Lion King or Bust (Portland Trip Day 1)

All throughout this year my parents have been giving out $125 Lion King tickets to everyone in the family, as each persons birthday comes around. Seriously, all of my siblings and most of the grandkids have one, that’s like 20 tickets! (Holy birthday presents! Right?) The kids were super excited and have been counting down the days till it was time to go.

Well today’s the day! The car is loaded, kids are in, home made bumper sticker made by Kase, and we’re heading to Portland to cash in our tickets! Lion King or Bust!

On our way to Portland we made a little pit stop at Multnomah Falls.

(Kayleb, Drew, Hailey, Hudson, Kase, Alaina, Bryce, and Ky)

Here’s all of the kids waving after hiking up to the first bridge…

…And here’s all of the “LAZY’S” who stayed down below to wave back at all of the people up on the bridge :)

Cousins checking out the fish.

Hudson walking on the ceiling.

Once we arrived in Portland we had lunch together at the Olive Garden.

After checking into the hotel we had some time to kill before show time so the kids went swimming. We all know that a trip out of town, no matter what the occasion, isn’t nearly as memorable for the kids if it doesn’t include a Hotel Pool Experience. So, we made sure they got one. No excuses for grumping around on this trip. Waterfalls, Swimming Pools, oh yeah….and only the COOLEST Broadway Show around. :)

Then it was off to the big event!

I don’t really know how to put into words how cool this show was. We have been to dozens of productions and this was truly one of the best. All I can say about this AMAZING show was that it was….well AMAZING. Oh yeah, and did I already say it is probably one of the best Broadway shows I’ve ever seen. YEAH, I guess I did, didn’t I.

The animals and the costuming were out of this world spectacular and the music was fantastic and fun. The lady who played Rafiki was a native of South Africa and she was my favorite. She had awesome songs and a gorgeous voice. Loved it! Here’s a few pics from the play.

Here’s the whole fam sitting in row #3. Sweet! (Hudson’s is here too, he’s just sitting back hiding his pretty little face between Dan and I)

If you haven’t seen this show….find the time and spend the money. Well worth it. Even for the kids….you won’t regret it. This was a much loved night and vacation that was made possible to us thanks to Mom and Dad Rose. We love you and thank you for this awesome family experience.

Lion King or Bust (Portland Trip Day 2)

After swimming in the pool one last time this morning and eating a fantastic breakfast, we packed up and headed out.

First Stop….The Portland Zoo.

The real Lion King.

Notice above, the meat that the zoo keepers stuck to the glass for the lions to eat. It made for a super fun time watching the lion “hunt” for it’s prey and then lick the glass clean. Not a speck of meat wasted.

They have a cool Dinosaur Walk you can go on. Some 17 or 18 robotic dinosaurs which would growl at us and spit at us every corner we turned down. The kids thought this was a pretty cool section of the zoo. They even got to dig for fossils in one section.

Right about the time our feet and legs had just about given up and broken down on us we arrived at the much anticipated train ride around the park. Slow and simple, but a nice refresher from the walking and packing we had been doing for the past few hours.

The steam engine we were being pulled with had to stop at one point (pictured below) and “blow off some steam”. It was a loud explosion of steam that sent clouds rushing into the forest around us. Pretty cool really.

If Jax wasn’t being pushed in a stroller, we would just throw him to the next attraction. Either way, his little legs didn’t get too much of a work out. Ahhh, the advantage of being the baby.

We hitched a ride in the back of Leslie’s truck instead of waiting for the zoo shuttle to come and bus us over to our van.

We were all smiles at the way this weekend turned out. On our way home, we stopped in Hood River to eat pizza at Pietro’s Pizza. Kind of a tradition of ours most every time we make a weekend out of Portland. We like the pizza and the kids like the arcades, and it is perfect timing for a much needed potty break.

All in all…..a fantastic weekend. Thanks much to our Mom and Dad Rose for treating us to the Play last night. And thank much to the kids and cousins and siblings that made this weekend so fun.

