Belated Beloved Birthday Pictures

Happy Happy Birthday, Garrett, Dear....

May many swords and weapons come to you all year...

If I had one wish then it would be...

A happy happy birthday to you from me!

On a Tuesday in October we held a little birthday gathering for G-Dawg and 11 of his bestest friends.

There were games (directed by a bossy but wonderful sister who loves to be in charge),

obstacle courses involving old tires,

a snake pit which I forgot to take a picture of, and

plenty of  wonderful presents (some were even weapons!).

If you are thinking that the relatively few number of photos of said birthday party was due  to the fact that I was hauling around a Sam while taking pictures while directing 12 five and six year olds into the aforementioned games and obstacle courses, you would in fact, be correct.

Hello Six

Six years ago today I first met this handsome guy. Although we were so excited to meet him, he seemed a little reluctant when, at 9 days overdue, he nearly refused to be born. All 9 pounds of him. But finally he made his entrance, and our world has never been the same.....

Happy 6th Birthday to our handsome, clever, sword-fighting, funny, amazingly wonderful son.

We love you!

Jedi Garrett vs. Darth Maul

One of the highlights of our trip was when Garrett was chosen to participate in the Jedi Training Academy at Disneyland. I think he might have enjoyed it more had it not been 110 degrees at noon on a stage in full sun and him wearing a Jedi robe, but it was still so much fun.

First they teach the young padawans how to properly wield their lightsabers (as if Garrett needed any tips). The command for "unleash your lightsaber" is "activate", and to retract it is "deactivate". Hmm. Do you suppose we could use this with all the children when it came time for chores or time to go to bed? "Activate! Deactivate!"

After the padawans have practiced their moves, out come Vader and Darth Maul to test their skills. Garrett took me aside after the show and told me he really wanted to fight Vader, but it was okay that he only got to fight Darth Maul. Life's injustices!

As you can tell, Darth Maul was no match for Garrett's advanced skills.

With his Jedi diploma in hand, he happily discarded his wool Jedi robe and returned to his Darth Mom and Dad. May the force ever be with us as we live in the same house with Jedi Garrett and his arsenal of lightsabers!

P.S. On our last Disneyland day, the kids each got to spend gift cards from Grandpa Joe on a souvenir. Garrett's choice? A new lightsaber from the "Build-Your-Own LightSaber" store in Disneyland. You'll probably want to keep him on your good side.

Take Me For a Ride

We had big temperatures (110 degrees) but small lines during our week at Disneyland and California Adventure. Evidently, after a summer of unusually cool temps, we arrived in So Cal just in time for a record-breaking heat wave. These four were too busy running from ride to ride and paid no heed to the sweat running down their faces. Mom and Dad tried to keep up.

Some things were new to us, like the Halloween decorations and various rides being transformed for the holiday, and some things were familiar to us, like Ben doing bunny ears in every photo.

There were fast things......

and slow things,

and "O" things (the letter "O" in California).

There was sword pulling, and

lightsaber fighting (an entire blog post to come on this later, complete with Vader and video), and

more then a few photo opps.

There was lots of holding Sam, and

lots of riding with Sam, 

and even a few naps with Sam (notice his heat-flushed cheeks and sweaty head. 110 degrees, people.)

There were sweet-smelling rides, and

and crazy-driver rides, and

and crazy-sweet rides.

There was some (jump) down time, some

some wet time, 

some weapon time, and lots and lots of

Toy Story time. We lost count how many times we rode the "Buzz" ride, per our 20-month-old's instructions.

The OC

We drove until the map turned blue.....

and back home again.

Please keep your hands and arms inside this blog and remain seated until the pictures come to a complete stop.

Newport Beach

We stayed a week at a lovely beach house on Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, California. We were 2 blocks from the open ocean on one side, 5 blocks from the harbor on the other side.

B,C,G,and S LOVED spending time at the beach, digging sand holes, braiding sea weed (really), eating sand (I wonder who....), building sand cities, collecting shells,  and running into and from waves waves waves.

It was fun being so close to the beach and heading down whenever we wanted to. The kids quickly got used to having sand in their hair and toes and nose, all the time.

For some reason still a mystery to me, I let the kids talk me into letting them bury me in the sand.

 In. my. clothes. 

Let me just say there are still a few grains of sand keeping me company.

If you chance to meet a frown....

just go sit with mommy!

Hope to see you again real soon, Pacific. You are just too beautiful for words.