Erica's First Gymnastics Meet

Erica started her morning a little early.  

She had to be warming up by 7:45 at her meet.  She was so excited!  I recorded each one of her events.  It would be nice if I knew anything about the way that they score these routines, but I have no clue.  So I just clap and say "YAY!"

The girls all marched in.  I love Erica's face as she walks in.  She looks so proud and excited!

Her first event was bars:

 She scored an 8.5 and earned a 10th place!

Next she performed on the beam:

 

On beam she scored an 8.475 and won 7th place!

She did her floor routine next:

Her floor routine earned her an 8 and got an 8th place ribbon.  This event is the one that I think is her strength, so it would be interesting to find out what it is that gives her the deductions.

And she finished up with her vaults:

She scored an 8.7 on vault, but didn't place.

Her team took 2nd in the competition

And Erica ended up winning 7th place overall.  We were so excited she did so well on her first competition!!

Erica and her Bestie!!

The First Big Win!

Jace's team won their first game today!  It was such a fun game.  They won in overtime.  Because of my amazing non-fast movie picture taking phone camera, I don't have any pictures of Jace at his game, but they just took some team pictures last week, so now seems like a good time to post those!

Way to go, Jace!

The Happiest Place on Earth!!

We made it!  We finally took our kids to DISNEYLAND!  It had been 6 years since the last time, so no one really remembers anything of the last trip.

Tony was the picture taker.

We left on Monday morning and headed straight there.  We figured we could capitalize on all that excitement and make it the whole way. It actually worked out pretty well.

We got to our hotel at about 7 pm and went to dinner.  The next day, we headed off to Disneyland.

The great thing about our kids is that they're all tall enough to go on ALL of the rides.  Ryan couldn't do Indiana Jones, but that's it!  So we kinda forced them to go on ALL of the rides. Tony and I both weren't very keen on waiting out if everyone could go, so we made them go.  They enjoyed a lot of the rides, but on some, the idea backfired.  For example, Ryan was not a big fan of Space Mountain.  Poor little thing let out some blood curdling screams through the ride.  Yeah, maybe next time I'll sit out!

While the big kids went on Indiana Jones, Ryan and I discovered Tarzan's Treehouse.  That was WAY more up his alley!

Up next was Splash Mountain!  He-he!  It wasn't so bad, but the poor things were pretty scared!  Erica is trying to have fun, Jace is completely terrified, Kent has to bite his lip so he doesn't let loose a big scream, Tony is holding Ryan to the chair so he feels better :)  and obviously I'm having the time of my life.

Then we toned it down a bit with the Jungle Cruise. Much better, except Ryan kept waiting for the boat to go off some steep cliff.  He couldn't believe that it was just a plain old boat ride.  We really enjoyed the slow pace and all of the fun animals! Kent kept checking in with me to make sure that each of the animals were fake.  He just had to make sure...

Autopia was way fun, too! Jace got to drive his own car.  I'm a little nervous about his driving skills.  

Erica was my chauffeur, and it was hilarious.  We had a blast.  She couldn't drive the car without hitting the edge to save her life! 

We got to watch the Mickey Mouse Parade at the end of our day.  It was a perfect end to the day for the kids.  They got to see all of the fun characters and just enjoy relaxing. 

The next day was our day at California Adventure.  We started out the day in Cars Land because it was the most eagerly anticipated.  The kids loved these rides!

Erica got a few extra photo ops while the boys and I waited in line for fast passes for the Cars Ride.

She also got to dance with Phineas and Ferb.

This ride was very Chandler children proof.  No steep drop offs, no fast moving vehicles.  We like it!

But after that, we made a big mistake!  We took ALL of our poor babies on Tower of Terror.  We definitely regret this one.  I had the two little guys with me, and Tony had the older two.  As we walked off the ride, we each had two children sobbing into our arms with fear.  I felt so bad!!  How was I supposed to know?!  I'd never been on it!  When we got to our hotel later that night, Ryan started crying when we went to get on the elevator and he wouldn't get on.  He asked, "But, what kind of elevator is this?!" He was completely terrified that it was going to drop out from under him!

That was really the only scary one we forced them on, so we tried to make them feel better by getting some good photo ops!

