SoCal Trip

November 5-12, 2016

Vista, Anaheim and Carlsbad, CA

Since the kids got election day and veteran's day off in the same week, we decided it was a good excuse to take off!!  (Don't worry--we voted early.)  We headed to Natalie's house to hang out with her and her family, go to Disneyland and the beach.  The Disney Crowd Predictor estimated levels to be at "Ghost Town" or "Not Bad" for the days we planning on hitting the parks.  But apparently everyone else in the world had the same brilliant idea as us, and it was definitely NOT a ghost town.  But we had a blast anyway.

We drove out on Saturday, went to church and relaxed on Sunday, and then Monday we went up Disney to get our three-day hopper passes and spend out first day.  On Tuesday we hung out at home, and hit the Carlsbad State Beach after Kyrie got home from school.  You really can't beat beach days--the kids could stay there all day playing in the sand and water!  Even though the water was too cold to tempt me, I loved relaxing on the sand with Nathan and Bennett (who was scared of the waves) just watching the older kids enjoy the waves and each other.  

On Wednesday, Natalie and her kids stayed home and Kyrie went to school.  We went to Disney and stayed the night in a fun hotel across the street that has a water park.  That was pretty awesome, to just walk across the street and go to bed when we were done.  The next day, we hit the parks as soon as they opened, and Natalie met us there later that morning for another great day at Disney.

Natalie drove home before the fireworks, and we stayed one more night at the hotel--I took the little ones there after the fireworks, while Arthur stayed pretty much until it closed with the older 4.  Friday morning we got breakfast and then let the kids play at the water park until we had to check out.  We headed back to Natalie's that night, stocked her up with groceries and other stuff she could use, and then Saturday morning we headed back home.

It was so great to spend time with Natalie and her kids!  We sure love them.  And I'm so grateful we are able to do fun things together as a family.  I have magical memories of going to Disneyland a couple of times when I was a child, and I love sharing that magic with my own children now that I'm a parent.  I know you don't have to go to Disneyland to make fun memories, but we sure LOVE our Disneyland memories!  

As you can see, the babies were totally mesmerized by the princesses.  Ha!  

Bennett, Nathan and I riding Dumbo

Cars Land

The Holiday Decorations were just going up this week, and they were beautiful!  It even "snowed" during the holiday firework show that debuted on our last night there.

Water Park at the hotel, the name of which I don't remember.

But it was AWESOME!  Our room had two showers, two queen beds and a set of bunk beds, so it was PERFECT for our family!  (I mean, we still slept four kids in that 2nd queen bed, but two showers and the bunkbeds really helped.

It took Bennett a long time to work up the courage to go down this little yellow slide.  He was so proud of himself when he finally did it!

September-October Quotes

Bennett:  I can't wait to go to Colorado!  Then we will get to see the temple and we will get to see Jesus!

Bennett:  Mom, Ethan was laughing with me!  It was really funny!  (presses the button on the toy and laughs)  Mom, laugh!  Laugh with me!

Bennett can't say his R's yet, so whenever he says "sure" it sounds like "show."  And he says "Show" a lot.  Like if I say, "Bennett, would you like a peanut butter sandwich?"  He says, "Yeah, show."  We kind-of love it.

Bennett woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.  As I was tucking him back in, he picked up that toy.  I said, "Don't press the button--we don't want to wake up Nathan."  Bennett responded, "And we show don't want to wake up Daddy!"  

Bennett: (referring to Sean)  That guy said we can have ice cream.

Bennett:  You want to sing?  Then sing loud!!

Bennett handing me a gas receipt said, "Here is a treasure for you!"

Daphne said "bless you" to someone at school who coughed.  The girl said, "I coughed, I didn't sneeze."  Daphne responded, "Dude, just take the blessing."

Me:  You are never going to get your braces off if you don't wear your elastics.

Dallin:  I DO wear my elastics.

Me:  Well, I never see you wear them.

Dallin:  That's because I'm always eating when you see me!

Bennett wants to be a bat for Halloween, so I've been searching on Amazon for a cute bat costume that ISN'T batman.  (Way too many dumb batman costumes out there.)

Me:  Bennett, what do you think about this bat costume?

Bennett:  Hm.  Try again.

Me:  What? This is a great bat costume.  It has cool purple wings and awesome bat ears.

Bennett:  No, thank you.  Let's find a different bat costume.

Me:  Okay, what about this one?

Bennett:  Well, that one doesn't match me.  Let's try another bat.

(Not sure what kind of bat he's looking for, but apparently Amazon just isn't cuttin' it.)

Classic Halloween

This year, I took a huge step back from the halloween costumes.  Instead of spending months on elaborate homemade costumes, I simplified.  I was really proud of myself for letting that go this year.  We went with a super easy "Classic Halloween" theme, and I bought most everything.  I did make Bennett's bat costume because we couldn't find one that he liked.  But they all looked cute and I spent  maybe 3 hours on costumes total this year instead of 20.  More time to cuddle the baby and attempt to stay on top of dishes.

La Cueva Ward Halloween Party

(Our ward doesn't have one, so we always visit LC for theirs.  Good excuse to see friends and another place to wear the costumes!  Gotta make them worth it, even if we simplified this year!)

Elementary school costume parade!

Trick-or-Treating

Farmhouse Table

Inspired by my sister Jen and my brother Reed who can build anything, I've been really wanting to develop that skill for myself.  So I put Arthur to work building us a farm table. ;)  Ha! I helped!!  I've been pouring over Shanty 2 Chic's free woodworking plans for the last year trying to work up the courage to try new things.  Well eventually I got Arthur on board and we found a table that we liked.  We spent about $250 on lumber for the table and the benches and built this table together!  I left the hard parts to Arthur because we have different ideas about what perfect looks like.  I like things to be a little bit messed up--scuffed, edges not quite even, surfaces not quite flush, but Arthur is a perfectionist and got the top of the table beautifully smooth, which is great for puzzles and games and eating and writing--basically all the things you use a table for!  It turned out awesome and we got it done in time for Thanksgiving!  The benches came later, in time for New Years.  And we've been making great memories around this beauty every day since then!  So excited for this new skill.

Balloon Fiesta 2016

October 8, 2016

Balloon Fiesta

The year we finally had some friends come out for Balloon Fiesta!  We've kept in touch with the Coons family, who we knew back in our BYU student ward when we both only had one child!  Now we both have seven children and this is the first time we've gotten together since our BYU days!  It was so much fun to catch up and get reacquainted with them.  

Sadly, the mass ascension that we went to was a little underwhelming.  We'd gotten up at 5 AM and each of us loaded up our seven children and our breakfast burritos to get there in time.  There was a little bit of wind, but nothing that should have been a deal breaker.  But when we got to Balloon Fiesta Park, we ended up hanging out there for about an hour waiting for the green light.  After awhile, a lot of the balloonists decided to pack up and leave.  One Texas pilot we spoke with said, "It's much better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground!"  I guess that's true, but when you have friends from Arizona who came out to see the balloons, you sure wish they would go up!!

So we waited, and everybody ate their breakfast burritos and played catch with the rolled up balls of foil, and eventually a lot of the balloons did inflate and enough took off that it felt like a fiesta. Thank goodness!!