the big D

isn't disneyland just so fun? i know, i'm a dork. but i seriously had such a blast there this last week. my boys loved it. and luckily, ben, who was there on business and quite depressed that he didn't get to be apart of our little vacation, was able to come for a day and half. i've noticed something about myself... i love to scream on the big, fast rides. it just makes it way more exhilarating. try it next time you go to an amusement park. it works, i swear. my favorite screamers were space mountain, splash mountain, the tower of terror (across the way at california adventure), california screamin' (also at california adventure), and the river rafting ride at california adventure where we all, like true nerds, donned our full rain-poncho regalia. too bad for you i don't have a picture of that.

this was joel's favorite ride. oh wait, i lied. the train that goes around the whole park was joel and kadin's favorite, but this was a close second. that's my sister, hailey, with him. they also loved the submarine finding nemo ride.... very cute. and the buzz lightyear ride, where you get a gun to shoot all the evil emperor zurg targets. dad's the only one who got above 100,000 points. he pretty much rocks.

my dad and ben. they're just not manly enough, i guess. :)

hailey and alexis.

and of course, everyone has to take a picture in front of the gate with mickey's head made of flowers... we just didn't get to it until our last night after dark. next time, though, we're going to get a great shot.

sadly, that's all i have. man, i suck at taking pictures.

the flu

last week my kids got the stomach flu.... again. i swear, i'm going to shoot myself if my poor kids (or poor me) have to go through this again... like ever. i think this is like the fourth or fifth time they've had the flu in the last 18 months.

ben left on a business trip to chicago on tuesday night the 12th. after midnight that night, joel, woke me up covered in vomit. the poor thing. he spent all night throwing up over a dozen times. i "slept" on the couch so i could hear him, did about 3 loads of laundry, cleaned the carpet on several different occasions and changed his sheets and clothes countless times throughout the night. kadin slept through all of this, but woke up the next morning at about 7:00 dry-heaving. after kadin woke up, i finally called my aunt and uncle in tears, asking if they could run to the store for me and get some gatorade. kadin didn't throw up until the next night, again at about midnight, but thankfully only once. they kept throwing up and having the runs off and on over the next 4 days. it never ended! what happened to the 24-hour bug?! it was so heart breaking to see them so miserable.

ben finally came back on thursday night. lucky him. he timed his trip perfectly to miss the bulk of the nastiness. we were supposed to leave on friday evening to drive down to newport beach to hang with my family for the week, but ben sent me to this fabulous hotel for the night instead so i could have a break and we could give the kids a little more time to get better. i shopped my little heart out AND, most importantly, i slept in. it was a perfect rejuvenation from the nightmare-ish last 3 days.

but saturday morning, kadin threw up again. he seemed to be fine, so we figured his stomach was just a little queasy still and that he was all better, so we took off for southern california that afternoon... whooops. bad idea. 45 miles away from our destination, he threw up all over himself, his blankets and his car seat and then for added measure he threw up again after we had just finished cleaning everything up. yuck. so... after kadin got better, and then after i got better, then after alexis got better, oh and after my mom got better... we all had a great trip! jillian also got the bug, but it hit on her flight back to utah after she had left us. sorry jill.

i'll post the FUN stuff from our trip in a couple of days...

a little jaunt to las vegas

ben had to do some business in las vegas a couple of weeks ago, so we all went along for the ride. ben's boss has a beautiful home in henderson that we stayed in one night and then we stayed at the luxor for a couple nights... which was really weird to do with our kids, but hey, that's the hotel that priceline.com assigned us. we went to the shark reef aquarium at mandalay bay, which our kids LOVED and are still talking about. we played "rockband" (kind of like guitar hero, but add in some drums and a microphone and rock your heart out) with the borgersons, some friends of the shafer family from the lovely town of aberdeen, wa. we went hiking with my friend lark and her family. we had a great time. as always, we didn't take nearly enough pictures, but here's a few...

we found kadin like this lounging on one of the beds at the boss's house... he's totally into living in the lap of luxury.

joel and kadin driving the rental car... they wish.


hiking with the fillmores. lark's little girl, afton, was seriously a pro hiker and climber, and lark was a true champ - she went hiking while 9 months pregnant. yes, that's right folks, 9 months pregnant. she rocks.


good times were had by all.