Halloween

Brooklyn is a vampire and Cloe is the cutest fairy I have ever seen! Taysa decided she was too old to go trick-or-treating this year so she stayed home and handed out candy and then made fun of the teenagers that came. She did dress up a little...she wore her dance tutu!

Grandma VanOrden

Grandma VanOrden...we love you so much and are so very thankful for the wonderful example you have been to us all. The legacy and family heritage you have left us with is truly something we will cherish forever. We are so thankful to know that you are reunited with loved ones that left this life before you and that you are at peace with overwhelming happiness. We will miss your soft spoken voice, your beautiful smiling face, and your sweet hugs and kisses. We love you! Until we meet again...

Party time!

Today we went the the Red Barn pumpkin patch to celebrate Brooklyn and her cousin, Morgan's, birthdays. Morgan's birthday is on October 20th and he turned 4 and Brooklyn's birthday is on October 21st and she turned 8!

This is the gigantic herd we took to the pumpkin patch. Taysa, Alex, Chase, Livvy, Cole, Caden, Tenlee, Brooklyn, Abby, Cody, Sam, Cloe and Morgan. Max was there too, but didn't get in the picture. Missing cousins are Maggie and Carson. We missed you!


Best buds waiting for the train.


Pumpkin patch fun...straw maze, train ride, picking out the perfect pumpkin, getting rained on, and just having fun!


Here are their pumpkin picks. Don't you love Brooklyn's face, it's priceless. She is really mad that I made her pick up the pumpkin. I told the kids before that they had to carry their pumpkin back to the car so to be careful not to get one that was too big. Looks like it went in one ear and out the other!


After the pumpkin patch we went back to aunt Michelle's for grandma's annual trick or treat party. The difference this year is grandma wasn't there and we were having Brooklyn and Morgan's birthday party. The kids also got to open their birthday presents too!

CUPCAKE TIME!





Blowing out candles!!!


This is the face you get when you mix Morgan with black frosting!


Best buddies! We had Brooklyn's best friend, Tenlee, come back to our house after the big party to play for awhile.


Taysa raked up the leaves for the girls to play in...what a nice big sister.


Best buds posing in the leaves!

Brooklyn and Morgan were really lucky this year to get to have such a fun birthday party and on the same day as grandma's trick or treat party too! We had a really great time. Happy birthday to Brooklyn and Morgan!

Brooklyn's 8th birthday

Today Brooklyn turned the big 8! Wow, I can hardly believe it. We didn't do too much on the day of her birthday, the kids had school, I had to teach gymnastics, and Taysa had dance class. While Taysa was at dance we went to eat at a little Mexican restaurant just here in Shelley and after Taysa was home from dance we opened presents.

Webkinz Racoon! Just what she wanted.


She can hardly contain the anticipation!


Converse shoes...something she wanted just like her big sister.


Skinny jeans...something else she wanted just like her big sister.


And Icarly pj's...her total favorite. She also got the Spy Next Door dvd, she has wanted that forever. All in all I think it was a pretty good birthday. Happy 8th birthday to our beautiful Brooklyn! We love you!!!

COUSINS

We love having Carson and Morgan living close to us now. Whenever they come over the kids have so much fun together. This day they spent most of the day dancing and twirling batons. Even Morgan, my little cutie pie, did all the girlie things with the girls, he is such a good sport. We love you Carson and Morgan and love having you come spend time with us!

p.s. Brooklyn was mad about who knows what so that's why she isn't smiling.

Disneyland 2010 (finally)

September 29, 2010
Day 1 - Salt Lake City

DISNEYLAND...here we come!!! We were so excited to finally get to go to Disneyland. Thanks to Mema and Papa we got to go with Matt's entire family. There were 25 of us all together. Just imagine all the craziness we caused doing everything as a group of 25. So much so that on our flight home the airline double and triple booked out seats and then blamed the mess on us. But we didn't care...we had lots of little kids so we got to board first and we weren't about to give up our seats.

Sorry, this post is super long. I just couldn't decide what to post and what not to post so I posted a bunch of pictures.

We hope you enjoy looking at our adventure...

SALT LAKE CITY AIRPORT
















ON THE PLANE



Papa and Mema. Thanks so much for the great trip...we love you!






It seems to cause a little craziness when 25 members of your family book the same flight. Our family goes 4 rows back on the left and 5 rows back on the right. I think we filled half the plane.


On the shuttle headed for DISNEYLAND!!!

CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE PARK


DISNEYLAND AT HALLOWEEN




DAY 1 - CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE PARK
We started our exciting trip off by going to California Adventure park on our first day.
THE ROCKETS




THE CAROUSEL












THE ANIMAL CRACKER BOXES...sorry I can't remember the real name of the ride




THE CRAZY CATERPILLAR RIDE


TOWER OF TERROR





Waiting outside the Tower of Terror for some family that went on the ride.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010
DAY 2 - DISNEYLAND


PETER PAN RIDE




THE TEA CUPS




IT'S A SMALL WORLD AKA...CLOE'S FAVORITE RIDE




THE MATTERHORN




THE COLUMBIA


SPLASH MOUNTAIN






WE MET POOH BEAR!

Morgan, Cloe and Caden...the 3 four year olds loving on Pooh!





WE MET TIGGER!




THUNDER MOUNTAIN RAILROAD











Waiting for our reservations at the Rainforest Cafe...it is about this time Cloe's fever spikes really high and she becomes very sick. So we load up our kids and head back to the hotel instead of eating dinner.


One sick little girl. It never fails, whenever we go anywhere this girl gets sick. And I don't just mean a little cold. She always gets fevers of like 104 degrees, throwing up, etc...all the bad stuff. This time we are certain the culprit is strep.


Cloe perking up now that the Motrin has had time to kick in. She just had to show off what she bought at Disneyland.

OCTOBER 1, 2010
DAY 3 - DISNEYLAND

Waiting for the shuttle! Cloe is not feeling well at all but still wants to tough it out and head for the park...what a trooper.


AAAAHHHH! WE LOVE YOU!




Imagine for a minute...14 kids ages 11 to 2 and two grandparents. Now that you've pondered that now imagine trying to get all these people to look in the same direction, keep their hands down, smile, be happy, keep fingers out of noses, etc...all at the same time. We took probably 20 pictures like this and not one of them turned out.

IT'S A SMALL WORLD...AKA CLOE'S FAVORITE RIDE again










GADGETS GO COASTER





Too cute...

WE MET MINNIE



All Cloe cared about the whole trip was meeting Minnie. So I'm not surprised she ran up to her and hugged her.

WE MET MICKEY



Taysa must love Mickey because we were leaving after the picture and she turned and hugged him.



THE JUNGLE CRUISE



At this point Cloe was getting sicker and sicker...just look at her red eyes. This was the last ride we went on before going back to the hotel to let her nap and get her medicine picked up from the pharmacy.

OCTOBER 2, 2010
DAY 4 - CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE PARK
PLAYHOUSE DISNEY SHOW LIVE



Oh my goodness...was this show ever a good idea. It had just started raining when we were waiting in line for this, but that's not the good idea. The little kids absolutely loooooooved it. Cloe and Morgan danced and danced and clapped along and did everything with the show.

GRIZZLY RAPIDS...AKA BROOKLYN'S FAVORITE RIDE

Matt and Livvy got completely drenched on Grizzly Rapids. This is the only picture I have from Grizzly Rapids. At this point in the trip we split up. Most of the moms took the little ones and the dads took the older kids. It was a great idea except for the fact we have no pictures of the dads and big kids.

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 STREET PARADE




MUPPETS 3D SHOW



COOL KIDS!

MONSTERS INC







We had to get ourselves drenched any chance we got. It was really hot...especially Friday I thought I was going to melt!

CALIFORNIA SCREAMIN...AKA TAYSA'S FAVORITE RIDE



10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1


BLAST OFF!


Totally the funnest ride ever!

WE MET JESSIE!



The kiddos taking a break for a few minutes...I think we ran them all ragged.

PIXAR PARADE
We were heading out of the park to go to dinner when we realized we couldn't get through the street...the parade was coming! This parade was so cute. They had lots of fun floats and characters and we got sprayed with lots of water to cool us off.




RAINFOREST CAFE
The second night we were at Disneyland we all had reservations to eat at the Raiforest Cafe together. We were all there waiting for our table when Cloe got really sick, so we had to leave and take her back to the hotel. So we decided on our last night there we would go eat there so our kids could have the fun experience. There were waterfalls and thunderstorms inside the restaurant and lots of gigantic animals. It was totally worth every penny!











DESSERT!!! Volcano cake! Yum yum and yummy!


You know your kids are worn out when the 11 year old sits in the stroller.

OCTOBER 3, 2010
GOING HOME



Farewell...back to reality!