They really made what out of Legos?

The last day of our trip was spent at Legoland. We had heard a lot of mixed reviews of this place. We put it on and off our agenda several times but in the end we went. No regrets from me. I think A.J. might have liked it better than Disneyland.

I felt like I was at a serious disadvantage here, because I know how to do Disneyland. I know what rides to hit first thing in the morning (before the crowds) and I know what is just not worth waiting in any line for. Not so at Legoland. It's all new and no one has written an "unofficial guide" yet. But we did our best. We started out the day going to the right (because I'd heard most people go to the left first).

The best ride there is the Technic Coaster -- a great little coaster that is tame enough that A.J. didn't hide, but with a bit of a "wild mouse" flavor to it. The worst ride was Treasure Falls -- a log flume ride that was too short, too wimpy and too slow loading. Of course, the degree to which we liked these rides is almost directly propotionate to how long we spent in line waiting for them. We hit the coaster first and walked straight on. We hit the Log Flume ride around noon and waited 45 minutes for a 30 second ride. When I saw the sign that said it would be 45 minutes from this point, I thought it couldn't be possible. You could see the loading point for the ride and it wasn't that far from the end. But it's about the slowest loading ride I have ever seen!

But my most favorite part of the day was running into (well, actually she ran into me) my *old* friend Ali Paxton (or as I like to call her, my friend formally known as Alice-Marie) who was also in Legoland with her family. We were waiting in line for the Knight's Joust and I heard this "Excuse me, can I get up there with my family." I knew that voice sounded too familiar and her kids looked familiar to me too. How ironic. We grew up together in Martinez and now we both live in the general Salt Lake area, but we had to go to Southern Cali to run into eachother. I wish I had thought to take a picture.

The thing that I loved the most about the park though was Miniland USA. I wasn't prepared for how much I would love to see some of USA's great cities and landmarks made entirely out of Legos. New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Las Vegas etc. I just couldn't stop taking pictures of all the little buildings and all the details put into them. Here's my beloved San Fran:

Over all, I would recommend Legoland to anyone with little kids who have had any exposure to Legos. The rides are geared for younger kids (very little for the true thrill seeker) and there are lots of places to get really wet if that is on your agenda. Here are some more pictures:
A.J. fighting Lego Darth Vadar with a Lego light saber with Lego R2D2 standing watch.

A.J. and James with Lego Indy.

One of many water themed areas of the park.


A.J. got eaten by a Lego Lion!

We stayed the last night in Santa Ana, very near the John Wayne Airport. Not fun to have to move again, but we still had to get up before 6:00 a.m. to make our flight this morning and any earlier might not have been worth going to bed for. It's good to be home though. We have lots to do this week!

R.I.P. Curls

I love A.J.'s curls. James loves A.J.'s curls. I love that they are big and soft. They are so much a part of who he is. Or should I say they were so much a part of who he is.

Last Friday, A.J. was upstairs being too quiet. I should have suspected something, but I was sick and was enjoying the peace and quiet for a few minutes. When he came down stairs, this is what I saw:

It's a little hard to tell from this picture, but he cut the front part of his hair, almost down to the scalp. I asked him why he did it and he said it was because he hates his curls. Too sad.

This is what he looks like now:


Maybe I will be able to convince him to grow them back someday. This does kind of expose his scar a bit, but he's not worried about that at all.

One more picture to show. This is how we found A.J. when we went in to check on him after he was asleep on Sunday night:

Yep, that is the head from his Rolie Polie Olie costume that he wore for Halloween when he was two. And while he doesn't usually sleep with that on his head, he does really sleep with all of those animals and blankets everynight. He calls them his "family." We call it his nest.

Cousins and Math

My brother Hyrum and his family are in Utah this week from Houston. They stayed with us this weekend for a couple of nights. We are mostly just glad they survived Hurricane Ike and were still able to get here.

A.J. loves to have company here and all the better if they are cousins. He tends to get a bit wild though running around and being LOUD! When I took him to school on Monday, I couldn't believe how quiet the house was, even though Reed and Lucy were still here. Here's some cute pictures of A.J. and Reed playing the Wii and Lucy being cute and silly.


A.J. has had a string of naughty days this week too. If it doesn't get better soon, watch for us on Super Nanny. Seems to happen more when James is gone. He'll be back Friday and maybe things will get better.

But twice in the past week or so, he has brought me some math workbooks off the book shelf and told me he wants to work on them. Another sign that A.J. is adopted is that he wants to do math for fun. He didn't get that from me for sure. Here's the proof:

TGIF

We managed to survive another busy week. I swear I don't know what makes me feel like I am so busy all the time. It could be that I waste too much time on splitcoaststampers.com but I haven't even done that too much this week. So here is a look back at the week that was:

Sunday- We had regional conference. One thing about living in the Salt Shaker is that these regional conferences take place at the Conference Center. Another thing about living in the Salt Shaker, it is really easy just to skip conference all together. No one will notice if you're not there. I know that's not the right attitude to have, but we didn't go. I still had a headache; James had to catch a flight at 12:30 p.m.; and A.J. simply said he didn't want to go. I spent the day finishing up a swap and creating some projects for an upcoming class. We also watched musicals: Singing in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz and My Fair Lady. Of course we found out later that Pres. Monson was the presiding authority at conference. Here's the swap I did. It uses one of Stampin' Up's exclusive Big Shot dies (that was the theme of the swap) and that basket on the front is actually a gift card holder.


Monday and Tuesday - Two weeks ago, I did a Super Saturday for my friend Brynelle. I ended up having 29 sign ups to do my "Countdown to Christmas" Cookie Sheet calendar. And if that wasn't enough, there were two ladies there who wanted to make seven more. So I spent Monday spray painting cookie sheets and cutting out letters and tags for the calendars. I ran out of spray paint and ribbon and had to go buy more. (Too bad Lowe's doesn't sell 1/8" red grosgrain ribbon.) Tuesday, these nice ladies came and spent about four hours putting them together. Of course the house had to be presentable and A.J. had to get to and from school with his homework done in the mean time.

Wednesday - Conquer the craft room day! With my brother Hyrum coming to visit, I actually had to finally address the disaster in my craft room that had spilled over to the guest room. I spent the afternoon and evening digging out the bed in the guest room and making room in the craft room for the play-n-pack for my niece. I also rented "Pushing Daisies" on DVD and fell in love with that cute, clever, quirky show.

Thursday - Two other ladies that I met at Super Saturday wanted to pay me to use my Cricut. So they came over Thursday morning to do more than 200 letters and tags. So the house had to be straightened again (really, you'd think that I could just keep it straight, but that just doesn't happen.) A.J. was almost late for school because their list was so long. Then my neighbor Jen and I went to Michael's for the photo boxese that were on sale and NPS in search of UHU glue sticks. (We struck out BTW at both places). Last night was our first school activity -- Skate Night (a Whittier Elementary tradition). Of course, A.J. doesn't skate and I'm afraid to think what might happen if I got on skates, but most of the kids ride their scooter. I even won a prize for joining PTA. (Four free kids meals at Carl's Jr!) They had this bubble "pit" that the kids could play in for $2 for 10 minutes. Here's A.J. near the end of his time. Can you tell he hated it? ;)


That brings us to today, Friday: Hyrum and his family arrive tonight. This morning we went grocery shopping (which I almost never do with A.J. anymore) and to the bank. Fridays are early, short days for him. Tara called to give me an update on the "California Girls" and we were almost late for school again. (I really do appreciate Tara's update calls though. I've been a slacker friend lately, but I really do think of you all often!) And in a bid to win mother of the year, I neglected to put something in A.J.'s backpack that was suppose to go back today. (We all knew I wasn't going to win anyway.) This afternoon, I cleaned bathrooms and made beds and right now I should be straightening the house once again.

Add to this trying to sell off a bunch of stamps and other craft supplies on the BST boards and dealing with Paypal and making a few runs to the post office, and it has been a busy week. James gets home tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully next week won't be so crazy. But there is little hope for that. James takes of again Tuesday for a few days; I have hostess club here on Thursday; and I am going to a shoebox swap next Saturday. Oh well, three weeks til vacation!

Random Ramblings

There have been lots of times in the past week, I've thought, I should blog about that. But then it doesn't seem that important or like I could make a whole post out of it. So here are some of those random ramblings.

Update on School: A.J. has survived the first seven days of school and only had a time out one other day. He finally found out his buddy's name is Caleb but now he is friends with a little boy who doesn't speak any English. He told me today that he doesn't know enough Spanish or French to talk to him. I'm guessing it's Spanish. But I am happy that he is making friends and reaching out to someone speaks a different language.

NECLISBROC: This morning, I was taking a shower and A.J. kept knocking on the bathroom door. I told him to hold on. When I got dressed and came out, he handed me a note that said, "NECLISBROC." I thought it was cute, but had no idea what it meant. He said it was a "sorry note" and read it to me. "Necklace Broke." How can you be mad at that? Actually it can be fixed and kudos to him for telling the truth.

Happy Birthday: James turned 35 on Monday. He's so hard to shop for so I have resorted to Best Buy Gift Cards for him for every occasion. We went to dinner at the "Peanut Place." (Texas Roadhouse, our favorite!) Then we came home to have sing happy birthday and have cake. Before we had A.J., we wouldn't have cake for out birthdays. But he knows they are required. And since it is one of my favorite things to eat, I don't mind so much.

So that's what happens when I have Caffeine: I've had a pretty bad headache since Sunday. I generally can work through them, but this one as really been a doozy. Several friends (including a my pharmacist friend Angie) recommended something with caffeine in it like Midol or Excedrin. I stopped drinking anything with caffeine in it when I was in High School because it always gave me a stomach ache. But I was desperate to try anything and I thought the stomach ache might be better than the headache. I went to the store and bought Excedrin Migraine formula. Well, it did take the edge off for a few hours and allow me to get somethings done. But even though I took it at 1:30 in the afternoon, I could NOT go to SLEEP last night. I think I may have gotten four hours of sleep in two, two hour increments. I am feeling it tonight. And now I have a fatigue headache instead. (It also explains why some of these ramblings might not make sense.)

A Year Later: This week marks my first anniversary with Stampin' Up! It's been better than I ever imagined. I love that it is my own thing and I can do whatever I want with it and have all kinds of fun toys to play with. I still love stamping and I love sharing it with others. But I am only going to keep at it as long as I am having fun.

Speaking of getting something done and Stampin' Up! So after I took the Excedrin, I set out to finally figure out this really cute project that I received in a convention swap from one of my new friends. It is a "Glass Slipper." Of course, it isn't really glass. It's made of velum and lined with blue card stock. We are making them at a class I am doing in October, but it turned out so cute, I have to share it here too:


Online Ordering is AWESOME!: Stampin' Up! started online ordering yesterday morning for customers. Yesterday afternoon, I got a notice that someone had already made a purchase on my website! So cool. Someone over on Splitcoast suggested that now our customers could shop naked if they wanted too. That is just fine with me, but I really don't want to know about it.

I still have a lot more I could say, but I can hardly keep my eyes open and I need to get A.J. to bed. So more random ramblings another day.