Last Day

Turns out it wasn’t the camping tent and the great outdoors that was causing us to wake up around 530 each morning. We were in our room at Turtle Bay last night and we STILL were up before the birds.  So it must be the time difference. Speaking of the birds… I kind of missed them upon waking this morning. While we both enjoyed our time at the resort (Ahhh…. A warm shower!) it also made us appreciate our tent home and we were both looking forward to one more night there before heading back to Idaho Friday morning.

We had a very leisurely morning complete with a workout in an amazing workout facility there, breakfast overlooking the ocean, swimming, hot tubbing, and snorkeling in the bay.  We saw lots of cool, colorful fish. We had planned to go for a hike at nearby Wailua Falls after lunch but realized we’d have all our electronics with us since we’d pass it on the way back to Halewia, plus it turns out it cost 15.00 per person to enter the park, so we decided to head back to the beach instead.  After returning to camp and packing some stuff up, cleaning up, etc… we headed out to Haleiwa State Beach and sat in our chairs reading our books while the sun shone more brightly than it has all week. I think we both got hot for the first time since we arrived! We hung out by the water for a couple of hours then headed back into town to finish some shopping.

I saved my souvenir for last- a stop at the tattoo parlor on our way to dinner. I’ve wanted one each time we have gone away together (this is our third year) and hadn’t done it yet so we stopped in, asked if it was possible to get the tattoo right then, found out it was, so I went for it. Brian patiently waited outside while I listened to really bad 80’s music and had my right ankle tattooed by a man with a tattooed face. But I can’t judge a book by its cover because he was the nicest tattoo guy I’ve had yet (and this would be my fourth).  It’s a Polynesian style flower, all in black. It’s small and on the interior of my ankle so most people won’t even notice it there. To me it is a reminder of the importance of my marriage and a reminder of our trips together without any kids. So now I have one tattoo  that’s just for me (Real Live Woman), one that represents the kids (my first one on my wrist which has three flowers and a heart) and one to represent Brian and I. Maybe I’m done now???

Not sure.

We ended up back at the Sushi place for dinner.  There’s not many restaurants here- mostly there are food trucks and they all close by 6 so there’s not a ton of options. But this place was really good when we ate there a few nights ago so we went back and this time tried several different kinds of sushi. Yum.. Now we are back at the tent for our last night here. The alarm is set for 5AM. No texts from the airline yet letting us know the flight is delayed so we’re holding onto hope that we will depart on time at 9AM tomorrow morning as planned. I’m bummed I never got to see Melissa and ask her about her job filming Survivor… but maybe we will be back here someday with the kids.  This has been our favorite trip so far and we can definitely imagine coming back to visit the North Shore again in the not too distant future.

Here Comes The Sun

So we figured out the threshold where "glamping" becomes "camping", it's when the power goes out. because of the lack of sun over the last couple of days we had managed to use up what was left of the power stores in our tent. That meant a morning of brushing teeth with headlamps on, making coffee by flashlight and trying to get dressed by lantern. Not things we are above by any means, but usually when we are camping. The weather had kind of subsided after a pretty stormy night. Lots of tree limbs were down around our tent when we emerged in the early dawn (wearing headlamps). We drove into town to eat and power up. One of the things with going on vacation this time of year is that this is the Little Leagues busiest part of the season for me. So I have been having to stay connected and handle issues that have arisen and respond to emails etc. While eating and glomming onto wi-fi at the coffee shop, we saw the the Volcom Pipe Pros contest was on for today. So after breakfast we headed down. 

The Banzai Pipeline is a section of the North Shore across the road from an elementary school. All of the big surf-wear companies own houses on that stretch of beach and this is were the pro surfers come to surf. This week it was the setting for the 2014 Volcom Pipe Pros competition. Some of the best surfers in the world were here to surf in this contest. The contest ends tomorrow and due to weather they still had one day left to get in. Things were just getting started when we got there so we were able to park (before it got insane) and find a spot right next to the tower before the beach filled up. We plopped down on some towels as the sun started to find through the overcast. Our weather app was still telling us that it was going to rain all day, so we just wanted to see what we could see before the impending downpour chased up back to our (now powerless) tent. We sat and watched for easily a couple of hours. It was really, REALLY cool. There were surfers from all over the world riding 30 foot waves. There were several just hanging out on the beach with us watching the contest who would get up, go throw on heat jerseys and paddle out when it was their turn. It was really amazing to watch. We saw more than a couple of surfboard get broken in half by the pounding surf. 


