 My grandpa, my mom, and me getting ready to go on Star Tours at Disneyland My mom and I went on a little trip last week. We went to southern California to visit my grandpa and his wife. They will be moving to Peru by March (that’s where she’s from) and building a hotel there so we knew that it could potentially be a lot of years until we are able to see them again.
It was a fun time. My mom, my grandpa, his wife, and I went to Disneyland. We had a great time. As I had been there with the kids in October, it was like the continuation of that trip almost, for me. I got to go on all the really good rides that I didn’t get to go on last time. Hailey is technically tall enough to go on everything but she is a big chicken. I managed to get her on the Indiana Jones ride and she has been mad at me ever since- it terrified her.
We ate so much on this trip. Latin cultures are known for the ability to feed you until you think you will quite literally burst open. My grandpa’s wife does this. She ordered in Peruvian food from a place one night and cooked her own Peruvian food another night. Everything was so delicious and it’s offensive to her if you don’t take second helpings. So to be extra nice, I had thirds on some things.
Aside from that, there were all kinds of restaurants and since we are from a town with very very limited dining options, we were more than willing to eat out whenever possible on the trip.
So needless to say, I packed on a few extra pounds. Oh well, such is life. Food is enjoyable and I can lose the weight. In fact, I may have already, I haven’t weighed in a few days. I’ve been running again so it’s quite possible. I really missed running. I missed that euphoria that kicks in about halfway through a run and the feeling of accomplishment afterward. It’s almost cleansing in a weird way. Any frustrations or aggression I have, I run through and by the time I’m done it is gone. Probably just out of mere exhaustion but… it’s gone anyway.
On another note, I will soon be doing a review and giveaway for a Packit lunch bag. But if you just can’t wait for me and want to enter for a giveaway now, click that link and like their page. They’ll be doing their own giveaway when their facebook page hits 2,000 likes.
I’ve got an iPhone 4S now and I have to say, I absolutely adore it. The camera especially, it takes fantastic pictures. I think it will really increase the amount of food blogging I do here, which is awesome. I am loving everything about the phone except for autocorrect. I told a friend in a text that I needed ‘forest time’. I don’t even remember what I was talking about but I know I wasn’t trying to go out and be Snow White… funny though!
 Baked apples By the way, these were really good and the recipe can be found here.
 My baby My little blond boy and his ridiculous eyelashes and his messy face.
 Showing off new pajamas This one was in pretty low light and without a flash, still came out better than my Droid did with its flash.
 Running errands And I LOVE the front facing camera, I don’t have to take 30 self portraits to get one to come out right!
So, new phone: good. School is going great except that I have a math placement test I need to do this week… I actually needed to do it last week but I’m a procrastinator and also I am scared and psyching myself out. I hate math. And I really need to get into a certain math class. EEP.
We have been feasting on leftover turkey and all the sides for days and I gotta say- I’m not sick of it yet. And by feasting, I mean stuffing myself at every meal and usually grazing in between. However, the five pounds I’ve packed on this week are telling me it’s time to knock that crap off and get back to my small, frequent meals- and to get serious about the workouts again… before I pop out of my jeans! I did P90X Kenpo X today and it was very hard and my butt is sore already. I wonder if Tim would massage my butt if I ask. (Come on, who’d pass up THAT opportunity?!)
It’s been really nice to have Tim and the kids home for the last four days, we have spent the days in our pajamas, doing crafty things, playing games, and just hanging out and doing nothing. Tomorrow, it’s back to the grind for all of us except Tim, who is still on vacation. I am ready. While it’s been fun and relaxing, I am going a bit stir crazy, as are the kids. We’re ready to re-enter regular life I suppose.
 Hailey's favorite ride. We got to go on it!.... twice! Goodbye, half hour of my life. Let's all sing it: 'It's a small world after all....." My stress level has been at about eleventy billion lately. That’s my excuse for not posting the pictures from Disneyland til now, even though we’ve been back for a couple of weeks. And, actually, I really should be doing some studying for a test I have to take on Monday but I spent SIX HOURS going over a practice placement test for a math class I need to get into (and I still have 50 questions to go, and then I’ve got to go over it again and make sure I’m retaining the information UGGGGHHHHH I HATE MATH), so my brain is fried. FRIED, I TELL YOU.
