The Happiest Place on Earth

Friday was our first time to be in Disneyland. Abby celebrated her birthday by having breakfast with Minnie and friends. The kids enjoyed the costumes from the theme house we rented and dressed up. The park was quite empty and we hardly waited for any rides.

Shamu Slam!

Thursday Dec 17, took us to SeaWorld. The weather was perfect! Sunny-75, not a cloud in the sky...and not a person in the park either. It was virtually empty. We did not wait to get into any attractions. Our family OWNED the place.

These crazies sat in the Shamu show soak zone, two rows away from Shamu's predatory grin. They had a terrific experience, and were indeed soaked. That is something none of them will ever forget...not even Doodle.

More details pending. Stay tuned to my blog, I will be plopping up entries throughout Christmas break to chronicle the trip (and to also "out-blog" my Aunt Sandi)

To Disneyland

Wed., Dec 16 was a special day, as we embarked on a fantastic week in Southern California. It was Abby's first time flying. She was nervous, but as you can imagine, she LOVED the take-off.

The kids were great travelers.

Our first stop was Universal Studios. We were on Benj Goehner's turf...Hollywood. He came to meet us for lunch at Bubba Gump's and introduced us to the glories of theme-park touring.

Thanksgiving

I just realized as I was blogging, that I blogged no Thanksgiving photos.

Ryan and Will went with the big boys as we warmed up our shotguns to prepare for a hunting trip with Dad. What a great helper.

"always treat it like it's loaded" was the first and most important hunter safety message for the little guys. They enjoyed success with the BB gun.

Abby and Grandma K preparing for Thanksgiving dinner at Aunt Sandy's house. (see Sandy's blog for thanksgiving dinner photos)

Grandma Kinnaman came to the house to make Christmas crafts and to teach the kids new games while we hunted in Central Oregon.

Notice that Dad is not carrying his gun. He spent the afternoon working with Pepper, his English Setter, on finding birds. She did a great job!We enjoyed perfect weather. What a great hunting trip. Thanks Dad.

From the phone

I can't blog from my phone (yet...but someday, I surely will be able to) but if I could, this is what it would look like. These are spontaneous snap shots from our time in the warm California sun. We returned last night from our travels to Disneyland and those other theme parks. Wow, it's cold, here in Idaho!

This is the California Screamin'-coaster in Disney's California Adventure theme park. The fastest, smoothest, funnest roller coaster that we have ever ridden.

Corona del Mar beach near Anaheim

There is no better way to kill time, while the moms do their shopping, than to wipe out some merchandise and a shop clerk or two in the Disney store.

Attack of the Doodle-bug

Halloween was great fun for the kids. Abby Lou was dying to carve her pumpkin to take to Aunt Tiff's, so we got up and spent some time together making a mess and scraping out a jack-o-lantern. (I'm still trying to scrape crusty pumpkin guts from the table.)

Following the Broncos game, the Lande clan gathered at Tiff's house for a rockin party, complete with crafts, jack-o-lantern cheesecake, a pinata, and of course, trick or treating. uncle John and Auntie Sue joined us to party and follow the kids on their capital candy venture as they toured Tiff's neighborhood. Makena, the little doodle-bug, was a sight to see. She was on the go; excited to be out and about, rollin with the big kids. She marched door to door and wore herself completely out.

The kids had a ball. They ate lots of junk. They stayed up late. They made great memories establishing a solid tradition. Fantastic party Aunt Nini!

Caravan cheer -- *clap* Rah!

Fight! Fight! B-S-U!

Once again, Ry was able to go see the Broncos. Once again they rolled up their opponent, beating San Jose State by 38. This kid reminds me to take joy in rooting for a winner (growing up cheering for the Beavers really lets me appreciate it). To be tired of blow-out style dominating wins is like being tired of having steak for dinner. It is not wasted on Ryan, who enjoyed every drop of his football experience; even the rainy ones that fell on us. Rick and Brendan came too, sitting right behind us.

Tony Peppley came over to run smack at Ryan and after a good ribbing, he offered to bring Ry to the place the players exit the locker room to meet his nephew, starting DE #92, Shea McClellin. Ry encountered a number of players coming from the locker room, but his pen ran dry. Seeing his disappointment, Shea offered to take his hat and get him signatures.

This was an exercise in trust, for sure. Ryan's BSU hat is his personal treasure as it already has autographs from coach Pete, Jeremy Avery, Kellen Moore, and his favorite player, Titus Young.

It's what we do...

Saturdays; soccer. Now that the weather has turned, it is a test of out metal to endure the conditions. The temperature felt like it dropped 20 degrees between Abby's 11:30 game and Will's 2pm game. Wild Idaho weather.

This week Abby decided, on her own, that she would play defense. After I reminder her that she couldn't just park it in front of the goal (no goalies in her division) she lit out to cover the back end of the field. She has obviously been paying attention to Will's games. One of the parents asked me, "does she have that much energy all the time?" Oh, after considering the many answers I could have offered... I settled on, "yes."`

She completely locked down the other team. Wow, that girl is fast!

Will's game was cold and windy. He played extremely well, as he is learning to space out on the field and support his teammates with good position.
Soccer has been great for Will. He played forward. Notice his great break away with Uncle (and coach) Brandan cheering him on.

It's tough to stay warm, when we're fighting the Idaho wind.These two have had so much fun playing on the same team together.We're HUGE soccer fans!