HORSEBACK RIDING LESSONS

several weeks ago, one of those "deal websites" was running a smokin' deal on horseback riding lessons close to our house.

My sister bought enough for some of her kids and we bought enough for all of ours.

Earlier this week we realized we'd better use the deal before Elizabeth has her jaw surgery!

so.....this morning was their long-awaited horseback riding lesson!!

Elizabeth LOVES horses.

LOVES them.

she has many plastic horses she plays with...often, when she is struggling with her attachment stuff, I'll find her in her room quietly playing with the horses.

She was "at home" amongst all these real horses. :)

ugh -her eyes were closed...but this horse was SO beautiful I had to keep the pic anyway!





to our surprise, Becca was in heaven too.
we knew she was an animal lover, just didn't realize how much she'd truly enjoy being with the horses



she about cried when we left today....begging to come back tomorrow. :)

there's our girl...smallest girl there -put on one of the biggest horses. :)

Jacklyn looking like a pro on her horse

Becca all smiles!

Her horse was named "Reba"...which was funny since grandpa jokes around and often calls Becca "Reba"!

Reba is a sweet gal..but spirited. They had to be careful to not have another horse behind Reba cuz she gets feisty and will kick.

sounds like they paired Becca up with the horse just like her...sweet but feisty!

Joanna

Biruk looked terrified the ENTIRE time he was on the horse.

He said he had a great time and wants to go back...now that he knows it's not so scary. :)

hard to see -but Becca, Elizabeth, and Jacklyn all walking their horses around the arena

Reba almost started trotting. :)

they had separated the kids into 2 groups -7 and under and then 8 on up.

Andrew was the youngest and smallest in the 8 on up group.

So they had to put him on the smallest horse...which was really this small pony. :)

Andrew looked pretty uncomfortable the whole time so I was SURE he wasn't having fun...but he wants to do it again too! go figure!

Julia on her horse

Andrew with Julia behind him.

The older kids were allowed to learn how to get their horses to trot ~which of course made the "little" kids jealous. :)

poor Andrew really got bounced around when they trotted.

the gal said that ponies tend to be more "bouncy" than the horses when they trot.

today's birthday girl..can't leave her out. :)

Today Janae turned 13.

seems like just yesterday I was sitting in the hospital waiting room with my parents waiting for my brother in law to come out and give us news!

It's so hard to believe she's a teen-ager already...and yet she's the most amazing, sweet, responsible 13 year old I know.

Happy Birthday Janae!

AHHHH -SPRING!

We had a very mild winter with January bringing us temps in the 70's...the kids even tried jumping in the pool in late January -but quickly got out!

the kids have been playing ALOT outside and regularly put their swimsuits on to walk around on the steps of the pool (they're smart enough now, after the January jump-in to not actualy "swim").

It won't be long before we really are swimming!

the slip-n-slide made it's first appearance of the season last weekend!

FEBRUARY BIRTHDAY PARTY

With our family as large as it is now, instead of celebrating 1 birthday at a time we just group 'em together now. :)

February holds 3 birthdays for our family ~Elizabeth, Joanna, and Grandpa!

We had the February birthday party at Grandma and Grandpa's ~perfect sunny Sunday afternoon!

our sweet Joshua!

Elizabeth wanted a Bar*bie birthday cake...honestly, I'm not crafty enough to do a "real"
Bar*bie cake so we went to the party store and she picked out this pink boa....so the boa and her own Bar*bie was good enough for our sweet girl!

not the best shot of Joanna -but there was quite a crowd around her so tough to get a good picture. :)

the girls getting ready to open presents!

look at their faces...so cute!

can't leave out grandpa!

Jer Jer wearing grandpa's old helmet. :)

DISNEYLAND 2012

Biruk had never been to Disneyland and it was clear he felt left out.
We knew Elizabeth's jaw surgery would be this Spring.
John and I had just gone to Hawai'i (without kids!) ~ so we wanted to do something together as a whole family.

John and I decided to plan a surprise trip to Disneyland for the kids.

They had NO idea where they were going, who they'd see, or what they'd do.

Wednesday, Feb. 15th, John went to work like he always does, but left mid-morning to drive out to CA.
Around lunchtime, the kids and I headed to our airport to fly out to the LA area.

They were SO confused cuz we flew into Ontario.....they didn't know Ontario was close to L.A. :)

When we landed, daddy was there to pick us up!
The kids realized we'd be seeing daddy's family...but even once we got to our hotel, they didn't realize we were close to Disney! We were a few blocks from Disney, but you couldn't see it.

Wednesday night we had dinner with John's family across the street from Disneyland...that's when they realized why were there!!


Unfortunately -our surprise fun plans didn't turn out like we had hoped!

Wednesday night Andrew clearly had a cold -so after dinner we ran around trying to find a drugstore to stock up on meds and tissue.

Thursday AM, Becca woke up with a terrible fever.
Again, John ran to the drugstore to get some meds -hoping if we just kept her fever down she'd be OK to do the park.

Star Tours is now Star*Wars themed and in 3d.
Super fun -unless you're running a high fever. :(


they did have fun sportin' 3d glasses!

mad skills in alien-killing!

we were SO blessed that Auntie Paula took the day off and came with us to Disney!
We were excited to have her anyway, but especially with Becca sick, having another adult with us was super helpful!

of course we had to do the Jedi Training!

this photo still grabs my heart and I have to hold back tears.
Andrew is obsessed with Star*Wars.
seriously -obsessed.

He wanted more than anything to be picked for Jedi Training...and I wanted more than anything for him to be picked too.

He noticed that there weren't many more spots left to be filled for the training (kids are just jumping up and down yelling "pick me!" and the dude calls on them).....The dude picking the kids was calling on kids from around where our kids were standing...
So
Andrew picked up Elizabeth so she would be higher and the dude might see her.

He gave up his chance to be picked.

OH.
MY.

What made this even more bittersweet it that not only did Andrew and Elizabeth NOT get picked,

Biruk, standing right next to them, did.

Biruk really isn't a fan of Star*Wars.
We're happy he got picked cuz it was something fun for him to do....but oh how sad we were for Andrew.

Auto*pia.

I've decided that John will be teaching Biruk how to drive. :)

Biruk drove my car.

I think I still have whiplash!

But we laughed SO hard!!!

Auntie Paula took sweet Becca on the Dum*bo ride for us while we took the other 3 on a different ride.

Becca was pretty miserable by now. :(

And I was starting to feel cruddy.

Pirates of the Caribbean.

the last ride Becca did.

by about 2pm she was crying and begging to go back to the hotel to sleep.

I was pretty miserable too.

Becca, Auntie Paula, and I ended up leaving the park around 4ish.
John stayed with the other 3 'till the park closed at 8.

our thrill seeker.
she LOVED the roller coasters.

even did Space*Mountain and LOVED it!

crazy girl!

a fun day...but not as fun as we had hoped.

At least John, Andrew, Biruk, and Elizabeth were able to do everything they wanted.

The drive home was miserable for Becca and I, but we were able to get on antibiotics...we both had strep throat and probably bronchitis.

No wonder we felt so terrible!!!!