It's in the Numbers

Today is our Anniversary.

11  Number of years we have been married.

3  Number of times we have moved during our marriage.

2  Number of states we have lived in.

2  Number of companies Adam has worked for.

25  Number of times we have wondered if we are too boring by not switching jobs or moving around a lot.

3  Number of years Adam has been able to work mostly from home.

2,456,2929  Number of times we have said, "I love you" to each other.

3  Number of children we have.

2,700  Number of times I threw up during my pregnancies to get our 3 kids here. (Too bad I'm not exaggerating that number)

2   Number of visits to Disneyland.

2  Number of times we have left our kids for a week to take a trip together. (Germany 2004, China 2010)

3  Number of times we have tried to plant a garden and failed miserably.

5  Number of cars we have owned during our marriage. We started with a Dodge Neon and a Honda Accord then we sold the Neon and got a Toyota Corolla and now we have a Toyota Camry and a Honda Odyssey.

1  Number of times we have been asked to serve for a year in a Vietnamese speaking LDS branch. (Um yeah, we don't speak Vietnamese)

15 Number of times Adam has coached the kids' soccer/basketball teams.

8  Number of times a day Adam makes me laugh

142  Number of days we had known each other when we got married.

4,157 Current number of days we have known each other.

0  Number of days I've regretted my decision to marry Adam.

Happy Anniversary!  Here's to MANY more.

Banner Day

Tonight was Jenna's first soccer game of the season.  I'm not gonna lie,  I'm a little burned out on soccer right now.  Britton's first game was last Saturday and it was cold and rainy.  Tonight was cold and windy.  Spring soccer around these parts means that I will be sitting through 18 cold/wet/windy soccer games and 2 soccer games with good weather. On second thought, perhaps 2 good weather games is a bit optimistic.  Fall soccer I can handle, spring soccer makes me cold and miserable just thinking about it.

I digress.

So, as we are heading out the door to Jenna's game I thought to myself, "Should I get the camera?" and then answered my own question with, "Nah, we'll take it another time.  If you've seen one you've seen them all, right?"  All the way to the game we listened to Jenna tell us how much she LOVED soccer.  It has never bothered her in the least that she doesn't really touch the ball during the game very much and has never scored a goal during her 3 seasons of soccer.  She just loves being on a team and hanging out with her friends and if she gets to kick the ball during the game all the better. She is happy when they win, and she is happy when they lose, she just LOVES soccer.

First game, first quarter and the coach puts Jenna in as a forward.  She went and stood in front of the other team's goal as instructed and before I knew it the ball came to her and she was somehow able to turn around and kick it toward the goal.  It hit the goal post but instead of bouncing out it bounced back in the goal!  Was that Jenna?  MY Jenna?!  I knew that making a goal would make her entire year.  Then to my utter amazement she scored 2 more times in the next few minutes!  That's right, Jenna made not one, not two, but 3 goals in the first quarter of her first game!!  After she made the first goal she didn't bother going where the ball was, she just stood right in front of their goal (apparently they don't call off sides at this age).  This strategy worked as she was able to kick it in each time the ball got away from the group that was actually following the ball.

If the game ended right then we would have all been super excited, but at the beginning of the 3rd quarter my heart stopped a beat when I saw her put the goalie shirt on and run toward their goal.  Oh dear. Every time the other team got close to the goal I started to panic.  Thank goodness that most of the girls still kick it right to the goalie even when the whole goal is open.  She made it through the quarter without letting anyone score.  It was definitely a banner day for Jenna!!

Mom, I'm gonna need. . . .

Tonight we had southwest cilantro lime mango chicken wraps for dinner. Mmmm. When Korinne came in from playing to eat she looked around and decided she needed to make something to contribute to the meal.  She got right to work and started ordering me around,

"Mom, I'm gonna need some celery, (pause) a banana, and um, some peanut butter and (pause) some sprinkles." 

Korinne is becoming famous for her food creations because as she put it, and I quote, "I'm just a creative girl." She comes up with all sorts of stuff and for her it is all about the presentation. She likes to work with celery and peanut butter so she can use the peanut butter to glue everything together.  She looked just like a chef up at the counter putting the finishing touches on this:

It had to be just right before she let us put it out on the table.  Jenna ate it and loved it.  Last night Korinne used strawberries with her peanut butter.  Jenna tried it but decided she should stay away from the strawberry/peanut butter combo in the future. 

Jenna was so inspired by Korinne's take charge attitude in the kitchen she did something she has never done before, she offered to help with dinner.  She wanted to make a fruit salad and went right to work.

She left the peels on the oranges but otherwise it turned out and she was delighted that we all ate what she made.

Some of Korinne's creations are not so edible.  She likes to use the lime and lemon juice from the fridge and asparagus, and all sorts of other things.  At the end of mixing them together she puts it out on a plate and tells us that it needs to dry overnight and we can eat it in the morning.  Fortunately for us we usually clean it up after she goes to sleep and then she forgets about it. Phew. Crisis averted.

Korinne calls adults "humans".  If a ride at Disneyland was really scary she would declare, "That ride is only for humans!"  When Jenna had some food from the fridge that Korinne thought Adam and I got for ourselves she said, "Jenna, don't eat that, it is for humans!"  If a food is particularly spicy she'll ask me if it is for kids or for humans. "You mean adults, Korinne"? "Yeah, for humans."

Right.

