I Feel Like I Cheated on Disneyland

There is this amusement park right up the road from us, but somehow we have never gone. Until now...

Ha ha!! We had so much fun. All things taken into account, it is probably just as well that we didn't go until now since only two kids were really the right height. And Ivory was in tears each time she came up to another height sign that read 46 inches. (She is only 43.) But a little cotton candy took care of those leaks. And really, you will see from the pictures that she had a blast.

But I should go back to the beginning. This was the first ride of the day.

Daisy and I came on after. I had to talk her onto the ride and you can see that she was still not convinced.

I held her hand and she decided that it wasn't so bad after all. I think she even smiled at the end.

If Pearl could talk, she might mention that Lagoon is a rip off. She got toted around and could only go on a few rides, but still...she was with family, she got to play, we ate snacks and drank soda (usually off limits at our house) so she can't complain too much. Plus, no one even tried to make her take a nap. Yeah, I think she had a good time too. (Unless you count the train where they got a little too close to an elk. She is not a fan of animals close up.)

But she seemed to dig the new experience.

I would like to say that we didn't lose anyone, all day. (Wait, unless you count the water park where I had no idea where anyone was half the time. Let's not count that.) I spent plenty of time counting heads, but we were good.

We spent some time apart. I took the older two on a the big white/brown roller coaster and Tyler chilled with the minis.

It is not really fair because I can look at the pictures and feel like I didn't miss anything, but he didn't get to see the girls on the big rides. But we switched around enough that it all worked out.

I dropped in for a moment, but then we were off to go on the Spider.

I think the Spider was my favorite ride. I was worried since I don't do spinning rides and the Spider definitely has some twists and turns. But it was really fun. Except the part where we got off and June was no longer sporting her glasses. Oops. (We checked security twice and they never showed up. Boo. Consequently, the Spider was NOT June's favorite ride.)

Meanwhile, Tyler and Grandma were still having fun with the kids. (Sorry, Grandma, I should have mentioned you earlier.) Grandma came down from Idaho. She loves Lagoon and she was so fun to have along. She went on some rides that I would pass on, and she was the perfect filler to our group. And she is just plain fun to have around. Thanks again for coming.

Okay, where were we? Right, kids having fun.

I like the big kid in the red hat.

Then it was time for a change of scenery. We headed over to Lagoon A Beach. (Every time I heard Grandma talk about it, I assumed it was named Laguna Beach. Nope, it is just Lagoon...A Beach. A little weird, if you ask me, but punny.)

The water was the perfect distraction and relaxer. We had a lot of fun, but this would be where I lost track of everyone. This is the last I saw of these two for a while.

I did a lap or two in the lazy river with Tyler and Ivory, but then they were gone. I caught up to Pearl and then somehow it was just the two of us. This is not surprising actually. No one really wants to watch Pearl at the pool, because she doesn't do much, but at the same time, she is hard to keep up with. (Well, Grandma was watching the other escape artist, Daisy, so she probably had her work cut out for her too.)

Pearl and I took a turn on the lazy river and Dad found us there. (And those aren't glow in the dark nylons...those are just my legs.)

Eventually I headed back to camp and Pearl and I chilled.

After a dip, Pearl was happy to cozy up on the towels.

Everyone eventually came back to headquarters. They all looked happy, but cold.

Okay, maybe Ivory doesn't look that happy either, but she was.

We had a good group.

I think he looks like Adam Sandler in that picture. Something about the face.

After we all reconvened, I talked the older ones into going on some slides. They were super fun. Robyn even flipped over at one point, but recovered on her own. (Maybe those swimming lessons weren't a waste of money.)

And after we had had enough water for one afternoon, we redressed and headed back into the park proper. (Did you think we were done? Or that there couldn't be more pictures. Oh, there are always MORE pictures.)

In the evening we were just trying to catch any rides that were on the to-do list. We went on Wicked. (Wow, I was a little light-headed after that one.)

The littles went on a couple more rides.

We stopped in to see a show. (Those performers must be exhausted by the end of one show, let alone after several during the day.)

June wanted to go on EVERYTHING. And she is tall enough, that she can go on EVERYTHING. We still limited her to rides that at least one adult was willing to go on. (Good thing it wasn't just me there. I like to pick and chose my torture these days.)

The Skyride was at the top of the list. Grandma was kind enough to walk the stroller to the other side of the park. Hello down there.

Tyler had the camera. Can you tell?

He has a pretty good view.

We did a lot of measuring at the park. Daisy was just tall enough for some rides, Ivory for others, and Robyn just passed the 46 inch mark. (She got measured everywhere.)

See, here is a good example of a ride that I avoid, yet Grandma was able to do. (Did I mention how great and helpful she was? Oh, and she found the best secret of the night. Go to Subway and buy a huge water cup for a quarter. It beats the bottled water sold for $3.)

