We interupt your regulary scheduled vacation photos...

for a birthday boy!! I can't believe he's 10 already!! It's not fair really... He was greeted when he woke up with 10 donuts, complete with candles. And about 50 balloons just thrown all over the place. I was going to fill his bedroom, but then thought better of it, when I realized how many trips I'd have to make to get them all in there. At 11:00 at night, I'm lazy... forgive me:)

Imagine a really cute picture of him excitedly opening a present here, but when I put it up to post, I realized Tanner is standing in the background in his underwear!   

 And we have one happy (spoiled) kid. Grandma Dial got him a case and Grandma Mortensen gave his $25 with which he's bought a basketball so far.

I'm sure he'll resurface again in a week or so!

Man this kid is sure growing up and he's defiantly in this weird pre-teen stage, where he's part kindof little kid, part grown up.   He was so excited to download the free texting app, and text his cousins, (and me repeatedly from the other room) and then I heard him giggling uncontrollably at some other dumb game.

He's your typical boy and loves basketball, and MineCraft. He's just a few inches shorter than me, we can share flip-flops and socks, and I finally broke down and bought the boy some deodorant, cause things were getting a little stinky around here!  He's of course dying for independence, but when I told him he could ride his bike to his friends house, he looked at me like I'd lost my mind. He's definitely Scott's kid, in that the paranoia of ALL the things that could go wrong, runs deep. The other day, I needed to run to the bank (about 5 minutes away) but didn't want to have to take all the kids, cause it was morning and this bank doesn't have a drive thru. I spent the next 15 minutes walking him through how to use the phone to call me if something went wrong, and assuring him, that it was very unlikely that in the next 10 minutes, he or Tanner would throw up, or break an arm. It would have been quicker just to make them all get dressed. He's your typical oldest child and is very responsible and is constantly disciplining his brother and sister. Most of the time it makes me cringe, cause I know that's how I must sound.

For dinner we had his favorite, PIZZA & Wings. Man can this kid ever eat. AND EAT AND EAT. I thought I'd have a few more years before I had that kind of eater on my hands.

Man, I love this kid, so much. Attitude, spunk and all.

San Diego, part 2... The sights

We started the day by going to visit the temple. It was SO SO BEAUTIFUL! It truly looked like a castle, and I find myself wondering why on earth I didn't get married here??!!? Anyways... It felt super strange to be dressed like bums (we were going to the beach next) and acting a little less than reverent. Of course everyone had to have their pictures taken...

 

 

Also, as a side note... these flowers were growing every where in San Diego. Anyone know what the heck they are, and possibly how on earth I could get them to grow in Phoenix??!!

Well after the temple, we headed down to Old Town San Diego to visit the Mormon Battalion Museum. That was seriously one of the highlights of the trip.

First you walk in and begin a tour, the missionary is talking about some pictures hanging on the wall, when all the sudden they come alive and start talking back, like Harry Potter style. Needless to say my kids were totally sucked in!  You get inducted into the Mormon Battalion, dressed in battle gear, pan for gold, brick laying. All the things that the Saints had to deal with. You could truly feel the spirit there, and my kids had a blast.  Also they took our picture, printed it out and emailed us a copy, all for free of course because the church is cool like that. A picture of yourself (screaming your brains out on a roller coaster) at Sea World was $14.95, so this was a pleasant surprise!

 

San Diego, part 1... Sea World

Where to begin... we had the BEST week in San Diego. Our kids are finally reaching that perfect age, where they were all able to walk (most of the time, we did resort to using the stroller near the end of the week), they are able to communicate when they had a need, so there wasn't a whole lot of crying or fighting...and they beg with out ceasing for us to buy them stuff (ok maybe that last part is not so great!)

Sea World has a deal going right now where you pay for a day and get the rest of the YEAR for free. So we were able to go back everyday for the whole week. (And who knows, maybe we'll make a weekend trip before the year is out!)

Chase & Tanner loved the Roller Coasters, Sienna loved the Sesame Street land, and we all loved the shows. It is truly amazing the things that the dolphins and whales can do.  The weather was AMAZING we left temps near 110 degrees and came to 60-80 degrees. It was cool in the morning and comfortable with a light long sleeve shirt on.

Here's a bunch of pictures, it will be overload for sure!

Dude is it just me, or do we look old??!!

She would NOT touch the sting ray's but was fascinated by them in the water

THE MANTA! I can't tell you how many times we rode this ride. Fortunately the lines were very short. I'm pretty sure I'm still suffering from whip lash. It was SO MUCH FUN!!

This is the Elmo's flying fish ride. I can't tell you how many times we rode this either. She's been walking around making the fish sound elmo makes ever since. (Kindof a "bloop bloop" sound)

This was sea world's equivalent of the tea cup ride. I'm just glad I didn't throw up! She's so excited she can barely contain herself:)

If we would have let her, she'd have played here all day!

Sea Lions

Shamu

The dolphin show was seriously amazing!  It was about a princess who dreamed of a magical world. She met a prince, and dolphins, pilot whales, birds, and then there were all kinds of acrobats, and divers. Sienna sat with her jaw open the WHOLE time!