So. I’m giving it a rest for a few minutes and thinking of happier things, like Disneyland. It is the happiest place on earth, after all. I mean, duh, you can totally tell from the EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND OTHER PEOPLE THERE AT ANY GIVEN SECOND. And the way they step over/around you, push past you, cut you off, ram into your heels with strollers and/or wheelchairs, and invade your personal space while waiting in hour-long lines.
 Keegan's face says it all here. No, seriously though, despite the crowds- which were bad on Friday and staggering on Saturday- we had a really good time. The kids had a blast, watching them be delighted over everything was as much fun as going on all the “big people” rides that we didn’t get to go on this time. *Note to self: take a nanny next time.*
The weather was so nice. I love the humidity there and the fact that the weather is pretty much perfect, all of the time. Also, there’s the beach. Like, do I need to say more? Seriously, I could live there. When I said this to Tim, he looked at me like I’d suggested we pack up our stuff and move to Jupiter. Sigh. He hates the traffic and crowds and morning fog. Ah, well. Winnemucca has its nice points too I suppose…
Anyway.
Keegan got to meet Woody, which was clearly the highlight of his entire life, to date. It was about the funniest thing I’ve ever seen- Keegan spotted Woody while Woody was on his way toward the area where we were waiting. He began flapping his hands and… prancing (I can’t think of a better word) from one foot to the other, much like the pee-pee dance, while screeching “I TINK DAT’S DA REAL WOODY!” over and over at hyper speed. Everyone within a 50 foot radius of us was laughing hysterically.
The Haunted Mansion was all re-done into Nightmare Before Christmas for Halloween and I am so glad we got to see that. It was very, very cool. The kids were scared but not terrified. It was more like a delighted-scared. They’d seen the movie the week before we left, so they thought it was neat to see all that stuff “for real”. Oh, and the Pirates ride was closed for refurbishment. BOO to that!!
 Ready to go on the new 4D Toy Story midway ride at California Adventure The 4D Toy Story ride at California Adventure was a lot of fun and I’d have loved to have gone on it again but waiting 40 minutes for a ride twice in a row seemed silly to me. That is such a neat ride and a really cool concept.
I convinced Hailey to go on Indiana Jones with me. She.. uh… didn’t enjoy it. She was pretty upset with me after that and we couldn’t get her to go on any other roller coasters the rest of the time. Which is unfortunate, because she’s tall enough now.
We stayed in a little Quality Inn across from the park. The room was tiny but clean and comfortable and, most importantly, cheap and only a five minute walk from the front gates of the park. It filled the need.
On Sunday, we went to the beach. It was technically too cold to be in the water but we didn’t let that stop us. The kids loved it. They’d been before but that time, my parents came with us and the kids were really little. My mom sat up on the beach with them and helped them dig in the sand while Tim, my dad, and I went body surfing. And while Tim got a super bad sunburn. White people, I swear. Can’t take ‘em anywhere. At least, anywhere it’s sunny.
 I'm pretty sure Hailey was actually saying "There's sand in my vagina!" as I was taking this picture. No body surfing happened this year, but we all did wade in the waves and had a blast. And no one got a sunburn! If Tim hadn’t been stung by a stingray, we would have stayed longer. No, really. He got stung by a stingray. Awesome. Just like the Crocodile Hunter! But without all the dying. He said it hurt really bad. We stopped by the ranger station by the beach and they had him soak it in piping hot water for about 40 minutes and that really helped.
Monday was the Santa Ana zoo and lots of relaxing because by then we were exhausted. Have you ever gone through Disneyland with two little kids? Seriously, dude. Tiring. In fact, I LOST two pounds over that vacation, which is highly unusual and would normally be considered a gastronomic vacation fail, but I ate great food. I just worked it all off wading through crowds of people standing in line for most of the day, and then chasing two hyper, small humans around the beach. (Ugh, speaking of, I still need to lose 10 pounds. More about that another time though, stay tuned…)
Oh, and? The car DVD player is the best investment we’ve ever made. EVER. Not a peep from the backseat for almost the entire drive, which takes.. 10? 11? hours. It was NICE.
So, to sum it up: We had fun. Now we’re back. School is stressing me out. I have to go study now. The end.
I’m back from Wyoming. I survived! But only barely…
Tim had a mine rescue competition for work there, and his team did fairly well- fifth place out of twelve. We spent the week in Gillette. It was sort of a boring week for me and the kids because Tim had to work a lot of it, but the hotel had a really nice pool so we swam quite a bit and I read two whole books on my kindle (LOVE IT!). Oh and we had a free day on Wednesday.
