Riley's Birthday!!!

Poor David. Riley is getting so big, and he is STRESSED about her growing up. He's pretty much Steve Martin from "Father of the bride". She tuned 9 on the 9th, so since it was on a Sunday, Saturday before her party She and I went out for a "girl's day". She went to the local beauty school and got her hair done, nails done and a little make-up done too!

Here she is reading
"People"... (Zak Efron and Vanessa Hudgens from High School Musical were on the cover)

Here's the finished Product...

On to the Birthday party...

As you can see above, Riley is now an OUT OF CONTROL "High School Musical" fan. For those of you who don't have a little 8-14 year old, High School Musical is a Disney movie about, what else? A High School Musical. The b-day party was a hit with all the friends...

The cake... She thought it was the COOLEST!

Blowing out the candles....

Eating the cake...

And the Pinata... note that it was a pull string after the disastrous results from Tyler's party in 2003... It involves David swinging the bat, a child's head, as well as my head!! I guess that's all I'll say about that.... :)

And to finish off the day...

Riley got her ears pierced!!! What a day! We always told her when she was old enough to ask, that she could have them pierced. I think it was harder on me... She looked so stressed...

But the stress wore off quickly, and she did it! She was so brave, not a tear!!! Happy Birthday Ry!

Disneyland Part Two!!!!

So. Here's Disneyland as seen through the eyes of the Carters... We skipped all the little rides and really just hit the ones that everyone else wanted to ride too... thank heavens for Easypass! Gotta love it! We had a great time and loved getting to hang out with family! We stayed with Aunt Sherrie for the first two nights and stayed with Todd and Kristen down in San Diego for the next two. We got to be there for Dalton's baptism and that was a wonderful day! Thanks for having us everyone! :)

Here's the kids waiting for the tram to take us to the "happiest place on Earth!"

Here's the obligitory Disneyland picture. The one everyone has to take... the kids are so excited!!!

Three words for you...

Thunder Mountain Railroad, BABY!!!

Here's the "adults" going down Splash mountain the next day...

...and the kids going down... it's JUST going up the scary part!!! :)

I am putting this one on to show you guys how silly we'd gotten by the end of that first night... we have nicknamed this the "Gene Simmons" shot. See if you can guess why... :)

BROOZER'S BACK!!

So by now most of you know that our little puppy Broozer ran away! We got the call that he ran away while we were in Disneyland, and we made the decision not to tell the kids. We thought he'd e home safe and sound by the time we were. We were wrong. He was not ANYWHERE and I was starting to panic. The kids were devastated when Roxy (our old min pin) ran away, and I just couldn't face up that he was probably long gone by now. We looked in the pounds, called 3 times a day, and still nothing. I was preparing the speech to tell the kids when we got the call that he'd been spotted!! Within a few hours he was home again! Yeah! The below pics show why we were so sad! What a great little dog!!!

**PS** - The rest of the Disneyland pics should be back tomorrow! I will blog them ASAP! :)

Sleepy Broozer! What a week! Poor dog all alone on the rough streets of Provo! :)

Harris while he's "Broozer fishing"...

Jack and Broozer hanging out on the couch... Note that Broozer is SO relaxed with Jack that he's ASLEEP in one and the other he's just woken up!

Welcome Home Broozer!!!

DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So being the bone-head that I can be sometimes, I forgot my camera when we went to Disneyland. You know how it is, you are STRESSED trying to get to the airport, you leave in a hurry, you remember the forgotten item about 10 minutes after you've left, and for one second you decide whether it's worth it to turn around. In our case, I won't know for sure that it was ok to not get it, being that our little throw away camera pics aren't back yet. If they turn out, then I guess all will be worth it! But, I will share with you some pics that WERE worth something, they are the cheesy Disneyland pics that they sell you. We made Disneyland some serious cash, because we couldn't NOT get them, they were SO funny!! Here you go, and I will update the blog tomorrow or the next day when the other pics come in... :)







Here's the first time down Splash Mountain. MAN. This is the best ride EVER!! Note the look of sheer PANIC on Riley's face...
















They think they're pros now... I guess this was the third time for them. Riley had the camera figured out so she could smile at it while going down. Note the pleasant look on her face and the panic in Karin's. Over the years, Karin has not strayed from this face... I think we have 5 pics of the same look of TERROR! :) hehehe...









This one makes me laugh so hard I think I might pee a little sometimes... Harris's face is so perfect... he looks photoshopped in, I bet he wishes he was! They were TERRIFIED! I am laughing and Riley's eyebrows are vertical instead of horizontal! They wouldn't ride it again... I am so mean, because I can't look at this pic and not laugh! The gorgeous blond next to David is my Aunt Sherrie who lives in L.A. She is such a good sport to put us up for a few days and even come with us to Disneyland when it was 106 degrees!!! Seriously!!! I will post more ASAP!!