Monday, May 21, 2018

The great California Adventure of 2018

Let's start with Lego Land. It was really cool as a whole but only so-so as an amusement park. If you think of it as the whole experience, kinda like Disneyland, it's a lot more fun. My kids loved trading "mini figs" (little lego figures) with the employees. Also, looking at all the lego sculptures were super duper cool. We actually didn't discover the big lego village until the night time when it was too late, which was kind of a bummer. The rides were fun, there just aren't a ton of rides. 



Brighton loved all the Lego Friends characters






Wyld Style


The Legoland aquarium.


Next up, the real reason for the trip, Disneyland! Lynzi actually invited us to tag along on their trip that they had been promising their kids when Ron finished grad school. Of course we're not going to pass up a Disneyland trip! My parents came along too which always makes things more fun! We had SO much fun. The days were almost perfect! The weather was chilly but it didn't stop the fun. The very last night Brighton wanted to stay until closing, so she and I stayed and had a ton of fun together.
These are just a few of the pics off Aaron's phone.







Brighton lost two teeth in one day! One at breakfast at the hotel and the other in the park! "Why does this keep happening?"






Donald Duck?





Six Already for Miss Piper

Piper, Popsee, Pip, P
ippy, Sparkles... those are just a few of the names Piper has gone by this year. There was a time I was volunteering in the class and all the kids and her teacher, Mrs. Sharkey, were calling her Popsee! Then Deacon told her she should really spell it Popsei. LOL.

Piper has personality! Boy does she! And sass and spunk and all that goes with it at age six.  Her trademark phrase is "What can I do?"  She always wants to be entertained, have a friend over or have me play with her. But I'll miss her when she's in first grade next year! Having her home in the morning has it's ups and downs but I'll miss it.

Her best friends are Lainey Garn and Raygen Kendall. Since moving into our new neighborhood in December she's also been playing with funny little Alex Blood and Tessie Holbrook.  She likes to color and paint, play with play doh, string beads, jump on the tramp, swim, dance with Miss Abby and go to gymnastics with Raygen. She's a superstar on the bars and vault.


She's had a lot of Dr. appointments this year getting her allergies and reflux figured out but she was always a champ!

Winter is her favorite season because she LOVES snow!

She likes school but I wouldn't say she loves it, although she has a fabulous Kindergarten teacher. Every day when I ask her how school was her response is "normal."

She likes to ride her new bike and has started roller skating in the last couple weeks.
One of her trademarks is her allergy snort, poor thing. Last year we figured out she's allergic to grass, dust mites and feathers. So it's year round for this girl! We also just found out she has Reflux Disease, so her throat and her stomach hurt quite a bit. I think because of this her ideal foods are macaroni and cheese and plain noodles! She's also slightly obsessed with English cucumbers at the moment.

She also still likes to be held and sit on laps, as often as possible. "hold you!"

For her party we invited every single girl in her entire Kindergarten class (Plus Elliot) and almost everyone came!  She wanted a unicorn and rainbows theme and I kinda went all out! We played pin the horn on the Unicorn that I made with my very own hands.  We played Unicorn toss, danced to unicorn music, had a silly string fight and played a rainbow string treasure hunt. The girls had to follow their color of thread to reach a prize at the end. It was trickier than I thought it was going to be, but they had fun. They also made their own "unicorn feed" to take home and had this amazing unicorn cake made by my friend Dani.  I was in love with it! It was all a six year old girl could ask for!








They had to try to toss the ring over their partner's horn!









8 is Great for Deacon Jett



A bit about Deacon at age 8! Woot!

Deacon is in 2nd grade this year and loves school. He has the funny, quirky, always teaching fun facts: Mr. Reed. Deacon LOVES Mr. Reed. He's in there with his best friends Hudson Bankhead and Kayden Kendall. They're the cutest little buddies!

Kayden, Deacon and Hudson in the lunchroom at school.

Deacon still kind of drums to his own beat. He's not interested in any sports, although he did enjoy golf lessons with Hudson the last 6 weeks. I made him try basketball and while, from the looks of his face, he seemed to enjoy it, he says he never wants to do it again. I think he doesn't like the competition aspect of it.  He really doesn't like being "made" to do things. Such as ride a bike. He's 8 years old and WON'T ride a bike! He got one for his birthday that he'll "train" on for five minutes a day when we make him, but he seems to have no interest in riding.

What he is super into is video games, board games, Pokemon, Avengers, reading pretty much anything, eating pretty much anything, computers, basic coding and magnets.

One thing about Deacon is he doesn't need other people to validate him or make him happy. If we're somewhere and he wants to do something fun like go off a diving board or anything like that, he doesn't need anyone to go with or watch him. He does it for the sheer joy of it. He also HATES having his picture taken. Look closely and you'll see the tears through the fake smile. ha.





Deacon wanted an Avengers party for his birthday and since he hasn't had a big friend party in a couple years we invited a bunch of boys!  We played "villain smash",  "don't touch the kryptonite", "Pin the shield on Captain America," Silly string fight,  ate pizza and cupcakes and went bananas!




We had the party on a Friday night and company coming into town for the weekend for his baptism. It was a crazy weekend! Aaron's parents (mountain grandma and grandpa) came for almost two weeks. My parents and Lynzi's family came for the weekend. They got there in time for the end of Deacon's party. Stephen and Kim came for the baptism.  It was a whirlwind weekend for sure!








My favorite thing about Deacon is probably how loving and affectionate he is. When he's excited or happy he can't stop hugging and kissing everyone. He'll just randomly walk up to me and give me a big hug or kiss, it's so sweet.  My least favorite thing is when he "hulks out". This is what we call it when he gets too hungry and he goes from sweet Deacy to Hulk in like 2 seconds! haha. Give the boy a sweet and salty nut, stat!

I always want to remember the way he looked at me when we were having fun together.

Some baptism pics: