Disneyland

Feb. 25 through March 3rd we got to take the family along with Grandma and Grandpa Averett down to Disneyland. Since we were driving we spent the first night in St. George at the condo since we couldn't get out of town until after Ryan's work. Tues we spent most the day driving but by the time we got to our Hotel the kids were ready to get out and swim. And boy was the weather perfect. We had high 70's to 80's the whole time we were in Disneyland along with no rain or clouds. When we came back to Utah it was cloudy and raining and Treven asked if it was night even though it was only 2 in the afternoon we had gotten us to the bright sun and warm weather! So we unpacked and let the kids swim for a while and then got cleaned up and went to Downtown disney to look around. The shops were fun to look in and of course Halle found her some sparkly pink mouse ears, Emery found a beautiful princess PJ's and Tyler found himself a shirt about moustaches being lucky, he is hoping since he has some peach fuzz on his upper lip! Treven was waiting to spend money at the Lego store but he couldn't find the Lego he wanted but he did love all the Lego displays. Hallel loved her ears so much she even slept with them on.

Weds came and it was time for day one of Disney fun. We spent the first half of the day at Disneyland hitting all our favorites like Indian Jones, which Treven got to do for his first time and I think he had a love had thing with it. It scared him but he loved the ride! Emery found her new favorite ride which we ended up going on a couple of times for her, Pirates of the Carribean. At first she hated to dark tunnels but then she kept asking to go on the dark tunnel ride. We did scare her on the Haunted Mansion and it took a little bit to get her to go on a ride that was inside since she thought there would be more ghosts. Grandma and Grandpa took Emery on a train ride while we took the other kids on Nemo's ride and the Emery found another favorite ride, The carosal which she got to ride with Grandpa. The highlight of Emery's day was going to Minnie Mouses house and meeting Minnie! The best part was we were about to meet Minnie Mouse but it was a break time for her so Emery kept telling everyone that she had to leave because Minnie had to go potty's. But it was a short Potty break and Minnie was back and Emery got to give Minnie and hug and she got a kiss back from Minnie. Halle loved it too!

After getting in some more rides in Disneyland we went over to California Adventure to try and get on the Cars Land ride but of course after we stood in line for about 30 mins the ride broke down, so we left cars land and went to explore more of the park. But we did get to meet Tomater and Lightning Mcqueen.

Halle's favorite ride was the Tower of Terror and Halle couldn't wait to ride it again. Treven and found the California Screamer rollercoaster and along with Tyler they rode that thing plenty of times. Night time came and it was time to get our seats for the show the World of Color but first the kids needed to spend more money and get some light up toys for the show. Treven walked away with a light up sword, hat , and necklace. Emery got a hat from Grandpa but was having more meltdowns than fun with it since it didn't quite fit her head like she wanted it to. Grandma and Grandpa were doing a good job of spoiling the kids and they were loving every minute of it! They boys also earned some swords due to a bet with Ryan. All they had to do was keep their hands in the air the whole time on the Matterhorn and Ryan would buy them swords. Well they won the bet and more swords were coming home to the Strong household. It was Halle's first time on the Matterhorn, she didn't want to do it at first but then she walked away asking if we could do that ride again!

Thursday we started our day out at California Adventure and hit Toy Story Mania first after the boys did soarin over california. Emery loved Toy Story Mania and we even got Grandma Roses to go on the ride. Then of course it was back over to the rollar coaster for Treven and then came our longest wait next to Cars land, the Ferris Wheel. This was one of Tyler's favorite and since it moved so slow it was a long wait, but worth it. Emery loved it and of course we were in the swining ones and Ryan did his best to try and make it swing and I mean really swing.

While the kids and Ryan were in line again for the Cars ride Emery and I had a fun hour riding all the little kid rides in Bugsland and spending some time together!

The boys were done with rides so the went back to the hotel with Grandma and Grandpa to go swimming while Ryan, I and the girls went and meet Tinkerbell, rode Monster's Inc, and Peter Pan.

That night Grandpa and Tyler came back an met us to go on a couple more rides

Emery kept wanting to go in the Castle and so she kept knocking on all the castle doors to go in. We finally found the castle walk through with Auora's story and she was on happy girl to finally get to go inside the big Castle!

Friday we started to day out with our Breakfast with the Princesses and the girls loved every minute! Of the boys of course ate as fast as they could and took off to the rollarcoaster and some other rides.

Along our journey's we found a Minnie show and Emery loved seeing Minnie again! While Ryan and the kids went to do Indiana Jones again and Splash Mountain Emery and I went over to Mickey's house to do some exploring.

 We let the kids pick one more ride they each wanted to do before we called it a day to go swimming and then come back to the park for the firework show. Treven had been wanting to ride this pirate ship all day so we took the nice slow ride on the pirate ship around the bay. The kids had fun and we got to acutally sit for a minute. Tyler wanted to to Space Mountain so the boys went over and did that ride while the girls and I hung out.

We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and then went out to Bubby Gump Shrimp. Run Forest Run!

We ended our Disney fun watching the fireworks show and then going back over to Carsland and riding the Cars ride one more time. It was a great way to top off our fun trip and call it a night.

No better way to spend your 34th birthday than at the beach! On Saturday we went down to Huntington Beach and spent a couple hours playing at the beach and catching some sun. And boy did we catch sun. We all came home fried! Our friends the Harwards were also down there at the same time and we ended up meeting them at the beach. The girls and Treven had fun playing in the sand, finding seashells, and running away from the cold Pacific Ocean. Ryan and Tyler braved the cold waters and did some boogey boarding.

We ate some food at the beach and then drove 6 hours to St. George. We stayed the night at the condo and then it was time to say goodbye to vacation and hello to real life again. It was also another year older for mom and a great birthday spent relaxing in the sun with her family. Grandma and Grandpa had taken off early on sat and we missed having them at the beach, but we were so lucky that they came with us to Disneyland!

Valentine's day and Feb. fun...

Valentine's day is here again and that means the kids get their new swimming suits for the year. This year we will get to use them earlier than usual since Disneyland will be in two weeks. Along with their Valentine's day swimsuit and chocolate is our Valentine's day Breakfast! Tyler requested crepes this year and Treven just wanted chocolate milk. Emery and Halle just wanted something Red hence the tablecloth!

Halle's has been to a lot of birthday parties this year and the most recent one was a princess party. Well Emery didn't like the fact that Halle was getting dressed up and not her. So on went Emery's sunday best and she even got to wear a little makeup like her big sister.

Tyler is taking art in school this semester and had one of his drawings hanging up in the school library.

The most exciting news this Feb. was Grandma and Grandpa Strong getting their mission call. They will be leaving in May to the London England Temple mission. And boy were they excited. Grandpa Strong served his first mission in England and mom and dad were happy since they would love to save up and go out their to see them!

pictures of Jan.

I finally downloaded by pictures, and there are not many, but atleast i can say I did take, some? Tyler had to do a project in Social Studies about and country were his ancestors were from. He chose to do Germany with is were Grandma Carolee's family is from. For his food to share mom made German Pancakes and he did recieve and A, way to go Tyler.  I took some pictures of Tyler playing basketball so there is documentation that he played and has done a really good job as point guard.

With is being so cold outside the girls and I had to be creative on how to spend our days. We have done a lot of cooking and trying new things to make. Halle wanted to make Chocolate covered banana's and we had more fun eating the extra chocolate then eating the chocolate covered banana's! Chips off the old block I would rather eat a tub of cookie down then sit down to a nice steak dinner!

There is one better way to spend a Satuday morning than cuddling up on the coach with dad! Later that day we also went bowling and out to dinner. We don't take the kids out to dinner very often and I got reminded of that again. We went and got some yummy hamburgers at JCW's and the kids all ended up taking two bites of their hamburgers and eating like 3 fries! So kids when you ask why we don't take you out to eat look back at this post and you will know why! We kept teasing Tyler that he mommy will always love him the most since he has started to find some girls and school should we say, cute. So mom had to remind him and give him a little smooch at the bowling alley.