Let the funny summertime pictures begin.

Now that summer time is here....there is no time for boredom. The kids find all sorts of fun things to do. With the heat and sunshine, the sprinklers and pools are fair game.

And when not swimming, the imagination comes out. Can anyone say,

"I am a robot. Number 5 is alive!"

Every ones kids do this, don't they?

Come and get your tickets... If you dare.

Hot off the press...ECLIPSE VIP PASSES.

(Designed by Jenne Kissell)

Twilight movies....another one is out and the tickets are ready!!! Jenne, Kathy, and I have spent the last few months planning and preparing for this years Eclipse Event. We've tried to make it fun for the 116 ladies who will be attending our event. We have stayed up many evenings getting into character to send out emails to the ladies disguised as Bella, Alice, Billy, Edward, Jacob, Rosalie, or one of our other favorite characters from the books. It's been a lot of fun!

We decided our VIP pass pick-up location and event had to be just as fun. We gave the ladies a few clues to where our secret location would be and warned them of the dangers they may encounter when coming to pick-up their VIP pass. Namely, "the newborn vampires". In fact, at the beginning of the trail head we even placed a sign which read... "Proceed with caution and please be sure you haven't been followed. Newborn vampires are closer than you think and who knows what they are capable of."

As the ladies traveled down the trail they came to three forks in the road. At each fork there was an arrow pointing to show them the way. Also at each Fork in the rode we placed a little "surprise" (one of our "Newborn Vampires" waiting in the bushes) for the ladies. Hee...Hee...Hee :)

I know, I know, you're probably wondering how we got these vampire models/actors to come out to our event and do this for us. Believe it or not it was actually fairly easy to get them to cover their faces in white paint, let us douse them in glitter and have them hideout in bushes for a couple hours. They took payment in the form of Dairy Queen for their hours worked. Besides....they are all head over heels for the books and shows themselves. They would have done it for free but the food was a bonus :) Right Boys!???

We didn't want to give anyone a heart attack so we thought we would take it easy on the ladies when they turned the first corner, something not to scary and easy on the eyes. So this is what stepped out from the bushes to greet them.

Our sparkly, shirtless vampire. Mr. Zach Armitage. And Yes, the sparkles were real, and vibrant. It was such a cool effect that Zach pulled off perfectly. (Lots of the ladies stopped to take pictures of him, and with him.)

As the ladies turned at the next fork in the road, heads still spinning from seeing our first sparkly vampire, out jumps vampire #2, Kayleb. Kayleb's job was to wait in the tall grass and when the ladies came down the path he would leap out of the grass and run, "gazelle like", through the field.

Kayleb was actually used as a distraction, because while everyone was looking at him on the right side of the path. Our 3rd vampire, Chad, would silently slip out behind the ladies from the bushes on the left and follow them.

Eventually they would realize they were being followed and then they would scurry down the last trail and run into our secret location, screaming and giggling all of the way. Everyone seemed to enjoy this little shot of adrenaline tonight:)

We did have a few casualties though. A few got lost and were searching for us on the other end of town, one sprained ankle from falling in a hole while running from a newborn vampire, one gal even sacrificed her newborn baby to the vampires as her bargaining chip to get away herself, and there were several soiled undies.

Totally Fun. Thanks all for contributing and coming along for the ride.

Air Freshner

I went in to check on the girls cleaning their room today and found this. (An open container of deodorant sitting in front of an open window) I walked over and picked it up to put the lid back on, so it wouldn't dry out, and the girls yelled, "Mom, Don't!" "Our room stinks and that is our air freshener." They thought that with the window open the wind would blow in over their deodorant stick and make their room smell nice.

Now that's using your brain girls. Keep it up! I love the smell of a clean house :)

G-string

Here's a conversation Alaina and I had tonight. (Sunday night: 10:00pm)

Mom: Alaina, do you have orchestra during this last week of school or are you all done?

Alaina: Yeah I do. Oh, and mom I forgot to tell you but my violin is broke and I need it fixed by tomorrow because I have orchestra in the morning!

