Vacation

Its SO hard to come back from vacation.  I can still smell the candy shops on main-street of Disneyland and see those huge colorful lollypops in my minds eye. Ahhh........Great....now I'm drooling.

Cousins Preslee, Cash, and Tag were able to join us for the first part of the trip, making our holiday even more fun.

 Disneyland was incredible. The kids were in heaven since they were finally tall enough (not Lucy) to ride the "cool" rides. Favorite rides for Abby and Parker included Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. We rode those A LOT. Lucy set the record for most rides on "the pooh ride." She probably rode it at least 15 times during the trip. That is all she wanted to do with an occasional tea cup ride thrown in. Grandma Jan is now a pooh ride expert!

 Karen and Cousin Cole also stopped in for some Disneyland action. It was so good to see them.What a red-headed cutie!

California Adventure has an animation area, where the animators teach you how to draw different characters. Of course Abby loved this. When we were done and compared our sketches hers was undoubtedly the best. Again....where did this talent come from????

 

Ran into Ann, David, and Jack at Disneyland. Seriously, what were the odds that we ended up on the same log together unintentionally. They are wonderful people.

 

And my favorite....Lucy decided to potty train herself on the trip. Hey... when you gotta go, you gotta go.

Jake the Cat

When we were looking at houses....oh, I dont know....six months or so ago...we went to a foreclosed house that had a really cute red barn. And in that really cute red barn, lived a really nice black cat. And my really cute 5 year old son, fell in love with that cat, so much so that we went back many, many, times to feed it. But then the house sold. We contemplated stealing the nice cat for our saddened son, but decided that probably wasn't the right thing to do. So we promised our cute five year old, that when we get a house of our own, he could have a barn cat just like the one in the cute red barn.

Well six months or so later, we moved into our new house, and that five year old did NOT forget our promise. In fact he reminded us of it. So we agreed we would go to the humane society, and adopt an OUTDOOR ONLY kitten the day after we moved in. So we did. And that five-year old loved his orange tabby more than any boy could love a pet.

Soon after we adopted the kitten we noticed that there was a large hawk who lived in the tree in our backyard. (Remember, we had only lived in our house a day or so.) A large, red hawk....who would love to eat the nice little kitten for a snack. So the outdoor kitten soon became an indoor kitten. One that sleeps on our beds, and sits on our laps. Now I have a litter box in my laundry room, and cat toys on the floor. How did this happen????

 

Meet Jake the cat, (aka: Jakey) who weaseled his way into this family.  He allows two-year-olds to carry him around (even by the tail.) He likes it when our dog wrestles with him. He doesn't mind when certain 7 year olds dress him up, or a 5 year old makes him stay in his fort. My kids are obsessed with him, and I cant believe I am saying this...but I sort of like him too.