We have the most incredible friends here in Chico, Cindy and Matt, who hosted not one, but two of our summer birthday bashes at their place. They were both the most amazing parties and we will be eternally grateful to them for making our big days so special. For Jack, they did a combined party with their birthday girl Jayden. There was much fun luau themed-food, combined with activities, crafts and a mini-pool with a slide. My mom, who was in town for the event, and I provided deviled-egg boats and apple frogs, bagels to decorate with animal faces and strawberry mice (to contaminate the boats and re-population themselves on the land of their final destination we decided... see, it fits the theme).
Jack loved the panda cake Cindy had made him. He continues to talk about it still calling it his "apple baby cake." ?? That's Jack and his creative language for you. The kid loves pandas and has an uncanny nack of finding one wherever we go. People are shocked to discover Jack finding pandas (toys, pics, etc) in their home that THEY didn't know about.
The day I returned home from the Seattle Ragnar was my 30th birthday. Instead of resting after 3 nights of very little sleep, I decided to live it up. Rich picked me up at the airport, and we headed straight to Lake Oroville to go boating with friends. Naturally, I had to ignore my tired, aching muscles and wakeboard, then attempt to clear the wake by jumping over the it, which I failed of course .... leading to the worst face-plant wipe-out in possibly wake-boarding history. Then we sat in the sun for the remainder of the day watching the kids play on the beach.... still failing to re-hydrate myself after the Relay. Then having not exhausted my aging body enough, we dropped the kids off at the babysitters and hit the town, meeting up with Rick, Pam and friends Cindy and Andy for some appetizers at Crush, then out for karaoke and dancing. Yes, I'm a glutton for birthday fun.
Needless to say, I woke up the next morning feeling far older than 30. I limped to the mirror to discover a split lip, a swollen eye and a large bump on my forehead. Ouch! The next day I was diagnosed with a kidney and bladder infection because of all the running, sun and too little hydration. By the weekend, I was recouped and ready for Rich and Cindy's co-planned 50's beach birthday party. What a turnout! There were decorations, a BBQ, a cake and a dance floor with a smoke machine and strobe lights. DJ Matt had the guests groovin.' We danced (kids included) until 1 AM!
The best part... a surprise visit from my sis and bro-in-laws Kari and Nate from Denver and friends Shell and Mike from LA. I've never felt so loved! We had both parties for the weekend and had an incredible time.
For months I had dreaded my upcoming birthday, the big 3-0. I wasn't ready to let go of the 20's and wanted my final act before my birthday to reflect the progress my health has made this last year and to convince myself that I'm still young, numbers aside. My friend Kate gave me the perfect solution... to join her and three of my other college lacrosse buddies Molly, Kim and Denise in Seattle's Ragnar Northwest Passage Relay. Our full team, the Ragnar Schmagnars consisted of 12 people piled into 2 vans. Each person ran 3 different legs between 3 and 8 miles, while the remaining team members would follow along in the vans cheering the runners on. Between the 12 of us, we ran 188 miles in 28 hours down the scenic coastline of Washington from the seaside town of Blaine near Vancouver, through Deception Pass and ending at the tip of Whidbey Island. Adorned in matching hoodies and yellow sunglasses, we were ready to run. My legs totaled 16 miles, the 1st being the toughest at 8.8 miles, mostly uphill in the heat of the day. Having your friends cheering you on makes all the difference though. It was the most fun I've ever had running. It was great to see my friends again, and it felt just like old times. It was the perfect way to usher in the 30's. Thanks girls!!
In the end, we were awarded giant medals/bottle openers and enjoyed a scenic ferry ride back to Seattle. Later, we discovered, despite our incidences of getting lost and having too much fun at the relay exchange points to be ready with our next runner... after all, we were there to have fun and mock the runners who took the competition seriously (though secretly reveling in each opportunity to pass another runner during our legs), we took SECOND place in the relay! Yeah Schmagnars!! I like your style!
the Schmagnars' pimped out van
Deception Pass
A highlight: being bling-ed out with a reflective vest and head lamp. The pic above is my robot impression. Another highlight... between legs we discovered the most delectable soft-serve ice cream known to man. Yes, a return trip to Seattle is worth that alone.
This is the moment I finished my final leg. It felt great! Then we enjoyed some sight-seeing in the city and returned to Kate's house, where her husband Brian cooked the ladies the most incredible dinner. That night, in the final minutes before the clock struck midnight and my birthday began, Kate and Kim humored me with a little Zumba. Kate ignored the cries of her blistered feet and got into the groove. Much laughter ensued and Molly caught the moment on camera. We were so grateful to have our professional photo friend with us to perfectly capture our adventure. Thanks Molly!!
Molly and I holding up Canada at the race's starting point
More commonly known as Disneyland, Jack's Akido-land was the destination of our family vacation this summer. We joined our Henrie and Olson friends for the adventure, who hooked us up with a stay at the posh Disneyland Hotel. We could hardly contain our excitement.
