Swiss Days and Flood Aid

Yesterday was Santa Clara Swiss Days. We didn't make up for the 5k this year, but Casey and Jenna caught up with Matthew for the parade. From what I hear, Jenna was as big of a hit with the parade walkers as they were for her. No opportunity for candy passing out was missed. The lady sitting next to them finally asked to borrow Jenna so that her grandkids could get some candy also. Honestly though, if you were the one passing out the candy, wouldn't you want to give her all of your candy? Love her and her undeniable cuteness. 

 That night we all went to went to a Flood Aid concert to fundraise for the flood victims. It was actually a really fun night and Jenna was completely enthralled with the Disney characters there. It was completely surreal after the shear terror in her reactions at, you know, Disneyland. Maybe she just acclimated or something but she was practically molesting these faux characters. It was almost comical, but after a while we had to pry her hands off of them and distract her with bouncy houses and "trains". 

Our terror inducing moment came when the slide house that Jenna was in collapsed all of a sudden. It was unbelievable how quickly it was almost completely deflated. And the workers were all standing around, unsure of what to do. I started to climb into the castle, but the employee stopped me and climbed in herself. Jenna came out of unscathed, as if nothing had ever happened. So there were Casey and I standing by, attempting to restart our hearts, and to pretend as if nothing had happened either so as not traumatize her. 

Jenna's Dance Break

Jenna's "Dance Break" from Katie Madsen on Vimeo.

Poor Casey has a heck of a time getting the lawn mowed these days. If he is not being interrupted for what Jenna refers to as "dancing breaks", then she wants to be the one to mow the lawn. Of course all of this takes place with her princess dress on. It seems to be the quintessential fathers with daughters stuff. Love it! 

September Photo-A-Day

I was not great this month. Not really sure what was going on. My guess was that either too little or too much was going on and I just lost track...here are the ones I did manage to remember. 

Headed home after a great day in SLC! 

Cheers to you, Dad.

She's does feel so far away...and I miss her every day. 

No bills and a refund check for overpayment on medical bills (with a service date of May 2011?!) I'll take it!

She seriously brightens my everything! {even when she doesn't nap} 

Getting in the mood for tomorrow's adventure. We're a little worried about how many promises we've made to the kid! Oh, yeah we can ride the train, and see Pooh, and ride Dumbo, and the horsies aka the carousel. #hopealltheridesareopen #disneyland

I just spent the last 6 1/2 hours with dozens of volunteers, cleaning up the devastation at the convenience store and restaurant of our dear friends after a dike broke and flooded it. They came and kept coming, asking nothing in return. All the while Nick and @liisafrei, kept up their typical and legendary positive attitudes. They astound me! And as I lay here taking account of my day, I am overwhelmed at the love that was there this afternoon/evening. And grateful too for my neighbor for taking in my daughter so I could do my part, however small it may have been. My cup runneth over...

Spent another day digging out Dutchmans. There were a lot of volunteers. And I even ran into my brother in law for a bit! I love my community!!! 

Two of my all time favorite people. @mailemadsen reading to Jenna. My heart soared watching. 

Restarted my audio book at 4 am when I, of course, woke up again. FYI, Foxy Ladies, I've finished it, have you?! #bookclub

The damage to Cravings has forced us into cooking. Ugh!

Some of these are weird topics...here you go, my fridge. Plenty of dairy and soup. It's how we roll. 

Spent the afternoon transcribing Cravings' and Dutchmans recipes from underneath mud covered sheet protectors, wet paper, and bleeding ink. Between those factors and me not knowing how to read a recipe, it was a rough go for a bit. #digdeepfordutchmans 

My dinner tonight... #stillnotcooking

Sometimes I forget to post my photo a day or can't thing of anything to match the given topic. #stumped

Right now I'm staring up at our dirty, old fan and trying to decide if I can dissemble it enough to spray paint the brass portions oil rubbed bronze. 

Winnie the Pooh...enjoy...

2012-09-24 - Winnie the Pooh from Katie Madsen on Vimeo.

Maile!!!

My beautiful, talented, intelligent niece Maile came to town for a tennis tournament and we spent the last couple of days watching her play. She's really good and I was very impressed. It was so nice to get time with her, however short it was. 

 LOVE HER!!!

Santa Clara Flood

We have been having a crazy monsoon season this year and it all came to a head on September 11 when our area got 3" of rain in "relatively short period of time" and with the ground already saturated it  caused a 100 year old dike to finally give way. The first building in the line of fire is Nick & Liisa Frei's  Dutchman convenience store and Cravings Cafe, my poor darling friends. The devastation is unlike anything I have ever seen in person. It just broke my heart for them, but true to form, they were unbelievable; positive, grateful, humble, and much more concerned with the 60+ home owners that were flooded out. When I grow up I want to be Liisa Frei! 

Initial News Coverage

Huntington Beach & Disneyland

We flew into the LA area pretty early on the 8th. And we had the rest of the afternoon to kill. So we drove out to Huntington Beach to fill up our souls with the joy that is any time spent at a beach. Jenna was in heaven building her sand castle. And playing in the FREEZING water with Casey, "Hurry Dad, run, the waterfall is coming." What a great afternoon.

 We spent the evening walking around Downtown Disney getting ready for the next day! You know, getting our game faces on. It was okay, we didn't do a whole lot of shopping, so it felt like we were walking for walking's sake. So we didn't stay long.

 We had an amazing time at Disneyland! It honestly could not have gone better. With this many people we have had trips in the past where a lot of time has been wasted trying to decide what to ride next, or where we are eating, etc. But this trip went so smoothly. We did split up for a little so that the Quarders could hit the new Cars Land in California Adventure. But otherwise we were together the entire time and went smoothly from ride to ride. We all felt like we got everything in we wanted to. All of the kids did amazing. None of them really napped, but were still well behaved. We had so much fun! 

 Jenna was absolutely terrified of the characters! Scared to death. Any time any of them came within 10 feet of us she would start to cry and say, "Hold you, hold you, hold you." until one of us picked her up.  She was a little better with the fairy godmother probably because you can see her face. 

As you can tell from her face, Jenna was a little unsure about The Pirates of the Caribbean. Of course, she promptly asked to go on it again as soon as it was over. 

 She started running out of steam during the firework show...

...and was asleep before the show was over. A day well spent! And she was fantastic. 

 

The next day we drove home with my mom. With a special stop in Barstow for some mustaches. Cuteness!