Friday night, after Knott’s, we took the kids back to my parents house, and Dad offered to let us use his car so that Kyle and I could go out alone. We didn’t have a destination in mind at first, so we just kind of drove around. I mentioned that I would like to get donuts in the morning for breakfast. I have a thing for donuts, REAL donuts.We don’t have many donut shops here in Utah and Wal-Mart donuts really just aren’t the same. We do have a ‘Daylight Donuts’ but it’s not exactly close to where we live at all, so we rarely go. So almost every time we are in California we get a whole bunch of donuts to share. Kyle said that getting donuts in the morning would be fine, but that the donut shop we usually go to only takes cash and we don’t carry cash with us. So while we were out on our way to the track at my old middle school (I wanted to go for a run), I pointed out a different donut shop. The track wasn’t lit and the sun had gone down so we got back in the car and kept driving. I told Kyle to go over by Bradford Staduim and I pointed out two more donut shops on the way. We continued past the stadium and down towards Fullerton College. Kyle pointed out the Taqueria in the little shopping strip, and I pointed out yet another donut shop. This went on pretty much all evening. We decided to go to the Brea mall and then to Claim Jumper for dinner, and everywhere I went I would point out donut shops all over the place. We would be talking about completely different things when I would say “Hey look! Another one!” and Kyle would respond with “Huh? What? Oh.” It didn’t stop Friday night either. Saturday evening when we made a run to the grocery store to get water and things for the drive home, I pointed out another donut shop in that parking lot. Donut shops are just everywhere in Orange County, and my donut radar picked up a whole bunch of them. 🙂
Category: Our Family
Knotts Berry Farm
Friday we had a lazy morning, and Kyle and I went to the credit union to open an account for Adam. When we got back to the house, we loaded up all of our kids to go to Knotts Berry Farm. Since Tiffany was all alone at the house, we took her with us.
It turns out that we chose the perfect day to go. The weather was beautiful, not hot, and not cold. And considering our kids were out of school, but kids in California were in school there were next to no lines for any of the rides! So we just got right on almost everything.
Chloe and Jeremy look like they really didn’t like this one. It was kind of like a mini Supreme Scream where they take you up and then drop you. Only this one they take you up and then you kind of bounce down, and then you go back up only not so high and then bounce back down. Also, those are all our kids except the little girl sitting between Jeremy and Chloe. 🙂
After Woodstock’s Airmail, Kyle took Ethan, Tyra, Jeremy and Dinah on a roller coaster across the way. Tiffany and I stayed with the strollers of little people, and went to find the exit of the ride. Kyle, Tiffany and I took turns staying with Adam and the strollers (and sometimes Lydia and Chloe if they were too short to go on something). There was next to no line so they got on pretty quickly. As soon as they got on the ride though, Jeremy decided that there was no way he was going to go through with it, so he came right down the exit stairs to be with us while we waited for the others. When it finished and they got off, they came down the stairs to us. Dinah had a huge smile on her face while she said “that was SO scary!”
Being October the park was all decked out for Halloween (they closed early so they could reopen a bit later for Knott’s Scary Farm).
Lydia really got mad every time we tried to buckle her into a ride. But once the ride got going, she really enjoyed herself.
The only ride we really had to wait in line for, was the ferris wheel. And it wasn’t because it was highly popular or anything like that. It was only because the girls running it were only using about half the seats, which I suspect had something to do with keeping it balanced, but I’m not positive about that.
Jeremy makes some really awesome funny faces. If you have time I highly suggest you go over to the photo gallery and check them out (there are a few from when he was sitting on this ride).
We had an awesome day. We probably could have got there earlier, but I’m not going to beat myself up over that. We were able to cover almost all of Camp Snoopy, and I think the kids had a lot of fun. After every ride they asked if they could go again, and thankfully we kept answering with “well lets see what’s next” or we may not have been able to go through as much of Camp Snoopy as we did. 🙂
Trip To California and the Lego Store
It’s time for the kids fall break! A couple of years ago we had decided that the 4 day weekend was just too short for a trip to California. Every time that we had attempted it, we just felt really rushed. This year however, they had a five day weekend! So we decided to try the California trip again. Our plan was to have Kyle take Wednesday off, and we would leave as soon as the kids got home from school, stop in maybe Mesquite for the night, and then finish the drive Thursday morning. But then we remembered about pack meeting. Kyle is a cub scout leader and we felt that we should stick around for the meeting so he could be there, and so we changed our plans to leave right after.
