Pool Party All Day!!!

With five days of theme park adventure behind us, most of us were tired and looking forward to spending a relaxing day at the house on our last day of our trip. This little guy looks happy at the prospect of not being dragged around Disneyland in the extreme heat.

Speaking of happy faces...Luke's smile is the best!!

Here's a group of people who need a little coaxing to get themselves ready for the big pool party Brooke was conjuring up.

Caroline was on board all the way with a pool party. The day before she told me she was going to eat breakfast on the table outside. Then she was going to swim and swim and swim all day until bedtime.

I don't think she ate breakfast outside, but it didn't take the grandchildren long to get a treat table set up for their enjoyment. They feasted happily on cheese balls and root beer.

Madison is looking out the window just wishing she could join the festivities.

Jeff and Sarah made a big splash as they joined the pool party.

In jumps Eli and Carson.

The Goldens taking it easy on the sidelines. The question is did their little Madison ever make it out to the pool or was she stuck all day peering out the window of the sliding glass door?

It was Ben and Haley's turn to fix dinner. They got busy making a crock pot chicken chili meal before they headed off to Disneyland for another day of amusement park fun.

Back to the pool party. We were probably on pool party #4 by this time. Brooke was set on having 13 pool parties before she went to bed that evening.

Claire was enjoying which ever number of pool party we were on.

There goes Emma jumping into the pool. I just can't get enough of the kids-jumping-into-the-water photos. They are so cute!!

Caroline was terrified of the water last year during her swimming lessons (reminded me so much of myself when I was little). She has certainly come a long way since then as she was jumping into the water every other minute--or so it seemed.

Jeff made me laugh every time I saw him surface wearing his full-face goggles he had found in the pool storage bin.

Carson rocking his upside-down goggles.

Emma knows how to take it easy.

All that swimming makes little people hungry...for cheese balls!!!!

Felt pretty good sitting in the shade doing absolutely nothing.

There goes Eli...!

There goes Caroline...again...!

Friendly little pool game going on with this group.

Caroline took a break from all her swimming to eat leftover mashed potatoes and gravy for lunch--her favorite food.

And there she goes again!!! We loved how she would cross her legs and tuck them under as she jumped in.

Pool party break for a little while. Candy time!!

Light saber dual matches were held in the entryway.

Rebecca got busy making chocolate-covered strawberries to enjoy later in the pool party day. Abe requested this special treat and he left before we could get them made. Take our word for it, Abe, when I tell you they were delicious!!

Baby cuddle time was a must for Laurie and Lincoln.

Time to go back out to the pool for pool parties #9, #10, #11, #12 and #13.

There's Madison! She was FINALLY able to join the pool party fun! She had to take a nap before she got in the pool.

Everybody line up and JUMP!!!!

Glen had a little Spencer buddy sitting with him for a while.

Then Lincoln took a turn keeping him company.

Madison was making up for lost pool time enjoying every minute she was able to be outside in the water.

Here are a couple of cute pictures from a previous swim day which depicts the utter joy and happiness of this little girl who loved to jump in the water.

The hot tub was a frequent popular gathering place for everyone.

Let's see how many people we can get in the hot tub at once.

 Everyone raise your hands if you're having fun at the pool party.

Okay, I guess Emma is now having fun.

Look! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman...uh, no! It's Dallas holding his camera above everyone trying to get a great overhead shot.

 Line up everyone! Time for the last splash of the day to end pool party #13 and call it a day!!

Rebecca did a great job shredding the chicken and doing the last minute preparations on the meal in Ben and Haley's absence.

Abe and Newland FaceTimed with us that evening. They were missing us and we were definitely missing them!!!!

All the cousins gathered around to talk to Newland.

Good night Newland. Hope pool party day was as great for you (minus the pool and minus the party) as it was for us!

Quotes of the Week

"Listening is being able to be changed by the other person." 

 -- Alan Alda 

"I'm touched by the idea that when we do things that are useful and helpful - collecting these shards of spirituality - that we may be helping to bring about a healing." 

 -- Leonard Nimoy 

"Most of the successful people I've known are the ones who do more listening than talking." 

 -- Bernard Baruch 

"Don't let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was." 

 -- Richard L. Evans 

Disneyland Day 4 - Red Cars Shirt Again

We thought all the little boys in the family would be happy with a re-run of the red Cars shirt on day 4 at Disneyland. They look happy about it, don't they?!?

Glen took the day off of cooking this morning. It was cereal all around so we could get out of the house quickly.

Brooke and Madison were having cheese balls with their breakfast. It was the family favorite treat two years ago. Brooke made the request for the big barrel of cheese balls again this year. Her grandpa made sure her wish was granted.

This bunch of boys don't look in any hurry to get on with their day. That's what happens when an electronic device makes an appearance. 

No matter what the reason for them congregating into such a tight knit of boyness, I always love it when the cousins mix and mingle. Too cute!!

Here are a couple more minglers playing together up in the toy room.

I wanted to get our picture taken by that mural this particular day to see how it looked. It is apparent (a little pun) the castle wall downstairs by the front door is the best place to take departing family photos.

