DISNEYLAND 2010

As many of you know , our family recently took a trip to Disneyland with the extended Lincoln clan. Woohoo!! It was quite a trip, 4 long days in the car, 3 VERY full days at the park...but it was a great time for all. Nothing is quite like seeing Disneyland through the eyes of your children. Again, there's too many fun pictures to post in one blog, so you need to click on the link for our picasaweb album towards the top right corner and then click on the Disneyland album. I apologize in advance for my prolific explanation of our adventure. Read on if you dare.... :)

Our trip was extra neat as we got to celebrate some birthdays while we were there. On our first day at the park, Tyler turned 5!! Funny thing is ... 3 years ago exactly we were there on Tyler's 2nd birthday with my family. Pretty lucky kid, ay? Well, it's a great time of year to go. One of our nieces on the trip shares the same birthday with Tyler and turned 12. You get lots of attention and special treatment there when it's you birthday. There are 3 other February birthdays within our big groupas well, so we all celebrated the first night by eating at Goofy's Kitchen where we got to meet and greet many of our favorite characters (as you see above) and get even more special treatment.

On the first day, we were all wearing red matching shirts (thanks to my sister-in-law), so we drew a little attention to ourselves. Half of our group got separated from each other within the masses as were were wating on Main Street for the park to officially open. Some of the park officals that were going to open the park saw half our group waiting in a shop (in an attempt to short-cut and get infront of the crowd) and invited us to step infront of the mass of people waiting and asked if we wanted to "open" the park. Of course we said yes, although we couldn't get the rest our group up with us. It was very awkward as our little group faced the thousands of people with the "how come they get to be up there?" look on their faces and we just stood there with our hands up in a "stop" fashion. We did that for a few minutes, then some of the officals announced our family and where were we from etc. Then they whispered to us to run as fast as we could when they said go, in order to get out of the way and not get trampled by the crowd. It was an exciting way to start our Disney adventure.

Some of the highlights of our time were watching the parade on the first night and Lexi and Tyler getting lots of attention from the characters in the parade (mostly because of their birthday buttons). At some points they got to go out and dance a few times in the parade and be in a conga line etc. Lexi was totally into it and Tyler (well - he reluctantly followed his sister). The kids also loved the big rides they were able to go on (Tyler too, because he's a little tall for his age) like Indiana Jones, Space Mountain and Splash Mountain etc. An even neater thing happened on the second evening...Nate's brother's family was invited to be in the pre-parade and ride on the lead car because they had done some volunteer work, which is the big theme at the park this year. There ended up being a couple more spots on the car partly because Nate's mom sacrificed her spot, so they invited Tyler, Lexi and my other nephew to ride with them. Nate ran along through the crowd trying to get good video of them the whole way, while Colton and I waited at the end. They got to ride in an old fashioned fire-vehicle and Tyler got to ring the bell. They were all having the time of their life waving at the crowds as they rode by. It made a great memory!!! Thanks Dan, Joylin and Grandma :)

Another awesome experience we had was participating in the Jedi Training Program. We observed this the first day and thought some of the kids would absolutely LOVE to be a part of it. So it was our goal to make it happen the second day, knowing only a small group of kids got picked. We arrived very early for the last show, hoping it would increase our chances to get some of our kiddos picked to be participants. We were told it's totally at random, but that it might help to make a lot of noise and jump up and down....so you can probably imagine the spectacle we made of ourselves. Tyler was picked right away (again because of his BIG birthday button), Lexi got confused and thought they pointed to her because she had a button on as well so she began to walk up too and they let her. Then eventually the Jedi masters picked two of my nieces and my nephew as well. We were all totally jazzed. All the kid participants got to wear the Jedi cloaks and use a light saber. The Jedi masters gave a short training session with some key moves for the padawan (spelling???, Jedi's in training) to use. Then Darth Vader and Darth Mal made quite an entrance trying to persuade all the trainees to join the dark side. They of course all refused, so they all geared up for a battle. Each child got a chance to go one-on-one with one of the villains and use their newly learned moves. It was SOOO much FUN!! There's no shortage of footage with that event, believe me.

The third day we spent in California Adventure and made pretty great time. Again the kids loved all the big rides. Lexi's favorites were the Screamers roller coaster and the Tower of Terror. They all got to go on the wild water ride too and get SOAKED!!! We had a grand time.