Eventually, it was Kelly Slaters heat. The 11 time world champ is now 42 (and an AWESOME looking 42 - dude is in SHAPE). He proceeded to go out and put up the three highest runs of the entire competition, including a perfect 10! He got a huge round of applause when he came back out of the water. He ended up winning the whole thing. By that point, we figured we had seen everything worth seeing (it's not like we were going to see another perfect 10) and headed back into town. Marisa bought a tee-shirt after learning that all the money from the merc sales went directly to benefit the school across the road. 

We packed up for the beach, figuring to take advantage of the sun while it was out and headed out out towards the headlands where we hiked a couple of days before. The surf was so high on the North Shore that everyplace was red-flagged for swimming, but the headlands were more protected. So we swam for a bit and played in the waves. I even attempted surfing for a few minutes myself until I realized that I was going to have to head farther out than I was committed to to have any luck of getting up. Nope, I was going to stay inside the reef and just take it easy after watching the pros get pounded to crap by those waves. 

We had decided over breakfast to look into taking a night away from the tent while the solar panels re-charged, so we booked a room at Turtle Bay Resort for the night. Big room, air conditioning, restaurants that didn't have wheels, fitness center, pool, hot tub etc. So we headed back to the tent to pack up. On the way we stopped for ice cream at a new ice cream place and started talking to the owner. One of our Hosts, Melissa was doing film crew work on the Pipe Pros contest, so we new she was in that line of work. The ice cream lady let it slip that Melissa also worked on the file crew for the TV show Survivor and had just returned from three months away filming the new season. Well, Mom's Survivior geek-dom set in and she would NOT stop talking about it for the next....hell, she's still talking about it now....so we got out of there before Melissa got home from work and Mom accosted her for Jeff Probst's autograph or something. 

We came up to Turtle Bay, went swimming, sat in the hot tub, showered and had a great dinner. The electronics have all re-charged, we are going to watch a movie and read with lamps on. Tomorrow we're going to hang out here in the morning and then head back for one more night in the tent before we theoretically head back to Boise. I say theoretically because it has been snowing almost everyday and Thursday and Friday are supposed to be especially bad as far a snowfall goes. At this point we're hoping we can get back home before we have to be back at work.....

Sometimes There are no Alligators

It started raining at about 3PM yesterday and didn't let up until about 3PM today. We slept like rocks and awoke at around 530. I ventured out to the outdoor kitchen to boil some water but even Speckles and Blackie weren't up at that hour! 

We ate breakfast at the local coffee place where I had arguably the best breakfast pastry I have ever had. Yum. Found out that the Banzai Pipeline surf competition was on hold for the day so we made a quick change of plans. Pearl Harbor didn't have any reserved tickets left, so we decided to drive all the way down the coast to the windward side of the island and visit Kailua, a town I had almost decided to stay in before settling on our tent on the North Shore. 

The drive was beautiful- and very, very wet. The rain didn't let up and the puddles that we drove the jeep through proved it! We stopped a couple of times to check stuff out along the way and finally bought some clip on lights for our baseball caps to make reading easier at night in the tent. We ended up at Koalua Ranch around 1030AM where we found souvenirs for the kids (Score! We found exactly what we had been hoping to find).  They also had bumper stickers and other paraphernalia devoted to Lost fans. I settled with a sticker for our car top carrier and resisted the urge to buy the Dharma Initiative sweatshirt. 

We kept driving through one small Hawaiian town after another with amazing views of mountains on our right and ocean covers and beaches on our left until suddenly it became a scene out of Suburbia. Kailua, not the cute little small town I had thought it to be, was full of stores just like at home: Whole Foods, Starbucks, Pier 1 Imports, Macy's, GameStop, and more. It was still pouring rain and after wandering around trying to find a local place to eat at we quickly realized most of the local stuff was closed on Tuesdays (who knows why?), and we were drenched so we ended up finding refuge from the rain at the California Pizza Kitchen- OK... not exactly what we had in mind. I won't lie. I was a little bummed. Up to that point we hadn't spent more than 25.00 TOTAL on any one meal since we had arrived. CA PK blew that for us- and we both agreed it was the worst food we'd had on the trip so far!! Besides some very cool HUGE houses and what looked like a nice beach, I wouldn't recommend Kailua. After staying in our little piece of paradise in our tent, the mall-like atmosphere of Kailua just didn't cut it for us. We both left feeling really glad we are staying in the North Shore. 

