Knott's Berry Farm

Sunday morning Jason and I were sitting down with our summer schedule and trying to plan what to do this summer.  We really wanted to go to Knott's Berry Farm and were looking into the best way to go to get our money's worth.  We looked at buying season tickets and figured if we could go at least twice this year it would be worth the money.  While looking when to go this summer, Jason said, "Why don't we go right now?"  We packed up the car right then and ran to California, it was awesome and a little crazy being so spontaneous.

 The kids aren't that familiar with the Peanuts crew but they for sure know Snoopy.

 Camp Snoopy had tons of rides for the kids.  We have a funny mix of kids, Tyson doesn't want to ride "baby" rides.  Taylor is trying to be brave and try things Tyson likes and Hayden is just wild and we never know how she is going to react to any ride.

 Hayden liked this ride the best, she rode it 3 times.

 This was the boy's first roller coaster of the day.  Tyson was a little freaked out, but loved it!

 This is the best smile I got from Hayden all day.  Whenever I pull out the camera she has to look the other way. 

 Poor Ryan, her naps are always messed up on vacation.

 This was a really small little ride but Taylor was so scared that she had Tyson hold her hand.  Adorable!

 Isn't that the saddest face?  Poor Taylor, it's hard to keep up with big brothers.

 Hayden liked it just fine.  Gotta love these crazy kids.

 The train was Ryan's first ride.  She loved it and clapped for herself.

 I think I rode the merry go round more than any one person should.  I would take the girls on it every time the boys wanted to go on scary rides.

 Me and the girls also did a bit of shopping.

 I think our family's favorite ride overall was the log ride.  Tyson would huddle behind Darrell and would jump up at the end shouting, "I'm dry, I'm dry!"  Poor Darrell!

 I hope this isn't an omen of Tyson's future life :)  Super fun day!

On to day #2...

DeMille life

I had a collection of random pictures on the camera and thought I would share :)

 Hayden and her dog.  Pit bulls get a horrible rap for being bad tempered and vicious, but we have had the best dog ever.  She is so patient with the kids and really puts up with a lot.  Here she is bundled up with a baby doll and stayed that way until Hayden came back with more toys to bundle up with her.

 Then she went to get a drink of water and we laughed and laughed watching her walk with a blanket still on. (Our house is always under construction, a ladder in the living room is very normal over here)

Taylor doesn't take naps very frequently so when she gets really tired she just drops where she is.  Lucky Jason :)

 She was OUT!

Cutie patootie  Ryan.

 She rarely shares her food so this is a very rare picture :)  I think she was actually just teasing me, when I would go to grab it she would pull it away and put it in her mouth.  Such a nut!

 

Tyson's last baseball game was super fun, it makes such a difference when your kid preforms decent :)  Look how cute he is out there in his "baseball ready" stance.

 I miss seeing our Red Sox boys every week.

Tyson earned money by hitting off of the coach and getting kids out while he played a base all season and bought this huge lego set.  Gotta love bribery :)

A small glimpse into life at Casa DeMille .

Wet n a little too wild

It has finally come back to Las Vegas!!

I grew up here and Wet n Wild was the coolest place there was.  Jason and I were so excited to go we bought season passes for the whole family. 

We decided to go opening day, we knew it would be busy, we just weren't prepared for how busy.  It was only open to gold season pass holders and not to the public so we thought it would be OK.  Well not so much when the park sells 20,000 season passes and their park capacity is 3,000.  Those numbers do not bode well for the rest of the summer!

   One day I will find a hat this girl can't rip off her head :)

 This is the line we had to stand in to exchange our printed tickets into our season pass cards.  This doesn't show how it wrapped down the parking lot and then the 5 zig zags in front of the ticket counter.  It was over an hour and we got there before the park opened.

Every single ride looked like this, the wait to go on a ride was an hour and a half.  We did not go on any rides :(

They had a fun little kid area that Tyson and Taylor loved.  They wouldn't go on the huge kid playground because the water was too cold.