Mom: Are you kidding....ugh...Alaina, did you seriously break your violin?

Alaina: Mom, it wasn't me. We had a substitute on Friday and she was tightening my strings for me. I just sat there while she was twisting and twisting it until it got so tight that finally she snapped my "G-String".

Does anyone else find this statement, coming from an 11 year olds mouth, HILARIOUS ?

Yes.....After laughing so hard and rolling on the floor, we did have to explain to her why we were in hysterics. She couldn't find the punchline in it all (gratefully), but we sure did.

BASEBALL

Ky's first year in the "BIG league"... I mean little league. It was a big step up from his YMCA season last year. Big step #1- the kids actually pitched instead of the coaches, Big step #2- They had full blown team uniforms, from the Hats down to the cleats, and Big step #3 (which Ky would tell you is the most cool part of their uniform)- was wearing the required protective cup.

A couple of highlights this year were...

Getting the 3rd out of an inning, by catching a fly ball in the outfield, during a nail biter game.

And earning a bag of candy when he had the best hit of the night, by hitting the ball all of the way to the fence. Way to go Ky!

GO Team APPLEBEES!

Golfing with Friends

Big shout out of appreciation to our friends, the Armitage's. We took them up on an offer to go golfing in Spokane, and are glad we did. We've had to turn them down on many other offers to play because of Dan's crazy work schedule but this time persistence paid off. Thanks for dragging Dan out of the office on a Monday! Way fun trip. Would love to do it again... Golf Nazi Cops and all :)

Is there such a thing as watching too many "Living Scripture " movies?

The girl's spent all day planning a Family Home Evening lesson for us. Most of their time was spent coloring and designing their very own game board to use as part of their lesson. It turned out great and all of the kids had a lot of fun!

Their lesson was about Moses (A story from the bible, they had just talked about at church today). Before we played the game they quizzed us to see how familiar we were with this Bible story. If the kids paused, even just a second before answering their assigned questions, Hailey would chime in with, "Don't you remember in the movie?" or "Come on, remember in that cartoon show when the lady puts the baby in the basket..."

Nice :) Shouldn't the average church going kid be saying... "You know, just like we learned in primary today" or "Don't you remember when we read that story during family scripture study".

Oh no, not the Ostler kids. It's, "You know... like in the movie?"

Surprise Bedroom Makeover!!!

While the boys were away camping this weekend, the girls and I had a little fun of our own, making over the boys bedroom. As soon as they headed out of town we got to painting. My mom, Leslie, and the girls all helped.

Sadly, my mom ended up with a few more grey hairs after our day of painting :)

With the room painted and nothing to do but watch the paint dry, we decided to round up a few more sisters and head out for pedicures.

Next was dinner with Grandma, Kristy, Leslie, Brittany, Myself and the girls.

After dinner, Alaina, Hailey, and I went home, got into our P.J.’s then went back out to a 9:15pm showing of Shrek. Talk about a packed full of fun night!

When we got up the next morning we still had a lot of work ahead of us. We moved all of the furniture back in, built a new bed, sewed a few curtains, made beds, and put all of the finishing touches on the boys room. (Before Dan left he built a raised toddler bed out of Hudson’s old crib parts. He left me all of the bolts, wood and screws so it was super easy for me to assemble by myself. It turned out awesome and now the boys have a little fort below his bed!) Another favorite feature in the room was their very own, custom scoreboard. I saw one like this online for $139.00 and thought, “I bet I could make that for less”. Well… $40 later. ‘Viola’!

Dan gave us a 5 minute heads up call saying that they were in town and we took our places. I was in the fort, Hailey was on a bunk bed, and Alaina was hiding in their closet. The girls were so excited to show off what we had done!

The look on the boy’s faces says it all. I especially love the middle top picture where Alaina is just getting ready to jump out of the closet and yell, “SURPRISE!” Needless to say, the boys loved it!

Thanks for all the help guys!