We got back in the car and headed back up the coast with just a tiny bit of blue poking out in the sky and the rain letting up somewhat. We stopped at Turtle Bay and had a Mai Tai, then, seeing just a teensy bit more blue on the horizon I changed into my swim suit and took a nice swim at Turtle Bay before heading back to the tent to change, shower, and read on our porch for awhile. Still no sun, but at least it stopped raining for the time being!  Now we are heading out to dinner and an early bedtime. There is no nightlife here... but that works well for both of us as we never quite adjusted to the time zone and are happily snoozing by 830 or so each night :)

Lost on the North Shore

As we finally collapsed and went to bed at 730 pm last night, we were up before the birds this morning. Literally. I was awake in bed waiting to hear the rooster crow and the tropical birds to start making sound. I gave up waiting and went outside to the kitchen to boil water for my coffee. Sure enough… up walked the two chickens, Speckles and Blackie, to say good morning. An hour later found us back at the same place for breakfast (at least we tried two new things) and the same coffee shop as yesterday morning.  Brian caught up on Little League business while I read the local paper. We headed back to our tent and were ready for our hiking adventure by 830. 

Following the directions that Scott gave us  we headed the opposite direction from yesterday and “drove until the road stopped”.  Right before the road came to an end we spotted some YMCA cabins that looked exactly like the Dharma Initiative cabins from Lost. We commented on it and, because we were huge LOST fans back in the day, decided we’d stop on our way back to get a picture. Anyway, we got to the end of the road, got out and started walking along the coastline. It was beautiful in every direction. We scrambled through tide pools and across lava rock and miles of coral. There was mud and sand and rocks of all types… but no people. It was so quiet on the hike. In fact, until we reached the bird and seal sanctuary about 4.5 miles in we had only seen two other couples.  Along the way we spotted a few whales, a few seals, and lots of birds, crabs, and fish. 

On our way back into town we stopped to take pictures of the “dharma-like” camp and realized upon walking closer to the cabins that there was a picture of the Dharma logo outside one of the cabins. As we left the YMCA camp we saw a sign that said, “Welcome Lost Fans”.  Turns out that was where that portion of the show was filmed. I looked up other sites that were featured in the show and, funny enough, it turns out that we took pictures of a huge banyan tree the day before on our trip to the fruit beach that was also in Lost. Tomorrow we are heading up to a waterfall which, it turns out, was the waterfall where two of the characters kissed in season 5. So, our trip to Oahu has turned out to also be a hunt for Lost locations. Yes, we are total dorks.

We had lunch at another food truck and when we tried to go into the local bakery there was a filming crew there. Turns out that WAS LeAnn Rimes we saw sipping coffee on the outside deck.  We headed back to our tent just in time for a big rain storm. Not much beats being inside a water-safe tent for a luxurious afternoon nap with the sound of rain and local birds to lull you to sleep! Apparently Boise got a couple inches of snow last night so we won’t complain about some warm rain.

Tomorrow we are hoping to catch some of the surf competition. Maybe we’ll actually try somewhere new for breakfast… although we are both kind of liking our “morning routine” so we’ll see! Tonight we are heading back to town for dinner and dessert and hoping to find some book lights so we can more easily read in our tent at night. They have electricity but the lights are really dim and it’s very hard to see past 6:00.

So far we love it here. This alternative to resort vacations is definitely a viable one moving forward.

Hawaii by Tent

Marisa bought me a surprise vacation for my 45^th birthday, a trip to Oahu. We made a pact to not “return” to anyplace we had vacationed before in 2014. We wanted to get a break from the same old places (which are same old for a reason, we like them) and get some new experiences and geography under our belt. She even went so far as to fly in Mom and Auntie Sue (the children’s favorite babysitters) to watch them so we could go “kid-free”.

The place she booked was a off the grid “glamping” location. It’s a couple of large safari tents with solar power on a couple’s land. The place is totally off grid, even their house has no power etc. So we were ready to rough it. Marisa really took to the challenge of “no-repeats” as we had never taken a trip like this, so we were both prepared for an adventure.

After a bit of airline ridiculous-ness (our flight was delayed for 12 hours – but when aren’t they lately), we arrived in Oahu at 11:30 local time. It was raining and dark. We had been prepared for the former, knowing that the forecast was for 100% chance of rain for almost everyday of the trip, but were planning on showing up in bright daylight. So we had not really put a lot of stock in the hosts emailed directions saying, “GPS cannot find us” and giving us very detailed directions. So we set off from the Honolulu airport after midnight, in the pouring rain.  We quickly got out into the country and it was pitch black. Once we got off the highway into the “off the grid” neighborhood, it was even darker. We found ourselves driving four miles an hour, squinting through the windshield and pouring rain trying to determine if the house where we thought we had to turn was brown with a green roof or green with a brown roof. After a few detours and several stops to open gates leading to the property in question (flashlight in hand) we made it and found our tent. Seeing the location this morning in the light I’m pretty impressed that we made it.

