The Disney Christmas Carol Train

A while back, we went to Portland and saw the Disney train. It was touring the United States to advertise the movie, Christmas Carol, which is coming out this holiday season. We drove up with the Larsen's and met Alli and her kids up there.


Everything was decorated for Christmas, which was funny since the temperature was in the 90's

They had snow machines (if you click on the picture and make it bigger, you might actually be able to see the flakes), which helped keep us cool.
This is Ben by a model of Big Ben

They had pictures of the characters and the costumes that they wore.

We also got to see a 3D preview of the movie, which was pretty neat.

We could use this as our Christmas card picture, if only Alan had gone with us.

Afterwards, we toured the train station and got some fun engineer hats. It was a fun day!

Fireworks at Grandma's House

Since we went to my brother Todd's house for 4th of July, we didn't get to do any of our own fireworks. So we did the sparklers and other fireworks at Grandma's house a few days later.
Uncle Kelly had the job of lighting sparklers and fireworks.
The kids really enjoyed the sparklers.

They liked the fireworks, but thought they were too loud sometimes!

We will not even pretend that the men practice safe behavior around fireworks. Luckily my husband doesn't participate (I don't know if he would do it if I wasn't there, or not - I hope not!), and the kids know that it is not even an option.

It is kind of funny when they get singed, in a "you know you deserve it" kind of way. LOL

We had a lot of fun, and enjoyed just being together!

4th of July

I thought I better post my 4th of July pictures before July was over :)
My girls made their own t-shirts for 4th of July, using an idea from the Family Fun magazine. I think they turned out pretty cute!

We started out the morning at the ward breakfast. The kids love to get their faces painted by the young women.

Next, we drove up to Monmouth so the kids could march in a 4th of July parade. They decorated bikes, scooters and wagons in all sorts of patriotic garb.

After marching in the parade, we settled down to watch a parade. It was fun to see the floats, get candy and see all the cars, trucks, horses, ect.

Emily made a flag cake for dessert.

The men spent the afternoon in usual style - eating and watching movies

The kids kept cool eating popcicles...
and swimming!
Later that night we went to watch fireworks in Independence.

Alan and I had matching t-shirts - he doesn't mind being silly like that :)

Leilani used the waiting time for the fireworks to learn to braid and then practice on Aunt Kim.

Dad used his new camera equipment to capture the fireworks. I dedicated my camera to all the people shots! We had a good time spending time with family and celebrating our country's birth.

Haircuts for the Girls

We had a girl's day out for haircuts last week. The girls were pretty excited to have a hair dresser cut their hair instead of me.
They got to have their hair washed in a cool sink.
They each had dry, dead ends that needed to come off.
The result? Beautiful hair!

Elisabeth got a cute updo.

After watching all the haircuts, Benjamin insisted on having a ride on the chair - but there was no way anyone but grandpa was going to cut his hair!

Choir Concert at the Zoo

The Oregon Children's Choir went to the zoo to give a concert, so we went up to support Emily.
We bought Benjamin this cool rhino hat. He loves to wear hats!

The concert was nice. They were lucky enough to stand in the shade...

we had to sit in the sun :)

After the concert, we went to see the animals. The sea lions are huge!

The river otter was cute.

We had a fun day. It looks like the new lion exhibit will be great.