And finally it was our turn to use our Fast Pass on the the Cars ride!   Ryan was nervous at first, but now he says that it's his favorite ride that he went on while we were there.  Success!  This was the one event I looked forward to the most for the entire trip...getting to take Buddies on the "Lightning McQueen Ride." 

Someone gave us a few extra fast-passes so I took Erica and Kent on it again!  Wahoo!  They were so fun.  Kent even wanted to have his hands up the whole ride.  And If I'd been thinking, I would've gotten a rider switch pass so Jace and Tony could go.   GRRR!  I was originally going to take Kent and Ryan, but Ryan didn't want to go again.  He really was pretty shaken up from all of the rides.  Jace was a great sport and said that Erica could go.  What an angel my boy is!

We stopped to see the Aladdin show in the middle of the day, too.  Tony was riveted! 

Erica ended up being our only taker on California Screamin'.  So she went twice.  Once with me and once with Tony.

While one parent rode the roller-coaster, the other parent took kids on the carousel.  When we got in line, Ryan said, "OH!  I like this kind!"  Apparently that was a surprise! 

It really was a super fun trip!  I'm sure my kids will look back on it with great memories.  Tony and I have learned some valuable lessons. If a kid is scared of a ride, don't make them go on it.  It won't make them feel better.  They will just like the next few rides even less!

The next day was our day at the beach.  We LOVE the beach at Carlsbad.  I've been going there with my family since I was little, and I want to carry that on with my kids.  We've been a couple times, but not that they can remember.

The making of a mermaid:

 Ryan soaking up some sun...I think!

The final product!

Jace doing was he does best.  Dirt!

 And Kent in his natural element.  Water!  Seriously, this cute kid will play in water all day if I let him!

My kids discovered that they are BIG fans of boogie-boarding! 

And my Kenters again.  I have to make a special effort to go see what he's doing. He just loves playing and doing his own thing.  So I have to make sure he knows we're all still around, and then he'll go back to doing his thing.  Oh, I love this boy!  (sorry about my finger)

Daddy and Daughter

(You can see the start of a sunburn on Tony's chest.  Believe me, it got MUCH worse!)

Getting closer to the end of the day, Tony decided to record our kids.  It was such a sweet and happy day for our family, that he wanted to record how much fun everyone was having.  We both still watch the video repeatedly just to enjoy how happy everyone is!

Well Stink!  I'll work on the video tomorrow!

 Seriously we had so much fun!  I am already planning our next trip down to California.  

Sea World and Lego Land, here we come!

Gettin' Perty!

Erica and I went a little wild this summer.  She decided that she wanted to get her hair streaked, so we tried it with Kool-Aid. The red is still in now!  Apparently it works well :)  She wanted blue and red streaks in the front.  We ended up with more of a Christmassy hair-do, but hey, she loved it!

Then onto the next prettiness.  Erica has been begging to get her ears pierced since she could talk.  And that's not an exaggeration at all.  She has wanted to get her ears "peered" as long as I can remember.  So, on Labor Day, we surprised her with a visit to Claire's at the mall.  She was amazing. She didn't even blink when the pierced them. I think she wanted it so bad, she wanted to make sure she looked excited the entire time.  They let her hold on to this cute little teddy just in case she needed a little extra snuggle.  Although, she was gripping my hand pretty hard.  So pretty!

My First Fruitful Garden

Somehow, magically, my garden produced better than it ever has.  We had veggies coming out our ears.  And I got to buy my own pressure canner this year too.  I just have to put these pictures on here because I'm so proud of my first solo canning experiences!  YAY ME!  I did so very, very much more than this, but these are the only pictures I have.  I'm feeling all Martha Stewarty!

And Some More Fishing!

Does it ever seem like all our family does together is fish?  Sometimes it feels that way.  But what do you do when that's what Daddy loves?!

We went to Strawberry on Labor Day just before going to meet G-Ma at Golden Corral.  Needless to say, we had to bring an extra pair of clothes for everyone.

Dad has high hopes for Kent to become his little fishing buddy. Kent will fish all day, even if he doesn't get a bite.  He just keeps trying.  For days before fishing trips, he'll take his rod out into the back yard and practice casting.

And a cute little movie just because:

This picture is from a different time at Strawberry, but really, it all seems the same!

And I'll just throw in another of Tony's quick fishing trips in Montana.  I've always teased him about not being able to see the "BIG" fish he catches, so he sent me proof!