It was 130 AM in Oahu and, as Marisa likes to point out, 430 in the morning Boise time. We slept for about four hours (both like rocks) and were up to bright sunshine this morning. As eating is pretty much my favorite thing to do on vacation, after the morning coffee/red bull, we headed out to find our way around and grab some breakfast. We ate a great breakfast, at what our hosts later told us is the best breakfast place in town and wandered around a little bit. After a little bit of “GPS Russian Roulette” trying to find the grocery store, we came back loaded with supplies for our “tent”.  Our original impulse was to nap (another of my favorite vacation past-times), but neither of us was able to sleep. I got up and went out for a run and Marisa walked up and around the neighborhood, meeting our hosts in the process and deciding that we need to buy “a little piece of land” in the area so we can build on it when we retire. Scott came down to our tent and gave us a really nice rundown on the island, town and the tent we’re staying in and sent us off looking for some new stuff to check out.

 

We went and found a fresh fruit stand across the street from the beach and got some coconut, papaya, and fried bananas. We walked thru the trees and out onto the most beautiful, deserted beach we had ever seen. We sat in the sand and ate some fruit. Afterwards we drove up to Turtle Bay resort got some drinks and watched about 10 minutes of the worst Super Bowl ever- the highlight of which was the Seinfeld commercial. Then we drove back into town and got Hula Dogs for dinner (SOOOO GOOOD). Now we are back at the tent, trying to stay awake until it’s time to go to bed.

Tomorrow I think we’re going to go for a hike and maybe swimming/surfing at a place Scott recommended. We also might go and watch the Banzai Pipeline Pro-Surfers tour surfing competition that is here for the next three days. We both really like Oahu so far, much more than Kauai or Maui (the benefits of the forced vacation rotation plan). We can’t realistically hope for as gorgeous weather as we had today, but even if it rains I can’t think of a better place to get wet.

Catching Up

Once again almost an entire month has gone by without a post. I don't think it's because we are busier than normal I think it's just that as the kids get older there is less to post about. I mean there is a ton going on... basketball, hip hop dance class, school awards, weekend fun, etc... but they are so independent now that oftentimes an entire day will go by where they are simply busy making rainbow loom bracelets and bouncing on the trampoline and then reading their books in various locations around the house, playing Wii, outside shooting baskets... and none of that makes for a real interesting post. I guess that could be a post in itself: how strange it is to have 3 independent kids that are needing less and less from their mom.

This school year has been so great for all three kids. They have amazing teachers and I am always impressed by the things they do at school and their home projects, etc... I am sad that we only have one year left with all three of them at Hidden Springs. Thank goodness our school goes through 6th grade, though. I am just not ready for my baby to go to Junior High yet!! End of semester report cards were wonderful and teachers comments about all three were so positive. Tanner's teacher said that he is finally letting his "humorous side out" which made me very happy because his teachers have always told us how serious he is in school (completely different than he is at home!).  Tanner won the Perseverance character award; Faith won the Patience award, and Jake won Teamwork and Courage. We couldn't be prouder of all of them.

Faith started basketball in early January and she loves it! She just bounces around the court and is smiling constantly while she dribbles, blocks, and shoots. Watching the coaches try to coach this group of girls is much like I imagine herding cats would be. She has obviously been paying attention to some of the action on the court as she has been dragged to hundreds of her brothers' basketball games through the years. She naturally gets the pace of the game and dribbling action, the back and forth on the court, etc... Several of the dads that are coaching have told me how impressed they are with her natural ability and have asked Brian and I what we have done to improve her skills. Haha. I think having two older brothers that play and often having NBA games on the TV has been the key.  Turns out that many of the girls on the team hadn't ever even watched a basketball game on TV so they are really starting from ground zero.  In any case, she is having a blast and we are loving watching her. She already said that she wants to do a basketball camp this summer, so maybe this one will stick!

Jake also has basketball going on right now. He is playing on the Hidden Springs 5th/6th grade team. It's busy, with practices every day except Wed, but games are right after school during the week so it leaves our evenings and weekends free, except for Faith's one bball game on Saturdays.  He is also helping to coach Faith's team. He is so good with the younger kids and has such a natural talent for coaching. I want to nurture that in him and encourage him to become a Y coach or camp counselor once he is older. He says that if he can't be a pro athlete when he grows up he wants to be a PE teacher, like his favorite coach (and PE teacher) , Mr. P.

Tanner isn't doing any sports right now, there's a lull between the end of his bball season and the start of baseball in the spring, but he is taking a hip hop dance class at the school on Friday mornings so we are entertained by his rendition of dance moves like "The Worm", "Salt and pepper", "Coffee Grinder" and more. He could hang out all day with his best friend, Gus, and be perfectly happy. The two of them are peas in a pod and I love Gus. I hope they stay friends all through high school and really do end up rooming together in college. LOL. They talk all the time about "moving in together".