Well as it normally turns out, we weren’t ready to leave right after the meeting. I got the van loaded up as fast as I could, and we were off, but not really. We had to go pick Granny up first. When Kyle first mentioned to his mom that we would be going to California middle of October, she told him that she would like to go to, but that she probably wouldn’t be feeling up to it. I tried not to think too much of it. I figured she would say that she wanted to go, and then she would still not be feeling up to it, and then decide in the end that she should probably just stay home. No such luck. From the beginning I was not thrilled about the idea of taking his mom with us. I didn’t want to give up my seat next to Kyle in the front of the van, and it’s also a lot harder to just come and go as we please when we have to coordinate with someone else. So the day we were supposed to be leaving I was kind of bummed when she called Kyle to tell him that she still wanted to go. We figured out a way to move the car seats around so she would have enough room to sit in the back next to Adam and after the pack meeting we went to pick her up. Most of the kids were asleep when we got her and her luggage loaded into the car, and THEN we officially hit the road.
The drive was mostly uneventful. We stopped about every 4 hours to feed Adam, our first stop being in Beaver. Karen asked where we were when we got off the freeway, and was shocked to find out we were “only in Beaver”. We pulled into a gas station parking lot and that is where all the kids woke up. The ones that weren’t awake when we picked Granny up were all surprised to find her in the car, and so got really excited. While I fed Adam everyone else took advantage of the opportunity to have a potty stop. Then we got back on the road. The kids talked to Granny for awhile and then things settled back down as they started to drift back off to sleep. Every now and then, while we were driving, Karen would ask us a question. Usually she asked where we were, but there were a few times where the road would get bumpy that she would ask us questions like “Do you need new tires?” “Are your shocks ok?” and the one that shocked Kyle and I the most “What did you hit?” Um ya we didn’t hit anything that was just a bit of bumpy road. 😛
We began our drive so much later than originally planned that we decided to just drive straight through the night. We felt it would be pointless to try to stop at a hotel for the night considering the kids had been asleep for so long already. Stopping at a hotel would mean that instead of Kyle and I resting we would be too busy trying to keep the kids from disturbing other people and therefore we would be neither driving or resting. So we got to my parents house earlier than they were expecting us.
We didn’t do much on Thursday. Karen’s friend Carolyn came and picked her up so they could go spend time together, and the kids let loose to get their wiggles out. After a bit, Kyle and I just found places to lay down and take a nap.
Thursday evening, after dinner, we left our smallest three kiddos as Grandpa and Grandma’s house, and we took the older four to the lego store at Downtown Disney.
The kids were in awe at the size of the lego displays. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ethan had been drooling while I wasn’t looking.
Of course, the girls loved seeing a giant girl made of legos.
Most of our kids were drawn to the table of legos where you can sit and build things. Ethan however, was more attracted to seeing what he could buy. Of course I had told him over and over that we were NOT going to buy anything. His room is a giant explosion of legos and until he gets it all straightened out, I don’t really want any new legos coming into the house. He was not pleased when we told him to put the things he selected back on the shelf so we could go and so the night basically ended in tears. I do think they enjoyed themselves before the meltdown though.
Someday they will learn….maybe
Patsy and Tiffany along with Tiffany’s boyfriend, Christian, came up for a visit this weekend. They have tickets for a Sunday session of general conference and are staying with us. Kyle and I needed to make a quick run to the store for a few items this morning, and we tried to leave early enough to be able to get back before the Saturday morning session of conference started. We got home a bit later than we had hoped and what we found when we came into the house was not at all what we expected.
