Summer Vacation - Part II - Disneyland

Continuing from last week's blog - part I.

I obviously don't have to say that the kids were thrilled about the news of Disneyland. Nancy and I love surprises, and it goes without saying that the kids never saw this coming - which made the trip all the more pleasurable, because they couldn't stop talking about all the things they were going to do once they got there.

I think for this blog entry, I'll just add as many pics as I can, and add a few comments for each.

Nancy and the kids in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle. For some reason, Sam just wasn't cooperating in the early part of the day. While Sadie and McKayla loved every minute, Sam just had a hard time. Perhaps it was sensory overload.

Another great shot of an unhappy "Sam I Am" and the girls in front of the castle. Maybe he was unhappy because of the tethered leash we had him wear for the entire day. I remember Nancy and I had "argued" whether this was Cinderella's Castle, or Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Spencer won :-)

Here is McKayla and Sam in front of Tarzan's Treehouse. Nancy and I were both surprised to see the treehouse renamed from Swiss Family Robinson's Treehouse - I guess that tells you how long it's been since we've been here. Does that qualify us as middle aged???

McKayla posing in front of Tarzan's Treehouse. She's our confident girl, afraid of nothing - and this pic definitely shows her personality. She and Sam went through the treehouse 3 or 4 times, while we switched off with Sadie, going to the Indiana Jones ride.

We waited in line for over an hour to pose with Micky, and nearly lost Sam in the process, as he weaved in/out of the crowd (should have put that "leash" on him). McKayla REALLY wanted to meet Mickey. Want to know what her first words were afterwards? "Mommy, Mickey's a lot smaller than I thought."

In order to meet Mickey, you've got to weave through a maze of rooms and hallways of Mickey's House in Toon Town. Here, you can also see some souveniers the kids each picked out: Sadie's Disneyland T-shirt, Sam's SeaWorld hat, and Mckayla's Minnie Mouse.

Here in Toon Town, Sam's driving Sadie and McKayla to their next stop: Goofy's Playhouse.

The Buzz Lightyear ride was a blast for everyone. A clear winner for Sam (and even Sadie enjoyed it, which is odd since she's so anti-boy stuff at this age...).

Sam got the high score on this ride.

This rocket ride may be a little old, but it still provided Sam and I with a lot of smiles.

Our trip to Sea World was so worth the extra miles down I-5. This tank was humongous, and Shamu was truly inspiring. Although, we have to admit the show was a little hoaky.

The dolphin show was a lot of fun. We decided to sit on the 3rd row up (can you say MISTAKE), and we really got absolutely drenched with saltwater. Sam thoroughly hated it, but Sadie and McKayla couldn't get enough of it.

We were in California for 4 days. Out of those 4 days, we happen to go to the beach on the hottest day of them all. It was over 100 this day (which for you Arizona folks is a cold spell, but for us, is like visiting a sauna!) Anyway, here's a pic of Sadie and McKayla showing off their beach heads!

OK, so here's the largest ocean in the world, right in front of us, and all Sam wanted to do all day was play in this little puddle??? I just don't get it :-)

This pic was actually taken in Northern California. There was a clear difference in water temperature, gravel-like sand in the NoCal beaches, and the air temps were obviously much cooler. Not to mention the blue skies we enjoyed in SoCal were nowhere to be found in NoCal.

Well, all in all, we really enjoyed our summer vacation. After all was said and done, we nearly drove from Canada to Mexico - all on Interstate 5!!! From the massive redwoods, to the morning breakfast surprises, to the sunburn, it was a great way to end the summer, and open in the new school year for the girls.

Summer Vacation - Part I - Redwood National Park

I know it's the first week of October already, but now that we actually have a blog up, we would like to share a few things we did over the summer - starting with our summer vacation.

Let me first preface this by saying it was an an extremely stressful summer, as we have still been trying desparately to sell our home in Michigan. It still feels like we have one foot in Washington, and the other foot caught in a bear trap in Michigan. Our good memories from living there for five years will last with us forever, of course, but we will be so much more at peace once we have resolved our obligations to the home in Michigan.

The home has been on the market since June. And when you include the 4 months it was on the market last year, it is truly amazing how few and far between the leads really are. But we remain hopeful that we can see resolution soon. It's been a complete nightmare otherwise. So, the vacation was timely in the sense that we needed more than ever to step back, and enjoy each other's smiles and laughter with the kids.

Nancy's brother, Jeff, lives in Ashland, Oregon, just minutes north of the California state border. When we visited him in June earlier this year, we promised ourselves that we would return to see the beautiful landscape in that area. I remember as a kid, I would travel with my family to see both sets of grandparents in Twain Harte and in Auburn, and going to see Yosemite National Park, but I had never gone through the Redwood National Park - boy were we in for a treat!

We made our way down South from Grant's Pass, Oregon, and drove on a tiny one lane, winding highway. It was close to dusk when we finally arrived in the park. We kept driving through the park, closer to our motel. Then we had an idea. The Park is right on the ocean, and the kids had never seen the ocean before. So we kept driving west until the road literally stopped. We parked the car at the edge of the dropoff, and asked the kids to get out (they still did not know what they were getting out for...).