Brian and I are heading off on our annual couple vacation tonight. We are heading to Oahu for 6 nights, staying in a "glamping" tent in the middle of a papaya/banana field and farm. Unfortunately our flight is delayed 11 hours. We were supposed to land at noon today but won't be landing until 1045 at night instead! That's what you get for buying 250.00 r/t flights to Hawaii!!  This week away is something I look forward to all year and I feel like it really is an investment in our marriage. We are lucky enough to have Auntie Sue and Grandma Mary staying with the kids and my mom will be here helping with transportation and stuff, too. Yep, feeling very blessed.

Disneyland (or The Mouse's Frontal Assault on our Wallets....)

This is a tag team post, you try to figure out who wrote what.....

That week between Christmas and New Years Eve was the longest of our lives, I think. As if the holiday excitement wasn't enough, the anticipation of our visit with Mickey was almost unbearable. The 26th-28th I was afraid they wouldn't make it (alive, at least) but there was a light at the end of the tunnel by the 29th so the next three days passed a little quicker. 

We left Boise on an 8AM flight and arrived in OC at a little after 10AM. A short taxi ride later, we arrived at our hotel where we checked our bags while we changed from heavy pants and sweaters into shorts and tank tops. A quick lunch at Subway (conveniently located directly across the street) and we were in the park by 12. Not bad!  We used this "half day" to scope out Disneyland. We rode a few rides, including Buzz Lightyear, the rocket ships, and Star Tours (I sat out of that one due to my terminal motion sickness). I was worried about Faith and Tanner on Star Tours, but they LOVED it. The joy on the kids faces throughout the first day was priceless. Faith, especially, was just amazed by everything she saw and all the rides.  The Finding Nemo Submarine Ride was a highlight the first day. On the way out of the park, back to the hotel, we spotted a churro cart and, not having eaten in quite awhile, and still being on a Disneyland Day 1 High, I bought 18.75 worth of churros that we ate on the way back. We took a nap, then headed back into the park for the evening. This time we explored CA Adventure. I am amazed at how cool it is all lit up. We all went on Ariel's Undersea Adventure, which Faith LOVED, we rode the air bumper cars and wandered the streets of Radiator Springs (which is really awesome and looks EXACTLY like it does in the movie). We ate corn dogs for dinner and had cotton candy for dessert.  For anyone that is keeping track that would be about a million dollars on junk food for the day. We were all in bed and asleep by 9PM. 

The next day we started out trying to follow a "plan" that we found online for riding the rides and using FastPass effectively, but it was quickly discarded due to the fact that the park was SO CROWDED. In all our planning for the trip, the one thing that we neglected to take into consideration was that the Tournament of Roses Parade AND the Rose Bowl Game were the day before. Still, the longest we had to wait for a ride was 50 minutes (The Jungle Cruise) and 45 minutes (Peter Pan). The later was a huge waste of time, in all of our opinions, as the ride lasted about 2 minutes long, kind of dated,  and wasn't very interesting. The Jungle Cruise was great, though. Really silly but a great change after the Haunted Mansion (Faith cried and Brian had to carry her) and Pirates of the Caribbean (Faith hid her face in my sweatshirt the whole time and sobbed).  We quickly discovered that Faith was great with rides that were fast, spinning, loud, or  bumpy but she was easily scared by the visuals and dramatic, scary music.  We all loved Splash Mountain but only some of us enjoyed Space Mountain. Jake had to ride by himself, Tanner liked it but was pretty scared, Faith rode it and was scared but OK, and I was so nauseous I was planning where to throw up and how to blame it on my seat mate (Faith). Again we headed back to the hotel for a long nap (actually we all slept for almost 2 hours). For dinner we headed to Downtown Disney, not realizing that Downtown Disney isn't really Disney at all, but is instead a really big really crowded outdoor mall. The kids had, out of parental desperation, smoothies and pretzels for dinner, while the grownups had more churros. I don't know why, but the churro is available every 15 feet or so in both parks and it's the only food choice that doesn't have a huge line. The kids all found a "ropes course" that is built right next to the Grand California Hotel (in the middle of CA Adventure) that they played on and wanted to back to the next day. It was really great and they had fun, even with their father accusing them of "playing on the swings" in the middle of Disneyland.

