Christmas parties

Unfortunately the Christmas parties for husband’s work and for my work were scheduled on the same night this year.  And it was the same night as the girls’ dress rehearsal for the Nutcracker.  So there was no way I could go with him.  So husband went to his work party while I took girls to rehearsal and then stopped in for the tail end of my work party.  The food is incredible and is reason enough to attend every year.  I sat with some of the other instructors and we talked and laughed through the meal.  The various managers and coordinators did some special highlights and recognition and we had a great evening (even if my smokin hot husband couldn’t be with me).

E’s preschool had a fantastic Christmas party.  She made us an ornament and did a Christmas sock hop and came home with a bag overflowing with treats and gifts from her classmates that she happily shared with sisters.

L and A’s classes did class parties as well with some special treats and activities.  They both took suckers and candy canes to school to share with friends and treats for their teachers.

We hosted our annual fondue dinner.  The group was smaller this year, intentionally so because one of our friends is moving out of state and we wanted to spend more time with them.  And then it worked out especially well because we were all sick but apparently sharing the same cold and not worried about passing it on to anyone new.  The kids ran amuck upstairs with a very patient baby sitter and pizza while the adults feasted on cheese fondue, lots of veggies, bread, steak and such.  We sat around and talked and shared stories.  Eventually we did our white elephant exchange with plenty of teasing and laughs.  Then we finished the evening with a chocolate fondue.  The counter was covered with treats and fruits to dip.  Once the adults had their fill, we turned the kids loose on the chocolate, much to their delight.  This is one of my favorite nights of the whole year and a favorite tradition.  I love the food but I love this annual opportunity to get together and just talk and relax with friends that we don’t get to see as often as we would like. 

And then we also spent an evening my extended family.  Originally we planned to attend a live nativity but the long drive to get there and cold weather was discouraging.  So in the end, my siblings and I all got together at my parents house.  We turned the kids loose to play with cousins and we shared pizza and played games.  We decorated Grammy and Papa’s Christmas tree and watched movies.  And then my little family spent the night and I got to help Grammy wrap presents and get ready for Christmas.  (She thinks its something I do as a service for her but I actually have so much fun, spending the time with her, picking out gifts for kids and getting to wrap it all up).

holiday preformances

I love, love, love the holiday season.  For a multitude of reasons.  I love the emphasis on family and the extra playdates and get-togethers.  I love shopping and gift giving and Secret Santas.  I love the snow and the amazing decorations.  And I love the kids’ winter performances!

Friday night was dress rehearsal, which is always managed with minimal chaos actually.  The girls got to see each other’s dances and collect all the pieces of their costumes.  And then on Saturday, we started into the festivities early at the ward Christmas party with tons of great food and a nativity program.  I came late, having taught a class at the gym that morning and Grammy joined us shortly after with a surprise stowaway, one of our nieces!  L was especially excited as they are really close friends despite their age difference and infrequent visits.  The girls played at the house and A got ready for dance, as she was the only one performing in the matinee show.  She wore a royal blue and silver costume, (especially good colors for her) and looked for regal with her hair in an elegant bun.  When her class came onstage she was easy to pick out as she is the tallest by far.  We were so impressed! Much like the first time I watched L perform, I was amazed at her natural grace and beautiful extensions.

After the matinee, we had lunch at The Dairy Keen (always a fun favorite for the girls) and played for awhile again before we readied L and E for the evening show.  I’ve gotten used to seeing L with her ballet bun and some light stage make up but this was E’s first time and she looked so grown up!  L’s jazz class opened the preshow and she was amazing as always.  L was center stage, and she solo-ed a heel stretch to start the routine.  E’s class was next, in their adorable red leotards.  She was more interested in her 2 foot candy cane prop and in general her class was rather uncoordinated, never in sync and obviously distracted.  But they’re so young and so dang cute that they make you melt anyway.  We picked up E at intermission and then stayed through the rest of the show to see L dance in the Nutcracker.  This was her first year as part of the Nutcracker cast and she has been so excited.  She played a bon bon, the last one appearing from under Mother Ginger’s skirt to play and prance across the stage.  They were so cute! And then she was the last one to exit, skipping and beaming as she went.  We gave each of the girls a red rose after their shows and then they got to stay up late for a movie night with Daddy.