After going around the lazy river 6 times we decided to get out and take a break.  As we were walking Tyson starts screaming, "My feet are bleeding!"  The bottom of the lazy river was so rough that he had scrapped the bottom of his feet up pretty bad.  8 toes were cut and these 4 had to be bandaged by first aid.

I sat with the kids and the whining Tyson while Jason went to get food for lunch.  (You are not allowed to bring any outside food or coolers into the park).  He came back empty handed and said there was a 2 hour wait to get food.  We packed up and went home!  At 3pm we heard they closed the park to incoming people due to being at capacity.  We haven't been back yet but are crossing our fingers that the bugs will be worked out soon.

Ryan turns 1!!

My little girl has turned 1!!!

 This girl is an eater!  She knew exactly what was up when that cake was placed in front of her.

 She thought I was taking it away but I was just trying to feed it to her with a spoon.

 Then I gave up, it was her birthday after all. 

 She honestly cleared the plate.  I love babies who eat :)  I also love that she would not let go of that graham cracker the whole time she was eating, saving some for later.  Always planning ahead.

At 1 Ryan:

-Is still a Mommy's girl, she is now tolerating Jason but still loves to be held tight by Mom.  She never lets go of hugs first, I am usually prying her off so I can get things done.  It's rough being the 4th :)
-Is allergic to many things, we thought she would grow out of it but we are finally getting tests done.  She constantly has weird break outs and skin rashes.  We for sure know eggs are a problem.  I can't wait to know exactly what the triggers are for her breakouts.
 -Still has quite a large head.  She is in the 95% for head, 50% for weight, and 5% for height.  Poor short, big headed girl :)
- Loves to clap if anyone else is clapping and loves to clap for herself.
-Tolerates Tyson, dislikes Taylor, and tortures Hayden.  Her favorite thing to do to Hayden is go up to her and try to steal things from her, especially her blanket while she is holding it in the car or holding it and watching a movie.  Ryan laughs and laughs while Hayden just bawls.  Good times :)
-Can nod her head yes if she wants something and can shake her head no if she doesn't like something.  I love when they start to communicate clearly.  Ryan knows exactly what she likes and is not easily redirected.
-Is obsessed with the stairs, if they are ever left open you can bet that's where she is.  She loves to crawl up but hasn't figured out how to get down yet. 
-Hates, I mean HATES, nap time and bed time.  She has a scream that just pierces your ear drum, so even after she stops screaming and has fallen asleep you still think you can hear her screaming.  But once she's asleep she sleeps through the night and takes a really nice 3 hour nap during the day.  It's just getting past the screaming that kills you :)
-Has her two bottom teeth only and she loves to play bite you.  She has never bit down on anyone, it's her fun little game.  I am amazed at all the foods she can tear up with those two little teeth.  Slow teeth are the best!
-Nursed for a whole year (the longest out of all the kids) but refuses to drink cow milk.  She'll take one sip of it and then spit it out all over the place.  We even tried fat free milk, it's basically white water, no dice.  Our doctor told us to try flavoring the milk and to try other sources of calcium.  Ryan is a huge yogurt and cheese fan :)

Ryan is such a special addition to our crazy crew.  She constantly makes us laugh with her little personality.  She is a lot of work, (which the other kids complain about frequently), but she is worth it.  We are so lucky to have this wonderful girl in our family! 
Happy Birthday Ryan!  We love you!!!

Roos n More

Taylor's preschool had Roos n More come out to Mrs. Aubrey's house for one of the last days of school.  Hayden was at her preschool so she missed it this year.

 But Ryan was right in the middle of the action and even petted a ferret.

 This is an armadillo that can curl totally in on itself.  Really cool.

 Taylor wasn't afraid of any of the animals.

 And loved her new accessory: a snake necklace!  The girl loves her accessories :)

 This really cool lemur will run all over the kids backs if the bend over.  Super fun.

I didn't get a picture of the baby kangaroo, he was adorable.  Fun little way to spend a morning.  We are really missing Mrs. Aubrey's preschool already!!