We just got back from our annual trip to Disneyland.  Sadly that might've been the last one, it's just getting too difficult for the kids to miss that much school.  They're all still trying to get caught up.

So Jeremy decided to make this trip extra-special.  For starters, we flew instead of drove.  I'm all for that except for the part where Brody and Jace both puked as we were landing in California.  Unfortunately they were sitting by a stranger and she may have gotten a little backsplash.  Fortunately she was VERY kind and understanding.  I'm sure she was trying not to puke herself but she nicely offered to trade seats with me so I could hold the barf bags. 

We got to ride in a limousine from the airport to the hotel.  I'm pretty sure the kids found this even more exciting than Disneyland.  Thanks to the Steffensens for the idea, don't think it ever would've occurred to me otherwise.

We went for one day to Universal Studios.  I really enjoyed it (especially being able to drive right down Wisteria Lane) but the little kids were kind of ticked that there are only 7 rides there.  They don't yet appreciate all the other amazing stuff there is to see.

Disneyland was perfect, of course.  We were able to do everything we had wanted.  A couple times we had to split up, like when for some bizarre reason Brody wanted to go to the Disney Live on Stage show.  We let the older kids go on rides while we did that.  But mostly we were able to stay together.  It's fun not having to worry about height limits and splitting up for that reason.

The very best part of Disneyland was running into Zachary Levi, aka Chuck.  My kids are all obssessed with that show and were beside themselves to meet him and get pictures taken.  Zack might have even shed a tear or two.

At the end of the trip the limo took us back to the airport.  I made Brody and Jace take a Dramamine before flying this time, and they did fine.  I was ticked that Utah was so warm the whole week we were in California but I have to admit, it is glorious to come home to warm and sunny skies instead of ten feet of snow.

After two LONG years, Jeremy is three weeks away from completing his masters degree.  Despite my two years of incessant complaining, I am very proud of him.  It is going to be such a relief to have it done.  And he has done very well, I don't think he has received below an A- in any of his classes.  And this is the guy who didn't even start on his bachelor's degree until we were married with two kids.  I love his ambition, it is so neat to see him want to work so hard to further himself in his career.  It's been very stressful for him but he managed to keep up with his Dad Duties throughout it all.  I can't think of a single sports or school event that he has missed.  He even had a couple stints being the coach for one of the kids soccer teams.  Luckily he was smart enough not to sign on for that while he's been completing his last couple of classes, but he is still there at every game.  It is going to be such a celebration at our house in a few weeks!!

Yesterday was probably my best birthday (as a grown-up) yet.  Jeremy finally learned my love language, and he did a perfect job.  I didn't lift a finger all weekend.  On Saturday he cleaned, got the kids to clean, took all six kids shopping for a couple hours while I stayed home alone, and he even cooked Sunday dinner.  All 8 of us went to Olive Garden on Saturday.  I'm learning that if we're eating out these kids just prefer fast food.  Sit down restaurants don't really know how to make kid-friendly dinners.  Course Jeremy got the staff to sing Happy Birthday to me so that was a real treat.  Corben said I did a real good job of not blushing so that was good.

I loved how sweet the kids were.  Like most grown-ups, half the time I forget it's even my birthday, as was the case as we were bustling around trying to get everyone to get ready for church.  I went downstairs and was rushing to wake up (again) (even though we now have 1:00 church) a couple of the kids.  Corben was coming down the hall and as I went rushing by he held out his arms and gave me a big hug and told me happy birthday.  He even held the hug for longer than the normal .005 seconds!  It was very special.  He's such a neat kid, still singing and playing his guitar and writing songs that absolutely amaze me.  A few months ago he started working as a custodian for the jr. high and is LOVING spending his earnings.  I hope he'll get that out of his system fast and learn the beauty of saving.

Trev is my child who is most like me, so it makes me laugh (not really) that I'm so impatient with him.  He's got a strong personality, but man can this kid get me on the floor laughing.  It is impossible to get him to be serious, he is so stinking funny! He can defuse any tension with one word, and my scowl will turn into a laugh whether I want it to or not.  His church teacher was talking to me about him the other day and telling me what a tender heart he has, and it's so true.  He acts tough, but he's a big softie.

Lance is my quiet handyman.  His most favorite activity in the world, no joke, is to go shopping at Lowe's with his dad.  Anytime Jeremy is working on a car, a bike, any home improvement project, Lance is right there glued to his side helping.  Jeremy trades work with a mechanic friend of his and when he went there one day to work on the guy's computers, Lance was in seventh heaven when Jeremy invited him to come along.  They were there for several hours and I finally decided to go grab Lance, knowing he'd be bored to tears by then, but he was in his element.  No way was he leaving with anyone but dad.

Zack is a lot like Trevor, acts tough but secretly has a very soft heart.  He is the only kid who will still (willingly) cuddle with me.  He gives me hugs just out of the blue, all the time.  He is the goalie for his soccer team and loves it.  He gets to go to an out-of-town tournament this month and has been most anxiously awaiting the trip for months.  He does not love school, which is frustrating to me because he is such a smart kid!  Once they switch schools to functioning 100% electronically I think he will get straight As.

