Florida!

A trip to Disney World and Universal Studios had been in the back of our minds for a couple years and then last February, acting on the advice of Paul's co-worker, we decided to plan it for November of this year.  It seemed such a long way off!  I nonchalantly mentioned it to the kids way back then too so it was a major conversation point in our family for the past 9 months.  But seriously, if you're going to do this trip right, you need 9 months to plan.  We knew this would be our once in a lifetime trip (unless I go as the favorite grandma someday to watch the little ones while parents are on rides) so we were prepared to go all out.  And we did.  Paul and his friend planned this trip for hours over the course of those months.  We planned two days in Universal Studios so Drew and I could get our Harry Potter fix, and then 6.5 days in Disney World.  Paul researched the best days to go to each park to "avoid" the crowds and he came up with November, the weeks before Thanksgiving.  We even took advantage of DW's free food plan they offered at that time in order to attract more visitors.  He was able to reserve us a dinner with princesses, a breakfast at Cinderella's castle with princesses, and some other neat places which I will describe later.  He put so much work into planning the perfect vacation!  He's awesome!  Best dad ever!  I think I will break up these posts by parks so they don't get too long.  But this first one will cover the first day of our travels.  Drew and Mason had flown before when they were very small so it was pretty much a new experience for all 4 kids.  We got up at 2 in the morning to get to the airport to catch our flight on the 10th.  UGH!  We had great flights with a lay-over in Denver.

 We actually got to Florida about 45 minutes early and we figured we had time to dip our toes in the Atlantic Ocean before we checked into our hotel.  We drove about 40 minutes east to Cape Canaveral and parked our rental car.  We lost sight of it as we played in the water for about 20 minutes.
 When we got back to the car the passenger's window was broken and my purse and sweatshirt were gone!

 I was in shock for a second, said a few choice words, and then we were in action mode, calling all the credit card and bank card places we could think of.  Turned out the thieves had used my card to buy gas just down the street so I was hoping it would be resolved quickly.  No such luck.  We filed a police report and since our vacation was pretty much already paid for, we soldiered on and continued our trip.  I no longer had any ID or cards but luckily I did not have our park tickets or wrist bands in my purse.  They were packed away in the back of the van.  They could have ruined us, I'm so thankful it was just a smash and grab.  But since we have returned from Florida it has been anything but easy.  The day we got home we found that the thieves had wiped out our bank account.  They used my ID to cash checks, and I am still getting calls from Florida about them trying to use my checks to steal money from others they have stolen from.  We got caught in an ID theft ring.  They patrol the beach accesses and as soon as someone leaves their car they steal their purse.  I know of 2 women now who have had their ID returned due to alert bank tellers, but mine is still out there and it freaks me out a bit.  I guess there is a woman who uses the outside drive through lanes so the teller can't get a good look at her and she tries to cash checks.  She's driven off twice now, leaving the ID behind when they asked her to come in.  Hopefully they have great pictures of her and her car and it will only be a matter of time till they throw her sorry butt in jail.  Its amazing the havoc this has wreaked on my life.  I know its just a temporary setback, not a life altering event, but dealing with identity theft sucks!  We have been home 6 days now and pretty much all of those days have been filled with my calling people, changing account numbers, replacing cards, talking to police, freaking out full-time about what else this sorry excuse for a human would do to me.  I think things are settling down now, knock on wood, and I am able to breathe.  Public Service Announcement:  Unless you use your checks on a daily basis, DON'T CARRY THEM AROUND WITH YOU!  Its easy to cancel debit cards, its a whole other ball game when it comes to checks.  Huge lesson learned on my part.  Hopefully this can save someone else from having to go through this mess.  I am so thankful for all the help we have received though.  So many people along the way have stepped up to help us and its just been incredible to watch.  I'm not a people person and I could let this taint me even more against mankind, but I think I will just appreciate the good we have seen in so many people and go from there.  So this is my downer post.  The next ones will be all about what an awesome trip we just experienced!