I also attended the school sing a long.  Not many parents did as it really isn’t a performance or an assembly.  But both L and A were surprised and thrilled to see me there.   All the students sit on the floor in the gym and the Christmas carol lyrics are projected while the music played.  It was loud and crazy and fun.

And lastly, L had a winter piano recital that was rather unique in a wonderful way.  The class has been working on accompaniments so the recital was held at a senior citizen home.  Each student played the accompaniment to an assigned Christmas carol as all the senior residents and families sang along.  So festive and so fun!  L played “Hark the Harold Angels Sing” and played beautifully.  

Disney

We drove the airport, suggesting nothing different than the countless other long drives down the canyon.  I told the girls we had to drop some stuff off at the airport for dad, as we’ve done many times before.  I pulled into skycap, left the girls in the car and spent ten minutes checking bags.  As I got back into the car, I was greeted with the anticipated chorus of “I want to go in!”, “I want to go somewhere!”, etc.  So I told them the skycap man said there was a plane to Denver, only an hour ride if the kids wanted to go tonight.  We called Grammy n Papa to see if they wanted to go with us and drove to airport parking.  It took much longer than usual but eventually we parked, cleaned out the backpacks that we just happened to bring with us, loading them with the kid blankets we just happened to have in the car.  We made it through security, found Grammy and Papa and excited boarded a plane to Denver.  They spent the short flight coloring and talking, delighting in hot chocolate and gazing out the window.  Eventually I told them there was a surprise in Denver and enjoyed their many guesses what it could be.

We landed in Denver, made it into the airport and found our surprise: Daddy!  He had been on a business trip and flew to Denver to meet us with three Christmas gift bags for the girls.  Inside they each found a new pair of Mickey pajamas and we finally told them our great surprise: as an early Christmas gift, we were on our way to Disneyworld!  (We have been planning this surprise since late summer when kid sister announced her engagement.  We wanted to spend some time with her and getting to know her finacee before the wedding next summer.  As an added bonus, we planned to attend Mickey’s Christmas party and see Disneyworld decked out for Christmas.)  The girls dressed in their new jammies and soon we were on our second, much longer, flight to Orlando.  Since it was late, we watched movies until they were mostly asleep and spent the flight pretty quietly.

In Orlando, at 1:30am, we landed, retrieved our luggage, sent husband for our rental car, loaded up and took our very tired girls to the condo we had rented for our vacation.  This was our first Disney trip not staying on Disney property due to limited availability and expense in December.  But we found a great deal on a nearby condo that was decorated with Mickey and turned out to be incredible—spacious and perfect for what we needed.  Kid sister had checked us in earlier and the girls were thrilled to see her.

Unfortunately, the girls did not sleep in as hoped.  But Grammy was super sweet to let Husband and I sleep in while the kids played quietly and watched tv.  Soon Grammy, kid sister and I made a quick trip to the grocery store and returned home to make brunch and play through the afternoon.  The girls were delighted to find “Tinkerbell magic”, gift bags waiting for them (a favorite tradition they remember from previous Disney trips).  Each morning the bag would have something new for them.  On our first morning, it was princess plush dolls that they absolutely loved!  They played with them, read to them, took them in the car, even slept with them every day.

In the late afternoon we headed to Disney.  We stopped at kid sister’s apartment to pick up her finacee and meet her pets.  Her apartment rivaled any good toy store with a huge collection of books and figurines.  Plus she has a dog that looks like Bolt and is named for Jack Frost, so the kids could have stayed all day.  But instead we went to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s Christmas party.