The boys in the Excell family were obediently standing by the castle waiting to be photographed.

Don't quite know what happened to make Carson so sad when Sarah stepped into the picture.

This is a cute bunch of people. Look at Natalie this day. She was finally feeling much better. 

Sunscreen a must for all people spending entire days outside in the sunshine.

We got delayed a few minutes as we were leaving the house. Both Rebecca and Glen took turns talking with someone trying to get a loaner microwave, trying to get the broken light in the bathroom fixed (Jacob's family had to take a cell phone flashlight in there whenever they had to use the bathroom), and trying to figure out how to get the cable on the television to work.

Thankfully we weren't still waiting to get the air conditioning fixed. Four days without it was p.l.e.n.t.y.!!

Ahhhhh, peace and quiet with everyone gone!! Glen dropped off the Excell family at Disneyland and he came back to the house in Jeff's vehicle. We were waiting at the house for FedEx to deliver our spare car key. It was scheduled to arrive around 10:30 that morning.

We made our (almost) daily grocery store run in the morning instead of our usual nighttime excursion. This is how Glen chose to spend the rest of his waiting time.

I heard a thud at the door and opened it to find our special delivery.

Our neighbor had pulled through for us and we had our spare key she got from our house now in our possession. Hurrah!!

Off we went to the park and hooked up with the Golden family. They had found a cool place (literally and figuratively) to hang out in some building. It was swelteringly hot every day we were there, so anytime we could find a reprieve from the heat, we loved it.

Along with the coolness of the atmosphere, there were cool things for the kids to do in different areas of the building.

And here we are back outside in the sweltering heat. But don't we look so happy to be there?

Ben and Haley on the Toy Story Midway Mania ride.

Brooke wanted to stay close to Glen for part of the day because she likes to go on the roller coasters with him.

We're back in Cars Land where we got lots of approving comments about our shirt design.

Speaking of cars...look at this happy guy! At the end of the day we went back to the parking lot where our car had been sitting overnight for two nights. We found our car and it didn't have a parking ticket and it hadn't been towed.

Hallelujah!! WE LOVE DISNEYLAND!! If it had been anywhere in San Francisco--our car would have been towed!

Another bright spot in our day was we finally had a working loaner microwave after being without one for several days. And Glen had figured out how to make the cable on the t.v. work.

Things were looking up for the Thomas family!!!!

Disneyland - Day 3 - Light Blue Shirt Day

Third day at Disneyland was light blue Olaf shirt day.

The words on our shirt are a play on the Love Is an Open Door lyrics sung by Hans and Anna in the movie Frozen:

Our mental synchronization
can have but one explanation
You and I were just meant to be.

Looking so cute in our synchronized matching t-shirts.

Disneyland was all decked out in their Halloween decorations in mid September.

First thing inside the park we spotted Goofy in his Halloween costume walking right by us.

Emma and Luke spotted a Disney team member who had a collection of pins they wanted to check out to see if they wanted to make a trade with her.

I watched over Claire while the group went on the Matterhorn. She had found one Minnie Mouse glove at the house and insisted on wearing it that day.

Yippee skippee!! We went on It's a Small World again. I love that ride! It is a ride everybody can go on, it is a long ride, it has lots of colorful things to see and it is in an air conditioned building. Ecstasy on such a horrifically hot and humid day!

Look at that stash of candy Jeff was carrying around. It saved the day a time or two during our days at Disneyland when some child became unhappy.

Another highlight of this particular day was when we went to see the Aladdin show. Here we are patiently waiting for our whole group to arrive so we could go in together and be able to sit together.

The antibiotic Natalie was given started to help her feel better, but she still wasn't quite her normal self and chose to sit down to rest whenever she could. 

Jacob's family decided to go in so they could get in the air conditioned building while we waited outside for the others to join us for the show.

At one point I saw Sully from Monsters Inc. walking down the street. I hurried Carson over to look at Sully walk by. Thinking Carson would be impressed, he surprised me when he declared, "That's not a show!" 

Smart kid. We had been priming him to see a show and that little moment on the street definitely did not qualify as a show!

Turns out we didn't all need to go in together to get seats together because Jacob's family worked their magic in saving enough seats for all of us to sit together. The Goldens did not join us because they had seen the show earlier.

Notice the sleeping baby in Sarah's arms. He woke up just as the show was beginning.

Notice the sleeping guy next to me. He stayed asleep through the whole first half of the show.

Lincoln always made everyone who looked at him so happy because he always has the cutest smile on his little baby face. All of Sarah's boys have the prettiest blue eyes.

California Screamin' was popular with the big people. Haley tried it once and then was happy to sit out with me and the smaller children while some went on it again.

The roller coaster zoomed right past us just beyond the railing.

Eli and Claire took a little rest time eating some suckers from the Excell candy bag.

Roller coaster pose for those who survived the ride.

We called it a day at the park and made our way to the parking lot to smash us all into the cars to get back to Belle's Castle house. 

Abe's family had flown back to San Francisco the day before. We missed them!!