It has been strange being in the 80 and 90 degree heat of Arizona and California to come home to coat and shoe weather. We were lucky to miss several April snow storms in Utah, and it is still quite chilly. Our kids have loved being back with their toys (it is a little like Christmas coming home, and Colin now tells us that his toys miss him when we are gone). We love to play on our driveway with the cars and trikes.

Jane has received many great second hand Doc Martins from Aunt April and Aunt Mary. When my parent's lived in England they lived close to a Doc Martin factory. Jane sincerely does love shoes.

Colin needs a bigger bike, but hard to get one when we are gone so much.

Jane got this great hat from Aunt Mary for Christmas. She was being so cute in her car.

They are such cute little friends most of the time.

AND we recently found out that we are spending a little over 5 weeks this summer in Japan. We found out it could happen in mid-April. Since we had not heard anything else we kind of assumed it would not happen but yes, we are Japan-bound. It is sure to be a very crazy family adventure. I traveled to Japan 20 years ago when my sister was living there and I am excited to get back. The stress of leaving gets on me a little, or a lot depending on the day. We found out Brian had the Japan offer the day after Jane had been up most of the night and Brian had strep. It was the worst possible day to think about a trip to Japan with two kids. Brian and I talked about maybe seeing if just I could meet him in Japan for the last week or something, but then he would be without the kids for 5 weeks and that is just too long. We just all like each other too much. So Japan, are you ready for Stuckihouse? Is Stuckihouse ready for Japan?

It somehow made sense to come home from AZ through Southern California. We had to fit in a few days of Disneyland (to make the most of the end of Colin's annual pass). Since we travel so much, it makes traveling for pleasure not so fun sometimes, but Disneyland is just for our family. We got to see and stay with some good friends (who even let us stay an extra night since Jane was a little under the weather. Today we found out she has strep throat. Poor thing, no other symptoms but a tummy ache that would come and go since May 6th but sure is strep. Brian and Colin had it last week, it has been crappy.)

But at Disneyland, Colin was so happy to see Mickey, and Mickey gave him a big hug.

Colin was being a little funny meeting Lightning McQueen and Mater. So overwhelming!

We spent a couple nights at a hotel a couple blocks from the park (go hotwire.com!) and Colin loved his "transformer" bed.

We came back from the park very tired.

We had fun watching Brian take off on the roller coaster at California Adventure. It is a great roller coaster.

We went on Mickey's Fun Wheel (a large Ferris wheel) in a swinging cage, which was really pretty crazy. It really swings out which made us all a little nervous.

Jane sometimes allows piggy tails, it is very cute.

And she still had stroller napping skills, yay! Jane was tall enough to ride the Matterhorn and she loved it! We were a little nervous about Jane on this trip since she is very opinionated these days, but she really did great. She did ok in lines and loved everything! Poor little thing, her tummy ache that we found out today is strep started at Disneyland. She probably licked some infested poll somewhere.

Colin found out that when he stretches the elastic on his hat down to his waist, if you let it go, it hurts.

Jane got pink Mickey Ears. They are very cute. (Shirtless photos taken at home. We enforced shirt wearing at Disneyland. Even when she threw up on her shirt, she had to wear her sweat shirt.)

Colin is at a funny phase for having his photo taken.

Thanks Disneyland and Zollingers. We had some good times.

The day we left, Juliet came over to take the kids to a park while we packed and then everyone enjoyed a dum dum. We were so spoiled in Tucson with such great friends, it hardly felt like we were away for work. We really miss our friends and would like to find way to have them live closer. . .

We loved getting to know the twin 1 year olds! They have such cute little personalities, and were so patient with all of Jane's extreme love for them.

We had some fun at the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson in between Barber shows. Colin and Miss L loved their maps.

We stumbled upon a talk by Jane Goodall, but with 5 kids, no time to stop and listen.

The 4 year olds got to feed the giraffes! They were delighted.

All the kids near the end of our visit. Both 4 year olds still holding on to their maps, funny kids!