 We headed right for Fantasyland, the area of the park where both kid sister and her finacee work.  We met several of their friends and timed it right to hit as many attractions and characters as we could.  First stop was Enchanted Tales with Belle.  All of the girls got picked to participate in the storytelling event and lucky little L played the part of the Beast and got to dance with Belle.  We went on rides and wandered shops.  We devoured popcorn and stopped for dinner before finding a spot to watch some of the Christmas party special events.  We watched the stage show and then watched Elsa light up Cinderella’s castle (so gorgeous!)  My favorite part was watching E when Olaf came on stage, she was so ecstatic!  We met more characters, including Elsa and a very animated Anna.  We met Ariel, Rapunzel and Flynn, Cinderella and the Prince, Peter Pan and Wendy and watched the spectacular Christmas parade.  Meeting characters is always one of our very favorite parts, the girls are so absorbed in the magic.  L usually tried to play it cool but couldn’t help herself.  A dove in for hugs and stories.  And E was especially entertaining with a nonstop oration of “Did you know?” (“did you know we have your movie? “did you know I love your dress?” “did you know I can sing your song?”)  With some characters, we had met them before so the girls just enjoyed meeting them and talking to them.  With characters we had never met, they girls got their autographs to add to their photo album.  We have them sign on an index card that then slips into an album.  Across the spread, I include pictures with that character from each time we’ve met them.  It’s fun to see the girls get older through the pictures.  We played and celebrated until the girls were too tired to enjoy anymore.  We spent a few minutes shopping and then returned to the condo at midnight.

On Friday, they did sleep in, much later than I would have guessed actually.  So we got a good night’s sleep, dashed through a breakfast of mickey waffles and headed out to the Animal Kingdom.  Our first stop was to meet Pocahontas, one of the few characters left of their “must meet” list.  (Last October we met as many characters as we possibly could for an impressive record of 32! But it did not include Pocahontas or Jasmine, and the girls have begged to meet them ever since.)  So we were off to a great start.  We meet Mickey and Minnie, who were dressed for the holidays!  While waiting in line, the girls drew pictures and then gave them to Mickey and Minnie who made a big fuss and delighted over the little pictures and letters.  We rode the safari and saw so many incredible animals.  I love watching the girls faces light up, it’s the most priceless part of these adventures.  We ate the picnic lunch we had brought with us before continuing onto a few more rides and shows.  L and E braved the roller coaster with husband, kid sister and her fiancée.  E reported that it was “kind of scary but not fast enough”.  And that the yeti was “scary but kind of cute!”  Meanwhile A, Grammy, Papa and I got a snack and checked out a gift shop.  Each day the kid found a penny press machine so A did that for her sisters while we were waiting.  Grammy’s favorite show is the Festival of the Lion King and it really was so impressive with acrobatics and dancing and the kid favorite part, they got invited to join the parade, dancing and shaking music makers with the monkeys.  But the end of the day, the kids were exhausted.  Kid sister and finacee went back to their apartment since they had to work early the next morning.  And we headed back to the condo, stopping at an on-site restaurant for dinner.  It included a kid arcade and play area which the girls loved!  The food was good but incredibly slow.  And eventually we were all tucked into bed again.

