When the Lights Go Out......

You are guaranteed to get some pretty silly pictures!

German Exchange

We have been busy the last few weeks getting ready for Joshua's German exchange student to come visit. The biggest matter of business was figuring out the rooms and getting them ready. Joshua's room has needed a paint job since we moved here 5 years ago, so we finally took care of that when we absolutely had to.....the weekend before our exchange student came! (we're kind of bad like that!)


We met Simon after 18 hours of travel and he was quite exhausted and ready for bed! It was past midnight his time when we met him at the bus. We were excited that we could recognize him from the pictures we had seen!

We made a "Welcome to the USA" sign for him, but it was raining, so it had to be put up in the house. The kids were all excited to meet Simon and get to know him better. The fact that he brought them each a package of gummy bears and a candy bar really helped!

So now we are off to immerse Simon in American culture and have fun making a new friend! I am sure it will be a busy 3 1/2 weeks for our family!

Mormon Prom

Caleb's first big date dance was a few weeks ago. He asked a very cute girl named Sarah to go to Mormon Prom with him. I tried my best to get him to ask in a creative way, but in the end he resorted to a phone call when he saw her post of facebook debating whether she should go to the dance alone or not! Guess he thought it was now or never!


Savannah and I went out when he picked her up.....I went to take pictures and Savannah went to see her fancy dress! Sarah did not disappoint because she had chosen a dress in Savannah's favorite color--PINK!

I love that they try to keep the cost down for the kids for Mormon Prom. They provide a dinner before the dance and then the dance itself. They had a really good time together and I think they made a pretty cute couple!

I found myself worried about all kinds of things as I sent my son out on his date that I never worried about with my daughter.....

Would he be a gentleman and remember to open the doors for her?

Would she stand back and wait and encourage him to be a gentleman if he did forget?

Would she be gracious and gentle with his heart and help him to feel like she wanted to be out with him? (Boy did I experience some guilt here over some not so stellar dates that I went on when I wanted to be sure that the guy knew that I didn't LIKE him....like you know, girlfriend like! Now I realize that I should have treated them like they were worth being with and they were important.)

Oh, I would have loved to sit in while she told her mom about the date when it was over! As the mom of a boy, all I get to hear is "It was fun."

AND????

"nothing....it was fun, mom."

Saying YES to Disney!

For YEARS my kids have been begging for a Disneyworld vacation and for years I have been saying NO!

There were lots of reasons for my repeated "NO's".....
1. It was WAY too expensive
2. It was too far away
3. It was too crowded
4. It didn't sound in the least bit relaxing.....and vacations ARE supposed to be relaxing, aren't they?!!

Finally, early this year, I decided it was time to say YES to Disney! My kids were old enough to feasibly do the drive without too much complaining and it was time for my husband and I to give up the relaxing vacation and make some fun memories with the kids! Going into this, I knew it would be expensive, but I made it my goal to try and cut costs where ever possible. I decided that if the choice was between going or not going, I would find a way to cut costs so that we could afford to go!

The first thing I did was look at where we could come up with the money for our vacation. We typically do a weeklong beach vacation each year that costs us about $1500, so we gave that up and put the money into our Disney fund. We also gave up the $500 we spend on our season passes to our local amusement park, so with $2000 in our fund, I was feeling pretty rich and called Disney to price out a trip. The cost for a 5 day trip staying on Disney property came to $5000!!!

It was clear that staying on property was not an option for us, so I started frequenting http://www.disboards.com/ to learn about ways to cut costs and other places to stay. In the end, we were able to put together a 7 day Disney vacation (2 travel days, 9 nights in hotels/condos, and 7 days at Disneyworld) for $3000. We cut costs wherever we could, but we also had lots of fun and splurged on some extras. It was well worth it!

I would have to say that the trip was an exhausting one! If I were to do it again, I think I would go to the park every other day, taking a day off in between visits to relax at the condo, but even though we were tired it was SO MUCH FUN! Savannah was the perfect age to be so excited about all the princesses, and the boys were old enough to split off and go ride some rides while mom and Savannah waited in hourlong lines for princess autographs!

Suprisingly, the favorite park for most of my kids was Animal Kingdom. There was a really fun rollercoaster there, Expedition Everest, that everyone loved! And the safari was a highlight of the trip. I guess I have raised a bunch of nature lovers!

I was surprised at how much Magic Kingdom was identical to Disneyland, where I went when I was little. I guess I had always just thought that Disneyworld would be so much better, but really it is almost exactly the same. It was fun for me to share all my favorite rides with my children and tell them stories about going as a little girl.

All in all, it was the trip of a lifetime! I was so glad that I finally convinced myself to say YES to Disney! And, believe it or not, I am actually thinking I might like to go again!

Great Wolf Fun

I have been taking a bit of a blogging hiatus, if you couldn't tell.....we changed computers in December and all my old pics are on my old computer and I just let that stop me from putting up anything new, but NO MORE! We have been trying to do some fun mini-vacations this year courtesy of groupon and living social, and when I saw the deal for Great Wolf Lodge pop up, I couldn't let it go! I have been wanting to take the kids there forever but it was just SO expensive. With the groupon we were able to get it at half the price we normally would have paid, so we made plans for a teacher workday in January knowing that it would be a nice break from winter weather!

Unfortunately, I don't have many pics from the waterpark since I didn't want to carry my camera around with me down there, but there was lots of other fun to be had. At night the boys all enjoyed the GR8 Space with big screens and video gaming systems while Savannah and I did the MagicQuest game (so much fun! oh and a great workout too, running up and down those flights of stairs!)

The best part was just the chance to hang out together. Chris has been travelling so much lately that the "downtime" that we used to have with him is almost non-existent, so it was fun for the kids to have dad around to play with. We spent 5 hours in the waterpark the first night and then all day the next day just playing and having fun. I even went down a few slides with my broken wrist (don't tell my orthopedist that!) but they were on the tame side. Our suite was incredible! There were 2 bedrooms (one for the kids and one for us) and two bathrooms, a living room and a little mini-kitchen area. Our bathroom had a jetted tub (LOVE!) so I could soak to my hearts content!

It was two full days of pure fun and I would go again in a heartbeat, but I am definitely looking out for a deal! If anyone hears of one, let me know!