California dreamin'

M&M World was cool although Jaxon just was not impressed with Vegas at all. I had to remind him that is is what the world would be like if we let Satan be in charge and he agreed that we should NOT let that happen.

There was a lot to do at Universal Studios and the kids enjoyed being silly!

Universal studios was so much fun and the first theme park on our trip. It was hot but not too hot! There were plenty of rides to get wet and so most of our trip we spent with frizzy hair and wet clothes.

Pretty much this was my view the entire trip...

watching and gathering my "little" chicks. The girls could not figure out why they couldn't just go...the boys where irritated that the girls thought that they had to walk so far ahead.

No "J" in Disneyland...so we compromised and this is Jaxon's letter.

Carlie and Alyssa are silly.

They like to be silly, do silly things and generally

just have a lot of fun together.

Although they look like pin-up girls..

beautiful and fun...

yes that is a popsicle wrapper sticking out of Carlie's

mouth...

never a dull moment with those two.

My children were wonderful to be with on this trip. Hopefully they have happy memories like I do:)

We got to watch the fireworks from the roof of our Worldmark

in Anahiem which was right across the street from Disneyland.

Jaxon wanted to watch from the hot tub

on the roof, but Mom was all watered out...and exhausted

Jaxon was like the energizer bunny.

After standing in line for an hour,

I chickened out for this ride because I didn't think that my lunch would stay down or in. But it was worth it to watch the kids

The seats had their own "face shield" if you decided to chuck your lunch. Jaxon was hillarious!

Really it was like we had two separate vacations,

the one the boys and I had

and the one the girls had!

But we had a blast!

I think the look says it all...

We had to check Jaxon in of the camp. We stood in line for two hours. I think it was obvious that men were in charge

because it was so unorganized:(

I was attempting to stress how important dental

hygiene was to Jax. Fish are friends

Not food:)

Alyssa, Carlie and Mike got us seats while Jax and I went to get food. We ended up sitting right behind David Beckham and the guy from Hell's Kitchen. It was kind of cool to sit so close to someone famous until everyone else figured out that he was famous. The girls went crazy! I asked Jaxon if that was what the girls were going to do when he was a rich and famous athlete and he said he hoped not and then smiled his adorable smile.

The Shamu show was amazing!

Camp was amazing and frustrating all wrapped up in one very tiring weekend.

At the Boise camp, every minute was filled with a "basketball" learning experience.

Oh there were learning experiences but not so much basketball ones.

Mom learned that in the world outside of Rexburg,

Jaxon looks very much like everyone else.

Same uniform, same hair, oh

same skin color.

I panicked when I couldn't find him easily like I usually do.

Jaxon learned what "mixed" meant.

Almost everyone at camp was "mixed".

One black parent and then some other cultural background...

asian, hispanic, white, indian.

In Rexburg,

everyone knows that Jaxon is adopted. His teammate,

Jordan,

from Chicago

could not figure out how Jaxon could have a white mama and a white daddy

and come out as a brown baby (his words not mine) Jaxon assured him that it works when you are adopted.

During camp time Alyssa, Carly and I went to the beach!

Carlie and Alyssa tried their hand at boogie boarding.

The water wasn't super warm but the beach wasn't crowded and the sun felt so nice.

The girls were having a great time and the waves were getting progressively larger as it neared high tide. I warned the girls a couple of times that they needed to be more careful because of the waves and riptides. Then Alyssa disappeared in a wave and didn't come back up for a while. When she did, she looked like she had been...well the wave had not been kind to her

Her swim suit was skeewampus and she had water coming out of her nose for hours after.

Adidas Jr. Phenom Camp

375 basketball players from all over the nation

5th through 8th grade Invitation only

Held at Alliant International University in San Diego California. The real reason we took our vacation at all

was courtesy of Jaxon. This was definitely a learning experience for our Jaxon.

Hard core intense - the director of the camp (whatever his name was)

really liked to hear himself talk

and he hated the pro ball players that are in the league now...although he didn't mind endorsing Adidas products by changing his basketball gear four times a day.

Not an exaggeration, I swear.

Alyssa, Carlie, Mike and I

went to the San Diego zoo on Friday.

It was the first day of Jaxon's camp and although

we felt bad that he couldn't go, we took video of our

adventures for him. After five days of theme parks and 1500 miles of driving with four children without a GPS

and worrying about reservations and Tom getting to

San Diego to join us (he flew down on Thursday) I felt a little like this flamigo who kept hanging its head down in this psychotic motion. Yes, I could relate!

The elephants were so cool...actually all of the animals

were. It was so neat to see them so close up. I took the girls to find the San Diego temple and this was one drive that we did not get lost.

I was attempting to find the naval base where I had gotten lost earlier that morning but we found this instead. We drove over this bridge by accident and ended up on the most beautiful island. It was like fairytale quaint and the girls and I had a blast exploring the beach and watching the boats bobbing along. At one point, Tom called and wanted to know what the heck I was doing that was taking so long and I quickly said, "Hey, I'm lost! Call you back later:)"

The beach was amazing and we took our time enjoying every moment.

The girls wrote their names on the beach and strolled along at a much slower

pace than we had been moving for the last six days. It was beautiful.

When we got back into the car,

Alyssa said, "Thanks mom,

for not getting freaked out about

our getting lost and letting us

just be lost." Sometimes the worst thing is not being lost, sometimes it is not taking the time to just be there.

Warming up before the game

Team Tennessee - Amazing basketball players from all over the country Chicago, New Jersey, Northern and Southern

California, Las Vegas

even Rexburg, Idaho!

I think Jaxon learned a lot more than basketball skills at camp.

He learned that growing up in Rexburg is not so bad.

He didn't like that the boys swore.

He didn't like that the boys were "hot dogs". He has always been taught to be a team player and so the concept of showing off during a game had never occurred to him. In fact, he had to write a paper about what he learned and he wrote about the lack of team ball playing and how if the boys he played with had to play back in his hometown, most would have to sit on the bench.

He was not impressed.

After the camp, we immediately crawled back in the car and headed Northeast.

Everyone wanted to get home a quickly as possible.

It was a wonderful vacation but there is No Place Like Home!!!