James's Birthday Interview

How old are you?

12

What did you do for your birthday?

We went to Johns Incredible Pizza and then watched Star Wars.

What is your favorite color?

Kind of like turqoise.

What is your favorite toy right now?

PS4

What is your most favorite thing to do?

Either read or go outside.

What are your friends names?

Jackson, Kyle, Scott, Zach, Luke, Kellen, Jayden, Hayden, Landen, Tyson, Michael, Josh, Noah

What do you like to do with them?

Sword fight

What are you learning about in school?

French Revolution

What is your favorite food?

Steak with gravy

What is your favorite drink?

Dr. Pepper

What is your favorite animal?

Either a wolf or a mountain lion

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Archeologist

How many kids are you going to have?

3-4

What are their names going to be?

Benjamin, Justin. I want to have two girls but I don’t know their names yet.

What is your favorite song?

Monsters by Matchbook Romance

What is your favorite book?

Harry Potter

What do you like to eat for breakfast?

Bacon

What do you like to eat for lunch?

Pasta

What do you like to eat for dinner?

Little Caesers

What is you most favorite thing that Daddy does?
That he is so encouraging with me and scouting

What is your most favorite thing that Mommy does?

She still loves me even when I screw up

  

What is your most favorite thing that Avery does?

That she smiles all the time

What is your most favorite thing that Briella does?

That she is really silly

What do you love most about yourself?

That I’m curious.

 This kid. There are not enough words to describe him. We expect a lot out of him, as our oldest, and he has always risen to the challenge. He has such a kind heart and quick mind. He is going to do some amazing things, if he puts his mind to it. We are working on his motivation though! He is quick to obey when we ask him to do something and is happy to babysit the girls when we ask. He started choir in middle school and has impressed us with his confidence and courage. He's also loving lacrosse which makes Ben super happy. He still needs us to tuck him in every night and sit and talk when he's had a rough day. I hope he never stops needing us like that. 

I don't know what we would do without our James!

James turns 12!

My baby boy is not so little. He's almost taller than me and is turning into such a little man. He's way too bright for his own good and loves to tease me about how much he's grown up. He still lets me cuddle him though, so at least I have that. 

James always requests Famous Daves at some point for his birthday. We went for lunch this time. 

He loves me, I promise.

He wanted a school friend party this year so he picked his closest guy friends at school and we went to John's Incredible Pizza. I love this group of boys. They are such good friends and have the funniest sense of humors. 

This girl got super lucky with tickets!

My family met us there to do cupcakes and presents, then Ben took James to see the new Star Wars. James said it was a perfect day!

Paul and Ally's wedding

My youngest brother Paul had been dating Ally for 7 years and have two darling kids together. Ally had been recently diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma so things have been rough for them. They finally decided it was time to make things official. It was extremely last minute. They informed us while we were in Florida so it was a mad dash to make arrangements. Those arrangements kept changing and it was really frustrating but I think it all worked out in the end. They were able to have the ceremony at this darling church in Sellwood and then had a little reception at Chris's store. Jonathan and Bethany came to town for it, as well as our Nanna! The morning of the wedding, the siblings wanted to go to brunch. Michael had to work that afternoon and didn't know if he would make the reception so we wanted to make sure we had time with him. I seriously love my family. We are all at different spots in our lives but truly care about each other and like being together. We got back from brunch to a mad house. Paul and his family are living at my parent's house while Ally is going through chemo so everyone was getting ready over there. We (Bethany, Jonathan, David, Chris and I) didn't have any responsibilities or commitments until the ceremony at 4 so we had made plans to go downtown and play. The wedding party had a lunch to get to so we helped get the kids ready. Then we found out that the rings and flowers hadn't been picked up. There were also some food items that hadn't been taken care of and my mom (who was going to marry them) hadn't written her ceremony yet. The stress level was at def con 10 so we decided to go take care of all that. We actually had a blast hitting a bunch of stores and writing the ceremony in the car. We made it to the church on time and took some pictures. 

My Dad had written something for my Mom to read but she couldn't read his handwriting so he just read it for her. It was beautiful and made me really emotional. 

Sterling would not put that camera down. I think he took more pictures than anyone else.

 

After the ceremony we went to World Market to finish up our wedding present for them. We all chipped in and got them a night at Paul's favorite hotel at Cannon Beach and a gift certificate to his favorite clam chowder restaurant. We wanted to put together a basket of snacks and stuff for them. We kind of went crazy and got too much, but it was fun. We then met my Dad at Oba for some food (we hadn't had time to eat since brunch) and then headed to the store for the reception.

This is the kind of picture we get when it's our kids taking it!

Fondue station

Ornament station

As soon as we heard that Michael was done with work, my Dad went and got him. We were finally all together!

Bud, Dad, Poohbear, Wogger, Bethy Sue, Snug, Mum and Michael Pichael

Hollywood Studios/Home

Our last day in Florida! It was such a gorgeous, sunny day! We went to Hollywood Studios to try and ride at least Star Tours and the Aerosmith ride before we had to leave for the airport. The lines were insane. We had to wait way too long for Star Tours. I loved how they updated it with the new characters, BB-8 especially. 

Chris looked back and saw us all like this and had to capture it. I love how serious we all look!

We wanted to ride this one more time but the wait was over two hours. The Aerosmith ride kept closing because of malfunctions we didn't even get to go on that one. We went on a tour of classic movies and then left for the airport. My Dad's sister and some cousins were on the same flight as us so we were able to all hang out at the airport and eat. It was sad for our amazing vacation to be over but I couldn't wait to get home to these guys.

Hollywood Studios/Magic Kingdom

We started the day with having brunch at my Aunt's house. We got to talk with some of the family that were busy at the wedding. Their house was right on some water so some of them decided to go for a swim and find dolphins. After visiting and eating we headed to Hollywood Studios. Jonathan was leaving that evening so time was short. I didn't know that you could get fast passes months in advance for the Disney World parks. By the time we were talking about the schedule, the fast passes were gone for the rides at Hollywood Studios that we wanted to go on. We ended up having to wait an hour and a half, in the drizzly rain, for the Tower of Terror. We had lucked out on lines before and had never waited longer than 20. 

The wait for the other rides we wanted was even longer so we decided to leave Hollywood Studios and head over to Magic Kingdom. Jonathan had to leave for the airport at that point so we were down to 5! I wish we had more time at Magic Kingdom and that we could have been there with everyone. It was such a magical night. We climbed the Swiss Family Treehouse, shared a Dole Whip, went on Pirates of the Caribbean and then convinced Mom and Chris to try Splash Mountain. They surprisingly loved it and decided to try the other roller coasters. We joked that they conquered all the mountains. Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain. 

 We had heard that the "froze" the castle every once in awhile, for a few minutes. It happened while we were over in Frontierland so David and I ran like crazy to take pictures. Well, I kept up with David for a tiny bit and then watched him run like crazy. It was seriously beautiful. 

I had to get a picture of my cute parents. 

 We were in Fantasyland getting dinner when the firework show started. It was amazing. Disney knows how to put on a show. Then I got back to my flatbread and discovered firework embers all over my food! 

That black thing came from a firework!

The park was open until midnight and we canvassed that park like it was nothing else. The only rides we didn't go on were the kid ones in Fantasyland. The line for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was over an hour and I flat out refused to go on It's a Small World. We were having way too much fun, we all felt like kids. We did not want to leave! Especially since we only had 1 day left on our trip.