Beavers in the Big House

Look at this traitor!  He's an OSU grad and he's sporting enemy colors!  Actually, I'm thrilled Paul is a Michigan fan.  It was just that much more of a reason for the two of us to leave our kids and fly to Michigan for the Oregon State/Michigan football game in the Big House in September.  Now I have loved Michigan since The Fab 5 and Chris Webber, which then piqued my interest in their football team too.  It was just an added bonus that this amazing guy I married happened to be the son of a U of M grad, who cultivated a love of the school in his children.  So it was a no brainer when they announced a few years ago that the Beavers would play in the most iconic college football stadium, The Big House, that Paul and Tiffiny would be in attendance.  Paul has some really wonderful family who lives in the area, and who traveled to attend the game too, making it a family reunion.  It was so much fun.  Aunt Merrie and Uncle Arnie prepared a tailgate breakfast for us and everything.  We had such a great time visiting with family on top of going to the game.  Paul's brother Roland and sister Carmen also made the trip and we all four shared a hotel room.  It was pretty fun to be hanging out with the siblings, what a fun group.  Paul and I arrived late Friday night and I flew home early Sunday morning where Paul's other sister, Alloa, was staying with our kids.  He and his siblings stayed till Tuesday, visiting the family farm and other relatives in northern Michigan, along with a visit to the Michigan State campus where Roland "found" some "souvenir" MSU food service aprons.  Pretty sure they had a great time together.  They are all such fun-loving people.  But back to the game!  It was so awesome!  The first quarter the Beavs were actually ahead and I was thinking we might actually be able to pull off the win.  HA!  We ended up being blown out 7-35 but I had a blast anyway.  I will probably never be surrounded by 101,000 people again.  What a great memory and I am so thankful we were able to attend.  Cross that off my bucket list!  It sure has gotten smaller in 2015.  Its been the year of entertainment for our family.  And oh yah!  While we were waiting for the bus to take us back to our hotel after the game I convinced a security guard to let us in to the Crisler Cenrter so I could see where my favorite basketball team of all time (except for the Beavs of course) played.  It was so cool to be there.  I was giddy.  Paul was probably wondering just who he married at that point.  What an amazing trip!

 

Fall Sports 2015

What a stud!  Mason decided to take football this year.  Full pads, tackle football for the 3rd and 4th grade team.  I wasn't sure when I signed him up last spring if he knew what he was getting into, but we told him he had to stick it out all season, even if he hated it.  The first week of practice he hated it!  It was hot, he was out of shape, and they were working hard without pads and helmets.  It wasn't what he envisioned football to be.  He never mentioned quitting but he did say one time that he wasn't going to play next year.  I thought it would be a LONG season if that was his attitude.  But once they started practicing in pads, hitting each other, the weather cooled, and he got in better shape he really loved it.  And I loved it too!  I think the fact that our Bishop from church was his coach and lots of his friends were playing too helped his attitude.  We didn't let him play last year partly because I didn't want to devote my life to football at such an early age, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Even sitting at the field for practices was fun and I missed it all when it was over on Halloween.  My other reason I didn't want him starting so early was the fear of him getting hit hard, but that was never an issue.  None of the boys hit all that hard from what I could see, but then I wasn't the one taking the hits.  Mason played Left Guard on offense and Left Tackle on defense.  He would play entire games except for the kick offs.   Except for the game or two when he was demoted due to lack of effort.  But he worked himself back into starting.   It was so much fun to watch these little guys play like the big boys.  My favorite thing was to see him in his 3 point stance.  It cracked me up every time.  What a great season.  They ended up 3-5 and had some exciting games.  I can hardly wait for next season!

 
Drew took 4-H Cross Country again.  She had a good friend who ran this year and I think that made it much more enjoyable for her.  She and her friend were content to run at the back of the pack but I think every picture I took of her had her smiling.  Who needs to win when you're having so much fun just being out there.  I enjoy watching these races too.  The weather is always beautiful and I love that my kids are gaining an appreciation of running.

