Cam and I are SO GLAD TO BE BACK HOME!!!

Have we honestly spoiled the kids to the point that we have to drag them kicking and screaming to the happiest place on the earth?

We spent three days at Disneyland and two days in San Diego for our vacation this past week.

All the kids wanted to do was watch TV or swim in the pool. It was a bit frustrating.

Disneyland and the parents always win in the end. We always start on the train and head round to Fantasyland. It was blissfully un-busy for Disneyland and we really got a lot of rides ticked off on our to-do list.

Sadly, Ella got sick our first night and after a rough night and morning, Cam took the boys to the California Adventure park. After lunch Ella was feeling more herself and the five of us went back together.
After two vacations of trying, Dane was finally chosen as a padowan for the Jedi Training Academy. I may have been more excited than Dane.After training, he helped defeat Darth Maul.

Bryce loved meeting the characters. Here he is with the bears from Brother Bear.

My own Buzz and Woody.

Bryce and I got to meet Mickey. VERY cool!

Ella eating a cool Mickey ice cream sandwich.That night we saw the must-see show Disney's World of Color. If you've heard that it is amazing, believe it! Wow! We all loved it.

The next morning, Ella was sick again and so Cam stayed in with her while I went with the boys.
We went on Dane's favorite ride Grizzly River Rapids twice (Dane's total was four times). Bryce dug it as well.

Bryce's favorite ride, however, was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. That's Cam in the red shirt with Bryce right next to him. We went three times in a row. (Thankfully, Ella was able to finish this day out with us, back to her normal self).

After Anaheim, we headed down to San Diego where we spent our honeymoon.

We visited Point Loma and the Cabrillo National Monument.

Here is the old Point Loma lighthouse.

Inside the visitors' center we were tried on a replica of 16th century Spanish head gear. The chainmail weighed seven pounds alone.

The tidal pool area closed before the tide went out completely, but we still got some good beach time before the tsunami hit the next morning.

Us above the tidal pools and the vast Pacific OceanWe visited the San Diego Zoo the day before we started our return journey.

We all loved the snakes. Such a variety!The big display on elephants and prehistoric/extinct North American animals was a favorite of ours.

Dane has become such a ham when it comes to getting his picture taken. Here he's being crushed by an elephantine sculpture.
We loved seeing the polar bear exhibit

and I loved the panda exhibit because someone else was telling my kids to be quiet. You had to be quiet to enter this area.
Family trips are always an adventure, that's certain.

Now with all I have to do to get us back to normal around here, I wish the day didn't feel like a stay-in-your-jammies kind of day.

I need some energy!

Thanks for reading about our trip.

I suppose that sounds like a title for a post on blessings. Not really. Not exactly...

Cam and I rocked our costumes one more time at the Harry Potter event last night/early this morning.

Here we are with a fun group of kids that thought we were cool (if only for a moment) l to r Hagrid, Gilderoy Lockheart, Snape, Bellatrix, Harry Potter and Hermoine Granger.Now to the rewards...

Cam won really nice tickets to tonight's Jazz game. This is the third time he's won something in the last month. Time to play the Lotto, I guess. LOLMy reward?

I got to handle this lovely Woma Python. It was beautiful. I'd forgotten how relaxing it is to hold these amazing animals. I got to have it slither around my arms for around five minutes. What a treat!

This is why it's important to have fun, even when you're a 'grown-up.'

I was adopted by marriage into a family of bird lovers. My in-laws do the whole bird sanctuary, sitting-in-swamps, binocular bird watching and they love it!
A few years back, my sister-in-law gave me a bird book for beginners that grouped them by color and ever since, I have been hooked.
At our old home, we had a lot of pretty little House Finches.Now we have a lot of them.
We'd occasionally have a cute Dark-Eyed Junco.

This early spring we had them by the score.

Since moving to this tree-enclosed home we have really had a great time watching the birds. We have two seed feeders and we just put up the hummingbird feeder because I saw some today.

We have a pair of American Kestral falcons that like to hunt around here. One is sitting in our neighbor's tree nearly every morning, visible from our bed. It's pretty cool to hear them screech and to watch them dive to their prey. I'm not entirely sure what they hunt around here. Probably the small birds and hopefully, any small rodents out in the park.

We have more of these Mourning Doves than we'd like. They're kind of dumb actually. I think your tires actually have to nick their tail feathers before they'll move out from under your car as you come into our circle.
Lately, we've had a pair of Chickadees move into our little bird house. Their call really does go "chick-a-dee-dee-dee-dee." They are really small and have cute little movements. We're glad they're going to be living with us.

A woodpecker similar to this one has hammered on our skylight, our metal chimney vents on the roof and a telephone pole outside. I've never seen him hammer on a tree.

We love robins, but I've definitely learned they are not necessarily the first bird of spring.

We've been thoroughly entertained by these Western Scrub Jays. We have (at least) a pair of them in the neighborhood. They like to bully the Mourning Doves and pretend they're small (they're 11" beak to tail) by standing on the small feeder perches and eating the sunflower seeds.Sparrows are a common site for the first time this year.TODAY WAS MY SPECIAL SIGHTING.

This is the Lazuli Bunting. I've never seen on before and I got to see it and its mate twice today. They are small and very pretty.

Every morning for breakfast and each night during our dinner, the birds come to eat the seed we've put out for them. It's quite a show.

My mother-in-law says we'll have to trade houses so that she gets to see all these birds.

It's a really fun summer hobby and I love that they come to us.

None of these great pictures are mine, but hopefully one day I can just hang out on our deck and wait patiently for the opportunity.

...the bored housewife will play.
I've been planning to paint a particular huge wall in our home since, I'd say, October. I was just waiting for the magic words...

"Cami, I have to go out of town for a training meeting."

Cam said told me when he'd be going to I bought my supplies, careful to hide all paint chip samples.
Why do this (especially when it requires me climbing up a ladder that takes me, well, the top of my head anyway, about 13 feet off the ground)?

I think my friend Ane will agree that nothing is more fun than a) surprising your husband in a big way or b) seeing how long it takes him to notice the change.
However, I'm not as brave as Ane when it comes to color.

I suppose I should have posted these while you could still go to the Scarecrow Festival...sorry.

It was a beautiful day.Going alone made it a bit more exhausting at the end of the day, but we had a lot of fun (and we're glad that Anisa is feeling better).

Click here to see how the kids looked last year...lots of changes!

These photos are amazing to me because you can see that all three of my kids took a ride on the ponies. Dane rode an actual horse, Ella had to be bribed and Bryce decided three steps in that he was done. Although I managed to get him to stay on his pony, he refused to hold onto the saddle horn. I never thought he'd prove to be the most nervous about this.

If you've never been, it's an event sponsored by West Ridge Academy that helps troubled youth make something of themselves. It's an awesome organization. The Festival has 10+ inflated slides and bouncing, uh, things. It has kiddie carnival games, a mild haunted house, bungee trampoline jumping, RC car racing, performers and pony rides (at the Thanksgiving Point barnyard). That is all included in the admission price. They also have a fishing pond, carnival food, craft boutique and a pumpkin 'patch.' I think the admission is pricey, but we were there for 5 hours. We packed a lunch, snacks and lots to drink.