Before going on this trip I was not looking forward to the many rides I wouldn't be able to go on and also just being on my feet all day lugging around my big 'ol pregnant body. In fact many family members jokingly asked if they should get a wheelchair for me before hand, and of course I laughed and said I'm not decrepid. Really though, by the end of the first day, the wheel chair option was looking mighty nice! Well, I was pleasantly surprised at the many rides or activities I could do. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. The whole being on my feet a lot and being very pregnant, that wasn't so much fun, but I lived. It was hard on everyone's body I think.

The crazy thing was, after coming back to the hotel the last night at the park, we were all soooo beat. But Nate got up at the crack of dawn the next day and proceeded to go on a 2-day bike tour with his friend through Joshua Tree National Park. I couldn't even imagine being able to do that. Good thing that boy's in shape! He and his friend seemed to have a successful trip though and went through a lot of miles. I'm proud of them, but did not for a second want to be in their shoes.

Overall, it was a wonderful, yet tiring trip. The kids didn't do too bad in the car, considering. I probably had a rougher time than they did :) I'm so glad we were able to make it work and spend that memorable time with the rest of Nate's family.

Christmas '09 celebration

Before leaving for AZ, we had our own little Christmas at home opening some gifts from Nate's family. Colton decided he was a better present and promptly tried wrapping himself up in the wrapping paper (he's a wise boy)!

Lexi and Tyler took turns being Santa, so they stuffed thier shirts with a pillow and wore a long red stocking on their head (incase you were thinking they had gained an incredible amount of weight in a short time). Lexi looking over her new book from Grandma Lincoln.

Here's our jolly Tyler tripping over the wrapping paper.

We then made the journey to AZ and made it there just in time for the kids to be tucked in on Christmas Eve. The next morning, they woke up to the wonder and amazement that it is Christmas Morning:)

Stockings first...

I tried to capture the excitement of the kids as they first beheld their eyes on all the goodies left by Santa and other loved ones. Let's just say they were not lacking...

One of Colton's favorite gifts was this little airplane that Grandad Butler got him.

Lexi showing off her new Barbie from Gramma Butler.

Tyler loving this really cool boat/ submarine and all it's accessories. This too was a BIG hit too!

Coltoin with his crazy possessed car (as we like to call it). Don't let his extreme exciement in this picture confuse you :).

Tyler enjoying one of his favorite passtimes with Grandad!



While we were in AZ, Nathan and I celebrated our 10th anniversary (crazy). It was fitting to be there since that's where we got married. The last 10 years have definitely flown by, but a lot has happened. We both feel very blessed in our lives with each other. I know it sounds cliche, but I do love Nathan so much more than even when we got married (although I didn't think it was possible at the time). Here's a picture from our wedding, with my parents next to us. Yes, we look a little different now....

Here we are 10 yrs. and almost 4 kids later (not the greatest picture, as we took it with our phone, and the lighting is misleading, Nate's hair really isn't THAT gray), but atleast it's documented. We were able to go out to dinner and a movie (which doesn't happen often or next to never), so that was fun. We also wrote letters to each other which I'll treasure always. We look forward to our long future together! Love you honey :)

November/ December review

So, just to wrap things up a bit from last year...here's what went on in November and December.

In early November, I got to go see Wicked with some girlfriends in Denver. It was amazing! The talent was overwhelming and it's a very entertaining show. Besides getting a little lost afterwards...we had great time.
Here are my friends Mel and Rachele as we filled up at the Cheescake Factory beforehand. YUM!!!

For Thanksgiving, we went to Utah to stay with Nate's family. It was a nice time with ALL the family. All the kids always have so much fun when they get together. After discussing what we are grateful for and realizing we are so blessed, we decided to do a family service project on Turkey Day. We came up with raking up the leaves for an older lady who just had surgery. Just about everybody pitched in, even the little ones, and I think we all felt good about it. Afterwards we did a little geo-caching (treasure hunt hike with a GPS) in the neighborhood. It proved to be a little trickier than expected and took a lot of keen eyes to find the "prize", but in the end we all made it and had a grand time. The picture above is some of our gang overlooking Saratoga Springs.

