Saturday Trip to Disneyland

You know it's going to be a really good day (meaning less crowded) at Disneyland when you arrive to find the lines for the tram like this on a Saturday afternooon: And the security check points look like this:And then your hopes of minimal wait time for the rides are crushed when you enter the park to find Main Street look like this: Oh well, we still had a great day despite the heavy Saturday crowds.

Conversations with Hannah

Yesterday in the car, Hannah and I had the most interesting conversation in regards to having courage. She was telling me the story of Daniel in the Lions Den and how he had great courage to sit that den of lions all night. She went on to tell me that perhaps because God gave Daniel such great courage, maybe God would give her the courage to try California Screamin again. LOL. I told her she didn't have to do something as extreme as California Screamin, she could try Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again, or even something totally new like Splash Mountain. :) But at any rate, yes it would be the Lord who'd give her to courage to get through whatever ride she chose to face.

Jumpin' Jacks

Last October, one of Hannah's classmates had her birthday party at Jumpin' Jacks, a really cool place with giant inflatable structures. A few months ago, I discovered on their website that they do walk in hours on set mornings and evenings. This morning I had errands to do in that neck of the woods and after my errands we stopped in for some fun!

The walk in hours last 3 hours and is only $7 per person to bounce. Expecting to pay for both the girls, they didn't charge me for Rachel cause she was so young. Wahoo! We had the entire room to ourselves for the majority of the time we were there, which was just over two hours. Having the room to ourselves was nice because I didn't have to worry about whether or not my children were beating up or bothering other children playing. LOL. There were able to run free from inflatable to inflatable while I sat and watched and worked on some continuing education for my nursing license. Towards the end of our visit, we had a couple of Mommies with their kids show up. Soon after the girls were tired and hungry, so we packed up and headed for lunch. We'll defiantly keep this place in mind to come back again. I only wish I had thought of it when my sister-in-law and her kids were down visiting last month. They would have had a blast!

The La Brea Tar Pits

Just before going off track, Hannah's class was learning about fossils and paleontology. Miss Barrett told the class about The La Brea Tar Pits located in Los Angeles and Hannah expressed a desire to go there while off track, so that's where we went today.She was excited as we turned the corner to see the mammoth statues in the lake. She said it was just like the picture in her text book. Every year, for two months out of the summer, paleontologists excavate a pit. Today was a great day for going because today was to be their last day of excavating for the year, and possibly the next couple of years as fossils were found nearby when construction began on expanding the art museum. The paleontologists will turn their efforts to those fossils now. It was pretty cool to see the paleontologists working on getting a few more fossils out of the tar. And it was pretty cool to see the fossils sticking up out of the tar. We made our way into the museum and saw all there was to see inside. Hannah was very much interested in all there was to see and shared a lot of what they've learned in Science.

Discovering what it is like to pull something out of the tar.Hannah said she really enjoyed going to the Tar Pits and is looking forward to telling her teacher that we went.

Birthday Party for a Friend

Picture taken August 2006.
This afternoon, Hannah went to a birthday party for her friend, Austyn. She was so excited to be going to this party for two reasons: 1) she was excited to see all her school friends that she hasn't seen for the last two weeks, and 2) I was just dropping her off and leaving (thus the reason I have no pictures of the event)

Hannah had a great time! She enjoyed seeing all her friends she's not seen since going off track, and the party was loads of fun. There was a magician that she was very impressed with and keeps pondering as to how he did his tricks.

This was a perfect time for a party, right smack in the middle of being off track where the kids could all catch up and see each other!

After picking up Hannah from this party, we dropped both the girls off at a friends house to play with Zach and Alex, and for the teenage daughter to watch them all while us adults went to another party! Hannah had a great day of playing with friends and was surprisingly still awake when we picked them up at 11:00!

Oak Glen

One of the things I really enjoy doing every October, is going up to the mountain community of Oak Glen. It's about a mile high up into the nearby foothills, where the area is best known for the apple orchards and fall colors. Today, the girls, Gramma, and I made our yearly visit to Oak Glen. The weather was beautiful and the sky was blue and clear, unlike here at home. Had many great photo taking opportunities too!