Disneyland 2016

Matai is about to turn 4 and we have been talking for a month about what he wanted to do to celebrate. His answer: "Cars Cake and Tickets" (Tai speak for "the same thing we did last year: Chuck E Cheese.)

We really wanted to mix it up though (and our house is too small to host that many kids and parents), so we looked into bouncy houses, swimming pools and other party rentals. We kept coming to the same conclusion: After renting out a party room, buying food, cake, decorations and gifts, we would be well over $300. For two hours.

I started looking into Disneyland packages, and realized we could fly out to California for just over $300 using Allegiant Air. Combine that with having a brother who lives in SoCal (and an awesome "SoCal Resident" Discount) and a free place to stay, and we are looking at a 4 day Disney Vacation for 3 people for under $800.

The BEST part is, Tai is FINALLY at the magical 40" height range where he can ride almost every ride in both parks (including the Radiator Springs Racers ride that has caused many tears in the last few trips to Disney.)

We are so excited to fly on a plane for the first time as a family, and enjoy a few days away from the day to day grind.

Life Update

Just wanted to share a little life update to make up for the last year.

I am working full time as an enrollment adviser for an online technical school. We specialize in online certifications and have a low price/high job placement model that makes our school VERY unique. I love my coworkers, have great benefits, and am compensated really well. The company is moving to Lehi in the next 6 months, so a lot of big changes are coming at our house-including a potential move.

I am going to school full time online through SUU to finish my bachelors degree. So I am currently a full time student, a full time employee, and a full time mom and wife.

Colton is currently loving the "stay at home dad" life. He teaches about 5 guitar lessons every day, and has a waiting list a mile long. He is hoping to get into nursing school in January, and we are just trying to tie up some lose ends to make that happen. I personally love having him home, he is the best housekeeper and takes really good care of me with how much I work.

Matai is currently in his second year of pre-school. He was accepted into a government program for kids with "special needs" as his speech is a little behind. This last year we have seen a dramatic difference in his speech, and he really loves going to school every day.

Tai is currently in gymnastic classes (which he LOVES) and is a very active little boy. He loves animals, planes, cars and more recently Legos (Weggos.) He also really loves his friends Giddy, Kru, and Kase. He spent the last couple of months attached at the hip to his cousin Kruz who was here visiting from New Zealand.

We have 2 cats and 2 dogs. I don't know when we went from 0-crazy animal people, but I can assure you (and my neighbors) that we are not getting anymore pets. Long story short, we adopted one cat, (Jekyl) and my parents (my dad) adopted his brother, Hide. Then my parents (my mom) decided they didn't want a cat, so we ended up with 2. Well, since they have each other, they want nothing to do with us, and our hopes of getting Tai an animal friend were in vain.

We then rescued a 2 year old Golden Retriever (who was named Copenhagen, which we changed to Cooper, for obvious reasons.) He is a GREAT dog, but has a lot of separation anxiety because of how he was brought up. To try and curb the anxiety, we thought it would be best to get another golden retriever as a companion.

So basically what I'm trying to tell you is, see! I'm not crazy.
And if my house smells like animals, and you don't tell me, you aren't really my friend.
(The animals are outside most of the time and Colton is an obsessive vacuum-er.)

That is our life in a little tiny pine-nut shell. (I love pine nuts.)