The Jackson Five: March 2010

Monday, March 22, 2010

Disney Surprise!

Only two short weeks ago we decided to take the kids' to Disneyland for Spring Break! We had been tossing the idea around but officially decided and booked the trip. Jon's brother Jeff also thought about doing Disney for Spring Break so we said hey let's go together! We thought it would be fun to surprise the kids with the trip. Jon wanted to wait until the day before we left but I said "I need their help to get ready!" So instead we told them last night, only six days before leaving. My sister-in-law's idea was to have the kids go on a geocashing hunt. After our Sunday dinner together we went on our geocashing excursion in the green belt behind Jeff's house. All the kids, Temple and I followed Paige as she read the directions from the Iphone.

We then came to the location of the metal box. As the kids looked inside it they brushed over the little card that was on the top which told about the trip.

McKenna finally looked at the card again which read "Hey Jackson Kids, You are going to Disneyland for Spring Break!" Even when she was reading it out loud none of them realized what she was saying until the very end and then it was pure excitement!They all kept on jumping up and down, screaming, hugging, and saying "I can't believe we are going to Disneyland!" It was so fun surprising them! They then skipped, ran, and danced all the way home singing "It's a Small World!"

So I'm leaving in just five days from now...

We'll drive for 16 plus hours to get to Southern Cali...

We will be hopping back and forth between Disneyland and California Adventure for six days...

We have ten kids ranging from 3 years old to 14 years old and four adults...

We'll have to brave the Spring Break crowds....

And then we will drive 16 plus hours home on Easter Sunday...

So we can take all these kids to the "Happiest Place on Earth!"

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Sunny Memories!

Since the past few days have been very rainy and cold I decided to finally post pictures from our vacation to Cancun last fall. I think I got so busy with the holidays, other posts, and just life in general that I actually forgot to document this fabulous trip!

We went to the Mayan Ruins in Chichen Itza

Enjoyed our morning breakfast with this right outside our door!Had homemade Pina Coladas compliments of Jon.

Played in the ocean daily, we even swam in it the first night we got there and got in trouble for being in the water after dark!

Loved Happy Hour at the pool/beach with free chips & salsa and half price drinks!

Loved our daily excursions of snorkeling, zip lining through the jungles, and the under ground river at Rio Secreto!

We would stop at these local convenient stores almost daily for our Coke Light (their version of Diet Coke)

The boys wanted to take a picture of them swimming with the dolphins for our friends' the Zundels since they swam with real dolphins while in Cancun!

We had chips & salsa daily!

Our hair always looked gross!

Wore only half the clothes I brought because

I wore my bathing suit all day long every day!

I had Dark Midnight Milky Way Bars every night.

And said daily, "I would come back in a MINUTE!"

It was some good Sunny Memories! (Cancun October 17-24, 2009)

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Great Wolf Lodge!

Last week we went to a huge indoor water park called the Great Wolf Lodge. It's located about an hour and a half north in Grand Mound, WA. We went with the other Jackson families for a fun couple of days. It was kind of difficult to find a time that all 21 of us could go, but it was worth the effort. With none of the cousins going to the same schools everyone had a so much fun being together!

The GWL is all about kids! The games, story times, arcade, and of course the main attraction the water park!

All the kids no matter what age had fun here. Each of the kids would just go off with a cousin or sibling, the only thing we required was to make sure you had a buddy!

Jon and I took turns going on some of the slides with the big kids and hanging out with the little ones.

Brinley was bummed that she wasn't tall enough to go on the Tornado, but even Brooklyn (my most scared child) loved that slide! The second day started off great and we were in the water park by 9:30 am. About 30 minutes later the power went out in the entire hotel/water park. We had to quickly exit the park and wait until the power was restored. At first many people stayed by the entrance of the water park but as time passed we soon realized that it was going to be longer than expected. The staff at GWL was great and wanted us to be happy. They passed out food, drinks, coloring pages and chocolates. While we waited the kids played cards.

They sang songs while Jorden played the Ukulele.

And the men spent time looking at their Iphones! Shocker!

After about two hours of waiting the power returned and we were able to go back to the water park. We played hard for five more hours and then we all were tired and wanted to take a nap, just like Maddie did!