The third day we actually set an alarm to wake up and get to the park early.....I know, I hate myself for that already. But we wanted to get on a couple of the big rides and the only way to do them was to get there right when they opened. "Radiator Springs Racers" literally had a two hour wait the second the park opened (and for all of you "Yes, but the FastPass" people...the wait for a Fast Pass was also two hours long.....so YEAH, might not be doing that ride). We were able to get Fast Passes for Soaring over CA for the five of us. Marisa jumped out of line at the last minute, scared by the warnings on the ride, so the kids and I went. It was amazing and totally a ride she could have done, so we went out and got more FastPasses for the same ride so that she could go with us. She went on it, didn't vomit and thought it was amazing. After that we switched parks and grabbed some lunch. We did some souvenir shopping back in Tomorrowland and saw Captain EO (which should have been in the part of the park called Bad 80's-land), which Marisa loved as it took her right back to High School. As I was pretty happy to leave High School the first time, it didn't do to much for me, but the kids enjoyed it). After mandatory family naps and an actual outside the park dinner, we're going to head back and go on "It's A Small World" (which you might be surprised to know I had to fight for - but how can you bring your little girl to Disneyland and not go on Small World with her?) and spend sometime in Toon Town tonight. Then tomorrow it's another alarm and another go at Radiator Springs Racers with a brand new plan of attack. If we don't get on it tomorrow morning, then it's not meant to be.... 

....So we had a plan. But, as we all know, "you plan... God laughs" (or something like that). We woke up at 650, arrived at the D-land gate at 725 and headed into the park right when they opened. The official announcement from Mickey that the park was now open was met with screams of glee from those around us. We showed the man at the front our passes, then I collected them all and sent Brian and the kids out to IHOP to get breakfast while I sprinted down (Ok... so it was more of an amble) to the Fast Pass line for the Radiator Springs Racers. It was a really long line but once they opened the actual ride area (another 15 minute wait) the line moved quickly. Within 10 minutes I had 5 fast passes in hand. I went back out of the park and met Brian and the kids with the Fast Passes in hand. They allowed us to board the ride anytime between 10 and 11 AM which was perfect timing since we had to leave the park at 1130 in order to check out of our hotel at noon. So we spent the 90 minutes prior to our ride time wisely and rode a really cool ride called Midway Mania which is Toy Story themed. It was my favorite ride in the park- it was so much fun. You got to shoot these little blasters at all these different 3D carnival games throughout the ride itself and earn points for different shots. I giggled like a kid throughout. Then we checked our handy app that tells wait times for different rides and saw that the holy grail ride at Disneyland was CLOSED. Shut down. Not functioning. Ummmm... we had fast passes in hand for a ride that was not working?? So we headed over to the ride to see what was up. Yup. It was down. The helpful gentleman at the gate told us that it would be down for "at least an hour" but they had no way of knowing if or when it would actually open. That was at 10 so we headed over to the Muppets 3D show and rode the Monsters Inc ride with the intention of checking in at 11 to give it one last ditch effort. Well, we arrived back at Radiator Springs Racers and 3 minutes later they opened it and we were the FIRST IN LINE with our fast passes. Woo hoo. Major victory. The ride was really fun, we all agreed it was one of the most fun in the park that we had experienced, and joyfully celebrated our good luck. If only we had known then that that would be the last piece of good luck for the day.


On the way back to the hotel I found out this info:  Faith's favorite part of the trip was meeting and greeting with Mickey and riding on It's a Small World. Tanner and Jake voted for Radiator Springs Racers and Star Tours. Brian picked Star Tours and my favorites were Midway Mania, the town of Radiator Springs at night, and Soarin' Over California. Souveniers were interesting. No surprise from Faith- she got two stuffed cats, one small (baby) and one large (Mama). Tanner got a Darth Goofy doll, a build it yourself car from Cars land, and an Etch a Sketch from the Toy Story area. Jake picked out a Chewbacca stuffie, a large jawbreaker, and a Disney 2014 mini basketball. When all was said and done there was a total of .48 cents left on the Disney giftcards that Nana had given them. For myself I got a small Beaker doll (from the Muppets).  That's what Brian calls me sometimes and it's the picture that comes up on his phone when I call him. I had to have it. 

We made it back to the hotel and checked out at noon. Got a taxi at around 1230, arrived at John Wayne at 1 for our 4:00 flight. We were early but we had no rental car this trip so we didn't have a lot of options. Discovered immediately that our flight was delayed by an hour. No big deal... so our 3 hour wait in OC turns into a 4 hour wait. Quickly found out that our connection flight in Vegas was delayed by 3 hours and instead of getting in at 930 PM (already late with 3 tired kids and 2 tired grown ups) we would be getting into Boise at 1230AM. Bummer. Not happy about it but it is what it is, right? We got to Las Vegas airport  and made the best of it. We fed the kids cheese pizza from Sbarro then plugged them into a movie and sat them on the floor outside the restaurant where we could keep an eye on them from our window seat while we had a beer and really bad, really expensive nachos at the bar. All moods were still pretty good, considering. But then our flight got pushed back again. 930 turned to 1020 turned to 1050 and now is tentatively scheduled to depart at 1140PM. We are scheduled to arrive in Boise at 230AM now and I am sitting in one of the less crowded sections of the SW terminal typing this while my three very overtired children try to keep from killing each other over who got the most Pringles (the snack they picked out during hour 4 at McCarran). 