Conference was on the tv, and most everybody was in the living room. The kids were playing around, and Tiffany and Christian were trying to watch conference. But Patsy and Dinah were nowhere to be seen. Going down the hall, we found them in the girls bedroom. Patsy was carrying Dinah and Dinah was just crying. We asked what happened, and Patsy explained that Dinah ruined all of her make up, and all Patsy asked was for Dinah to apologize. Dinah is a very stubborn little girl, and decided that she would rather scream and cry and throw a fit than apologize. By this time Patsy was also in tears because she was so upset. I told her to put Dinah on her bed, and Kyle and I proceeded to survey the damage. There was foundation all over the carpet and all over the wall and on Chloe’s sheet and pillow case. Other make up items were scattered on the floor. We had to clean up everything that was on the floor and then we moved the bunk bed so we could bring in the carpet cleaner and see how much of the foundation we would be able to get out. Dinah sat on the bed this whole time. In cleaning up the things on the floor so we could vacuum, I also noticed lots of gum wrappers and an empty gum package and a bottle of lotion that turned out to be Tiffany’s.
I don’t wear make up, so my kids don’t see those kinds of things in our house very often. I also very rarely ever dare to have gum in the house. So when my sisters bring these things into our house, my little girls are naturally very curious about them. However, instead of just watching my sisters use these things, Dinah really likes to get into them herself. This isn’t the first time she has destroyed make up that belonged to one of my sisters. A couple of months after Lydia was born, Tiffany came up for a visit and Dinah decided to try out her mascara or eye liner (we aren’t sure which it was).
After we cleaned up most of the mess and the first session of conference was over, I took Dinah and Patsy to Wal-Mart. I also took with us all of Dinah’s earnings from doing chores over the summer, and Dinah got to buy Patsy some new makeup and some new gum for Tiffany. We used all of Dinah’s money and then Patsy covered the rest. I figure that can be part of Patsy’s punishment for bringing makeup into my house and leaving it where little people can get it. When we got back to the house I lectured both Patsy and Tiffany for bringing makeup and gum into the house and told them that it will be safer if they just leave it out in their car. It’s October, so it’s not too hot to do that. And just maybe, they will someday learn not to give my girls access to their stuff. Maybe.
Wanderlust
Last year, Tyra stayed after school three days a week to get help with reading (they call it double dose). At first it was alright because one of the girls I babysat also stayed late for the double dose tutoring, and so they walked home together. However, as soon as the other little girl advanced enough in her reading that they felt she was ok without it, she stopped going, which meant that she walked home with Ethan and her older sister, leaving Tyra walking home alone. On her own Tyra started taking other routes home. She tried to convince us that they were shortcuts. I tried pointing out that there isn’t a shorter route home than the most direct route. There were even some times when she came home super late, or just didn’t come home. On these occasions I would send Kyle a message letting him know that she hadn’t come home, then I would post something on our neighborhood facebook wall. Once when she didn’t come home and I posted on the wall, one of our neighbors said that she was playing at her house, and asked if I wanted her home. Another time posting didn’t yield any results and I had to load all of my other kiddos up in the van to go drive around and find her. I found her playing with some girls on the next street over. Their family had just moved into the neighborhood and apparently her parents weren’t on the neighborhood wall, or just weren’t on facebook and they had no idea that I was looking for her. Tyra had told them that it was alright for her to be there.
This year she is in double dosing again. I had told her teacher when we first started it for this year that I was concerned about Tyra walking home on her own because her brothers would get out on time, and she would be all by herself when she gets out. And I told her teacher about how Tyra wouldn’t come straight home last year when she was supposed to walk all by herself. Her teacher tried to reassure me, and I gave in and said we would give it a try. So today when she didn’t come home I went through my standard procedure. I waited, checking down the street frequently for nearly an hour after school got out. I sent Kyle a message telling him that she hadn’t come home, but this time I couldn’t rely on him to come home and help find her, considering he was in Springfield Oregon! Then I loaded all the kids up in the van to go look for her.
I started my search at the school. That was that last place that she was supposed to be, and there was one time in the past that she didn’t come home and I found her out on the playground with some friends. She ran when she saw me coming that time. This time, she wasn’t there.
I got back in the car and decided to go check Walden Park. She has gone on walking field trips with her class to this park in the past, and there had been times when I heard her talking to the boys about having gone there after school. Today, she wasn’t there either.
I then decided to drive by Pioneer park. It is just down our street, and we occasionally take the kids there. After driving by three sides of Pioneer park, it was obvious that she wasn’t there either.
Next I thought that I should check the little HOA park on the next street over. We found her there once with a couple of kids that used to live a few houses down. She wasn’t there either.