And then the camera went away for the night. We still did plenty, but it was getting dark and we stashed our bag. But here is one more I like.

Trust me, I love Grandma and Pearl too, but they were still walking across the park when I took that.

Such a fun, fun day. We left late and everyone fell asleep on the way home. Even me. (Well, not Tyler, he was driving.) The girls are already asking when we can go again. I guess we will have to see if we bounce back...

1000!!!

Seriously, one thousand posts with my thoughts, musings, photography, and randomness.

Nine (almost ten) blog books later.

Five years gone. (Oops, I missed my blogoversary last week. Happy Blogoversary to me.)

Quite an accomplishment if you ask me.

We should celebrate.

Um...but too many of you live far away.

I once gave out a gift card to someone's favorite restaurant. Remember when I got to 100 posts? Actually, you probably don't remember. I think there has been a bit of a shift in my readers since then.

So let's try it again. Mainly since I'm not very creative, and I have too many other things I need to blog about right now. But we'll up it just a tad.

$25 dollars to a favorite restaurant for one lucky reader. If you happen to live nearby, I'll take you out to lunch. If not, I'll send you a gift card. I would love to see who all is reading, so leave me a comment. I know most of you are busy and hardly have time to read, let alone comment, but since they are only about 12 of you, the odds are pretty good. Take a shot.

Leave a comment with the name of your favorite place to eat. I'll pick a winner in a week.

And thanks for reading, by the way. Yes, this is for my kids, but don't think I don't appreciate everyone who stops by to think of our little bunch. (My two Virginia's. You know who you are. In Texas and San Diego. I know you both read off and on. You should comment. Just saying.)

Hope you have a great week.

Tchau.



***A winner has been chosen. Comment 12, Emma Jo is the winner. Thank you ALL for commenting.

It's Like a Kid in a Candy Store

Tuesday our treat was a bit much with four layers and needing time to chill. We made Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars.

They were tasty, but I have made many other cheesecake dishes that I have liked more. I am too tired to look for the recipe, so if you want it, please specify and I can get it to you. Otherwise, just know that there are better cheesecake recipes out there.

On Wednesday, Tyler took off work. He started a mini vacation. And the first thing we did with his time off was....

...go to the DENTIST!!! Yeah.

Okay, so we already had those appointments scheduled.

Robyn and I were cavity free. (Woot.) And then we went to our field trip. And Dad got to come along. Not that I mind trucking the five kids around. We do fine on our own, but I always love my better half along for the ride. He makes things interesting.

Like Blickenstaff''s for instance. It is this crazy toy/candy store down in Provo. I had heard about it, but I figured it was time to check it out in person. It was very unique and fun. And we Cazier's take our fun very seriously.

The kids had so much fun exploring.

I like the randomness of the store. (Yes Mom and Dad, this picture is for you.)

In the end we let each of the kids pick some candy and we ate it outside. We were hoping to chill at the splash pad but the water was turned off inconveniently at that moment. (Oh well, you don't win them all.) But Pearl was pretty cute munching on her candy.

(I should mention that I like Sixlets. But if you eat more than six, they aren't as good. Apparently there was method to the madness when they packaged them the way they do.)

That day was pretty low key, but the rest of the week has been rocking!! Wow. But that is another post of course. (Or two.) In fact, I am currently so tired, I can hardly type. Needless to say, we veered away from the planned schedule, but when the Big Kahuna is in town, you gotta surf hard. (That might have been a really bad analogy since I have never surfed in my life, nor do I live by a beach. But you know what I mean. When Dad is home on vacation, you play like you mean it.)

Six Down, Five to Go

Notice how the numbers flipped there and suddenly there is more weeks behind us than in front of us. The stores are filled with school supplies and I am already getting phone and email messages from the school. (Which is annoying because I have two kids in there and I always get two calls and two emails. Good thing we sent June to another school.) I know there is still some summer left, so we better enjoy it while it is here.

And we plan to, by George. In fact, Tyler took off the end of this week, which totally disrupts our normal schedule, but we have planned some other fun activities that should keep the girls quite content. Plus, the added bonus of having Dad for anything always makes it exciting.

I apologize that I am not going to finish up last week for a while. The kids went to their movie, dutifully, but I stayed home and put together bags of homemade ice cream to take to Girls' Camp. Well, it was more milk than ice cream, but with the help of salt, ice, and a whole lot of shaking, it was a scrumptious treat. It was really fun to go see the girls at camp. They were moved from our normal camp location because of fires, and they were roughing it a little more than planned. But the leaders were amazing and the girls seemed in good spirits. The food was fantastic and out ward's skit was the best of the evening, hands down. It is exciting for me to think that my girls are only a few years away from getting to participate.