PS. Home and in bed at 3:16 AM. 

Christmas

It was a mellow holiday with just the 5 of us. We went to a movie in the morning, hung out during the day and then started Christmas Eve festivities around 430 with a trip over to the neighbors house for a cocktail and appetizers. They kids played for an hour and we socialized, then returned to our house to do our make it yourself pizzas again. The kids opened their Christmas Eve jammies and their family game (this year it was Spicy Farkle and Quelf).  We also played Clue (The Office version) that I had found at a thrift store while Christmas shopping the week before. Although the kids had no idea who Toby was or why someone named Angela might want to kill him with a Dunder Mifflin trophy in the break room, I laughed the entire time.  We watched The Grinch and then the kids went to sleep together in the bonus room. It was a really fun day. 

Brian's new found love of vinyl brought last minute presents for the kids from Santa: record players and one record for each of their bedrooms. Faith got a rainbow stripe turntable and the Matt Nathanson album, Jake got a black one with Mumford and Sons, Tanner got black with the FUN album. They all got new headphones. They were really excited and have been playing them every day since then. A few days after Christmas Faith asked my why her record only played half the songs over and over again. She had no idea you had to actually physically turn the record over in order to hear the other half of the songs. I find it so funny that in this day of digital music the kids have record players- just like I had when I was their age. I didn't have cool music like them, though. As I recall I had the Grease soundtrack and the Muppet Movie. Actually, to be fair, I kind of want the Grease album for our collection!

Like usual, we spaced out Christmas morning by starting with stockings, taking a break and having a snack, opening a few presents, then getting breakfast started, opening a few more and then eating breakfast, etc.... It was fun and peaceful and the kids had a great time playing with things as they opened them. Faith got a new doll from Auntie Sue and roller skates for her Build-a-Bear from Grandma Mary. Papa got her matching outfits for her and Julie (her American Girl doll).  They all got rainbow looms from Uncle Eric. Jake got UnderArmour gear from Auntie Sue and Tanner got Star Wars legos, the Star Wars movies, and a lego carrying case from Auntie Sue. They both got Air Jordan sweatshirts from Grandma Mary.  Their book from me this year was Harry Potter,  as I know they have just as fond a memory of reading it together this fall as I do.  I was surprised by a present from Jake: he had bought me a necklace I had seen in a store in Truckee when we were there in August. He used some of his own money and then paid Nana back for the rest of it by working around her house a few times.  He was so excited to give it to me and I was so touched.  

The kids present from us this year was a trip to Disneyland. They had no idea. We have never been- well, that's not true... we took Jake when he was about to turn 3. Tanner was 3 months old. It rained the entire time. The only picture we have is of the four of us on the train with Mickey Mouse ponchos (mine is covering the baby bjorn that Tanner is riding in).  In any case, we have been talking about the best time to take the kids, wanting them to be old enough to want to ride the cool rides but still young enough to want to hang out with us- LOL. We decided this is the year. 

We wrapped up three mini Mickey Mouse dolls and the tickets and it was the second to last present that they opened.  I think they were shocked. The excitement took a few moments to kick in but once they all realized that we were leaving on Jan 1, they were pretty psyched.  One of the things in the box with the tickets was a Disneyland vacation planning DVD so we stuck that in the player and the kids got to see what it looks like and got to see a few of the rides. They really didn't know much about what Disneyland is (the product of having grown up in Idaho and not CA???).  Much of the last week has been about planning the trip and also keeping the kids hyper/exhausted behavior in check so that they are still alive to enjoy the trip on Wed. We will be there part of Wed, all day Thurs and Fri, and half a day on Saturday. We bought a planning app called "RideMax" to help us figure out how to get on the most rides with the shortest amount of wait time. Disney in the digital age! We kind of wanted to just go and wing it but everyone we talked to said we have to "have a plan" and use the Fast Pass system and all that, so we'll see how that goes. The last present the kids opened was from Nana who got them all Disneyland gift cards so their souveniers are taken care of! I have a strong feeling that if we compare the time spent riding on actual rides to the time spent shopping with that fifty dollars, I know which one will come out on top! 

