Grandpa's Book

So Tommi just barely got done making a book about her grandfather. It is her first book that she has compiled and published herself (she bound the book and everything!) I am sure there are many more to come in the future!

Pre-Christmas Surprise

Jimmy turns 9 months next Thursday, but he decided it was time to surprise us. Before yesterday he had stood on his own but never really tried to take any steps. By the end of last night he had taken 10 in a row!

Jimmy Showing His New Trick

Jimmy recently learned how to shake his head and loves it when others do the same. Here is a video of him having fun with his mom.

Let the Blizzard Begin!

On Sunday we wanted to go over to the Rognon's to play games and eat cookies. When we got outside there was over a half foot of snow on the car. When we got back we decided we would take some pictures to share with all those who do not get to experience this fun.


Jimmy's poor pumpkin now looks like a pirate.

Our down stairs neighbors started building an igloo the day before but didn't have enough snow. Now they have plenty to work with.



Our apartment is covered but we still managed to get about 3 inches of snow on our porch.

We were then planning to travel down to Logan for Thanksgiving on Tuesday but when we looked at the weather we had a blizzard warning from 5 AM to 11PM with the warning saying driving was very dangerous as winds were up to 50 MPH causing whiteout conditions. Then there was another warning due to the temperature saying that if you are outside for more than 5 minutes you risk getting frostbite (Temperature near 0 degrees with high winds).

As we sat in the apartment we thought that not much had happened and thought the blizzard was lame until we got a call around 5:30 saying that James had gotten stuck in the snow on his way home. As we drove over to help him there was a line of about 50 cars trying to get into their town home complex and we decided it best to turn around and go home as there were plenty to help.

We left our house around noon to head down to Logan as all the warnings were over and the sun was out and it wasn't going to snow. We made it just outside of Idaho Falls and we found our first car off the road. We went about 5 more miles and suddenly traffic stopped quickly. We had a fun time sliding on the ice for a ways but were able to stop in time as we passed a van that had flipped and was upside-down. As we kept going before we reached Pocatello we past about 10 more cars that were off the road and in ditches (most on the other side of the Freeway) and understood why they had closed the freeway the night before.

The trip that normally takes two hours took closer to 4-5 hours but we were very grateful that we were able to arrive safe and sound. Good news is this storm is past and we have clear skies until Sunday. The only bad thing about clear skies means colder weather (even down here in Logan the temperature isn't suppose to rise above 10 degrees until the snow comes).

Fire Nation Attack

For any who watched Avatar or the movie "The Last Air Bender" would understand this, but one day we walked out of class and the sky looked like this. We joked about this being an attack from the Fire Nation. Tommi thought that "R" Mountain was erupting (it was an old Volcano), but really it was a huge field fire out by Idaho National Laboratory and with winds up to 50 MPH it was hard to stop it for several days.

Family Photo Shoot

We thought it would be good to take pictures before the snow hit and the weather got cold. We picked a great day because it rained for the rest of the week and now there is no hope for warm weather until next may.

Family Photo Adventure

Right before the semester started we decided that we would go and take some family pictures before we got too busy. This was also our first family photo adventure and so we wanted to share some of the pictures we took with you.

Some old Pictures

I was looking through some old pictures we took with our old "point and shoot" camera that he never uploaded and thought we would share them.

This was Jimmy after his first fight.


Jimmy really loves looking at himself in the mirror!

This was at Elena's first birthday party. We loved the colors.

Last Day's Adventure!

For our last day at Disneyland Tommi and I decided we would treat it as if it was our first day and try and ride as many rides as possible (at least of the rides that we couldn't ride with Jimmy). We started out with Big Thunder Railroad which had a short enough line we went twice. We realized it isn't any fun riding it in the front as you are already down the drops by the time the back of the train is going over the drop.

Next we went to the Matterhorn, which we think is our favorite ride when you go on the faster side. We really liked it because we could cuddle while we rode it. It was also a lot more fun at night when it was dark.

We then went on Space Mountain and enjoyed the fastest roller coaster that Disneyland has to offer.

We then swung by Indiana Jones, but it was down and decided to go on Splash Mountain. Each time we go on it we hope to see the train go by, but we have yet to have that opportunity.

After Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones was up and running again so we rode it, which has always been one of my favorite rides, and by far one of my favorite lines to wait in.

We then decided we would head over to California Adventure as we had been on all the rides we wanted to in Disneyland. We waited in line for Toy Story Mania for about an hour (which is actually a short line for this ride). This was Tommi's favorite ride, and one definitely worth the wait in line.