On Saturday husband made his infamous “daddy eggs” and we had a leisurely morning at the condo.  We spent a few hours at the pool.  Grammy and I sat poolside while Papa and husband played with the girls.  They did laps around the waterslide and raced around the lazy river over and over.  They played pretend mermaid games and dubbed Papa the shark.  They had a blast trying to steal his hat and balancing on the inner tubes we brought from our condo.  They would have stayed forever but we brought them home for lunch and after a quick round of showers, headed to Disney again.  We went to one of the resorts, eager to see their famous gingerbread creation.  An enormous, beautifully decorated Christmas tree stood in the lobby next to a near life size gingerbread house with incredible details.  After marveling over that, we briefly wandered the gift shop, dreaming and wishing.  Then we took the monorail to Epcot where Papa and Husband were waiting (since they couldn’t park at the resort hotel).  We had planned to meet kids sister as soon as she got off work and hoped finacee would be able to get off a few hours early as well, but they weren’t so lucky.  They ended up working longer than anticipated.  But we didn’t mind.  We sat on some park benches outside the entrance and played countless games of “duck, duck, goose”, told stories and explored.  It was still early evening with plenty of time to play when kid sister and finacee were able to join us.  (Between Grammy’s injured foot, my pregnancy and the overstimulated attention of the kids, these half days were perfect for us.  Full of fun and yet, at least one kid was unfortunately tired enough to tears every night.)  We headed for the back of the park to meet Jasmine and Aladdin, checking off that last high priority for the girls.  The girls were in awe and Aladdin had fun teasing them about flying so far without a carpet.  We had dinner, bringing plates from three different countries and then wandered some shops, unable to resist.  We took in a few favorite rides but the girls were so tired, they didn’t last long.  They got to watch the fireworks and then we had to tell kid sister and finacee goodbye since we wouldn’t get to see her again.

On Sunday morning we had breakfast and went swimming again.  This time I joined the kids in the pool and we had so much fun.  We spent the afternoon reluctantly packing and then split the party up.  Papa, Grammy and E were to stay one more night while Husband, L, A and I started our journey home.  We had a quick dinner at the airport and spent the flight doing projects from their new activity bag and watching movies.  After the two flights and the familiar drive, we got home about 1 am.

Meanwhile, Papa, Grammy and E got to spend one more evening with kid sister and finacee.  They went to her apartment to drop off Christmas presents and spent the evening at the newly remodeled Downtown Disney (apparently now “Disney Springs”).  They had dinner at the Indian Jones hanger bar, went shopping and had ice cream sundaes from the Ghiradelli store (that was E”s favorite part).  And then they came home on Monday, little E delighting in her one-on-one time with her grandparents while husband had to work on Monday and the older girls and I eased back into the chaos here.

Such an amazing trip.  We are so lucky that we get to go so often, both to see kid sister (our favorite part) and enjoy the Disney magic while the girls are at such a perfect age.

Thanksgiving

Our plans changed several times as the Thanksgiving holiday approached.  My side of the family was split up working or with their other families.  But my father in law went back east to spend it with his my sister in law and go to the Macy’s Parade together.  (so fun!)  So we debated for awhile and decided to go visit my grandma for a long weekend.  My parents caught a nasty flu last minute and weren’t able to go, so it was just our little family that headed south just as the storm hit.  We escaped most of it and enjoyed the drive, arriving just in time for a short visit before bed.  The girls were thrilled to see grandma-great and eagerly said hello to her dogs.  We spent a few minutes talking and then tucked everyone into bed.

On Thursday, we had a quick breakfast and then a fabulous day.  Grandma and I put together a Thanksgiving feast as the girls played and we watched parts of the parade on tv. The girls especially loves the Ninja Turtles, Hello Kitty and How to Train Your Dragon.  We went for a walk on the neighbor’s expansive property, down the creek and through the sculpted and beautiful paths they’ve created.  We had dinner early, sitting around the table and taking turns expressing gratitude for things significant as well as everyday.  The girls brought a handful of toys and movies and we did some Thanksgiving crafts including a yarn turkey and a lego holiday set.  We helped with a few projects and ate a LOT of delicious pie.

Our leisurely celebration continued into Friday with tasty leftovers and a few more projects.  The girls most enjoyed decorating Grandma’s tree and helping to bring up a collection of nativities.

And in the afternoon we said goodbye, tucking the kids into the car and driving a few more hours to see husband’s brother and family.  They recently moved into a new home so we were excited to see them and take the tour.  The kids had blast playing together, staying for dinner, sneaking chocolate truffles and finally settling in for a bedtime movie in a big cousin bed on the floor.