After we got home from Thanksgiving, we started the endeavor of decorating for Christmas. Colton was a big help :)

All bundled up ready to party in the snow.

We went over to our friends house to decorate gingerbread houses. They were actual REAL gingerbread houses, not just the graham cracker excuse for a house. Little did we know our friend used to make, decorate and sell gingerbread houses when he was younger, so he was a bit of a professional. The kids had a lot of fun and we all pigged out in the process.

Colton had lots of fun having his share of the "decorations" (as he continued to do at home when no one was looking- until they were gone).

The finished products...

Tyler just couldn't help himself:)

Here's the little recital/ party for my children's music class. It was just a casual get together to show the parents what the kids had been working on. The whole semester was a big success and we enjoyed teaching it very much. Unfortunately we didn't get quite enough kids to register for the second semester to make it work, but we do plan to do it again in the future.

For our church Christmas party, there was a "Grinch" theme. Everyone was encouraged to come decked out in their best "Who" - apparel and do's. There were a lot of little girls running around with their own interpretations of Cindy Lou-Who hair. It was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, a lot of the smaller kids were absolutely TERRIFIED of this crazy, hairy green man running around (including Colton). It actually was quite entertaining.

Our Lexi Lou-Who with her fun hair (although you can't really see it) and Colton making sure the green monster doesn't come any closer :)

We had some old friends come into town right before Christmas. They were part of our old FHE group (Family Home Evening), consisting of four couples, when we first moved to Colorado Springs. When we started, none of us had kids......now just look! 11 kids later and 2 on the way. It was so fun for all of us to catch up. Tyler and and the girl in pink in front were actually born on the exact same day.

Lexi started taking piano lessons from a friend this last fall, so we had a little piano recital for the few students to show off some of the Christmas songs they've been working on. We also celebrated by going out to ice cream afterwards. Every occassion is better with ice cream!

For Christmas, our plan was to travel to AZ....well, then weather happened. We ended up having to postpone the trip a few days. What better way to make the day go quickly then play in the snow? Luckily (or not so luckily) our street is a pretty nice little hill, perfect for sledding. Lexi's above with her sneaky "I'm not trying to make a snowball to throw at you" look.

Tyler, not being as sneaky :)

Our little snow angels.

Colton making a nice snack out of the abundant snow (after Lexi showed him the ways).

As you can tell, Colton was not so excited about this sledding ride, but Daddy sure was!"

The next day (Christmas Eve) we were able to finally make our trip to AZ to see my family. (More pictures of Christmas to follow in the next blog...)

Halloween festivities

A week before Halloween, we went to Manitou Springs, where our good friend took our family's pictures. Afterward, there was the big annual coffin races on the main street. We've always heard about this event but have never gone. It is HUGE!!! People REALLY get into it. The costumes we saw in just the crowd of people were amazing. We had to wiggle our way through the crowd until we found a tiny space on the curb where all 5 (and 1/2) of us tried to fit. It was long and the kids hadn't eaten , but we made it out alive and we all had a great time. First they have a parade of different groups and hearses (sp?) that are all decked out. Then the actaul races begin...

Who you gonna call?!!

Flame throwers.... Tyler's eyes sure got big with this one.

Group of people doing the "Thriller" dance down the street...definitely a crowd pleaser.

A cannibal tribe...all in good fun!

Grinch and Cindy Lou-Who

Pirates of the Carribean

Cuddled close together...

Nate and Colton enjoying the festivities. At one point a group threw out a bunch of lolli-pops to the crowd, my kids scaveneged many of them and ofcourse Colton wouldn't have any part of being left out and he made the biggest stickiest mess he's ever made (and that is quite a feat). We had no wet wipes or tissue or anything handy, so we used his shirt, luckily it was black.

My 3 lil' munchkins before our church party. Ty as a dashing pilot, Lexi as a sparklified Dorothy and Colton as a gnome (or Mr. Travelocity as some called him).

This costume was definitley a huge hit! Especially while trick-or-treating , people were going nuts. Never thought some felt and hot glue would make such an impression...ofcourse it wouldn't have had the same effect if Colton wasn't so stinkin' cute!! (Biased?...yes!)