Darcy and Bree tried their legs at a few races also.  3 of the 4 I think.  Darcy came in first for the girls in her first race and received a blue ribbon.  Bree came in 4th and did not receive any ribbon.  Oh the drama!  She didn't care what place she was in, she just wanted a darn ribbon!  And then Darcy was so funny, she wanted different colored ribbons, not just blue!  I think we ended up with a red 2nd place and green participation ribbon for Bree, and Darcy earned 2 blue ribbons and a white 3rd place.  Both of these girls were fun to watch.  You could see their determination written on their faces.  I love their competitive nature along with their sweet personalities.  We have some fun athletic events to look forward to in the future with all our kids.  I can hardly wait!

 
 

New School Year

Kindergarten, 2nd, 4th, and 6th grade for the kids this school year.  The first year since I became a mom that I had my days free from kids.  Bree's is the inaugural year here in Oregon of free all day kindergarten.  I wasn't thrilled at first when I learned my baby (and I) wouldn't be eased into the whole separation thing, but it has worked out well.  With all 4 of them gone all day I decided to get a job!  I work as a Title 1 teaching assistant at the grade school for 3.75 hours a day, 5 days a week.  Its perfect.  I get to hang with some really fun, and sometimes not so fun, little kids and help them to become better readers.  I still have a couple hours to myself in the afternoons to accomplish things or just chill out, which rarely happens.  I think I'm more organized when I know I have limited time to get things done.  I really enjoy the job and the great women I work with.  Its nice to be Tiffiny or Mrs Erickson again and not just mom.

Anyway, Drew is in 6th grade.  She's doing awesome like usual.  She gets to help out in Bree's kindergarten class in the mornings and afternoons, which makes me wonder if she gets any work done in her own class but she has great grades so far so I'm not too worried.  Drew loves school and is a dedicated student.  

Mason is in 4th grade and pretty much can't stand it.  The school year started with some drama, stomach aches, headaches, any kind of pain he could imagine that might convince me to let him stay home.  I think it boiled down to a clash of personalities with his teacher.  For the first few weeks mornings were absolutely awful, trying to get him and then the rest of us all off to school in a somewhat decent mood.  I have since decided to volunteer in his class one day a week which seems to make him feel better.  He has adjusted  pretty well on his own too.  This will never be a great year for him, but right now I'll be happy with surviving till June where we can write it off and move on.

Darcy is in 2nd grade and loves it!  She's a great student and a bit more social than Drew.  She has come so far from where she was 3 years ago at this time.  She rarely shows signs of the debilitating anxiety that controlled her in preschool.  She's kind of my hero in that way.  What tremendous growth this little person has already achieved and she's only 7!  I see bright things in my sweet Darcy's future.  I don't think she'll settle for anything less.

All Bree ever wanted to do was be like the big kids and go to school.  She got her wish!  She walks to and from school every day with all the big kids, she has her backpack, her special lunch box, she's arrived!  She loves kindergarten and her teacher.  She is already able to read quite a few things and she loves to count as far as she can, which is highly annoying as she wants us to listen to her.  But everyone has to start somewhere and I can't wait for her to be able to pick up a book like the rest of the kids and read!  What a great age, full of learning potential.  Bree came home severely disappointed at the beginning of the year that she wasn't assigned daily homework.  She wants to be like the big kids!  She cracks me up.  She has grown so much in so many different ways in the 3 short months she's been in school.  We miss our alone time and the peace and quiet we used to enjoy, but I think she really enjoys the whole school process.  I've adjusted to having the kids gone all day, it can get a little quiet at times, but on the whole I think we will all survive this school year together.

Summer Fun With Family

We spent the 4th of July with my side of the family this summer.  We had a picnic, badminton, swimming, water balloons, etc.  Everything you need to have a successful summer get-together.  That evening Paul and Mason put on a wussy Oregon fireworks show for us, which was great thanks to their stacking abilities with the spent cartridges.  I think only one little guy got shot in the eye from flying debris but he was a neighbor kid so it doesn't really count.  He's fine.   That night we camped out in the parking lot of HP and watched the City of Corvallis' show.  That is always one of our favorite parties of the year.