We had breakfast together and a little more playtime before we headed home.  We got caught behind a terrible accident, adding significantly to our drive time more than once, but we made it home safely.

We spent Sunday at home, attending church and then, just for fun, made Thanksgiving dinner all over again.  Mostly so husband could try out his new smoker and we could make his mom’s infamous rolls.  We invited some friends over for dinner and had so much fun letting the kids play while we talked.

All in all, a fabulous holiday weekend with lots of family, time to relax and time to play.

McDowell Mtn Ragnar

Last February, I ran the Del Sol Ragnar, completely under trained but desperately needing a runcation with my rag family.  We had such a great time and immediately signed up for the trail race that would give us the coveted double medal: the Phoenix.

Several months later, race day rolled around.  I had improved my training but then took off 2 months because of morning sickness.  I eased back into running and was satisfied with the challenge.  But after running a half marathon two weeks prior, had significant pain in my left foot.  I saw a doc who confirmed it was tendonitis, probably due to running pregnant and the relaxin that caused my bones to soften and the tendons to work harder to keep it all together.  But since it wasn't broken and he agree that continuing to run wouldn't make it any worse, I packed my bags.

I flew down to Phoenix to meet my Ragnar family.  Due to miscommunication and scheduling, our suggested team of 8 was only a team of 6.  But they are good friends and solid runners so we tackled it anyway.  On thursday, one of the guys arrived early and set up our camp.  Thankfully, because as camp got more crowded, the teams were located further and further from the starting line.  We found a sports bar for dinner as we devoured food and chatted.  Then we spent the night at a hotel to make sure we slept well before the race.  With a late starting time, we got to sleep well and eat breakfast before driving back to camp.  There was some shuffling as we got the rest of the gear dropped of and finished setting up but the weather was beautiful and we were off to a great start.

Without the full team of 8, we decided to forgo the regular schedule of running assignments and make it up as suited us the best.  Likely, everyone would need to take 4 legs instead of three but we wanted to be sure everyone got to run all three of the designated trails.  I took a green lap first, an "easy" 4.1 loop through gorgeous scenery.  Solomon shoes was there with a huge tent and truckload of shoes that they loaned to runners for them to try out on the trail.  Those shoes made a huge difference to me, I didn't even feel the tendonitis until my third leg, when I switched back to a road shoe instead of their more protective and support trail shoes. We enjoyed the dinner Ragnar offered with our registration (pasta and salad) and spent lots of time lounging around.  I love them trail runs because you get to spend so much time with your team at camp.  I took the yellow loop just before midnight.  Many people argued it was more difficult than red.  It was shorter but more technical (not so fun in the dark) and 4.9 miles long.  After that leg, I had to sleep several hours which was definitely a struggle.  We had two tents--one for sleeping and one for gear/changing.  So we were warm enough to sleep but my hips were killing me from the run and sleeping on the ground (I'm such an old lady).

I took my third leg around 6 am, feeling rested enough but between the pressure of the baby on my pelvis and the strain in my foot from switching back to road shoes, I confess I shied away from the red.  The green and red trails began and ended together, so I took the green loop again, running 4.1 instead of 6.5 miles.  The rest of my team rocked it, most of them running four legs.  One teammate was running this as her first Ragnar and was not as prepared as she hoped so the two of us had to beg out of our fourth legs.  Which means two of my friends took a fifth leg! (crazy!)  seriously, my heroes.  I don't think my team would have let me run a fourth leg away, with my obviously pregnant belly leading the way.

A food truck had camped out through the night with us, offering wood fire oven baked pizzas.  It was beyond delicious and our team visited multiple times.  We visited the gear tent and drooled over the jackets and new line of shorts and tanks. Two friends and I decided we couldn't resist and wanted to buy the new Ragnar jacket but unfortunately wasn't available in my size.  (always remember to shop early)  I think our whole team snuck in a visit to the medic tent to get ice, only one for actually injury as one run rewarded him a fall and road rash.  They are always friendly and so helpful.

