Not too shabby for a Baby's First Year.

We started this adventure 3 months ago today. That's kind of crazy. We've been traveling for over 3 months and living in a house on wheels. Who knew we would last that long? Today was important for another reason though: It was our baby girl's first birthday! When we think about all we did this past year and all the fun we had with Miss Sawyer, we can be nothing but thankful. I am convinced there are no babies out there more perfectly easy-going than her. She displayed her extreme tolerance and patience tonight when little hands were snatching at her birthday presents and cake. Sawyer, you have been an absolute treasure, but if you wanted to secure your position as the youngest in the family, you might have wanted to make life a little more difficult this past year. ;)
As I write this, we are in Long Beach, California. And we are staying in a hotel again because in 36 hrs. we board a cruise ship. My mother-in-law had this wonderful item on her bucket list called "take grandkids on Disney cruise" that we are all-too-happy to help her cross off. This afternoon I ran into my mother-in-law in the lobby of the hotel and it was a great reunion. With their travels and ours, we have spent most of 2011 apart, and it will be great to have her all to ourselves for the week. The kids are mildly excited about seeing Grandma as well.
The last couple of days we spent in the Anaheim area, exploring Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. The kids stayed up later than ever because there was so much to see and do that it was hard to cram into 3 days. If you ever want to see parents push their kids WAY beyond their limits, go to Disney. By about 5 pm, 90% of the kids are asleep (even the older kids), and the parents are still trudging along, determined to see and do more. You can't help it. You spent so much money, you just want to see it all.

I am absent from the tea cups. I can't stomach that.

Buzz Lightyear ride.

Ariel ride. Annika's face says it all. The kids were blown away.

Sawyer LOVED the rides. She'd stay up HOURS past her nap just so she wouldn't miss a thing.

Our Tink.

Disney-marketing geniuses. I hate stuffed animals, and yet, I left the park with stuffed Disney Characters.

Ferris Wheel of vomit. I skipped this one.

Disney California Adventure Park.

She was so excited about her present: her first baby.

Mmmm...Birthday Dinner.

Our precious baby girl is ONE.

Is this what I'm supposed to do?

After much MUCH discussion, we have decided to end the RV trip shortly after the Disney cruise is over.   One of the things Andy really wanted to do on this paternity leave was spend some time snowboarding, so we are going to head back up north to Squamish, British Columbia and become full-time Whistler-ers. It will be nice to spend Christmas in a home, in Canada, and not in a Wal-Mart parking lot somewhere. And I think Andy is asking Santa for a snowmobile for Christmas.

Grown men in Tinkerbell sweatshirts and teenage boys in Buzz Lightyear hoodies.

Soren (our number 3 baby) turned number 3 today! We originally had planned on being in Sea World for his birthday, since he is going to be our 'Greenpeace-save-the-whales' kid. However, with the RV taking forever to get fixed, we just didn't have the time to get to San Diego. On a whim yesterday, we left San Francisco in the morning, went to pick up the big beast from the repair shop, dropped off our rental van, and decided to drive to Anaheim. We didn't tell the kids until after breakfast this morning. Annika is the only one who is old enough to know what Disneyland really is, and she was ecstatic. Kai didn't say anything and Soren said "will there be fish there?" (His standard response).
Some things you should know about Disneyland:
1. It is the biggest money grab on the planet. Not only are there exorbitant fees to get in the park (it cost us  1000 dollars for a 3 day pass), but the prices are insane inside. A cheeseburger is 9$, an apple is 2.79$, and everywhere you look they are selling something. And the crazy thing is, people are buying it. They're   buying Disney balloons, blankets, mouse ears, decorative pins, mouse-shaped pretzels, etc.
2. It is perfectly acceptable for a grown man or woman to wear Disney apparel. Whether this is a set of Goofy ears, or a pink Tinkerbell t-shirt, or a Disney backpack, it's all fair game when you're at Disneyland. I was shocked. I wanted to ask some people, "do you dress like this normally?"
3. You will see someone puke. For those who don't know this about me, I'm an extreme barf-a-phobe. I chose my lifetime career based on which jobs don't see lots of puking, and I seriously considered not becoming a mom because I knew it would involve cleaning up someone else's barf. So places like Canada's Wonderland and carnivals make me nervous. I try not to look near garbage cans or super spinny rides, just in case I spot some puke on the ground or WORSE, someone in-the-act of puking. When I got to Disney today I started praying, "God, please don't let me see puke today." But sure enough, I saw a kid puking all over the ground. Ugh. This is the same ground that my kids will be crawling all over the place. Gross.
4. The lines are INSANE. We went on a Saturday, not the best idea. But it is LOW season and it was so so busy. I can't imagine what it's like in the heat of the summer with all kinds of strangers' bodies pressed up against you.

All that to be said, we did have a great time today. We spent a couple hours in the morning/early afternoon in the park, then we headed back to the R.V. for a couple hours of down time (and birthday cake). At about 5 pm, we headed back into the park and it was much more pleasant. The lines were not bad at all and even though we rode the flying elephants and cruised the jungle in the dark, it was fun. The sheer excitement on the kids' faces was priceless. Well, actually it came at quite a steep price. But as Andy said to me "now we don't have to do Disney World for like, another decade."

Happy Birthday to my precious baby boy Soren. These last 3 years with you have been a precious gift from God. Soren, we all love you and are so glad you are a part of our family. There would be a lot less giggling without you.

When it is your birthday, you obviously get to lick the cake spatula.

This looks like I am riding the roller coaster alone, but actually, Soren is with me.