Shamu was another amazing show. Sienna was bored at first and then one of the whales did a flip right in front of us. I only wish I'd gotten the look of pure shock on her face on camera! We consented and sat in the soak zone. Everyone around us left the stadium just dripping, but somehow we managed to stay completely dry. I wasn't about to tempt fate a second time, so on our second show (when I took the pictures) we sat up high.

It was a really magical place and somehow we managed to come home with a car full of stuffed sea animals. It's an experience I hope the kids will be talking about for a very long time!!

Harry Potter & Butter Beer

 

We are big Harry Potter fans around here. We read all the books last year (well, I read them to the kids) and they got the DVD set for Christmas.  Scott decided that he would finally watch all the movies, so we've been having a HP marathon.  We're currently on #5 "The Order of the Phoenix."  Even Sienna walks around using sticks as magic wands and trying to curse people. (She's been unsuccessful thus far, thank goodness!) 

Another of our "Summer Fun List" items was to watch Harry Potter & have Butter Beer.  Wikipedia says:

Butterbeer is a popular wizarding beverage described as tasting "a little bit like less-sickly butterscotch."^[1] 

Interestingly enough, I don't think they've mentioned Butter Beer yet in the movies, (Scott hasn't read the books) and he didn't have a clue what I was talking about.

When I found a recipe for Butter Beer I realized that it's typically served warm. Well, the temp outside was a lovely 99 degrees, so we altered the recipe a bit to be more milkshake like. 

They were yummy. We mixed vanilla ice cream and cream soda, blended to be a creamy shake, added some butterscotch syrup to the mix, and topped with whip cream and more butterscotch syrup drizzled on top.   Everyone loved them!  Give it a try:)
 

Photo Shoot

One of the things on our "Summer Fun List" is to have a photo shoot with Silly Props. It was fun, although I'll warn you it got the kids so hyped up, I had to end the event with putting them all in their rooms to chill out.

Here were our favorites!  I think I might frame these and hang them somewhere!

Here were some of the others:

School's out...

and the kids are already SO BORED!

We sat down and came up with a list of things to do. Some are little (make Popsicles) some are big (go to Sea World). This list is quite long, ((and I'm going to regret it pretty quick I'm afraid!!!))

Grand Canyon

Back in the beginning of May, Chase's school took a field trip to the Grand Canyon. This is something that the 4th grade teachers have been doing for 17 years now, and these kids have been looking forward to this since kindergarten. Chase's teacher is retiring this year, (she's the one that kindof got the whole thing running) so I hope they continue. Tanner's already talking about when it's his turn.  I got the opportunity to go with him, which was cool. I don't get to spend a lot of one on one time with my kids these days.

Chase and his Best Friend Andrew

Wild West Show, complete with a Horse Thief, A Card Game, and A Murder

 We rode a Charter Bus up there. All the kids were raving about how it had a bathroom and a TV!! It was pure luxury to these kids:)  We rode that up to Williams, AZ to the Grand Canyon Railway. That's where we saw the Wild West Show and then boarded the train. It was about a 2 1/2 train ride to the South rim of the Grand Canyon. When we got there we had 3 hours to do what ever we wanted. I thought we'd team up with some of Chase's friends, but he really wanted to go hiking so we set off on our own. We took quite a hike, going down was not so bad, but coming out was killer. I couldn't believe the view. And I found myself wondering why I had not been here before?  I've lived in AZ for 12 years now. It is truly one of the 7 wonders of the world.  

On the train ride back, we got "robbed!"  The teachers had passed out $1 bills to all the kids to give to the robbers. It was all in good fun, and the robbers on our train car made out with a good $100. I think I'm in the wrong profession!

It was a ton of fun, but a very long day. We left the school at about 5:30 am and got back at about 9:30 pm. I'd do it again in a heart beat though.

We're getting a temple!

The new Phoenix Temple is being built only 15 minutes away from us (and just around the corner from Scott's parents!)  We've enjoyed watching the progress as we go to visit Grandma & Grandpa each week.
Here are some pics of the progress:

These pics were taken in March

 These were end of April

And now they've put the Angel Moroni on, and so we took the Young Women in our ward over to check it out. The way the sun was shining, I could only get the temple to the side of the them, but the Angel is very much up there! There has been alot of people against the temple, because it's set in the middle of a neighborhood. Out of respect for the neighbors they didn't announce when the angel was being set, but word of mouth travels fast in these parts, and they said 500 people still showed up!

Sienna is so excited for the temple, she starts screaming every time we see it. All the kids can't wait to go in, this will be their first time going to an Open House. They are estimating Spring of 2014 for it to be completed. We can't wait:)

Pine-wood Derby

Another pine-wood derby has come & gone (thank goodness!!) This year Chase's idea was a great white shark. It turned out awesome. I took a million photos of the dang thing, and my camera kept focusing on the crap behind the car, so you can't see a clean shot, but it's mouth has nails for teeth, that Chase painted red, cause he wanted it to be bloody!  I'm not sure what he placed, (not 1st-3rd) but he had a blast, and that's all that matters.