Hooray For Visits To California. HOORAY!

Greetings Friends and Family!



Yesterday we got back from our fabulous trip. I'm glad to know where I'll be putting The Gretch down for a nap. I'm glad to know where I'll be brushing my teeth tonight. But I'm very sad our California family won't be around to pinch, laugh with, and scream at. Sigh.

And now here are 500 obligatory photos of our wonderful, busy, fun time. And you can pretend to be interested.

We started our trip at Grandma Liz's. Photo Credits: Ella.




(I had no idea my hair looked like that in the back.)


Watch as Gretchen transforms from "Crazy Cowgirl".... (seriously, check out the expression on her face as she swings that poor baby doll around!)


...to "Crazy Detroit Fan". Aww. Which one do you like better? NO HATS ARE SAFE AROUND THE GRETCH!


Saturday was Auntie Alisa's fabulous baby shower. The whole family was there!


B documented the whole thing (though watching his home videos may induce vomiting. Maybe for his birthday we'll get him a tripod.)



Even Baby Celeste came with her hott mom & grandma.


Apparently Jaden had some important things to show Ella online. They left the party to do some computing.



What!?! Gretchen whining? I know, crazy.


We surprised Mom with an early birthday present, a DVD of some old home movies. Then we got to watch the awesomeness that was "Christmas with the Robertsons" circa '82 - '88. Seriously mom, what was with the glasses. And the bangs. There's no excuse for those bangs.


Sunday we went to church (which means I sat with Gretchen in the foyer while Uncle Shea looked like a successful polygimist with THREE cute wives & eight cute kids). When we got home the dads set up an easter egg hunt in the jungle backyard.



But Monday, Oh Monday, the trips to Disneyland started. In the PARTY VAN!!!


Ella's first ride of choice was autopia.


Then we met some fairys.



Then hit the teacups.



Then met Goofy.


And Mickey.


Had some lunch.


And Ella rode her first REAL rollercoaster! Big Thunder Mountain! WOO HOO!



She doesn't look too sure about it, does she. When I asked her what she thought, she said, "I didn't like it. It was too scary."
"Was it too fast?"
"No, I didn't like the scary red eyes at the beginning. In the cave."

Yeah, I didn't even REMEMBER the ride having a cave, but it does. And there are red eyes that are supposed to look like bats. And that, my friends, is what scared her. Even when I told her they were just Christmas lights. She wouldn't ride anything after that.


Except Small World. Which, despite always creeping me out, she loved (dolls, especially moving dolls, are super creepy.)



Amy met us for dinner with Julia. DARN BLACK OUT DATES! They didn't get to come inside the park with us. But we had fun for an hour with them.

I let Ella pick out a hat from the "Mad Hatter" shoppe. Any hat she wanted. I fully expected to walk out with a princess monstrosity. But she choose "Pluto". Because it was funny. She is full or surprises.



One last trip on Autopia. Good driving Britton!


Here you see Matia & Ella enjoying the fireworks show. Overwhelmed with excitement.


Thanks to Dad, we got to drive the Jag around town. Here's Ella keeping up appearances. She doesn't even have to try to be this fabulous, it just happens.


Because we are crazy, we went to Disneyland AGAIN on Wednesday. THANKS SCHOTT FAMIY! We loved it. But no one loves Disneyland as much as Uncle Shea. Seriously. He is a die-hard Disneyland fan. Third morning in the Magical Kingdom pictured below. And he's still smiling.








We took time out for lunch. And naps.

The coolest thing ever? The boys got picked for the Jedi Academy & got to fight Darth Vadar. If we had better seats and a better camera, the footage would look like this:


But instead you get this. Which is still cute.





And, since we don't have enough, Ella took some more self portraits.


Bye folks! This post is finally done!!!

Snow Day! Again!

Remember how it's *Spring* and the daffodils are blooming? And then remember how Reno weather is crazy? Yeah. Reno weather is crazy. Here's the girls enjoying the snow Thursday morning before it all melts. Ella is making snow angel. Gretchen is impersonating Kenny.


Dad comes in for a rescue.



Ella is cute. I am biased.



Can you believe Ella only has a few more months of preschool? I know (sniff). My baby is growing up. I went to pick her up Friday & had to document. She got to be "Miss Spider", one of her favorite books.



Friday we have Movie Night & we watched "Honey I Shrunk The Kids". It was awesome. Ella was completely enraptured. She keeps talking about it. Asking if kids can really shrink down. Talking about how silly the dad was. And now we'll have ONE ride at Disneyland she'll be excited about that won't have a 2 hour line! That ride is ALWAYS empty! Perfect!



