paper. How do you sum it up? Stupid, dumb cancer. Although I am extremely grateful for all of these relationships with these women, the basis of the relationship sucks.

When we were finished with the race Heather and I took a bit of a siesta and just parked it on the asphalt while we ate our free snacks from safeway. Chips, granola bar, package of green chili......seriously they donated a single serve packet of green chili. mmm-k. It was random. But we got a good laugh out of it. For the survivor ceremony they had all the survivors come up on the stage and sit in the grand stands. We walked up through military personnel and their swords. It was pretty neat. Heather and I were walking up to the stands and she started crying and immediately this obnoxious reported got right up in her face with his camera. Annoying. In the stands I sat in front of a gal that ended up introducing herself to me as someone I had talked to when I was doing chemo. She was a friend of a friend and had been following my blog as she had recently finished her treatment. I was so glad she stopped me because I had never met her. I hope to get in touch with her at some point. That network of survivors, I tell ya, always looking out for their own!

After the closing ceremony we met up with Ady, Kristen, Jodie, and Anne. I had talked to Ady through myspace as she is mutual friends with a few of my friends so it was nice to finally meet her. We all decided we would have to start a team for next year and do all the fun costumes and come down together. We decided to go out to eat and Noodles before coming back home. It was so fun to get to know these gals better, they are a riot and I hope to hang out with them again sometime soon.

By the time we finally made it back to Heather's car it was about 1 and then we didn't get back home until a little after 2. I think Heather and I were both ready to just crash. We had be walking around all morning, and I haven't been up that early in a long time! Thanks to Jon he had the kids taken care of all day and even made dinner on Sunday night. I was able to just lounge around the whole rest of the day. Thanks babe, you're the best.

Today I am wishing my legs would just fall out of my hip joint. I thought I would be sore in my thighs and calves but no, I feel like my hips are going to fall apart. I wonder what that is all about, besides the fact I am terribly out of shape :-) Yikes I better start walking around more before our trip to Disneyland in 2 weeks. We will be walking around for a week straight. Maybe I can get one of those rascal scooters, huh? Ha! If anyone has any good tips for us for our trip PLEASE pass them on. We have never even flown with the kids so this is going to be quite the experience. Does anyone know if the booster seats (for the car) count as a checked bag?