DISNEYLAND

 It's totally cliche, but no other word can describe our day at Disneyland other than Magical!  The day was all I had hoped it would be and more and we couldn't get enough! 

 Waiting in line for Peter Pan, our first ride of the day! 

 and Hudson as he got off the ride, "I want to ride it again!"

 Next, it was off to the carousel

 and Dumbo!  Funny story, when I was 6, my parents took me to Disney World, the only thing I wanted to ride was Dumbo....after waiting in line for 1 hour, it broke and I never got to ride it!  I finally had my chance!

 Wade grew up going to Disney Land and always got a hat from the Mad Hatter store, by the tea cups, so of course we had to do the same thing!  Sterling actually decided on the Mickey Sorcerer hat and Hudson on the Donal Duck hat!

 The Storybook boat ride, heading into the Whale's mouth from Pinocchio

 Who doesn't LOVE It's a Small World?!

 After a slow intro into all the fun in Fantasyland , we headed over to Tomorrowland and into Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters!

 We rode a few more rides and just walked around for a bit and got a FastPass for Star Tours.....then went to FrontierLand for the Jungle Cruise! 

 On a side note, we were so happy John David decided to go with us to DisneyLand, not only was he an awesome photographer, he was an extra pair of shoulders, arms, hands and eyes!

 and afternoon Mickey ice cream!

 After our snack, the big boys went over to the Matterhorn to wait in line, so Hudson and I decided to check out some other rides!  Here we are riding the circus train.  We could see the Matterhorn on our ride.  And then over to the Riverboat.

 Waving to the canoers!

 We also stopped by the petting zoo.  Hudson actually said, "Take a picture of me like this!"  No objections from me!

 and he climbed up here with this goat!  All of them had their names on a tag and on their collars and you better believe he asked me what every single one of their names were, and there were about 20!

We all met back up and finally rode Pirates of the Caribbean (it broke while we were in line earlier in the day) and Space Mountain, before grabbing dinner and a seat for the spectacular fireworks show!  It was the best fireworks show I have ever seen!

 a 15 hour day makes a 3 year old a little silly!

 Doesn't that face just make you want to squeeze him?!

As we left the boys were already asking when we could go back and woke up the next morning asking to go!  It doesn't get any better than that!  We will definitely spend 2 or 3 days there next time and spend a day at California Adventure Park and Carsland!  TONS of memories were definitely made on our first trip to Disney!

California

Well, we are back from our vacation to California!  It was wonderful (except for the flying home part) and we were able to visit lots of friends and have a break from 100 degree temperatures!

I enjoyed the first few days on vaca camera free, besides our phones, which will be a whole post itself!  But, on Monday, Daddy had to make a quick trip to Denver for work, so the boys and I hung out with the Buxton's.  We saw Brave at the movie theatre, hit up a nature walk/museum and then went to the park, to throw the "crisbee" as Hudson calls it!

 John and Mary actually live in Burbank, which is in the valley, so they are surrounded by these beautiful mountains!

 making animal tracks

 Hudson still needs some practice throwing the frisbee!

Once we picked Daddy up from the airport and went out for sushi and ice cream it was off to bed!  On Tuesday, we were off to Disneyland!  Look how excited these 2 were to wake up at 6:30AM!

Next post....DISNEYLAND!  There are way too many pictures (259 to be exact) so I need to filter through them for the BEST ones!

I'm Artsy and I Know It!

Sterling attended art camp at The City Arts Center last week and when I say I was impressed, that's an understatement!  He attended the Red, White and Beautiful class, but there were 5 other classes going on the same week for all different age groups.  He had a great time and was exhausted at the end of every day.  I can't wait for him to go back.  I put him on the waiting list for 2 more classes at the end of summer and I won't wait until summer starts to get him signed up for next summer!

The last day of camp they set up an art gallery for the parents and I was so proud of my ARTIST!  

Some of the other projects from other groups...

Our Favorites 2012

Since the beginning of the school year is SOOOOOOOO crazy for me, I decided to do their "favorite things" questionnaire at the beginning of summer.  Some of their answers were exactly what I thought they'd be, others were completely different.

