We were on TV!

Here we are live on TV!

(a friend took this pic on her television at home)

 As spontaneous as we look in this shot, in actuality I'm saying, "Don't look at the camera, don't move, keep doing what you're doing, don't look at the camera!"

As Discovery Science Center members, we were invited to come to the museum for a promotional filming.  We agreed to it, even though we had to be there at 5am, because

1.  We got to attend the Indiana Jones exhibit a second time for free, and

 2. We got to watch a live taping in person.  It was interesting to watch them prep for a shot and then actually go through the process of filming live footage.

We really didn't expect to end up on TV, and we didn't care since it was only the local morning news but a handful of people caught us including my mom and one of Andrew's coworkers, that's pretty fun.

Double Digits - Happy 10th Birthday Jason!

Happy 10th  Birthday Jason!!!

Having his actual birthday on a Sunday meant cupcakes at Sunday School, woo hoo! 

And then we headed from church to DISNEYLAND!

The family was off to buy annual passes...unfortunately Adam got sick and the day didn't go quite as planned...

After dropping Daddy and Adam at home, the rest of us went to see Mickey!

It was a freezing cold day, and with foster baby and no daddy, we could only do little kid rides,

but we had enough fun to get super excited for a year of Disney access!

And Minnie Mouse was kind enough to make Jason a cake and have a tea party with us.

Then it was time for dinner - a Pastrami Burger!

The next day he was able to open his presents...can you guess what he is super excited about?

That's glow-in-the-dark putty.  He loves putty!

Ten amazing years with this boy.  Now we just need to prepare for the next ten years as this boy becomes a man.  We are so excited for the next chapter.

Love you, Jason!

Northern California Vacation Part Two

Continuing on our New Year's Weekend getaway, we headed to a small zoo and amusement park in San Jose.  Wonderfully, our Discovery Science Center passes have reciprocity with this location so our day was free!  The Happy Hollow Park and Zoo has a bunch of fun little kid rides.  If I lived near this place and had preschoolers, I'd be a regular!

There were swings, car rides, a dragon train...

and for the medium-sized kids, a roller coaster!

After hours riding all the rides, we took a bit of time and visited their little zoo.

There were Capybara! 

And some lemurs, a dino dig area, a leopard, and a large petting zoo.

This place was an unexpected surprise and oh, so much fun!

The other highlight of our weekend was the hotel.

Who knew staying in a hotel could be so much fun!

They rode the glass elevators, overate at the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffets (I must mention that I woke up to omelets in bed both mornings thanks to my wonderful husband!)

 and swam in the indoor pool!

And the best part was sharing the fun with friends!

We finished our vacation weekend celebrating New Years!

We watched the ball fall in Times Square at 9pm and then sent the kids to bed :)

We then played games until we were startled by fireworks outside,

oh yeah, Happy New Year 2013!!!!

 

2012's Top 10

Here we go again...Every New Year's Eve Andrew and I ponder the previous year and come up with the Top 10 events for our family, the good the bad, the significant.  Here it is...2012!
1.  We moved!  It wasn't a very far move (down the street) but it was a big move from a rented condo into our own home.

2.  Not only did we move, we remodeled the house.  We stripped the ceilings, washed every surface, replaced all floors, completly gutted the kitchen even removing the sliding glass door and building a wall, painted all ceilings and walls, and there's still lots more to do but that was enough to move us in :)

3.  Andrew and I went through the certification process and became licensed foster parents. 
4.  We took our first placement in September, a 7 month old girl, and she's still with us.  Precious and wonderful, we're enjoying the time we have with her.

 

5.  One of those things you don't want to remember but it was a part of our year so here you go...Jill broke her arm falling off her shelf that she was trying to climb.  A broken arm did not slow this girl down, thankfully!

 

6.  And while we're listing negatives, Jocelyn had to call 911 after Jason fell out of a tree.  Fortunately, it was only a minor concussion but watching your child go pale and near faint is not something I ever want to repeat.

 

7.  Back to happy thoughts...We were given a kitten, the prettiest, most social kitten ever!

8.  Buying a house squashed any plans of traveling this year but we did manage to squeeze in a quick trip to northern California to visit our good friends and meet their newly adopted princess. It was a great weekend, we saw many sites, and had lots of fun!

9.  Our family had a membership to the Discovery Science Center for a second year.  This year had multiple extra special events perfect for our family - Dora the Explorer, Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination, and Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology. 

Jill loves Dora,

we all love Star Wars and celebrated Andrew's birthday there,

and we're studying Ancient History this year and got so much out of the Archaeology exhibit!

 

10.  The Long family came to visit us!  We loved spending time with them and reconnecting after too long apart.

All that's missing from this pic is Lindsay...but there will be lots of Lindsay in 2013 :)

 

Northern Cal Vacation Part One

For New Year's weekend, we drove north to see the Golden Gate bridge.

It was a gorgeous clear day...and incredibly cold 

We also visited Chinatown.

It was a crazy busy place, yet somehow relaxing and fun!

They have a playground to allow the kids to run after being couped up in a car for way too long trying to find parking in a very crowded city!

We made a point to visit the Fortune Cookie Museum, yum!

Although the best site all day was Adam learning that if you pick up this black thing and put it to your ear you can talk to people miles away!  Yep, he actually kept asking, "is this for real?"

But really, the main reason we drove north was to meet this precious little girl...

Her mommy and daddy flew halfway around the world to get her out of an orphanage,

and we couldn't wait to meet her!

Love this family :)

There's more to share from this trip...coming soon!