Phoenix Patrol Troop 688 at Solid Rock Gym

Joseph organized his patrol to go to the Solid Rock Gym and do some climbing and belaying.

First he was the belayer. He traded off with his friend, Mark. "On belay, belay on." Or . . . "On rock, rock on."

Next, he did some climbing. Joseph got to the top of most of the walls. He set the example for some of the lazy climbers to step it up.

He won this race up the wall.

Amara is quite the climber, as well. She tagged along with mom and Joseph.

Even Aleya, wanted a turn. She is quite a little climber, herself. She got half way up this wall. Not bad for a two-year-old.

2009 Pack 655/653 Pinewood Derby

This year's Pinewood Derby went high-tech with a projector and a computer program to run the heats for the race.
Orrin made this car back in September. We just didn't have time to make a new one. He did most all of it himself and designed it and picked the metallic colors.

Orrin was doing well, winning most of his heats. Then he got the worst lane in the final race.

He can in third place, by a 1/2 inch. If he had a better lane he would've had 2nd or even 1st place.

Third place is still great. Way to go, Orrin!

Orrin's Birthday Party

Orrin decided to have a football birthday party with his friends. It is a month late, but still fun. We started off with a kicking contest.

Orrin and his friend, Cameron, look like twin brothers. His friend, Matthew, is on the right.

We also had a throwing contest and a receiving contest.

Aleya had to have a turn, too.

Joseph tried all the contests, but his scores didn't count, since he's older than all the boys.

Aaron won the throwing, Cameron won the receiving, and Braeden won the kicking. It was fun.

Next they played a friendly game of flag football. I use "friendly" lightly, because the conflicts are pretty heated.

Orrin was team captain of the reds.

Christian ended up playing quarterback for both teams to help the game along.

The reds scored 2 touchdowns, in the end.

I made a pretty good rendition of a football for the cake.

Everyone seemed to have a terrific time.

They ate popcorn, cake, and ice cream and watched the Superbowl (recorded) to top off the party.

Orrin couldn't wait to open the gifts. He received lots of fun stuff including money and gift cards.

Disneyland--Day One

We just HAD to go to Disneyland one more time before we move to North Carolina. We scored some awesome 3-day park hopper passes at a deep discount. This was day one.

The boys eagerly anticipated the Indian Jones ride. It is a pretty amazing ride. It is a pretty good merging of four-wheelin' fun with the movie scenery and special effects.

The kids reallly wanted to go to Tom Sawyer Island . . . now known as pirate island. Joseph wanted a picture next to the Mark Twain Riverboat. He is currently reading Tom Sawyer and plays the role of Ben in the 6th Grade musical version of Tom Sawyer.

Pirate Island now has a lot of new pirate additions, like this bone cage from the Pirates of the Carribean movie (I think #3).

We found the buried treasure!

The girls and I LOVE the Winnie the Pooh ride.

After a long day, the kids relax on the Mark Twain Riverboat.

Aleya's favorite ride was Snow White. Particularly because outside the ride, if you look up above it, the Evil Queen opens the window and peeks out. Aleya couldn't take her eyes off the window, particularly when we were waiting in line for the Peter Pan ride, across the way.

Aleya and I picked the slow teacup, while Christian and the kids spun themselves silly. (They're right behind Aleya, in the blue and white teacup)

Aleya rode the Matterhorn with Dad. We were waiting until mid-March to come to Disneyland because this ride had been closed for repairs since early February.

Amara put on her brave face, but she was quite nervous to ride this. Afterwards, she was glad she did.

Our favorite family ride is definitely the Buzz Lightyear ride. You score points by hitting targets with your lazer guns. This time the ride stalled, and Christian scored an astronomical amount of points. I thought for sure I had beat him, but no. He blew us all away. I think he scored around 354,000. I scored around 197,000.

The boys scored 109,000 and 137,000. Pretty awesome!

Disneyland--Day Two

I'll bet some of you may wonder, "What do you do the 2nd day at Disneyland?" Well, besides riding the few rides that you may have missed, you wait in all the long lines for the photo opportunities with all the Disney characters. There were a LOT of these lines.

Christian waited in this Tinker Bell line for around an hour.

There was no wait for the jail, but sadly there was no lock strong enough to keep them all day.

Luckily, we just bumped into Goofy.

The Minnie Mouse line was about 30 minutes.

We snuck in a quick ride in between the photo-op lines.

This is Chip 'n Dale's house. The kids ask, "Who is Chip and Dale?" This generation is not as familiar with these furry creatures.

The Mickey line took around 40 minutes. Luckily there were plenty of things to entertain the kids along the way (you enter the line through Mickey's house).

Pluto showed up in the area we were eating lunch, so we hurried over for only a 5 minute wait.

We decided to ride the Monorail . . . a ride we rarely ride. In fact, I think this was the first time the kids rode it here in California. Lucky us, we got to ride in the front with the driver! Christian couldn't fit (Max=5), so we enjoyed it without him.

In Tommorwland at Innoventions, we watched Disney present the ASIMO robot to us. It walks, runs, walks up stairs, talks, performs tasks . . . in short AMAZING. Will we have one of these in our homes in the future? Certainly the lesser-abled folks could greatly benefit from the services of ASIMO.


I waited in the Princess line for around 45 minutes. It was well worth it to get the photos with Mulan, Cinderella, and Princess Aurora. The girls were thrilled.


We finished off the day with a romp through Sleeping Beauty's castle. It was a newer addition that we weren't aware even existed. It recounts the story in windows along a corridor as you make your way through the castle.