New Do

I woke up looking like this.


After an hour in the chair I ended up looking like this.



The parlour in St. John's is awesome! All the staff is friendly and easy going. The walls and adorned by art and you can't help but feel pampered.

I am a client for life!

Dress for Blake

I finally made something Blake will wear!


It has a knit top with a sew in three tiered skirt. The knitting took no time at all but the sewing was a little more intense for a novice like me. I had to add elastic around the join because of a gap, and the seams on the tiers don't match up...but it works. And she will wear it. So I can't complain.



Now I can't help but look at a pillow case or bed linen and think, "I can totally make a dress out of that!"

wonky weekend fun

Last Wednesday three people were laid off from the group I work with. On Thursday we were notified the rest of us still had jobs and we were now part of a totally different group whose boss (I'm sure) has no idea what it is we actually do. So on Friday I decided to take the day off.

This weekend was about letting go of stress and tension of the previous week. This weekend was about being with the family and doing wonderful fun things. For instance:

Taking Blake to the zoo.


We are old pro's at the zoo bit so we knew exactly what we wanted to see. Of course the petting zoo was first on the list. Our other favorites: sea lion's, lorikeet's, and the giraffes. We had lunch on the concert lawn and enjoyed a relaxing ride on the train.



We also took the kids to an empty lot and practice our bikin' skillz. Ranen shed the training wheels and rode fancy free. I quote, "I'm so addicted to riding my bike. I can't think of anything else!"



Blake rode for a bit but decided to kidnap my camera and went to town. And here I am. Riding on a kick arse bike (thanks sara!) with brand spanking new tires (thanks chris!).



We're working on getting Blake off her trainers as well. I see many lazy sunday afternoon rides in our future!

The great adventure - Lego Land

Last but not least in my great adventure regurgitation is our time at Lego Land.

Lego Land offered a more relaxed and easy going time then either Disney or California Adventure. It was like we had the park to ourselves. The most we had to wait for any ride was 15 minutes. Out of the big three, this park offered the most options for Blake. Plus, there were many many photo ops.

It's been a long couple of days.

I still have a job.

I'm suppose to be relieved or at least happy...right?

The great adventure - Disney/CA Adventure.

We didn't do Disneyland and California Adventure in consecutive days, but the two mesh and meld in my mind so here we go.

We stayed at the Howard Johnson of Anaheim. The pirate ship water feature with the addition of the pool were the selling points. Not to mention it was walking distance from the parks! The first night we relaxed and had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney. In the restaurant, I happened to sit under a swaying monkey that the kids swore was going to poop on my head. During our dinner random cries of, "Veronica! Watch out for poo!" could be heard. Ah, yes. Classey all the way! :-)

Disney was fun. We went on a weekday so the lines were very manageable for most of the rides. Blake was a little small for the more intense roller coasters. But she didn't mind. We just split into two groups mid-day and did our own things.

Blake loved any ride that required driving:


Ranen was sweet enough to endure the flying dumbo and other "smaller kid" rides.


Blake ran into Alice.


She's never seen the movie so I had to explain the tea cups...
By toon town everyone was running on empty. DL is definetly a multiple day must!!



Cali Adventure was done on a different day. There were more bigger kid rides (Ranen was geeked) and it had Ariel's Grotto which is a character themed dinning experience. Yup. Blake spent an hour with Belle, Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. She was in heaven.

Blake also meet Minnie:


And became the "screamer of the day" at the Monster's Inc Ride. But honestly, it was not a surprise!

We didn't see everything, but we did enough. We started out our days with smiles...


And ended them exhausted...


The kids were amazingly well behaved considering how sore the legs were. We ended our Disney adventure by watching the fireworks in front of the castle. It was a fitting end!

The great adventure - LA addition

In our trip we had two big travel days and after the redwoods was one of those days. We left in the middle of a storm and by the time we passed Oakland, it was warm with clear skies. I was amazed at how quickly the scenery changed from forest to high desert.

We drove non-stop all day and that night stayed at a Motel 6 outside of LA. The next morning we packed up to do some sight seeing.

First stop: Hollywood!

On the way in the kids were in awe. They asked, "Are we stars now?" We walked the stars. We saw a lot of Jokers out and about. The kids didn't really understand about the names and we less thrilled with the cement footprints. I was able to get a shot of Blake on top of Shirley Temples block.


After 5 minutes the kids were done. I had to bribe this picture out of them with ice cream...


Next stop was the Tar Pits. Now I've never been so I had no clue what to expect. The grounds were beautiful and the pit itself was a little stinky. For some reason the kids (and I'm counting Chris as such) were enamored by the statue of a ground sloth. We took 20 minutes taking turns posing.

Blake and Chris on the sloth:


Ranen and Chris on the Sloth:


The kids posing in front of the sloth:


Chris saying goodbye to the love of his life:


We ended the LA sightseeing tour with a trip to the beach. The kids played for hours and got soaked from head to toe. Though it was cooler then the norm that day, the water was still exponentially warmer then the Oregon ocean.


We left the beach and headed to Anaheim...

The great adventure - part 1

So the story begins on an ordinary day when out of nowhere I hear a gasp and a manly woo hoo. It seemed the remaining members of the Grateful Dead were planning a tour. The following moments were filled with facts, dates, names and other information that eventually sounded like the teachers voice in the Peanut Cartoons to my ears. But I sensed his excitement and encouraged him to plan on seeing a show.

Well, plans for seeing a show in LA turned into an eleven day family road trip to see two shows, camping in the redwoods, Disneyland/California Adventure, beach and lego land! What's the saying? Give a man an inch...

Looking back, the trip was a success. Over 2000 miles and no one was killed due to annoyance! I must confess that Chris rocked the genius button when he bought the kids portable DVD players for the car and 50+ kid movies from Criagslist. But we are all glad to be home and are trying to resettle into life.

Day's 1-4: Crescent City California

I've never been into the heart of Redwood country. So when we first drove into the area I was blown away by how BIG these trees were. Everyone in the car was Ohh-ing and Oww-ing. We stayed in a KOA cabin that was AWESOME. It was quaint, set into the back lot in the trees (away from the campers). The only downfall was the distance to the restrooms.



The first two days were rainy so we kept our walks short and mostly stayed inside the cabin. The kids did great keeping themselves entertained. But on the third day we saw sun and warm weather. We took advantage by going on a super long walk in the woods and on the beach.


There were trees to explore.

Bunny ear picture wars...


and plenty of big trees to see.

At the beach we spent hours talking about all the critters we saw.


We could not have asked for a more perfect day at a NoCal beach!




Before we left Crescent City we stopped by the Rangers office with completed projects that the kids had done. The Ranger put on his hat, checked their answers and swore them in as official Jr. Park Rangers. No questions about when their superpowers would arrive. Our kids rock.

Oh...and if you're ever in Crescent City, check out the play structure!



It's HUGE and even the boy had fun!

We are home...

Wow! I can't believe it's almost been a month since I last blogged in! Bad Veronica!

Well, our family is home from an eleven day trip to california. Yup, we survived. The kids are intact. My car is still running and all is right in the world of the Johnson's-Petryszak's!

So stay tuned. Stories and Pictures from Disney-Dead 09 are on their way!