Ryden's 'beary' special day

Every Friday, one kid in Ryden's class has a 'beary' special day.  It was Ryden' turn this past Friday.  When it is your day, you get a big bear to decorate with pictures and then you get to present it to the class.

He was so excited to tell his class all about his bear.  And Ryden's classmates were excited to have Trevin in the class with them (see pic below.  Number 66 is getting bear hugged by a fellow student). 

After he presented, the class got to ask questions.  There was a picture of him and Ava and that caused a lot of commotion.  "I thought Olivia was your girlfriend.  How many girlfriends do you have??!"

All the kids then got to say a nice thing about Ryden.  "He shares".  "He is awesome".  "He has cool hair".  And then it was time for everyone to draw a picture of the special boy and write something nice about him.

 Brother Trevin got in on the action

Lots and lots of hearts from the girls...

 It was so awesome to see all of the pictures..

 Hmm....keep working

 Nice rainbow Luca

 Ry got to draw one also.  Because it is important to love ourselves

Luca with his masterpiece

 The whole gang.  Since I volunteer about twice a month, these little people have become my homies.  The girls always want to do my hair and the boys always want to tell me about helicopters and mine craft.

 Enzo and Mikaio

 Janelle was upset because she didn't get a pic with Ry.  So I took one of them.  "We like each other"...she said.

After school, we continued celebrating by going to Disneyland.  It was not super crowded at all for a Friday.  Guess people are scared since there was an outbreak of measles.  We ain't scared!

We had a grand ol' time even if my kids don't like Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Pinnochio, etc.  So we rode all the tame rides.

 We had a really good day and I am very proud of Ryden.  All of his friends said the nicest things about him.  He is such a good boy and we love him!

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FUNNY STORY:  The boys have been super into this Michael Jackson karaoke video game.  They sing the songs and do the dances.  The other day, Trev said he was going to go get dressed.  He came down wearing the outfit in the picture above.  "Mama, I wear my Michael Jackson outfit."  Complete with one glove and all.  Sham-on-it!

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I tried doing these last year and dropped the ball about halfway though.  Let's see how I do this year.

FUNNY STORY:  When we were at my parents house for Christmas, Trevin was entertaining us one night.  I played the snowman song and he danced and did his whole performance.  After, he said "Now play 'Police Monkey die' song Mama".  We were all confused.  I had no idea what he was taking about.  He said it over and over and started to get frustrated.  He said one last time, "You know..Police monkey die..I wanna wish you a merry Christmas".  Ohhh!  I then turned on 'Feliz Navidad' and he danced the entire song. 

The Grand Canyon

While we were in Flagstaff, we had to make a trip out to see the Grand Canyon.  I haven't been since I was road trippin' with the parents back in the day.  Once again, it was freezing outside but everyone was happy.  We watched a short IMAX movie about the Grand Canyon.  Trev & Jason loved it, Teresa and I got motion sickness, and Ry kept asking "how much longer?"  After the movie, we went to see the canyon that is grand.

I was very content looking at the beauty perched behind the railings...with my John Byrne approved 'Michael Jackson' jacket on.

 I don't know when I turned into such a wuss, but this gave me a heart attack:

I don't do well with heights but for the sake of that awesome Instagram picture, I took one for the team.  They have this article on the internet titled "When selfies turn deadly".  All about people who died after having to capture the perfect picture.  This article was replaying in my mind the whole time I was sitting on this ledge.

Mind you, there was a smaller ledge right below me but still!

Then Jason had to one up me...

 When he started bringing the kids near the edge I just about lost it.  But at least I was still able to take pictures because I am a true professional.

 The boys were happy to climb on the nearby rocks...away from the ledge.  I was less stressed.  Sure, go ahead, break your arm or leg...at least you won't plummet down the canyon.

Hyper-ventelating.  Act normal....

 Cool as a cucumber 

Trevin decided to dance...of course

 Ryden seems to have my fear of heights.  You can't tell in the pic, but it was like pulling teeth to get him to walk out on that ledge..

 We all made it out alive and well and have some great pictures and experiences! 

Bearizona

We heard a few recommendations about Bearizona so we decided to check out the hype.  It was a place you could drive through and see animals in the 'wild'.  We were ready!  

  I figured we would see a few goats and deer and call it a day...

 ..then we came up to this sign while our windows were all down.  Cool...I'm sure we will see a wolf....

Oh yep...there's a wolf giving us the crazy evil eye!

 And then a bear just casually strolled by.  I know these animals were intentionally placed here but it was really cool seeing them up close.  It was like we were actually in the wild!

 Iphones were working overtime..

 I'm sure you all have seen Jason's bear video on IG.  Here is the behind the scenes pic...

 I thought I was pretty artsy with this one...American White Bison...standing by the American White Bison sign!

 Holding up traffic dude!

Trev loved sitting in the middle without a seatbelt.

 And Ry got to stand up..in the car..without a seatbelt!

 License to drive

 The boys had so much fun sitting in the very far back.  Ryden wanted to ride back here for the rest of the trip.

 BEARS!

After we drove through the animals (that sounds horrible), we went to the zoo area.

 Even though it was after Christmas, they still had all the decorations up and it felt so Christmas-y!

 Jason wanted a karate chop picture with the boys.  They didn't get the memo!

 My little bundle baby.  In his defense, it was super cold...but the scarf made him look like Ralphie's brother.  "I can't put my arms down.."

Here's your karate chop picture Jason...a little too late Trev.

 They had a petting zoo.  When we entered, this goat was trying to claw his way though the frozen water.  Twas quite funny.

 Trevin had a grand ole time petting the animals.

 Ry....not so much

 "Look Mama...I jump over the poop.."

 Santa's sleigh

 Group shot.  I showed Jason and said "It turned out awesome because we look like we are in a forest."  To which he replied "Yeah..a forest with rope tied around it."  Buzz kill

 Ryden watched the otters for a long time.  I was frozen watching them swim in the icy water!

 Watching more bears from outside the car

 Entering the cave..oohhh...spooky!

 And one last picture of Trevin by the dippin' dots vending machine that he would not stop talking about.  It's 20 degrees kid!  And you want ice cream??!!