Brody is kind, smart, rebellious, funny, and sassy.  I never know what I'll get from him from one minute to the next.  His hair is so long and shaggy but he will not let us trim it.  I'm all for forcing him but I then get ganged up on by Jeremy and Corben who think "he should be able to express himself."  My favorite thing that he's been doing for several months, no idea where this came from, but anytime I call his name, instead of shouting "What?!" like every other kid, he comes right up to me and says, "Yes Dear?"  It is hysterical.  This kid is OBSESSED with soccer.  He has become quite the little player and he is just on cloud 9 whenever he scores for his team.  He had a game the Saturday after Christmas and in the days leading up to Christmas he was more often asking how many days til my game instead of how many days til Christmas.

Jace is the calm one.  He definitely has his moments but overall he is patient and easy.  He is so smart and does such a good job at school.  He does hilarious dances, faces, voices, etc.  His whole life, however, is soccer.  He knows everything about Real Salt Lake and is thrilled that his dad took a tenth mortgage out on the house to get season tickets this year.  He is the goalie on his team and is AWESOME.  They just started another session and he has helped keep them undefeated in the first few games they've played so far.

Corben's Solo

This is Corben's solo at the Syracuse Jr. High Choir Concert.  He is singing with a neighbor girl, Lindsay.  They did absolutely awesome, we get goose bumps when we watch it again.

It is really neat to see all his hard work, and the benefits of it.

Trevor was in this concert as well, in the beginner's choir, he did so good in his first concert, we are so proud of both of them.

I don't understand how some people can get so into Halloween.  We had our neighborhood trunk-or-treat tonight over at the church and I couldn't believe the effort of some of the costumes.  My favorite was Katniss.  This little gal had the mockingjay pin and everything.  I asked where she got the pin and she had no idea, her mom got it.  Well, here are the efforts I went to for my kids' costumes.  Jace wore an adult-sized Angry Bird costume that Jeremy got on clearance after Halloween last year.  Brody wore a Power Rangers costume, about 2 sizes too small, with no mask or make-up so nobody knew what he was supposed to be.  Zack did not dress up at all, I think he was half-heartedly pretending to be a football player because he was wearing his jersey.  Lance was a soccer player, wore the uniform he just wore in fall soccer.  Trevor wasn't dressed up but as I think he is already too old for trick-or-treating I'll be darned if he wasn't going to wear a costume, so he put on a vampire cape and a clown wig over his regular clothes.  Oh, and he was wearing roller blades.  It reminded me of my favorite childhood book, Me and the Weirdos.

In all fairness to myself, It wasn't entirely my fault.  If any of them had an ounce of decision-making skills I would have gladly helped them put a costume together.  But nobody gave any thought or care whatsoever to their costume, and I've never been a major Halloween fanatic so I'm not going to go to all this effort if they don't care.  The problem is I need to come up with something for the school parade otherwise I'll be embarrassed for them.  

On a happier note, Zack was the hero at his indoor soccer game today.  The game was tied with just a few seconds left and the other team was taking a penalty kick with Zack as the goalie.  The second the whistle blew Zack charged the kicker and was able to block the goal.  It was so awesome!  We were standing right by the team and they were so cute erupting into cheers.  One of the boys turned around to me and shouted, "Zack did it!"  CUTE! 

Oooohhh, I hate technology.  Nnooott as much as you you see.  But IIIII still hate technology.  Now and forever.

It's true, I hate it so much.  I first started a blog because I'm real lazy about writing in my journal so I thought oh, it will be much easier to type all of our goings-on.  But all that happened was I stopped writing in my journal all together because I'll record this or that event on the blog "tomorrow."  So now I have guilt about not  writing on the blog OR in my journal.  And it didn't help that when I finally logged on to blog after more than a month that the blog thingy had TOTALLY changed and I had to sit there and figure it out from scratch.  And also, I really like to have photos accompanying my posts but it takes me a good couple of days to figure out how to put a photo on.

Speaking of photos, I am even MORE bitter about the technological advancements in photography.  What I wouldn't give to go back to a 35mm.  I don't even remember the last time I've printed photos.  Hopefully all our photos from the last 5 years are on our computer somewhere, who knows.  And to think I complained about the hassle of deciding on which film to buy, taking it into Kmart and waiting TWO DAYS for it to get developed, deciding if I wanted double prints, etc.  What I wouldn't give to have that back.  When my poor grandkids ask to see old photos of their parents I'll have to gather them all 'round the computer and spend a couple of days trying to find them.

Kids well.  Will write about them "tomorrow."

We had a fun couple nights at our TimeShare at Wolf Creek.  Short drive, two nights, and a nice pool with a slide made it a fun, end-of-summer getaway.  Not to mention that we had a free two-night stay, so it didn't use any of our points or tokens.  Here are a couple shots we took with our underwater camera, the kids had a blast with it:

We really want to believe that he WASN'T flipping the camera off.

They also really loved being able to re-enact the tetherball scenes from Napolean Dynamite.  I didn't know that "Napolean" was a style of play when it came to Tetherball.  It was so neat to see them all cheering each other on when it came to beating the court champion.

However, once Kelly took this type of approach, I had to remind her that she is playing kids...besides, that ball really hurt when it hit your head...ask any of the children you see here to validate that claim.  Kelly showed no mercy.