The next night we went trick-or-treating and Tyler decided to wear his other costume, Rex from Clone Wars. We went with some friends in this awesome historic neighborhood where everyone gets into the family spirit of Halloween. It was a lot of fun and luckily not very cold.

There's Lexi and Colton with their Rock Star dad. Notice the tatoos on his arms...yeah he's changed a bit since the last time some of you have seen him. Also the crowning glory was the blonde wig that was a little more feminine-looking than Nate realized. Should I have told him it used to belong to my grandmother?........Nah! I'm glad he got into the spirit though. Overall it was a very fun Halloween season.

September/ October review

The new addition to our home, the infamous tree fort.

This is Tyler on his first day of preschool, he's sooo proud of his Star-Wars backpack that his dad used to use when he was young. And we're proud of him!

This is Tyler's teacher, Ms. Marsha and his classmates. He's having a ball at school.

Tyler showing off his school bucket that he decorated by himself (No need for ribbons, glitter and paint for this manly man).

One of the most exciting things that happened to us in September was that we found out I was expecting...again:) The baby is due on April 12th and this time we're not finding out if it's a boy or girl. Nate wasn't too excited about that idea, but now he feels he's 100% positive what it is, so he's content (and so am I). Things have been going relatively well (except for a small scare) and I'm feeling pretty good. Lexi and Tyler are so excited about the baby and already trying to be better helpers.

This was at Lexi's field day. Nate, Tyler, Colton and I all went to see her and she was overjoyed:)

I guess this was supposed to be like tribal warrior paint or something, to scare their opponents maybe??? Sure scares me!

The highlight of field day is when they had the parents jump in and help the kids out (well I don't know if they ever actually wanted the parents to help, but parents kept taking the initiative anyway). Our team was apparently crazy competetive and didn't take this matter lightly. We had several "rounds" and were never defeated. It was fun to watch some of the men become giddy with the thrill of victory over and over (OK, so the moms and kids were LOVIN' it too)! I'm in the green sweater there, not knowing how sore my arms and shoulders would be the next day - kinda pathetic!

Nate and Tyler were getting in on the action too!

Colton trying to change the obstacle course when he thought no one was looking :)

Here's Lexi with her teacher and class. They were the green tree-frogs that day and had a cheer and everything.

Here's the long-awaited pictures from inside our tree-fort that Nate's dad so lovingly finished while Nate and I were on vacation. He worked so hard to get it done! The kids LOVE it!

(Again I have a double here and I can't seem to delete it, not too savvy)

We ended up taking a trip to Arizona at the beginning of October for my grandad's funeral. It ended up being a lovely service, a great tribute for such a great man. I think many people were able to feel some closure. It was great to see family and friends. It really was a nice time, considering the circumstances.

Whenever we go to AZ, Colton has to see his girlfriend Maddy (my friend Kristen's little girl). She's just a few weeks older than Colton so it's always fun to get them together.

My mom took us to this neat park in Mesa that has a little amusement park and ducks, a few different playgrounds etc. The kids loved running around in shorts and T-shirts (b/c it was already getting cold in Colorado).

Maddy, Lexi and Colton

One of the other pieces of big news for our family in October was that we got a camper. This a fulfillment of a wish of Nate's after many years. After we bought it, Nate was as happy as a school boy (or maybe happier) :) It was fun to see! It's used, but in great condition and the price was right. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to take it for a "spin" yet b/c it's just too cold and we're wimps.
It's a little small, but does sleep six and our van can handle towing it. Hopefully we'll be able to get a lot of good use out of this for some years to come.

While we were in Phoenix, my parents took us to a neat pizza place called the Organ Stop. Apparently it's been there for over 50 years (it's always fun to go to new places in Arizona, after living there most of my life). They have this incredible organ that rises up onto this pedestal from beneath the floor and rotates and has thousands of organ pipes that take up most of the restaurant walls and have many other instruments attached to the walls and ceilings that are all controlled by this organ. The organist was....AMAZING!!!!!! and took requests on the spot. It was quite something to see and hear all the thousands of "moving parts" working in synchronization. The kids really had a ball - dancing all over the place. I highly suggest the trip for anyone in the Mesa area.
Sorry about the poor quality of the video, but it's still pretty fun - I think. You made need to turn the volume down a bit on your speakers.