Opening Presents.

He had LOTS of helpers for present opening.

Climbing on the outside of the treehouse.

 He loved his first roller coaster. All 15 seconds of it.

Someone is all Disney-ed out.

Cake picnic in a parking lot. Hooray!

Mr. and Mrs.

Special Disneyland button.

Living One Day at a Time...

Right now, I'm sitting poolside while Annika and Soren swim in the dark. The temperature outside is only  10 degrees, but they couldn't resist. We're at a hotel in Oakland, California, and we're still waiting on the R.V. to be finished getting repaired. We've been enjoying exploring San Francisco and the Bay area, but decided to take today easy and just hang out close to the hotel. Tomorrow we're considering doing SFMOMA ('museum of modern art' for those less-cultured), but not sure how much fun that will be for the kids. Anyway, travel plans are uncertain because we don't know when the R.V. will be done, but we do know that our plans to be in San Diego (at Sea World) for Soren's birthday are not going to happen. Here's some of my favourite pictures of the last week:

Sisters in a tide pool. 

Me and a sea turtle 

Last hour in Kauai...one last waterslide/swim.

Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco.

Sea star (it's incorrect now to call it a starfish...did you know that?)

San Francisco city street.

Racing in Golden Gate Park (the first public playground in all the U.S.)

Kai gets to the top! This is like 30 feet off the ground.

Sawyer checking out the butterflies in the rainforest at the California Academy of Sciences.

The ROCK. 

Soren, LOVING the boat cruise.

Heading under the Golden Gate.

A draw for the tourists... 

Soren...all tired out.

One day left in Paradise...

Only one day left. We've spent the last 10 days exploring the beaches of Kauai and just enjoying the beauty of this place. Shawn, my brother-in-law, calls these trips "MFVs" (mandatory family vacations), and discussions have begun for where the next MFV will take place. It will be interesting to see how many people will be there. We know there will be one new little baby (courtesy of the Koslowski family) and Andy wants to add a nanny to the next trip, but will there be another little Kirk or Wilson?

Teenie Wahine

Tunnels Beach, where Bethany Hamilton got her arm eaten.

The Wilson's on a train.

The whole crew goes on a plantation tour/train ride.

A monk seal, having a nap on the beach we were at.

Mermaid.

We're flying back to California on Saturday and since our R.V. is still being fixed up, we're going to spend a week at a hotel in San Francisco. We took the kids to San Francisco back when I was pregnant with Soren, and we wished we had more time there to explore...so now we're getting our wish. It is frustrating when timing doesn't go the way we had planned, but hopefully it will end up being a fun week anyway.

A Hawaiian Halloween

I lived a day of fear when Andy attempted to summit Mt. Whitney (14,000 ft.) last week. He left me and the kids at the base of the trail while he left at 3 a.m. to start the hike. People do sometimes summit it in one day, but it is not an easy task. Andy finally came down (after completing it) at almost 9 p.m. It was a LONG day of hiking for him, and a long day of waiting anxiously for me. I was very proud of him for completing a difficult climb, but never again will I sit at the base of a mountain waiting for him to come down. Way too scary. 

A cool rock in Lone Pine,  California.

Andy and the kids climbing in California.

Andy, BEFORE he destroyed his body summiting this mountain.

After that, we drove to San Jose, California. We were there for a couple days, and we wanted to find somewhere to get our R.V. repaired because we were headed to Kauai for a couple weeks and we needed an RV baby-sitter. We visited a zoo/theme park with the kids in San Jose, and by a fluke, we found out about a Halloween event at a nearby church. We only had a costume for Sawyer, so we tried to find something for Annika and the boys, but, turns out it is hard to find costumes for cheap prices on October 29th. So we did a trip to the Dollar Tree and scrounged together some pretty pathetic costumes. The Halloween party was a blast and the kids got quite the haul of candy.

Lame Halloween attempt.

The next day we boarded an airplane to fly to Kauai to meet up with my family. This was our first time flying with all four kids and it went fantastically. I tried not to feel guilty about the mom sitting behind me who was keeping her kid happy with reading, math homework, origami, and seaweed snacks. And there's me who's letting her kids inhale candy and zone out in front of a movie screen. Oh well, there will always be other moms who seem to cope with life much better.

Kauai is breathtaking. I have been to Hawaii many times, but never to Kauai. I had forgotten how much I love this state. The word 'lush' seems like an understatement, especially when all the green plants also seem to be flowering vines/bushes/trees. 

Pool party.

Hawaiian foliage.

Annika's 1st time snorkelling...she was so blown away.

My family is all here (my parents, my siblings and their families) in Kauai with us, and it is the first time we have been all together since January, so it is a special treat. We spent the first three days visiting the beach, checking out Waimea Canyon, and waterfall hunting. I went for an amazing hike with my brother, mom, and brother-in-law and saw scenery that people put on their screen savers-complete with gorgeous rainbow. The kids and Andy are enjoying staying in one place and the house we are staying in has a hot tub and pool that is getting well-used. I am enjoying having my sister do all the meal planning and my brother do all the research/tour guide duties. A definite vacation in the middle of a vacation!

Two Tigers!

First Halloween!

Kai and the palm tree.

Soren borrowed one of Selah's costumes. He'll be mad at us later on.

Kai's makeshift Halloween costume...he's a tourist.

The Wilson's at Waimea Canyon (the Grand Canyon of the Pacific).

My hiking partners.

View on my hike.

Hawaiian splendour.

Rainbow, which I got to watch sink into the ocean.

Napali Coast