march 2012

march 25

good open house today. someone has made an offer which we're considering. the children are back to school tomorrow which is going to be a bit of a shock to the system but it's been a great spring break - a lovely combination of adventure and relaxation. aly really enjoyed her week long camp and came back with the friendship trophy [someone wrote a message saying she was the friendliest person they'd ever met and i'm inclined to agree :) ].

march 18

buzz lightyear was the only character besides tinkerbell who zoe wanted to meet?!

after a LONG drive back we dashed home on friday night to unpack, do laundry and tidy up for a viewing of the house.

my wonderful children quietly sleeping for most of the journey!

the drive from LA up to seattle was no fun. southern california was beautiful as usual, but we had to leave the sparkling water and vineyards behind to head for hail and a wind/rain storm in northern california. this meant that by the time we got into the mountains in oregon there were trees scattered all over the mountains. the snow/hail/sleet was miserable, but an hour and half sitting on a mountain while all the trucks ahead of us put on their chains in the middle of the night was the icing on the cake. fortunately we made it to redmond, seattle, in one piece. glad we had gone the long way around and not tried the steeper mountains further inland, but thinking that maybe chains would have been a good investment!

finally off the mountain at 6am

after 8 out of 9 days at disney in california, we did very little in redmond [where sascha was working for 3 days] which was lucky because it pretty much poured non-stop!

at the sensory playground in redmond

zoe's top 3 favourite rides:

aly and toby took to pin collecting

it's a small world

nemo submarine ride

teacup ride

the fireworks - i'm not sure if it's because we're usually watching the fireworks from afar and this time we had all the sound and background story, but i swear this was a best display i'd seen at disney

LA science center with heather, justin and annika

march 6

aargh - no connectivity is a bit of a shock to the system, so i'm quickly making use of connectivity while i have it...

paradise pier

feeding the fish at the hotel

i pulled the children out of school a little bit earlier on friday to 'pick sascha up from the airport'. when he got in the car he asked them to guess where we were going. after mcdonalds, aly guessed disney as a joke. when he said yes it took a few minutes for it to register! we're kicking ourselves that we didn't have a camera at the ready for their reaction [including many tears of happiness from aly!]

the 24 hour drive went really well. the children were fantastic [and stuck well to the ground rules of no asking 'are we nearly there' and no fighting]. it was very weird to pass through 4 seasons - torrential rain in vancouver/washington, snow through Oregon, spring blossoms in northern CA, then 30 degrees in LA! we're very much enjoying the perks of sascha working at disney :) it's day 4 of disney today and we're wondering if/when the novelty will wear off.

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