We stood there at the ledge, and all five of us just stared in awe of the Pacific Ocean, staring right back at us. The kids were esctatic. We climbed down the ledge, and walked on the beach, collecting all sorts of colorful and interesting-shaped driftwood. One piece was shaped like a dogbone, and another shaped like the bony finger of the wicked witch of the west. As we were about to leave, we were treated with a beautiful sunset. So we just sat there for a few long minutes, watching the sun drop into the water- something Nancy and I had actually never seen before either! It was great timing, and nice start to the vacation.

The next morning (Saturday), we started in Klamath. Some of you might remember a commercial Dodge did a couple of years ago, about the gigantic statue of Paul Bunyan, his ax, and his big blue ox. Well we happened to stay two minutes away from where that commercial was filmed. Here's a few pictures. I think if I remember correctly, both statues weighed more than 20 tons!



Some of you may remember hearing about how some trees are so enormous, that you can actually drive a car through them. Well, there's actually three of them in this area, and we have proof that you can INDEED drive your car through one! It was pretty amazing... we stood inside this tree, and looked directly upward, and could actually see the light of day through the very top of the tree. Apparently, the tree had been struck by lightening a few years back.





I was a little confused as we drove around that day. I thought there was just one Redwood National Park - but apparently, there are two national parks, and two more state parks. We obviously did not have time to see all of them, so we approached this like any adventure, and went wherever our car took us. This next picture more or less highlights the drive through the redwoods. We were so amazed at the sheer SIZE of these things - this one here was literally ten feet away from the highway, so we had to stop and take this pic...



This next tree (below) we found on one of our hikes. Whatcha want to bet this treecave is occupied by some large furry hibernating creature in the winter time?



These next two pics show show a tree appropriately named "Big Tree". Seeing these pictures is one thing, but seeing these trees live, in person, was an absolutely incredible experience. I remember as a kid, going with my grandfather to a California state park, where some early settlers had cut down a tree so large, that they actually made a dance floor out of the remaining tree trunk! This tree below was every bit as big as the one I saw when I was 12, if not bigger. This "Big Tree" here is said to be 2900 years old, over 400 feet tall, with bark over 1 foot thick! To give you an idea how big this thing is, it's diameter can be measured by 30 men's armspans!



We went on a beautiful mile-long hike in a place called Lady Bird Grove, named after former first lady "Lady Bird" Johnson. The landscape was stunning, and really put things into perspective. No matter where we went, we were surprised to find even bigger, and better, and more beautiful parts of nature throughout the entire day. What an amazing experience this was - one which we hope the kids will soon not forget.

Let me set up our next blog (part II) by saying this: all summer long, we told the kids that we would be going to see the Redwood National and State Parks. We built that up as much as we could, and after all was said and done, we felt like we accomplished what we had set out to do. Needless to say, however, our trip was just getting started. The kids had no clue what was going to happen next...

The next morning, we got up very early and had breakfast at IHOP, where the kids each chose "smiley-face" pancakes to eat. After they had ordered, I secretly took our server aside, and asked for a special favor, which he gladly agreed to. When the food came out, they were each served with their "smily-face" pancakes - but with a small twist! We asked the kids, "hey - that's cool - what do your pancakes look like?" And they all responded that the pancakes looked like the face of Mickey Mouse. Then Nancy and I asked, "well, how would you like to actually MEET Mickey Mouse?" Then once we pulled out the tickets to Disneyland and Sea World, they went NUTS!

Stay tuned for Part II - we'll update our blog a little later!

- The Jacksons

September 23, 2007

OK... now that we actually have a blogspot, now what do we do? Do we actually have to start journaling or something?

Anyway, Nancy and I have been inspired by our good friends in Michigan (thank you Larsens and Dyals and Millers) to start a family blog.

We have been in Maple Valley, Washington since June 2006, and thoroughly enjoying ourselves here. Every morning, we wake up to view the beautiful nature all around us. We fell in love with the Washington landscape from the moment we drove here from Canton. We've got hiking and biking trails aplenty, a walking trail down to a gorgeous lake (Lake Wilderness), and were fortunate to move into a great ward.

We moved into the back end of a cul-de-sac, with many friends for the kids. Five of our neighbors are LDS! And we literally walk to church, as it is on the next street over. We've been told that one in seven people in Maple Valley is LDS. The kids just started school on the day after Labor Day. Sadie (9) is in Fourth Grade, McKayla (6) entered First Grade, and Sam (3) is just happy the girls are outta the house, so he can play swords with his next door friend Timothy.

Nancy keeps herself busy with her Weight Watcher meetings and calling as Cub Scout Committee Chair. And Spencer is employed with AT&T/Cingular Wireless as a Team Lead in the direct marketing group. He is also the Employment Specialist and Emergency Preparedness Coordinator in the ward.

We're very happy to also have Spencer's brother (Sterling and wife, Jaime) move their family to Maple Valley at the beginning of September. Sterling worked for Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, and accepted a job with Microsoft. We're happily in the same ward! This is the first time since college that we've actually lived anywhere near family!

Please stay tuned for more posts. We just wanted to get this started, and we will be adding blogs and pictures on a regular basis. We are grateful for our friendships and family that have helped us get to this point today. Take Care,

Spencer, Nancy, Sadie, McKayla & Sam