Saturday, November 21, 2015

The Epic Storm

Wow. We just had a massive windstorm hit our area last week. Trees uprooted, power lines knocked down, lots of damage...and lots of people still without power 4 days later. I guess we were fortunate to have our power back after just over 48 hours! 

We had an exciting 48 hrs without electricity. The storm was nuts. I have never experienced winds that strong. 70+ mph. When I went to pick the boys up from school, the light posts in the parking lot were swaying and I heard/watched a tree across the road snap and fall. It gets dark so early, so it was pretty difficult to see what was happening until morning, but our power went out right away so I started scrounging around for flashlights and candles. It turns out we really weren't prepared for an extended power outage (we are now at least more prepared!). 

In the morning, we looked out to mass destruction. Trees on people's roofs, power lines on the ground & across the roads, debris everywhere...but in our yard? Nothing! It was amazing. I cannot believe that we didn't have a single bit of damage from the storm (at least nothing we have noticed yet!). So, while we were cold and inconvenienced, we were SO FORTUNATE considering the craziness we saw. 

And really...we had fun! We did homework by candlelight (for 3 nights in a row), played cards, played hide & seek, slept all in the same room with our little heater, and the boys had an extra day off school. We had lots of friends offer to help us and offered to take us in until the power was back on, but we ended up staying home and switching our generator back and forth between the freezers and the refrigerator! We had power cords everywhere! Needless to say, I was ready for the power to come back on, but John had literally JUST gotten home with a bigger generator and heater that he had borrowed. He was not so happy about the timing! We were actually prepared to be without electricity for another 3-5 days from what the power company said, and unfortunately we have friends still without power...hopefully all the repairs will be done soon! We are supposed to be down in the mid-teens tonight...people need their heat!!!

Ender loved the heater!

Lights!!!

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Whirlwind Disney

We are currently on our way home (stuck in the Oakland airport because our flight is crazily delayed) from a super fun weekend Disneyland getaway! We had credit card points that needed to be used up, plus we've had a couple of months of insanity at the office, so it all added up to time for a vacation! Although I'm not sure I could call it a vacation since it was really just a crazy long weekend...but we all had so much fun and we definitely weren't ready to leave. 

We had amazingly warm (high 80's!) weather, along with minimal crowds at Disney and lots of fun Halloween decorations. We got to do the haunted mansion on Halloween, plus other fun Halloween "extras" on rides (like ghosts in Space Mountain!). We completely exhausted ourselves staying late both days we were in the park, but it was so worth it! Now, as we are in the middle of a 2.5 hour delay in Oakland, I'm kinda wondering if it really WAS worth it...but as I'm thinking back about the fun we had, it truly was! And I will try to remember that when we are driving home at 1:00 am...that feels like 2 am thanks to the time change last night.

Favorite rides:
Preston: Toy Story Mania and Buzz Lightyear
Bryton: California Screamin' and Matterhorn
Archer: California Screamin' and Tower of Terror

We also got in some swimming time at the hotel, and some shopping at Downtown Disney. Last time we did Disney, we all agreed that we should do a cruise next, but since that wasn't in the cards this time, maybe NEXT time will be a cruise!

Pictures pictures pictures!

Waiting for our flight

Exhausted boys. I need to remember to fly into Orange County airport instead of LAX. The money we saved was totally NOT worth it! By the time we got our bags and rental car, it was about 2 hours after our flight landed. Yuck. Poor kids were SO tired.

"Dressing up" for Halloween...Spider-Man, creeper, and Batman
Breakfast at Downtown Disney

The boys loved this dragon outside the Lego store

My view currently, except Archer is bopping around everywhere (fake sleeping in this pic). It's going to be a looooong night!

QOTD

P: Bryton do you know what R.I.P. stands for on a grave?
B: when it breaks!
P: what?! No. I said R.I.P. not W.I.B.!

Saturday, October 31, 2015

QOTD

"I remembered the name of the guy who made up the rules of the flag! Congress!"
- Bryton

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Fall Pics

We didn't do school pictures again this year, so it forced me to get out the real camera to attempt some pictures of the boys. It was quite the ordeal (isn't it always with these 3?!) but we got a few decent pics. And Ender even cooperated for one!


We also had our first Hallowern party, which we were super unprepared for...but we managed costumes for everyone, and Preston & Archer managed to get 1st & 3rd place for their costumes! They were super excited.

Oh yeah, we also carved pumpkins for the first year in a loooong time. We usually just decorate them due to John's allergy, but carved with friends this year. That will probably not be repeated though, considering the rash on John's arms that lasted for days! The pumpkins turned out cute though.


And last, but not least, Bryton has the cutest toothless smile these days!
I seriously hope it takes a long time for his teeth to grow in because he is just so stinkin' adorable like this!

Friday, October 16, 2015

Troublemakers

These chickens. Such troublemakers. They have been getting out of their run into our yard daily (really, multiple times daily!) and today they decided to check out our neighbor's yard. Little stinkers. But they are giving us eggs...lots of eggs! And I have gotten kinda attached.

This week I FINALLY got Archer's Cub Scout uniform ready. Only about 5 weeks late...but at least it's done, right?! He was pretty excited to wear it to the meeting this week.
He's seriously so handsome. And was so proud!

And just because we didn't have enough things going on this week with cub scouts, church, and soccer practice, we decided to fit in a little time for golf with the boys. Well, I observed, they golfed!