And finally our last runner finished his fifth leg for a total of 27 miles in two days.  We ran in with him and celebrated.  We collected our medals and took team pictures.

We took our time packing and breaking down camp.  Our total time was impressive, especially being short two runners, but we took our time to miss the initial rush on the shuttles as we cleaned up camp and retrieved our cars.  A few teammates drifted away, leaving just four of us that headed into town.  Our hotel wasn't ready yet so we got slurpees and then settled into the sports car next to our hotel.  It turned out to having amazing food so we had dinner there as well.  Another friend from AZ, who had been able to get work off to join the race, met us at the hotel to hang out and catch up as we showered and refreshed.  Then we meandered through dinner and slept well in our comfy hotel.

Sunday morning, we woke up a little more stiff and sore than before.  We got to the airport and went in search of the amazing cookies we spontaneous bought there in February.  We had to try three terminals but it was totally worth it.  We bought a surplus of cookies and conducted a very scientific study of which cookie was best.

And then flew home, showered again and slept half the day.  :)

baby #4

Husband and I went to the ultra sound together.  The technician was training a new technician which was kind of fun because she went a little slower and carefully explained lots of details about what she was looking for and different possibilities.  When the tech first touched the instrument to my belly, anticipating finding the head, we immediately realized baby was breech so we got a quick view of the back end first.  But the tech hurried away before we got a very clear idea of gender.  I thought maybe a boy based on the quick flash I had seen but waited to express my opinion.  We looked at baby's brain and various organs.  They looked at baby's cord, lighting up the colors to see the blood flow.  What I thought had been evidence of boy highlighted as cord, turning my suspicion to a girl as we continued.  Baby had one hand tangled through the legs, making it a little harder to see but we got clear views of hands and feet and even 3D images of face.  The tech saved gender for the very end but as she approached it, I saw clear suspicion of boy and pointed it out.  She laughed and congratulated us, confirming baby is definitely a boy!  So our baby boy appears to be healthy and doing great.

We took a quick tour of the labor and delivery, pleased with our options and getting more and more excited.

Since I was leaving that afternoon for an out-of-town race, we collected the girls, eager to share our news.  They gathered around a large wrapped box.  When asked for a final guess, much to my surprise, they said boy.  Until that morning, Husband and L had consistently guessed boy but A and E were adamant that baby would be a girl.  Even I thought girl (perhaps out of habit? but that makes me 0 for 4 on accurate predictions, Husband now being 3 for 4).  They tore into the box releasing blue balloons into the room.  They delighted at the balloons and L quickly clued in first, reading the message on the balloons and announcing to sisters "It's a boy!"  They squealed and dancing and twirled around the room with an overabundance of glee and enthusiasm.  They got to call a few family members to share the news and eventually settled in for a quick lunch as they suggested names, none of which are being considered.

October

October really was fast.


Pregnancy progresses.  Not so sick and starting to feel the baby move!  I'm always hungry and eat a turkey sandwich nearly every day.  I haven't had the aversion to junk food as much this pregnancy (not sure if that's a good or bad thing) and am overall, doing great.  At the 16 week appointment I got to have a quick peek at the baby, not enough to see gender but got to see baby's beautiful hands waving and a strong heartbeat.  The screen tests are all negative and everything looks good.  We find out gender soon!


L's schedule is particularly full with dance practices, piano lessons and additional rehearsals for the Nutcracker.  A bounces around, always begging for play dates and eagerly trying to read.  And E continues to be the every charming, precocious little imp monster.  She's my cuddle bug and I love all the one-on-one time I get with her before baby gets here.