Friday, we did do a craft, but I am not sure where it is going in the house. So, you get pictures when I find our project a home. Plus, it almost didn't happen because some mom was VERY cranky on Friday. (Don't ask me why...it was just one of those days.) I haven't been that out of sorts for a while and I am glad it was only 24 hours of unbearable me.

But this week has dawned clear and sunny (disposition wise, because it actually rained some today. Yay for rain, though.) Daisy is four (as evidenced by earlier birthday post) and we are back to the schedule. I really feel like I should make Daisy work more now that she is older, but it is hard enough getting three kids to finish chores, that I find it easier to turn on Diego for Daisy while I hound the older three. I am sure that something isn't fair here, but that it just the way it is. Don't worry, when school is back in, Daisy will suddenly stand out because she will be top dog still at home. I am sure I can find her some tasks to do.

Today we deep cleaned the kitchen. There is so much that could be cleaned in the kitchen that I simply took four problem areas and assigned each child to one. Let's look at the before and after shots, shall we?

Robyn tackled the top of the fridge.

Really that means I needed to get rid of some stuff and dust. And of course dusting is not the right term since kitchen dust is greasy. I sent her up there with some 409 and a cloth and I was impressed with the results. You can't tell, but those cereal boxes and sitting on a very clean fridge top.

June cleaned out my red box.

It is one of those places where I put things that have no home. It is possible that some things still don't have a home, but at least they aren't in the red box anymore. (They are just somewhere else in the house where I will probably find them and put them back in the box. Yes, I know myself well enough to see this coming.) June was frustrated since she spent the majority of her time asking me, "Where does this go?" over and over again.

Daisy does not clean so well, but she is really great at taking things out. So I had her empty the Lazy Susan.

Mainly I wanted to attack all the crumbs in there. Since we stash cereal in that cupboard, there was a nice mix of Honey Buzzers, Coco-Roos, and Crunch Berries wandering around. (Please don't judge...I already have mentioned several times that breakfast is NOT my forte.) Plus, I don't think I have ever wiped out the Lazy Susan and we have lived here...long enough that that is really gross. But now it is crumb free.

Lastly, Ivory helped me organize the utensil drawer. Wow, it was not looking good.

I would always have to search deep to find my small measuring spoons. But no longer. There is still plenty of stuff crammed in that drawer (I could really use two) but now it is much more organized.

So happy Monday. I hope you got something checked off your list. And make sure you plan something fun to do this week. We are on the down side of summer. It is all one big slippery slope from here.

Let's Pause for a Birthday

Man I love this kid to pieces. (I loved this picture and somehow managed to corrupt the file. Because I am awesome like that. But then husband took a screenshot for me. Because he is awesome like that. I am liking his brand of awesomeness a bit more than mine.)

That was her first thing in the morning. Opening presents in pajamas. That is the life.

She was very interested in everything.

She got some of her favorite stuff. (Yes, Grandma...the Diego books were a HUGE hit. We got it on video when everyone yelled, 'CROCODILES!!' at once.)

Here she is sporting her new jacket and trying out the water bottle June gave her.

She was adorable in her Sleeping Beauty dress holding her balloons.

Since it is an even year, we didn't do a friend party. (Which is good since she really only has one friend that she likes to play with besides her sisters. Come to think about it, she kinda had a friend party anyway, since all her sisters were there.) We went to Kangaroo Zoo.

It was a great place and the kids just ran around having fun. They switched up who they were playing with every once in a while. The lighting was terrible, so I broke down and used the flash. Hello red eye.

It was the perfect activity for all of them. Although I thought for sure I had worn Pearl out enough that she would need a nap. (I guess the sugar high from the cake killed that.)

Speaking of cake, I did an original this time around. I never can tell if I will feel motivated, but since my mom started the theme, I thought I would finish it.

Yep, that is a crocodile, in case you couldn't tell. My favorite is his Toblerone spikes. (And if you thought he was a dragon, that is okay. At least they are in the same ballpark.)

This picture is great. Daisy was working really hard on blowing out that candle, and before she finished, Pearl managed to blow out the other two. Daisy never noticed. She thought she did a great job.

And yes, her birthday is really tomorrow, but we figured she would enjoy celebrating early. Gotta love Sunday birthdays. ;)

Actually, you just gotta love Daisy. She is the sweetest kid. She does have a bit of a sneaky side, but that is pretty endearing too. Her smile and snuggles are so genuine and loving. I can't imagine our family without her.

She is so happy to be four!! She talks about it all the time. It seems like yesterday that we were headed to the hospital to welcome baby number four. If you just want to sit and read more about Daisy's birth, you can go here for Tyler's version. Or here for my shorter version.

Happy Birthday my Daisy (Cakes) Grace.