By this time it was rather warm, so we got in line and went on the Grizzly River Run. All the fastpass stations for this ride were being used for world of color so everyone had to wait in line, but it was worth it. We both got soaked once again by the water cannon at the end of the ride!

To dry off we decided to go on California Screamin' which is always a fun ride.

We then had just over an hour for the next showing of Aladin to start so we went back to Disneyland and rode the rides we had gotten fast passes for (Space Moutain, Big Thunder Railroad, and Indiana Jones). We finished those rides and speed walked to Aladin, making it from Indiana Jones to Aladin in about 7 minutes (just time time before they closed the doors).

After the show we went and used our fastpass for California Screamin' and then also used our fastpass for Mulholland Madness - a fun little ride that makes you feel like you are going to fall out of the cart every turn it makes.

We finished all of this and left the park at about 5 pm and were very pleased with our last day of Disneyland. We were surprised at the amount of people at the parks on the different days. We went on Saturday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and the busiest days were Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We decided that perhaps people have the mindset that the weekends are the busiest, but I found I would rather be there Friday and Saturday than during the week.

More Disneyland

Along with our 5-day pass to Disneyland we were also given a "Magic Morning" where on Sunday, Tuesday or Thursday you can come an hour before the park opens and go on any rides you want to before everyone else gets there. We decided on Thursday that we would use this magic morning to take Jimmy on all of the rides that we didn't get to on Tuesday because of the long lines.
We started the morning off by leaving bright an early so we could get the the park by 7:00 am. As we often did, we parked in the Daisy parking area and took the tram to Downtown Disney.

We decided to stop and take some pictures since there were not very many people at the park.

As I was taking a picture of Tommi and Jimmy I thought, we haven't had any pictures of us as a family in Disneyland and then someone tapped me on the shoulder and offered to take our picture so I could be in it.

The first ride we decided to go on was Peter Pan because the line is always really long. Even with the Magic Morning pass the line was still 30+ minutes long.




After that we went on Snow White, Pinocchio and Mr. Toads.


We then decided to go to Storybook Land and it was fun to see all the miniature plants and houses.

The line for its a small world was as short as we had seen it so we took a ride on it and we are sure glad, it was by far Jimmy's favorite ride he went on.



After, we decided to go to Mark Twain's Island which was recently redone and is now the "Pirates Lair" since we didn't get the chance to on Tuesday. It was fun walking around taking pictures and we were surprised at how fun it was as it was full of surprises.





We then where walking around, making our way out of the park for lunch and a nap when we ran into Princess Tiana.

There were a few nice things that we found out with a multi day pass to Disneyland. One thing that was nice is that you could go in the morning and then leave in the afternoon when it is hot and the most crowded and take a nap and eat lunch and then go back when it cools down and are less people again.

After our nap we came back and watched the Celebration Parade. We found out that we don't do very well with parades because we can't handle rude people. There were two Hispanic guys in their 20's that came up about 2 minutes before the parade started and stood right in front of a family with 5 kids and acted like they didn't speak English whenever the family asked them to move when we overheard them speaking English later. There was also an Asian lady in her 40's who cut in front of a group of kids so she could get a picture then stayed there for the rest of the parade and we just couldn't understand how they thought they were more important than those kids who had been waiting for about an hour to watch the parade from the front. Despite all that, we decided we would have a good time anyways.










After the parade we went on the Finding Nemo Subs and sadly none of the pictures turned out because the lighting and windows, but here is a fun one of us standing in line.

We then had dinner while we sat waiting for Fantasmic to start. We were happier with the people at the place we were at because the adults, instead of cutting in front of the kids, actually let the kids go in the front so they could see. We also were standing by a lady that looked like Sarah Walker from Chuck... She had several kids, but she did speak with a slight Australian accent.

We were really excited to see the new World of Color at California Adventure, but decided the effort to actually see it was not worth it. To see it you have to get a fastpass for one of the 3 shows and so we thought we would give it a shot. When we went into the park at not even 10 minutes after it opened the fastpass line for it was all the way backed up to the entrance gate, at least a 3 hr wait. We went on a few rides and then came back and they were all sold out (and I am sure half the people waiting in line didn't even get a fastpass). Then there was a line of those who had fastpasses for the show about an hour before the show so they could get a spot where you could actually see... we figured that waiting 4 hours in line was not worth it. We had to watch it from a different location where we could only see part of it. We thought it was cool, but it was very similar to Fantasmic, just without real people and no fireworks.