Ryan's awesome basketball team. Treven has loved having Ryan coach him this year. Ryan has been coaching most of Tyler's teams this last year so Treven made him promise that he would coach Treven's basketball team. Treven loved having dad all to himself that Tyler was supposed to be Ryan's assistant coach but Treven kept Telling Tyler not to come to practices beacause he wanted it to be just him and dad! Lets just say Ryan walked a little taller that day when his boy just wanted him. My boys are growing up and no longer want to be with mom! So sad but fun to see them develop another type of relationship with their dad. Atleas my girls still like me and love to have mom all to themselves. Even though they are want more time with Ryan the boys still like mom to lay down by them and talk with them and night!

Halle has the best little group of girls that she hangs out with and life is never boring. We had two of them over the other day after a Ellie's birthday party and the girls had a great day playing pirates and showing off their "Booty" they got from the party! Halle also lost a tooth is month, oh wait not lost but more or less had a wiggley tooth that she wanted out so she had uncle brad get out his dentist tools and pull it out! This girl would have been a great pioneer since she has one of the highest pain tolerances I know. Ryan told me that she kept telling Brad one more pull when it wouldn't come out! That is determination! I have wimp and would have ran if someone wanted to pull my tooth out. You should see her at the dentist while Treven is screaming in the chair she is laying back watching a movie and chilling!

Emery has just kept my spirits up over these cold months will all her craziness! We went to my mom's house during the super bowl and all the kids were getting little bags of candy to take home, but little is not in Emery's vocabulary, she grabbed a gaint bag of carmel popcorn and told us she found her treat and started walking out the door! The bag was almost as big as her! Then when we were trying to get Tyler's See's candy fundraiser all sorted out Emery, with the help of her brother, was soon boxed up and ready to be shipped out of here! Emery has found coloring on the walls and furniture a favorite past time and locking the bathroom door so she can get into mom's makeup and come out all pretty. She will deny she was every in there even though she has on gobs of powder and lipstick! Emery can't wait to go to school and loves to put on a backpack and tell mom she is going to school and is off! I think out of all of us she is ready for warm weather. Mom has been out more than once in the cold chalking when the driveway isn't covered in snow and trying to ride her bike.

January Here and Gone....

Well my resolution to take more pictures just didn't turn out, I will have to post some later I believe I took a total of maybe 7 pictures, that is how our January went. You would think with the rush of the holiday season that January would be the down season but not this year. 2013 started with a bang and just kept on going. With mom working some more hours this month and between the boys they are both in two sports, Jan like and said was here and gone, but a good gone. We did waste any days! Between Treven and Tyler's basketball games, Tyler's baseball practices, and Trevens indoor soccer league we did find time to get some snowboarding in with the boys.

Tyler is still liking school and having a good time getting better and better at the guitar. Him and his friend Carter go and jam since Carter is learning the drums! Tyler is teaching us spanish, and having a great time getting lots of time up on the mountain this year!

Treven is kicking some butt as keeper in his indoor soccer league and getting pretty tough. On a penatly kick he took a hard kick to the head from the ball and deflected the ball away from the goal. In that game he didn't let one ball go past him! And of course that was the game I miss, but he did have his cousin Jaron up from Vernal cheering him on. The kids had a ball getting a full day of cousin time while Jackie and Megan were up at a Volleyball tournament.

Halle is loving gymnastics and can't wait to go all week. I swear that girl doesn't walk but either cartwheels or somersaults her way to where she needs to go! Halle is of course excelling at school and is already on an E reading level and loves to already write notes to mom. On such note was on a day that she got in trouble and wrote, "I Hate you MOM" and then a note on the door with "stay out i ment it!" Lucky my heart wasn't too broken when later on she told me that she loved me again!

Emery is doing gymnastic too and has loved, loved, loved it! I am glad she has something of her own since this poor little girls just gets dragged around from on event to the next! Emery also having fun learning her shapes, colors, and letters and if mom would get on the ball would already love to be in preschool!

Ryan had lasix surgery and is excited to finally be able to see, he is keeping busy with work, coaching Treven's basketball team, and helping with Tyler's Baseball team! He has been mister mom with me working more now and could right a book on how to keep kids quiet while your wife is sleeping! Sometimes I wake up and wonder if he has shipped them off to China or something.

January was so very cold that we didn't get to go sledding very much and the kids are already for Spring to come so bring on Feb, and lets see what fun she brings!