Happy 5th Birthday Bashir

This afternoon the boys and I headed out to Zane's friend Bashir's 5th birthday party while daddy was home resting (last night was his first graveyard shift).  We are really lucking out with the weather these days and I am NOT complaining!!  I never would've thought a birthday party in a park at the end of September would've ever been a good idea...turns out this year...it was a great idea!

Getting ready to ride bikes!

Running away from me - fun times!

Zane & Bashir...these two have been friends since they were in the womb!

Stuffing his face with pizza...kid chowed down two slices!

The birthday boy - he had the biggest smile on his face when he was being sung too!

Bashir's little brother Omar going to town on his pizza...Landon wanted nothing to do with this!

Landon giving mommy a few heart attacks with his climbing skills and lack of fear!

There were no paper towels in the bathroom, so what better place to dry my hands than in Landon's hair, haha!

Puyallup Fair

We did the Puyallup today :)

But before getting there...Zane got to sit on Grandpa's motorcycle, with the engine running...he thought he was hot stuff!!

Now onto the rides that he actually got to ride!

Landon could ride almost every ride at Disneyland, but not one single ride at the fair :( stupid height restrictions!

But he loved the petting zoo :)

Love that he is giving the goat loves, haha!

Holy crap this kid is cute and cracks me up!

Oh and the boys got their faces (well, Landon's arm) painted - but I only got a picture on my camera of Landon's arm...can't figure out how to upload my Instagram photos yet, so if you want to see Zane's cool face, you'll have to find me on there!  By the way...this was pure torture for Landon, haha - he was not a fan of the "air brush" tattoo - every time he noticed it on his arm again, he'd start whining!

All in all we stuffed our bellies and had a great time!

It felt like I knew him...

For the past 6 years I have been following little Hans' blog and although he is my dad's wife's nephew I have actually never met him - but I have always felt like I knew him through his blog and through talking to Holly.

My dad called me from Arizona at 6:30 Saturday morning and it took me a few seconds to figure out what that noise was (the sound of my phone ringing) during my adventures in dreamland - I looked down and saw it was him calling and my first thought was "I'll call him back, I'm sleeping"...then I got frantic and started thinking "he never calls me, why is he calling me so early in the morning...is it Hans, my brother's, someone else??" (these thoughts were seriously going through my head while the phone was still ringing on my floor) - its weird that the first person I thought he could be calling about was Hans - again, since I have never actually met him.  I reached down to grab the phone right when it went to voicemail (that's what I get for thinking so much).  I quickly called him right back and he broke the news (wanting to tell me personally before I read it on the blog)...little Hans lost his battle with Neuroblastoma cancer after 6 courageous years.  Hans' mom Lara said it best..."His little body put up a better fight than it ever should have had to, and now it is restored to perfect health and beauty." 

There are a lot of things in life that I feel aren't fair, a lot of things that I really wish I knew God's reasoning for - this is probably one of the biggest "wonders" I have - why should any parent have to watch their child fight and suffer for so long and ultimately have to bury them??  I guess I won't know the answer to that until I get to heaven someday.  I truly think that is one thing that I am not strong enough to handle...

My heart goes out to the Weberling family.  Heaven gained one beautiful angel this last week.

I look forward to meeting this family next month at Hans' memorial service...I just wish I could've met Hans too.

Hans is pictured here 2.5 weeks before diagnosis, he was a mere 3 years old.

Hans is pictured here with his big sister Elle a week before he went home to Jesus.

Cousins

My cousin Kendall and her family are in town this weekend for a wedding and thankfully they had enough time in their schedule before driving back to Idaho to see us!  Kendall had her 3rd baby last March and I finally got to meet little Jonah!

Zane had a blast playing with Makena and Kaylin - they played the Wii for awhile and then just got crazy!  So fun to watch.  This is the first time that I've really seen them interact this much and it was great to see.  I wanted to try and get a picture of the the 3 older kids, but they were too busy having fun to cooperate - shocking, I know!  I love these first two pictures because Zane and Kaylin are just cracking up and the look on Makena's face is priceless!

Finally I got a half-way decent shot of the 3 of them...

This one cracks me up too...it looks like Zane is going in for a kiss...but really, he's just trying to make Makena laugh!

Landon was SO jealous of Jonah - everytime I held Jonah, Landon tried to peel my fingers off of him or tried to squeeze his bum onto my lap too!  He never cried, screamed or voiced his jealousy, but his actions were loud and clear!  He's not normally like that, so it was pretty funny!  But once I put Jonah down, then he of course wanted nothing to do with me!

Can't believe Makena will be 6 next month and Kaylin will be 9 in November!!  Time flies!

See you guys in a couple of weeks - so fun to not have to wait so long this time around!