The Killer "B"

This year Britton and Adam worked hard on Britton's pinewood derby car.  The result--The Killer "B" (Sorry all of the pictures turned out blurry) Last year Britton had a few technical difficulties with his car (it kept jumping the track--oops) but he still had a great time. Taking lessons learned from last year this year his car actually did really well.  Out of more than 20 cars he took a solid 2nd place.  He was pretty happy about that.

This was the only photo of the entire night that didn't turn out blurry and it was an action shot! Go figure.

It was a fun night.  Everyone loves a good derby.

When You Wish Upon a Star

Our kids are the perfect ages for Disneyland. 

We went a few years ago and had a great time, but there were a few things that made this experience a bit different.

1- We went with our friends Carrie and Josh and their kids.

Carrie did a lot of the research and planning and I kind of swooped in at the end and said, "That sounds great, let's do it!" (I hope she isn't bitter, but I loved it).  We stayed at the same hotel and spent time together but we also had plenty of time to do our own thing, too.  It was perfect.  Plus, Korinne had her BFF with her at Disneyland.

The highlight of our time together was timing the firework show perfectly so that we could watch it from the boats on the storybook land ride.  During the firework show on that particular ride they know exactly where to stop the boats so you can see the entire show.  Within 1 minute of getting on the boat the fireworks started just as we got through the mouth of the whale and could see everything-- It was magical.  The low point was when we all got on the shuttle to go back to the hotel during the middle of the day and were about 1 1/2 blocks away from Disneyland chatting away when Cara and Korinne noticed that 2 year old Andy wasn't with us.  Oops, they had left him at the bus stop by himself.  The shuttle pulled over and Josh jumped out and ran faster than I've ever seen him run. Seriously, it was impressive.  We can laugh about it now because everything turned out fine, but for a few moments there it was tense.

2- My kids are now old enough to go on all of the rides.  Sure, Korinne still declared her favorites to be Dumbo and the Carousel, but she also tried rides that she didn't dare go on a few years ago.  Jenna went on everything and Britton was up for about 95% of the rides but was quick to opt out on The Tower of Terror and the California Screamer. It's just not his thing. It was crowded but with good planning we got to do everything we wanted and didn't have to spend a lot of time waiting in lines. 

3- We stayed at a hotel that had a shuttle stop right by it.  Last time we were close to Disneyland but still had to walk for a good 15-20 minutes to get to the gate.  This isn't a big deal until it is super late and you are exhausted and still have to walk a few blocks to get to your hotel. This time we rode a shuttle.  It also allowed us to easily go back to the hotel during lunch time to take a break and have more food options for less $$$. We are fans of the shuttle.

4- Korinne lost something very important during our last day at Disneyland--

. . .her first tooth!  She was so excited to lose a tooth and losing it at Disneyland made it even more memorable.

We spent 3 days at Disneyland and felt completely fulfilled by the end of the experience.  We got to ride everything we wanted multiple times and got to see and experience all of the shows we wanted.  We had a great time.

This was Jenna and mine's first ride on the Tower of Terror (the elevator ride that drops you straight down a few times).  They opened up the door at the top and let you see that you are at the very top and snap a picture.  Since neither of us had ever been on the ride we had no idea what would happen but when they opened the door I looked over at Jenna and she was ghostly white and was visibly shaken.  You can see me hugging her on the back row.  At the end she decided she liked it after all, but for a few moments there she wasn't so sure.

This was Jenna's second ride on the Tower of Terror with both Adam and me.  She was all smiles this time around (but she did have her eyes closed).

Day at the Beach

Normally this blog title would be figurative and I would talk about some big work project or show a picture of our latest snow storm, but this time we literally had a day at the beach! *insert cheering here*

On Friday evening a week ago we set out for our spring break vacay.  First stop was a wedding reception for Adam's cousin followed by a night at my parents house.  Saturday morning we listened to General Conference as we drove to Adam's parents house in  St. George where we spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday.  Early Monday morning we set out for California and went straight to the beach upon arrival.

The kids loved it and Adam was right there with them.  While it was sunny and about 70 degrees there was a cold wind so it felt much cooler.  The water was freezing, of course, so while I did put on a pair of shorts and a short sleeve shirt, I just couldn't bring myself to do more than wade in the water.

Most of the time I had a towel wrapped around me to keep me warm.

We went to Newport Beach by the Balboa Pier. After playing in the freezing water for a bit the kids were determined to bury themselves in the sand. Adam was more than happy to help them out.

I tried not to wince at the thought of trying to keep all of that sand out of our car.  It took all my willpower to just say, go for it and have fun. Just look at Korinne covered in sand.

Look at all of the sand in Jenna's hair.

Before we got into the water we took a walk to the end of the pier.

There were people fishing off the pier and when the kids looked over the side they saw this:

If you can't see what it is I took a close-up,

It's a sea lion! This is not a Sea World picture, this is an actual ocean dwelling sea lion.  There were a few at the bottom of the pier waiting for some fish handouts from the fisherman.

After our time at the beach we drove to Anaheim and checked into the hotel.  The kids swam in the pool and I did my rip:60 week 5 workout (that is true dedication, people!). After baths we went to eat and then went to bed super early so we could get up bright and early for our Magic Morning at Disneyland.  Someone should have told us that they have a nightly firework show that is so loud I was sure they were shooting them directly from our parking lot.  They were that loud!  Fortunately the kids were already asleep and didn't even stir.  Adam and I, on the other hand, knew that the following night the firework show as going to last for at least a half hour. Double Grrr.