Given how much a trip to D-land costs for a family of five, (so ridiculous)  this is the one and only time they will go to Disney on our dollar so we want to make the most of it. We are all excited and the kids are counting the hours until our flight leaves (37).  

We got all of our Christmas stuff taken down yesterday and will spend New Years Eve with Sheila and Wayne- just hanging out at our house with a bottle of champagne and some good music and/or movies. The kids will be in bed extra early since we leave for the airport at 6AM the next day. 

Christmas Prep

As we quickly speed toward Christmas I figured it was past time for me to post about the Alan Family Preparations. With Thanksgiving being so late this year and our trip to CA ending on Dec 1st, we were lucky to get the advent calendar up only 2 days late and not forgoing it all together. Not that the kids would have let us forget about it all together...they love that thing and look forward to it all year. In any case, we got our tree on the 8th (while driving down to Home Depot to pick our our tree we discovered that The Merc was selling trees this year so we stopped, found one we liked out of the 5 they had, and called it good). We decorated it last weekend. The annual "oohing and ahhing" over the old ornaments occurred and the typical stories that surround each one were once again told as we took turns hanging them on the tree.  Our snacky dinner once again included pigs in a blanket but this year I also made homemade asian meatballs (not so good) and homemade jalapeno artichoke dip (yummy). We followed the tree decorating with our annual watching of Shrek the Halls.

All in all a night full of Alan Family Traditions. It was supplemented this year with a brand new Christmas album. And when I say "album" I don't mean mp3 or CD. I mean ALBUM. When we stayed at Sheila and Wayne's house in Oakland last month Brian rediscovered his love of vinyl. Sure enough... Black Friday found my husband ordering a new turntable on Amazon and his new hobby has been born. I found him an old compilation Christmas album at a thrift shop and so we listened to old favorites by Ella Fitzgerald, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Nat King Cole, and others.

Last week we took the kids to Target to do their holiday shopping with their allowance money. They each picked out a toy to donate to Toys for Tots and then shopped for their siblings with Brian and I's help. In the interest of full disclosure and honestly...unfortunately I happened to be at the end of my emotional rope that day (really stressful week at work and other personal issues) and I was far less patient and enjoyed what normally is one of my favorite holiday traditions far less than I normally do. During showers that night I accidentally dropped Jake's piggy bank that we bought for him before he was born.  It shattered and that was basically the straw that broke the camel's back. I LOST IT. The kids were worried by my tears and Tanner, bless his heart, climbed up onto the couch with me, laid on my stomach and patted my head and just kept saying, "It's OK Mommy. You're the best mommy in the world".  He later wrote me a note that included, among other sentiments, the line, "It must be hard handling everything". Hoping a little reality that mommy has a breaking point doesn't send all three into therapy later in life!

Jake's band performance where he played a solo on the bells for Jingle Bells. It was actually a pretty good performance, as far as first year band performances go... but I think my favorite part was watching Jake help and joke around with his buddy, Anthony.  Anthony has downs syndrome and he and Jake have been good friends since the first week we moved here. After the performance Anthony's mom approached me and told me that she had gone in to watch band practice the prior day and had been so touched by how good Jake is with Anthony and she had baked him cookies and written him a thank you note for his kindness.

In the midst of all the festivities, Faith lost her two front teeth. One day apart. So she is now the living embodiment of "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth".  She looks too cute... and too old. She also sounds a little lispy!

This weekend Brian and I spent two nights "away" in downtown Boise at this weird little Bed and Breakfast off the beaten path. It honestly took a military-like maneuver to make it happen. And we owe friends and Nana a HUGE thank you for working with us to cover the kids for two days. It couldn't have come at a better time. I feel well rested and much more centered now and ready to hit the last 10 days before Christmas with optimism and joy.  We spent Friday night out to dinner with good friends and then, after meeting up with the kids for Tanner's last basketball game  (where he was on fire and hit 3 layups in a row) and party, we headed out for a full day of Christmas shopping.  Sunday we woke up late and lounged around the room for awhile before heading downtown to try a restaurant called Bacon that we've wanted to try for a year or more. It lived up to it's name.  We followed up breakfast with some used vinyl shopping at The Record Exchange where Brian got me in the spirit of his new hobby. When we got home Brian dug out his dad's collection of 45's and we reminisced and played song after song of mostly 50's and 60's stuff. We found some original Beatles, Elvis, and others that we couldn't believe were in there.

Tonight is the season finale of Survivor. A bittersweet night in that it marks the end of my Wednesday dates with Jeff for awhile....but a great end to a much needed great weekend- 3 hours of pure SURVIVOR. Poor Brian will be hiding in the bedroom.