This morning at breakfast she laughed and said, "I get it! French Class! HA HA HA HA."
Note: She does NOT get it.

We can't wait to see you in FOUR DAYS!
Christian - Ella is super excited for you to teach her some magic tricks. We're glad your eye is doing better!
J - Ella wants you to play with her
Cade & Shane - Ella wants to make another movie. (Maybe we can distract her by taking her swimming.)

Happy Birthday Colby!

Hello dearest Family & Friends.

I have finished almost all my freelance work & took a WHOLE WEEK off with no projects. It was amazing. But also amazing because my time management skillz go away as soon as the pressure is off. I'm re-doing my board book proposal this week so we can submit it to some new publishers all re-vamped & pretty, so hopefully that will help me focus & stay off of hulu.com watching old "Buffy The Vamplire Slayer" episodes and "Daily Show" clips. (Also, I finished the last 10 episodes of Battlestar Galactica, so maybe that will help me focus a little better... You know, since I know what happens to Starbuck & what that whole "Opera House" thing was about)

My question posed to you, dear family, is why Ella will let her preschool teacher do THIS to her hair....



...and yet she will barely let me BRUSH it? (See her mocking me with her playful wink below. "Ha ha Mom! Miss Valerie is amazing! Too bad for you! Ha ha!"



We love daylight savings. Look at this. Ella can give her dad attitude in the backyard before dinner!



And Gretchen can demand to be pushed on the swing some more. (Look at that face, can you deny her love?)



Friday was Colby's birthday. We went to eat some delicious Chinese food. Ella was astoundingly capable with her chop sticks. So was Auntie Krista. But dude, Ella ate noodles with those sticks. I don't think I could do that.



Noodles?



(Note the vintage necklace used to accessorize her Arsenal uniform. You know, cause nothing says, "Football" like a little Doris-Day-Bling.)



Oh Grandpa, we like sitting next to you. You give us our OWN PLATE.



Happy Birthday Colby! Here's to shocking your classmates even MORE with your advanced age. (Dude, you're HOW old?!?)



Brave Anita sampling the authentic Chinese Dreyer's Ice Cream.




Cloud of smoke in living room after blowing out all the candles we had (note, it was not the correct amount. But the cake was from scratch. Does that make up for it?)



And lastly this week, Ella did my hair. Tah duh! Maybe I should go see Miss Valerie.



So what have you been up to?

"She's Bringing WHAT Back?!?" Or "The Sexagenarian"

Here's a little gem we caught on video last week:





And it was a very hard secret-keeping week for us. We threw a surprise party for the Most Awesome Mother In Law on Friday. I thought I blew it & gave the surprise away multiple times, but she *claims* she didn't suspect a thing. (My cover story for the large amounts of soda, chips & BBQ supplies was that we were having a "Twilight Release" party with a few friends on Saturday....).

In our preparation for the party, I discovered where Ella gets this face:



Here's Anita as a precocious child. See Colby? I told you she took after your side of the family!



Angel had the brilliant idea to make shirts. At first we were just going to have them say "Sexagenarian". Then it was brought up that some people might not know what "Sexagenarian" means. So Shay suggested this addition:




Ella didn't find out that all her Stott cousins were going to be in town until I was sure she wouldn't run into Grandma again that day. She snuck out of gym class to confirm that her cousins were indeed on their way. And then asked me about 100 more times in the next 2 hours.

The party was awesome. There was twister (thoughtfully set up by small children directly in front of the main entrance...)



There were 59.25 green balloons (one casualty on the way back from the party shop).



There were small children trying to run off with bunches of balloons...



There were four generations in one room!



And Uncle Tyler made "Pin The Beehive On Mom". So fun. SO FUN!







The next day we decided to do something adventurous. And whats more adventurous than taking small children to a casino, right? They loved it.




Right now the Utah Stott Contingency are on their way back home. We hope they're driving safely and that the babies are sleeping. The whole way. (We can dream, right?!?)

I'm thinking about maybe MAYBE coming down to the Robertson side of CA for Ella's Preschool Spring Break in April (doesn't "Preschool Spring Break" sound like some sort of SNL sketch?) Maybe. I'd probably be making the trip alone since Colby will be in school & I need to think about this & decide if I'm crazy or not.... (Consensus: Probably Crazy) What's up with you?