Universal Studios

  Universal Studios was the first park on our trip.  Paul had done the research and it worked out that historically crowd-wise, the first 2 days of the trip would be better suited for Universal Studios with Disney World next.  That was fine with Drew and I!  Universal Studios, more specifically The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, was our favorite part of the trip.  As huge Harry Potter fans (I've read the series 8 times, Drew is almost done with her 2nd time) we were absolutely in awe of the place.  It was as if we were transported to the "real" Hogwarts, Hogsmead, and Diagon Alley.  It was so perfect!  It was everything a HP fan could ever dream of.  We were in heaven as we sipped our frozen Butterbeer on the streets of Hogsmead.  Not so much with the pumpkin juice though, that was some weird stuff.  Let me backtrack a second and say that we stayed at a Universal hotel, the Cabana Bay Beach Resort, so we were able to get early entrance passes to the Islands of Adventure half of the park both mornings.  Which was perfect because that meant Hogwarts and the best ride of all, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.  It started in the Hogwarts castle so each morning we got in line early and then "rope-dropped" so we could get to Hogwarts and get on the ride without having to wait an hour in line.  It was so worth it.  I was up at 6am pretty much the entire vacation.  That's how we do it, no sleeping in or resting when we are on vacation!  So both mornings we raced to ride the Forbidden Journey.  It was so good.  Bree was too short to ride, and Darcy was too scared to ride, but US has a great child-swap deal so Paul and I were able to do all the rides the kids didn't want to do with minimal waiting time.  Drew and Mason were also able to go again with the next parent so they doubled up on a few rides.  I guess that was their payment for not being able to use the stroller like Bree and Darcy.  We rented a double stroller from a service in Orlando and it was such a blessing.  Not only did it hold all our souvenirs, but it held Bree and Darcy almost 100% of the time.  That wasn't the original plan but when you are racing hundreds of other people to be at the front of the line, waiting for little legs to catch up just won't do.  Paul used that stroller to blaze a trail through stragglers and get us through quickly.  The rest of us just followed along behind as he parted the crowds for us.  Drew and Mason complained daily about how unfair it was for the girls to get to ride but I'd rather walk than have to stare at a bunch of strangers' butts all day.

 

  Hogsmead is where Drew purchased most of her souvenirs.  She bought an interactive wand where she could use it at certain spots to perform magic.  She had to say the right incantation and flick of the wand to make magic happen.  It worked!  Mason also got a wand, the Elder wand, the most powerful wand in the wizarding world.  Go big or go home, huh Mase?!  We rode Flight of the Hippogriff twice which was a Bree sized roller coaster, I rode the Dragon Challenge which is a roller coaster where your legs are free and you're held in your seat by a chest harness.  It was awesome.  My kids tried to convince me not to do it but those are my favorite rides.  We hung out in Hogsmead for quite a while the first day and then explored the rest of Islands of Adventure. 

  Universal Studio's rides are more intense than Disney World's so Drew, Mason, and I appreciated them more I think.  Lots of them were motion simulation rides where you really didn't go anywhere but you were wearing 3-D glasses which made you feel like you were a part of the action and your seat was moving around even though you weren't really going far. That being said, we went on the Jurassic Park ride which was actually moving with a big water drop at the end.  That was a really good one and the water felt good because it was so blasting hot there.  A week before Thanksgiving and it was in the high 80's!  Pretty much miserable with all that humidity too.  We did one ride in Dr Seuss Landing but it was so wussy we moved on to a different part of the park.  We rode on the Spiderman ride which was one of the 3-D rides.  It was pretty good.  We also did Poseidon's Fury, where Bree bawled the entire time.  She was such a trooper.  We kept dragging her on rides, telling her it wasn't going to be scary, then she would freak and out and be bawling at the end, and then believe me the next time I told her the ride we were going on wasn't going to be scary.  What a terrible mom, I know, but I wanted her to experience it all!  Only a couple of the rides turned out to be horrible for her.  That's a number I can live with!  Drew, Mason, Paul, and Darcy rode a couple of really wet rides while Bree and I just watched and stayed dry.  They got completely soaked on Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges.  Even their shoes were soaked and we had quite the time trying to dry them before the next morning.

 

  That afternoon we rode the Hogwarts's Express from Hogsmead to Diagon Alley.  Heaven again!  It was so cool to see Gringott's bank and the Weasley's joke shop.  It was just so much fun to be there.  We kind of hung out and explored, walked the streets and shops, went back out into "London" where we found Stan Shunpike and the Knight Bus, and Drew tried calling the Ministry of Magic from the phone booth.  Unfortunately they told her they weren't accepting visitors at that time.  The whole place was perfect.  So much fun!  And did I mention how much we loved the butterbeer?  So, so good!  I think we bought 4 of them over both days.  Expensive but worth it!  We went back to the hotel after that and got in the one and only swim of the entire trip.  We didn't have any sort of meal plan for US so we ate once in the park and then had KFC on the way back to the hotel.  I had Mason's OSU string backpack full of Goldfish snacks, among other things  on my back the entire trip so I don't think we ever starved at US but we didn't eat like we did at DW!  More on that later.

  The second day, Thursday, Nov 12th, we rope-dropped again and rode the Hogwarts ride.  We rode the Hogwarts Express back over to Diagon Alley and rode the Escape From Gringotts.  That was one of those 3-D rides too.  It was pretty good.  Even Bree had fun I think.  It was so hard to leave the Harry Potter World without spending a billion galleons, though Drew came pretty close I think.
  We explored the rest of Universal Studios where we found some pretty good rides, and some stinkers.  Like the Shrek thing.  Skip it if you ever go.  Also the Minions ride had a long wait and it wasn't all that awesome either.  I think our longest wait at US was to get on the Transformers ride.  That one was really good.  Another 3-D but it was awesome.  We also rode the Simpsons, Men in Black, E.T., and Paul and I did the child swap on the Mummy ride.  None of the kids were brave enough to try it.  The ride was fun but the special effects were a bit scary.  We also saw a short show of how they create the horror movies with lots of blood and guts and monsters.  Perfect for little kids.  Or not.  Luckily it wasn't too graphic I guess.  We totally enjoyed Universal Studios.  It was hard to say goodbye to Harry Potter world.  I'm pretty sure Drew was dreaming of it the entire time we were at Disney World.  I would go back there in a heartbeat.  That night we moved ourselves over to our Hotel at Disney World to start a new adventure there the next day.  The little girls were so excited!  But I'll leave that for my next post.

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.