Raging Waters

I'm am so tired, and so sore, and so sunburned, but we had a wonderful day yesterday. We took the kids to Raging Waters. I forgot, though, how much a day of water sliding can make you feel like you got hit by a truck.

Emmeline refused to go on any water slides, even the kiddie ones. She was perfectly content to splash around in the kiddie pools and practice her newfound skill of swimming underwater. (So, basically, we spent $20 for her to do the same thing she does here at home.)

Benjamin slept through most of the afternoon. When he wasn't sleeping, he was busy sitting in the kiddie pools, splashing, and watching the other kids. He was perfectly content to observe.

Willie started the day by going on each of the kiddie slides, about ten of them, each about 12 times. I would sit with Benjamin, and have Emmeline walk him into the lines of the different slides. He didn't even realize or care that I was there. He would have stayed on those slides all day. (During all this time, Luke was off with his work buddies, going on all the big rides).

When Luke got back, we dragged the kids to the tube slides (and the big rides so I could have a turn!) There were two slides where you ride two to a tube. Willie LOVED them. He would take turns riding with me, then Luke, then me, then Luke....over and over and over again. We had to climb a ginormous hill to get to the slides, but Wilie didn't even care. We forced Emmeline on one of the slides and promised that if she didn't like it, then she could choose where we ate dinner. She got to choose dinner!

Willie's FAVORITE ride though was "the racer." I don't know the actual name, but you know those huge carnival slides that you ride down on a burlap sack? Same thing, except with water, and you go down on your stomach on a mat. He LOVED it. Flying leaps onto his tummy, speeding all the way to the bottom. It was hilarious to watch this tiny little death-defying person, totally gleeful!

And, last, but not least there is the family ride. There was one slide that you ride down in a five-person raft (perfect!). We thought it'd just be a slowish slide, how fast can you go in a huge raft? Pretty darn. And, you fly up high on the sides of the slide, and you get really wet! It was hilarious to see each of the kids personalities as we took our wild ride down the "Thunder Rapids." Joshua, of course, loved it and wanted to go again. Emmeline was crying even before we got on, so even if she did like it, she would never admit it. Benjamin got willingly into the raft, but as soon as we started moving, he was petrified. Literally. He was frozen with a look on his face, like, "What are you crazy people thinking? You are insane!" His eyes were huge, and he didn't blink even once (an amazing feat when water is covering you at every turn). It was fantastic. I wish there was some way to have videotaped that ride because my description is not doing it justice!

And that's our day at Raging Waters! We only took a few pictures, and I'll post them later...if I can move.

Ah, Willie

Commercial: Do you worry about aging?
Willie: Yeah!
Commercial: Are you self-conscious about your thinning hair?
Willie: Uh-huh...
Commercial: Well, your worries are over.
Willie: But I really want some cheese. Do you know where I can get some cheese?

Story

Today Benjamin threw something and hit Joshua. I asked Benjamin to walk over and tell Joshua that he was sorry. Benjamin walked over and put his hand on Joshua's shoulder, then leaned in to give him a kiss. Right as he got Joshua's attention and was about to kiss him he changed his whole expression, yelled, "Blaaaaaaah!," and ran away!

I'm wondering where this one came from...

P.S. Emmeline got her chicken nuggets today.

Where to begin...

I honestly don't even know where to start today. Our day began with an innocent game of Candyland. That ended when Luke cheated, Benajmin stole the peices off the board, and Willie whalloped him for so doing. So, then we tried to play Uno...the cards are still scattered around the living room.

Church was relatively peaceful. When Benjamin came out of nursery he was waving a piece of paper with one crayon mark on it, so proud of what he had made. I asked Joshua what they learned about and he said, "I'm thankful for cows."

Then it was lunch and nap time. After Joshua laid down, Luke noticed Emmeline crying.

Luke: Are you crying?
EmJ: No, my eyes are just wet.
Luke: You're eyes are wet?
EmJ: Because I opened them under the water yesterday when we were swimming!

I think the real reason she was crying had to do with not getting the perfect lunch or something. Like I can make chicken nuggets appear on cue.

After naps we played our version of "Don't Wake Daddy," in which three children jump on, hit, kick, pull hair, and poke the eyeballs of Luke until he can't stand it anymore. I know the game is over when two children are crying--one fell off the bed, one got thrown.