Sterling's Favorite Things - June 2012

Color - RED
Toy - LEGOS
RESTAURANT - MICHAEL JERSEY'S (Jersey Mike's - he always says it backwards)
TV Show - LEVEL UP
Movie - DESPICABLE ME
Food - MAC & CHEESE
Game - HI, HO, CHERRY - O
Snack - CHEESE AND CRACKERS WITH THE RED SPREADER THING
Animal - PEACOCK
Song - BABY, BABY, BABY (Justin Bieber)
Book - 3 BILLY GOATS GRUFF (This cracks me up because it has been his favorite book for as long as I can remember and is a book from the $1 store that I had when I first started teaching!)
Friend - IAN and CHRIS
Activity - SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS
Thing to do outside - PLAY BASEBALL
Drink - KOOL - AID
Place - PAPA'S LAKE
Thing to do with Daddy - FISHING
Thing to do with Mommy - GO TO MCDONALD'S
What do you want to be when you grow up? ARCHEOLOGIST

Hudson's Favorite Things - June 2012

Color - REd
Toy - TRANSFORMERS
Restaurant - TACO BUENO
TV Show - WONDER PETS
Movie - WILLY WONKA (the original)
Food - CHICKEN NUGGETS
Game - HUNGRY, HUNGRY HIPPO
Snack - CHEETOS
Animal - MONKEY (which he is completely terrified of at the zoo)
Song - GOON, GOON
Book - STICKER BOOK
Friend - ABIGAIL
Activity - COLOR
Thing to do outside - RIDE BIKES
Drink - SPECIAL JUICE (the individual packets that you put in water)
Place - SHOOT SOME DEERS (although, he's never done this)
Thing to do with Daddy - HUNTING (also, never done)
Thing to do with Mommy - SIT HERE
What do you want to be when you grow up? RIDE MOTORCYCLES

M & M Olympics

For the last 9 weeks Sterling and Hudson have been attending Oklahoma Gold Gymnastics.  Sterling goes to Kick and Gym while Hudson takes gymnastics.  The last night of class in the spring they perform for their families and show off what they've been learning and receive a trophy and M & M's!  I was impressed with everything Hudson accomplished this year and at how strong he was.  He was the only boy in his class, but enjoyed every minute of gymnastics!

 Hudson wasn't sure at first and wanted to watch Bubba do karate, but once he got started he was on a roll!  That's his hiney sticking up in the air on the parallel bars!

 handstands

 Wade and I were back and forth between rooms trying to watch everything.  Here Sterling broke the board with his hand!

 If you've been around Hudson for longer than 5 minutes, you know he can be fearless.  Here he is getting ready to do a cartwheel off the trampoline into the foam pit!

 "Help, me!"

 and jumping off into the foam pit!

 This is by far my most favorite thing they do.  He swings on the trapeeze and kicks the ball with his feet.  They do it 3 times before the fall into the pit.  Talk about some crazy stomach muscles!

 After karate Sterling's class headed back to the big gym for some zipline action and it goes FAST!

 After everyone showed off it was time to get their trophies.  The owner of the gym called out each child's name and they walked up to the podium to receive their trophy.  I couldn't believe Hudson did it without me there.  Remember that fearless kid?!  He can be a little shy at times too...but he's been looking forward to that trophy for weeks!

We are taking the summer off, but can't wait to go back next winter!

Field Day

I'm pretty sure we could not have crammed one more thing into May if we had tried!  Moving and the end of the school year are enough, but add being out of town 3 times in there and we were SUPER BUSY!

This was Sterling's first year to participate in field day at school and he loved it.  He told me he was going to spend all of his time at Legoland, but quickly changed his mind when he saw all the other fun things there were to do!

 Who doesn't love some good bubble fun!

 Showing off his missing tooth!

 Musical Chairs

and jumprope

Soon after this I put down my camera and just enjoyed the day, but trust me when I say, there were endless activities for the kids to choose from and it turned out to be a beautiful day!  He had a blast and is already talking about next year!