After a surprisingly smooth drive down and a music-filled visit with the Christian family, we met up with our friends at our humongous hotel. David lived up to his resemblance of his mom as a child by getting lost in it first thing the next morning. After a panic-filled 15 minutes of searching, I calmed down, listened to my gut and ran up 2 flights of stairs and down a hallway, straight to where he was. He was roaming one of the upper halls with a security guard looking for us. After a tear-filled reunion and embrace, he said, "I knew you'd find me mom." Then the troops headed out, adorned with not one (we were celebrating David's birthday at DL) but 6 birthday buttons. Yep, 6 of our 10 member group had birthdays that month. I'm sure the DL workers thought we were liars. Nevertheless, they all held to their responsibility of giving us all birthday greetings when our buttons were spotted and filling our hotel rooms with 6 sets of birthday balloons.
Our first ride, California Soarin' took us on an incredible simulated flight over the sites of California. We were pleased to see David enjoying it, since he is an extremely cautious child and this was his first amusement park ride experience. This success boosted his confidence enough that when Rich and I stayed behind to watch the little kids at the next stop, the Tower of Terror, David ignored us and ran off to join the big kids on the ride. By the time Rich reached the line in his pursuit, David and the rest of the group had already entered the ride (uncharacteristically short line) and there was nothing to be done to prevent the terror David was about to experience. I waited helplessly in agony as the ride, which simulates a ghost haunted hotel elevator that unexpectedly rises and drops to various floor levels... by far the scariest and most heart-dropping ride in any DL park, introduced our little boy to the physics of falling and the feeling of g-forces. Sure enough, he exited the ride in hysterics and demanded to know why people would "go on a ride like that." Then he told me, "I was hoping you would come save me again Mom like before." Ouch. Then he experienced a breakthrough. He realized that he was fine. He had faced his ultimate fear and conquered. Before each ride for the rest of the trip, there was that initial panic and he would ask whether there would be any falling, but he braved through most of them and has been braver since then. He's a stronger kid than we thought.
The highlights of California Adventures for the kids were the shows: Playhouse Disney and The Muppets in 3D and the time when Rich, by conversing (as he does) with a ride worker, got all of us a pass to go to the front of the line of a ride for absolutely no reason. I love that man.
Days 2 and 3 were spent at Disneyland, where it was much for crowded and we became very grateful for the technology of Fastpasses and Kid Swap passes. David's favorite ride was Star Tours, which he was first wary of when he entered a room resembling the elevator from Tower of Terror and buckled our very similar seat belts. After assuring him many times that we wouldn't fall, he started to relax. By the end, he was convinced it was the best ride ever. He shouted, "That was wicked awesome holy moly guacamole! I could not believe my eyes!!" The kids also loved It's a Small World. Jack kept giggling and pointing. He thought the tiny, costumed, dancing children were hilarious. I couldn't disagree.
Another highlight was the Captain EO 3D movie with Michael Jackson. The 25 year old movie attraction was brought back, and I couldn't have been more ecstatic. I remember seeing it during my 1st DL visit as a 5 year old and it had left a big impression on me, so much so, that I got emotional seeing it again. Viva MJ!
Jack was SO into the movie. He kept yelling angry, unintelligible things and shooting Spiderwebs at the scary spider lady. Then, while exiting the theatre (and walking independently for the 1st time that trip), he suddenly halted in the middle of the lane and began dancing his own MJ impersonation complete with a "whoo!" yell at the end. He had everyone nearby laughing. I love that about Jack. You just never know what to expect from him. He and David loved seeing all the DL characters cruising around. After watching Mr. Incredible lumber down the street and smash a trash can, he exclaimed, "You mean everything I see on TV is REAL?!" Oh, the magic of Disney.
Jack went nuts with joy when he spotted the real "Akido." Aka: Mickey Mouse. Yep, Jack has invented his own language, where his words do not resemble the actual words in any way. David usually translates for us. He spent most our trip spotting things with Mickey Mouse on them and yelling, "Akido!!" We spent some of our favorite moments in Toon Town. The kids were able to run around and jump on things and everyone found something fun to play with.
Then Rich and I were finally able to lock up our kids and get some quality vacation time together. :) Nah.... that never happened. Someday. The vacation part, that is, not the locking up of children. We're not that desperate.... yet.
Here is a little video clip of Toon Town and another highlight of the trip: Rich getting his tongue frozen to a popsicle. Like I said, I love that man. :)
After enjoying some incredible Indian food in Santa Monica, our friends headed home while we returned to the Christians' house for a day at Oceanside Beach. After leaving us, 3 year old Nyla said, "Where is my Jack right now? My Jack is not supposed to miss." Jack didn't miss out on some beach fun. It was his 1st time seeing the ocean, which didn't impress him much. What did impress him? The sand. Our little sand crab asked to be buried. He would have been content to remain buried all day if we'd let him. It was the happiest we'd seen him... well... ever.
Jack's sandy toe-head was the highlight of the beach that day for... basically everyone. He had a crowd of tourists taking pictures and video. The other highlight for everyone... Rich in his notorious Speedo prancing and cartwheeling across the beach. Once again, I love that man. :)
