Playing Catch Up Again...Phew....What's New...

Just when I vow to myself I will do a better job journaling on here and keeping up with posting pictures, another month has flown by. Our heads are still spinning, but it's been a month of good memory-making stuff. Near the end of May, we had a family vacation to Arizona & Disneyland with Grammie (Michael's mom) and Michael's brother Brian and his family. We had a really nice time spending a few days of relaxation with them in Arizona and then playing in the Disney craziness with Brian, Kari and our now BIG nephews, Josh & Kit. The kids loved getting to hang out with their cousins. Say what you want about Disney, but there is just something amazing and HAPPY about Disneyland. It was a really great trip!! There are over 350 pics from Disneyland and that's after much thinning down. So, I've put a few on here to see, but if you want to see the whole album, you can check it out by clicking on the "Disneyland 2009" link in the "Links to our Photos" section on the right hand side.

Tinkerbell was a favorite - we got to meet her in the new Pixie Hollow

Meeting Tinkerbell was the first thing Emma did in Disneyland. She and Michael spent the first 1 1/2 hours of the morning at the a doctor's office getting diagnosed with an ear infection. She had just gotten her meds right before meeting Tinkerbell. On our first trip to Disneyland in 2008, Jake and I both had bad ear infections. Ear infections seem to be a part of the Disney experience for the Andersen family.

On the big ferris wheel.....both kids loved it. It was me that actually got a little woozy on it. It's just so stinkin' high in the air!!! I start picturing the cage breaking and the door flying open and having to hold on for dear life while we grip onto the kids and the cage with every ounce of strenth as we dangle in the air. Ugh. This ride was tons of fun. :-)


Jake's favorite part of Disneyland - Buzz Lightyear!!!! We spent a lot of the time in Disneyland trying to find Buzz's nemesis Zurg. Jake spotted him all over the park and would shoot him with his finger blaster. And his favorite ride. Big shocker - Buzz's Astro Blasters.

All of us after a long but fun day in the park.

Literally "climbing the walls" waiting for California Adventure to open.

Finally off the gate......ahh....mommy feels better about that. :-)

Grammie got Emma's face painted on the last day in Pixie Hollow. The gal that did it really did a nice job - it looked really cool.



And the week after getting home, Emma had her dance recital, "One World." It's an all day thing with two shows (at noon and 4pm). She did two dances in each show and I was backstage with her for one of them. It was a fun and exhausting day.


Emma's "Hooray for the World" dance. She's the one in the middle catching air. Nice pointed toes, sis.


Throwing a wave to us in the audience.


And her butterfly dance. This one was real pretty. We were actually surprised to see how good she had done at learning her moves.



Having fun at lunch inbetween shows with daddy.

Waiting backstage right before going on......

And the girls all lined up and ready to go on stage for their 2nd butterfly dance.

Emma with her ballet teacher, Billie.



And because life wasn't moving fast enough (please note the sarcasm), we planned a very last minute trip to the coast the week after her dance recital. Last minute meaning we booked the condo on Monday night around 8pm and left the next morning. It was our 9th wedding anniversary on June 17th and we spontaneously ran to the beach for a few nights to play with the kids to celebrate. It turned out to be an truly wonderful trip!!! We stayed in a great condo in the Taft district of Lincoln City (way south) and it was SO perfect for us....right on the sand, quiet, comfortable and cheap to boot. We played in the sand most of the time, collecting shells, watching the seals, bald eagles and live crabs. The weather was beautiful, we were relaxed, the kids had a blast digging, exploring and playing.....thank you Lord for such a blessed trip.

Searching for cool shells and agates.

Notice the disgusting bug/crustacean thingy in Jake's hand. Ugh. He's trying to show me how cool it is and I'm holding back from freaking out by taking a picture. We still don't know what the heck that thing was he found swimming in the water. He let it crawl all over his hands and wanted to take it home with us! Uck. Gross. No way honey - mommy has her limits. Such is the difference between boys and girls - Emma was searching for "pretty" shells and agates and Jake was super excited about disgusting creatures.

Showing the kids how to dig up clams.....they were all over the place there.

I would have loved to hear what they are talking about here.

Hams.

Daddy buried them alive. They thought that was sooooo funny.

Daddy's turn to get buried.

On our last day there, we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. The touch pool was of course a hit. They got to also touch sharks and horseshoe crabs in a separate pool.

Watching the funny otter.

Doesn't Jake's expression just exude joy? Well, at least he doesn't warm up easily to strangers. It's like you can read his mind, "Uhhhhh....who is that guy taking our picture?"

And a final random picture. This is Emma holding Maddie on Father's Day. Maddie and Mason are getting SO big. Cutie pies.....smiling and laughing all the time now. I LOVE being an auntie!!!! And Emma LOVES being a big cousin. Big news & big changes happening in the Needham house these days. More on that to come on their blog soon, I'm sure.......all good stuff!!!!

I started out this summer praying to God that I would have the discernment to know what to say no to and what to say yes to - in terms of activities, serving opportunities, social stuff, groups, trips, etc. Last summer was crazy busy and I really didn't want to replicate that pattern this summer. I've always had (and continue to have) a bad tendency of saying yes to too many opportunities because everything sounds so purposeful, fun, interesting, needing of help, etc. etc. Well, truth be told, I haven't done a great job of saying no yet this summer. We've been going and going and going and now July is here and it's already a tad packed. But, Michael and I have had the wonderful provision of a weekly bible study (me on Monday, Michael on Saturday) and that has kept us centered this summer. God is so good - He knew we needed that. So, while we're not doing any better at keeping a "balanced" schedule this year (big sigh) we're enjoying ourselves amidst our self imposed chaos. :-)
Summer rocks.