And currently, they are playing beauty shop. Luke is wearing a flowered tiara, Joshua is using a curling iron, Benjamin a blow dryer (actually, he's pointing and shooting it like a gun), and EmJ is switching the tiara to a sparkly crown. They are singing a song from "The Little Mermaid," which is a nice break from, "In the tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room, the tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room..."

I love Sundays.

Walk of Fame

Luke is all verklempt because we saw Chuck Norris' star on the Walk of Fame.

Emmeline can swim! Yay! Okay, not really, but she can put her face under and float for about 6 seconds. I'm so happy that she is venturing off of the steps.

Decision 2007

Today Benjamin threw a holy fit because he wanted to wear three shoes. He brought me one sock, then a second, then a shoe, then a second, then a THIRD...I tried to take off one of the other shoes to put on #3, but that just made matters worse. How do you explain to a screaming, thrashing 18 month old that he only has two feet and that is perfectly normal! It was hilarious.

I also caught him, Benjamin, posing in the mirror. He would lean up against the dresser with one hand and then cross one foot over the other. Then admire himself. He must have been practicing for the pool hotties...or the nursery hotties, I'm not sure which!

Well, we're headed back up to Sacramento in about two weeks. I know, a decision, finally...at least half of a decision! I am so excited to get out of LA, but now that we're leaving, Luke and I are scrambling trying to think of everything that we have to see and do in LA before we leave. Tomorrow we're going to the walk of fame, then next Saturday we're going to the Angels game (it's back-to-school binder night, yipee), then the next week we're going to take a few days and go to San Diego and Newport Beach to see the temples, and any other free sites! It's crazy. We've had the whole summer to do all of these things, but we procrastinated.

Finally, as the two weeks begin to count down, I'm anxiously trying to eat up all our food! We're pretty much down to Ramen, tuna, pb and j, otter pops, and grilled cheese. Soon the cheese will be gone, so that leaves us with one meat choice, one fruit choice, one desert option, and Ramen (which should probably be its own food group). Hmmm...I'm simultaneously famished and disgusted.

18 Month Stats

Benjamin is 27 1/2 pounds and 34 inches. He is my first kid to be above the 50th percentile in weight I do believe. The doctor had some advice for me. It sounded kind of like, "Make ture ou poot tun tleen ef ou iz in ee tun." Gotta love California...

Speaking of "gotta love California," our 5 month battle with the Department of Motor Vehicles is fianlly coming to an end. We may have license plates before the next millenium. Knock on wood.

In the last General Conference, Elder Holland said, "There is no misfortune so bad that whining about it won't make it worse." But, oh man, I want to whine soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad!

Vacation Pictures

Man, I'm tired. We had a great trip to Seattle, but I'm so excited to be "home"...for however long we get to call LA home! Here are just a couple of cute pictures from our trip. The one of the three kids was taken on the tram on the way to Disneyland. More pictures are in the following posts. They had a great time at Disneyland...I wish that I had taken more pictures, of course! While in Seattle, the kids went to the zoo and Joshua bought a tiger visor. He wore that thing all week, and Benjamin wore it on the airplane. They love that hat...love fighting over it! It was so nice to have Grandma and Grandpa on the plane with us on the flight home. Also, the plane wasn't full, so Benjamin got his own seat...he felt so big, and was for the most part in good spirits. The final two pictures are of Emmeline striking a pose! She went school shopping with BOTH of her Grandma's and came home with bags and bags full of goodies. She put on a fashion show for me after her final shopping trip. This, I think, is her favorite outfit! Alright, I've done my family duty. Time to sleep!

Disneyland Pictures

Let me out of jail!

Making a crown at the Princess Faire!

It's a small world after all...

The tea cups...the kids favorite ride. Even I got sick of them, literally. Thank goodness Grandpa was willing to ride. But what we want to know is, Dad, where are you going to get another one of those hats when the circus leaves town?

Disneyland Pictures

Grandparents and kids on the way out...notice how tired they all look...don't be fooled, they had fun!

Joshua eating a giant pickle...yum!

Benjamin's face full of ice cream, and Benjamin cleaning up that ice cream after he spilled it onto the pavement. He didn't cry for the loss of ice cream, but was rather insistent that it get cleaned up.

And, of course, the best part of the day...NAPTIME!!!