Lincoln Park

I set up a play date for Zane and another one of our T1 buddies Luke over a month ago and the day finally came yesterday to make it all happen!  We lucked out with the weather (especially since it was planned so far in advance).  Luke's mom and I decided to try and meet in the middle of both of our houses and landed on our play date taking place at Lincoln Park!  I cannot even tell you the last time I was at Lincoln Park, but I can tell you...it was a very long time ago!

The boys had a great time playing, but by far their favorite thing was the zip-line!  These boys spent HOURS on this thing!  I am amazed that no one flew off the other end and face planted into the dirt - you just flew on this thing!  Here are videos of both boys going!

Bye Bye Disney

We were flying home Saturday (9/8) night, but since we had a 3-day park pass to the Disney parks, we decided to make sure we got our money's worth and spent a good part of the morning and afternoon trying to do what was still on our "must-do" list!  Zane frequented a few more rides and we all watched a few 3-D shows (neither kid a big fan of those)!  There were only two more things we really wanted before we headed home...a picture with Lightening McQueen (he had never been out the times we were there) and I wanted a family picture in the entrance of Disneyland!  Done and done!

We had a wonderful trip and feel very fortunate that we were able to do it for the boys.  I'm pretty sure it'll be a long time before we are able to go again, so I am glad we have the pictures to always serve as a reminder of just how much fun we had!

Until next time Mickey!

Disneyland Again...

On Friday of our trip, we headed back to Disneyland/California Adventures again!  This time we used our "early entry" ticket so we could get into Mickey's Toontown an hour early!   I am really glad we had this feature to use, I think its the only we way were able to score pictures with Mickey Mouse and his friends.  The lines to get pictures with these guys during regular park hours are insane and I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have wasted spent the time waiting just for a picture!

We were able to get pictures we more than just the Mickey Crew this day so I just collaged all of the character pictures together.

 Zane had been asking us since the first day we stepped foot into California Adventure to ride on the Mickey Ferris Wheel - this day, we finally were able to make our way over there.  There are two different cars you can pick to ride - a stationary car or a swinging car.  I decided if we were going to do it, we were going to do it right and ride a swinging car.  Um, lets just say...I am not sure I'd think that was the "right way" next time we go!  Zane loved it, Landon was fine with it...it was me who was not a fan!  I am not scared of heights, I have never been scared of/on a ride before, I don't get motion sick - I figured there would be no problem and it would be fun.  It scared the crap out of me!  Guess I'm a wimp!  Oh well, glad I did it, just won't do it again!

We did ride more rides that day...but its sort of hard to take pictures while riding, but between Josh and I if one wasn't riding the other would try to snap a picture or two...more for memory sake than anything else!

Both boys were so good on this trip...but Zane just amazed me!  He never once complained of being hot, not once complained of being tired, not once did he ask for something at any of the souvenir shops (not that we frequented them much), not once did he throw a fit because he/we couldn't/wouldn't do something he requested...he was seriously so laid back, happy and genuinely thankful to be there!

That particular day at Disneyland/CA we never left for a "break" back at the hotel.  We got there at 8 a.m. and didn't leave until 9 p.m.  We headed into Downtown Disney to grab some dinner and afterwards we surprised Zane with a new car from RideMakerz.  This place was awesome!  Its basically the "Build a Bear" for boys, but instead of bears, its cars.  You start out by picking your car's "shell", you shop for accessories and then you build the car pretty much by yourself - he (and Josh I think) were in heaven!

What a great day at Disney!

Sea World

On Thursday (9/6) of our trip to sunny CA, we drove 90 minutes south to San Diego and enjoyed a day at Sea World!  We picked a perfect day in the sense there weren't many people there at all - place was pretty wide open...but it was probably one of the hottest days we had while in CA.  I totally expected it to be cooler since we were closer to the ocean, but once we got into the park that cool ocean breeze was a distant memory.  By the way...there is NO shade at Sea World!

First thing we did while there was head to the Shamu show and we purposely sat up front in the "soak zone" so we could cool off!  It worked, we got soaked and cooled off - thanks to the hot sun, we also dried up pretty quick too (but were left with the feel of salt everywhere on ourselves)!

They have a little Sesame Street Land at Sea World now - we lucked out and happened to walk through it just as Elmo and Cookie Monster were coming out for photos!  Took Landon a minute to warm up to the fact the monsters he watches on TV were now standing there in front of him and trying to give him a hug - but he got used to it and humored us with a photo!  Zane of course had no problem at all jumping into the picture!  He's a little old for Sesame Street, but he still got a kick out of seeing these guys!

While at Sea World - Zane was brave enough to "pet" a manta ray - just like Landon with the monsters, it took Zane a little while to warm up to touching these guys, but once he did he was so proud of himself!  If you ask Zane what they felt like, he'll say they were "slimy soft" - I agree, but I kinda liked the feel of them!  Landon had absolutely NO interest in touching these fish - I tried!

Sea World was probably my least favorite park we visited while down there, but it was still a lot of fun and the boys had a blast, so that is all that matters!