I decided to stop by the house to briefly check to see if maybe she was home now sitting on the porch, and when she wasn’t I went inside to see if anyone had responded to my post on our neighborhood wall, but nobody had commented with knowledge of her whereabouts.
Next I decided to start checking friends houses. I went to her friend Carley’s house and asked if she came over to play. But she hadn’t and Carley’s mom was just shocked that she hadn’t come home yet. Then I went to her friend Eve’s house. Eve had been over about 3:30ish to ask if Tyra could come over to play. I told her that Tyra wasn’t home yet and that she was supposed to be home very soon. I thought maybe when Eve was walking back home, maybe Tyra was on our way to our house and they might have met on the sidewalk and Eve might have asked her to come over from there. Unfortunately when I spoke to Eve’s mom, Tyra wasn’t there either.
By this time I was beginning to be frantic. After checking each place I had sent Kyle a message letting him know where I was checking and that she wasn’t there. And now I was out of ideas. Kyle probably felt useless being so far away and unable to just hop in his car and head home to help. He looked up the phone number for the sheriff’s office and gave them a call.
I got a phone call from one of the deputies and he asked me her name, and her age and what she looks like and when she was supposed to have gotten out of school and he asked what she was wearing. A light pink t-shirt with brown print from girl scout day camp, jeans, pink and black tennis shoes, light pink zippered hoodie, and she had a pink back pack with an argyle print and hearts on it. He said that he was going to go over and check at the school, he gave me his phone number and said to call him if she got home and if she wasn’t home by the time he finished checking at the school then he would come over.
I proceeded to throw something together for dinner for my other kiddos. It was already past dinner time (I usually serve dinner at 5) and Lydia especially was starting to be cranky because she was hungry. I got some hot dogs out of the freezer and started a pot of macaroni and cheese.
Deputy Rog (I could totally be misspelling his name) came over and told me that she doesn’t appear to be at the school “It’s locked up tight”. Again he asked me what she was wearing and and he asked what we had done to find her. I told him of my posting on the neighborhood facebook wall and of my search of the school and every park in the neighborhood and of my going to her friend’s houses. Then he said that he was going to call another officer over to our house, and that they would search the house. Then, if they didn’t find her here, they would call the Sargent and plan our next move. All of this was so terrifying to me. I knew that she wasn’t in the house, but really when a child goes missing where else do you start the search? So he called the other officer and asked him to come assist him. Eve’s mom came over to ask if we had found her yet, and when I said that we hadn’t she asked if I needed her to watch my other kiddos. I explained the deputy’s plan and I said that when we knew what the next step was I would let her know if I needed her to watch them for me. I sat the other kids down and fed them, while the officers searched the house. When it came time for them to check the basement I unlocked the door and let them down. They had just finished their search and were beginning to tell me what happens next when one of our neighbors called into the house from the porch. I ran to the front door and she had Tyra with her. She had seen my post on the neighborhood wall hours ago and thought that we probably found her, but then she saw Tyra walking down the street by her house and she put Tyra in her car and brought her home. I was nearly in tears, and I asked Tyra where she was. She said that she was at her friend Aleecia’s house. I have no idea who Aleecia is, and they don’t live in our ward so I don’t know where she lives either, and that would explain why they didn’t see my post on facebook asking if anyone had seen her.
The officers were both glad that we had a happy ending. They asked me a few more questions so they could make out their reports to account for their time, and then they left. I immediately posted on facebook that she had been found so my neighbors would all know that everything was alright now, and I called Kyle to tell him. Then I fed Tyra her dinner and got the kids to bed.
Tyra has no idea how serious what she has done is. She was shocked to find the police here and even more shocked to find out they were in our house because we were looking for HER. She knew where she was and she thinks that makes everything ok. As I mentioned before, this isn’t the first time that she hasn’t come home after school. So she has had the lecture on why it’s not safe and why she must come straight home. It doesn’t seem to be sinking in. At this point, I am deciding to pull her out of double dosing. I understand she needs the help with her reading, but her safety is far more important to me. I am also going to need to have a meeting with her teacher to explain that Tyra is not allowed to just walk home on her own, but that her brothers must come get her so they can all walk home together. I just don’t know how to get her to understand that I only want her safety. For the time being, I’m just glad she is home and Kyle comes home tomorrow.