So, guess where we went?
 I’ve always wanted to see it. Unfortunately, I think I was having a caffeine crash while we were there. I drank about 3 million ounces of coffee and energy drinks that morning because I was super tired, and then once we got to Rushmore, I started shaking and sweating and feeling dizzy/faint.
Like, seriously, I was sweating. It was unladylike.
I don’t even think it was 80 degrees out and yet the front and back of my shirt were wet. There was sweat dripping off of me onto the ground! Yeah, I’ll just shut up now before I make you all barf…. but it was really gross. And uncomfortable. I was pretty sure I was going to pass out for a while there. I think Tim even asked me if I was having a heart attack. I must have looked spectacular.
AND THEN the kids… omg. They are just too little to appreciate things like this apparently. THE. WHOLE. TIME, from the moment we got out of the car, all we heard was “I wanna go back to the hotel and go swiiiiiiiimmmiiiinnnggg” and “I don’t wanna be here!”
Let me tell you: the whining was not helping my caffeine crash mood at all. I believe at one point I threatened to put a ‘free to a good home’ sign around their necks and set them loose into a crowd of tourists.
And then after we left Mt. Rushmore, we went to Deadwood, SD (where Wild Bill Hickok was killed) which was pretty and old-west-y (what? It’s probably a word) but very touristy and would have been really fun if some dude in a van hadn’t almost run over me.
Seriously, you guys. I can’t even make this stuff up.
So basically, it was the worst day ever. But Mount Rushmore was really cool. Oh, and then we took a wrong turn leaving Deadwood and found a winery that had a free tasting, so that practically made up for my almost becoming roadkill.
So, know what I did? I got a job. I decided that with our upcoming trips, and my school expenses, another income wouldn’t hurt at all. I’m a part-time checker at the grocery store- the GOOD grocery store.
I worked there back in the pre-Tim, pre-kids days and I always liked it. It’s pretty busy so the days go by fast. All the same managers are there and they are all super nice. I’m only around 24-28 hours a week right now, which is perfect for me. There’s a girl my mom knows that just graduated from high school that might do some babysitting for me on the days that Tim and I both have to work- otherwise they’re supposed to work around Tim’s schedule and mostly only schedule me to work when he is off.
So… yet another reason to post less. Actually, maybe I’ll post more this way. Being out of the house more is making me feel like I am ME again. I was just never one of those women who was cut out to have kids and then never work a day again. I’ve been home with them for six years and now it’s time for me to talk to adults again. And be around people that don’t need help wiping their butts or noses.
We do have a busy summer/fall ahead of us. Next month, Tim’s got his mine rescue competition in Elko (a town about 140 miles east of here). Basically what they do is call in mine rescue teams from all over and set up stations one day where they test their skills and then the following day they make a fake accident scenario and test each team on their time and skills in rescuing all the patients in the scenario. It’s actually pretty fun to watch.
In August, there is another mine rescue competition in Gillette, Wyoming. Same type of deal. We were hoping to make it into a vacation type of thing. We are at least going to take a couple of days and go see Mt Rushmore and Deadwood, but school starts just a few days after the competition so we’re sort of bummed that we have to haul butt back here. We were thinking of having Hailey (and possibly Keegan if he gets into pre-k) miss a few days of school. However…….
We will be going to Disneyland in October! So that totally more than makes up for not hanging out in the middle of Wyoming and South Dakota, I think. And they’ll have to miss a whole week of school for the vacation. We’ve been before but the kids were really little then. Hailey remembers it, Keegan doesn’t. It’s going to be a little harder this time, as my great-grandma has passed. I’m so glad we went when we did so she could meet the kids. (Seriously, go look at that post. Bunch of pictures. THEY WERE SO LITTLE AND CUTE AWWWWWWW!!!!) Tim’s parents are going to fly in and meet us there, too, so we can take turns riding the GOOD rides. I think Hailey is tall enough for almost all of them now, which is awesome. I really hope she’s tall enough for Splash Mountain.. she’d love that one!
So that’s our busy summer/fall. ANNND all of this while taking classes. There’s a slight possibility I’m crazy. It’ll all work out though. Change is hard.. but it is good.
BTW, my periscope swingset accessory giveaway ends tomorrow at midnight so don’t forget to enter that!
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