 
In late July we camped at Fort Stevens with about 100 people from our ward.  It was lots of fun  hanging out outside of the church setting.  Paul was the "wagon master" which meant he was in charge of making sure everyone had a registered spot to camp in.  He was having a grand old time riding his bike around the loops checking on everyone, and getting fed I don't know how many dinners.  We had fun while the sun shined, and even when we got a bit wet cuz we borrowed grandma's trailer :)  I love to camp and I don't mind a short camp in a tent when its good weather, but I sure do appreciate having a trailer.

In August we had a camping Erickson family reunion at River Bend County Park outside of Sweet Home.  Its a great place to camp.  Unfortunately with the extremely dry fire conditions we had this summer, we were unable to have any kind of fire.  That meant hauling our gas grill to cook on and to warm us up in the mornings.  The last day of camping was so smoky due to the wildfires in the area.  It was pretty miserable towards the end.

Speaking of miserable, this was Mason's worst camping trip EVER!  He had a brace on his knee due to his diagnosed runner's knee that he developed playing football.  He was supposed to wear his brace and move as little as possible.  I guess he thought he could still get up and blaze a trail through the campsite because if you look closely you can see a red owie just below the brace on his left leg.  I was just resting in the tent when I heard Mason yell, "I'm bleeding!  Dad!  I'm bleeding!"  I jumped up and raced to where he was, only to find Paul lying on the ground with his hand on Mason's leg, COVERED in blood.  My first reaction was to tell someone to call 911 because there was so much blood, but it turned out to be a small puncture wound that was GUSHING blood down his leg.  He was clearing a trail with his small pocket knife and it slipped and stabbed his leg.  I still can't believe there was so much blood.  Paul took him to urgent care where they didn't even stitch him up, much to my chagrin.  He was unable to do anything the rest of the camping trip due to his two injuries.  It was tough for him to sit around while the rest of us swam and ran around during the family olympics.  Aunt Alloa was very kind in figuring out ways Mason could be a judge and photographer for the event.

 

Here we are with a bunch of cousins swimming in the South Santiam river.  Mason kept grandma company at the river.  It was a perfect place for the kids to ride their floaties down the "rapids."  Its a great, family-friendly place to camp.

Each family had their own colored t-shirts.  We were obviously orange.  We won the whole olympics, but I think we were actually tied with another group and they were gracious enough to say we could call ourselves the winners.  Like I really care, I'm not competitive or anything.  We had tons of fun at the olympics and also later that night stargazing.  It was a really fun trip, except for the smoke.

Summer Sporting Fun

Summer of 2015 was the summer of sports camps for the kids.  Mason started it off with the Derek Anderson football camp the day after school got out.  It was hot but fun and he got to meet Derek Anderson, a former Beaver and Scappoose graduate.  That was fun for mom!  It was Mason's first taste of football and I was so happy he enjoyed it since we already broke the bank signing him up for tackle football in the fall.  

The week after school got out all three girls attended Oregon State Women's basketball camp at OSU.  This was a tough camp for Drew.  She graduated up to the 6-9th grade group and she was playing against some very big, very skilled girls.  It hurt my heart the first day to see my tiny little Drewsy out there among those aggressive trees!  I'm not sure she had the time of her life, but it was a good learning experience for her.  I guess.  She did get some one on one coaching from the OSU head coach, Scott Ruek.  He was teaching her how to dribble between her legs.  Pretty cool!  Darcy and Bree also went to camp and had fun in their age group.  Bree spent most of the time trying to learn how to dribble, but really just chasing the ball around the gym.  I think her favorite part was probably getting dressed up like a real baller with the headband and everything.  Darcy was totally into it.  She was one of the oldest in her age group and she was probably ready to move up to the next one where they really start to play basketball.  Next year I guess.  It was a fun week full of Beavers and basketball.  We met a few of the players and got autographs.  I plan on taking at least Drew to see the Beavers take on the iconic Tennessee women's team at Gill Coliseum in December.  Should be awesome!

                      

Darcy and Bree also took 2 sessions of swimming lessons over the summer.  I don't need the kids to be professional swimmers but I do want them to be able to take care of themselves in the water.  I think the oldest three are there but I'm not quite ready to call Bree self-sufficient yet but she has fun trying.