L and A got hair cuts.  It's so much easier to manage their beautiful curls when their hair is short.  L was reluctant but after weeks of arguing, it wasn't up to her anymore.  after a few days, she decided she really loves it because she gets to wear her hair down more instead of a fuzzy ponytail every day.  Meanwhile, A has decided to grow her hair long, much more easily managed because her hair is as straight as her sisters' is curly.


We visited the dentist and all of us got a strong reminder to floss in addition to good brushing.  Poor L, despite her best efforts, has 4 small cavities and A has one.  E made it through her first official visit though, including xrays and did great.


We got to have a family dinner with all my siblings including my out of state sister and her new fiancee.  It was a short evening but the girls love to see their cousins and the adults had a great time chatting and making inappropriate jokes.


The girls and I had a great day out.  I took L and A with me to my cousin's baby shower.  They loved playing with the hostess' little boys and I loved getting to see my cousin and her adorably big-with-twins-belly.  After that we went to a baptism.  My daughter's friend (and one of L's good friends) was baptized, followed with a fun luncheon at the house.  It was a beautiful experience and L was particularly moved and excited and is eagerly looking forward to her own baptism next spring.


I ran the Haunted Half marathon with some friends.  I drove ridiculously early to meet them and get loaded onto the shuttle buses.  It was somewhat of a last minute decision to run.  I waited to register once I found out I was pregnant.  But after first trimester, I was able to build my mileage back up.  My training wasn't really sufficient for a half marathon distance but since it is a downhill race and there wasn't a 10K option, we decided to just take it easy.  So the buses dropped us off at the top of a canyon where we huddled under blankets for warmth until the starting time (they had to close the canyon for the race so we waited about an hour).  One of our little group, very fit and an experienced runner, took off with much more ambitious intentions.  But another friend and I hung back until the pack had thinned before our moderate start.  We ran the first five miles and then began alternating walking and running.  As expected, my hips got sore and my knees and bottom of my feet started to hurt.  But it really wasn't until 10 miles that I started to question my sanity.  So we walked the last 3 miles and managed a brief sprint across the finish line in about 3 hours total.  Happy to have met our goal, we devoured pizza, took pictures and hobbled back to our cars to return home.  The recovery took me longer than I thought but I'm really glad I got in one last half marathon before baby.

Halloween

The girls talked for weeks about costume ideas and came up with some pretty brilliant plans.  At one point they decided to be the three fairies from Sleeping Beauty, then I would be Maleficent and Daddy would be Diaval (the crow).  After a few days they had a great epiphany, realizing that next year we would have a baby and since they are convinced the baby is a girl, she could be baby Aurora.  So that plan is saved for next year.  Next they decided E would be a marshmallow, A and L would wear sandwich boards of chocolate and graham crackers so that together, they made a s’more!  That idea was my favorite.  But then they decided they had to be something more “Halloween-ish”.  L and A decided to be witches and E would be their black cat.

Our first Halloween event was a party at my cousin’s house for their daughter’s birthday/Halloween.  L’s witch costume looked so fantastic but A’s witch dress was too big.  (luckily I brought a back up just in case since we were borrowing the costume and if for some reason it didn’t work out)  So A wore the monster costume from a previous dance recital, sporting florescent colors and fur (it might be my favorite costume ever) and E donned her black cat costume, complete with ears, drawn on whiskers, and a pink tutu.  The party was a ton of fun, playing in the back yard with cousins and friends.  We had caramel dipped apples for dessert and the girls loved painting pumpkins.

Later in the week the girls got to celebrate Halloween at school.  And of course, all decided on new costumes.  So they raided the dress up closet and L went to school as a tiger, A dressed up as Elsa and E wore her Sofia dress.  L and A had a costume parade at school and E had a class party, getting to take treats to her friends to celebrate.

On Friday night, Daddy was back in town so we invited Grandpa, Grammy and Papa all over for dinner and pumpkin carving.  Pumpkin carving was a little chaotic but Daddy and Papa in particular were so patient to create exactly what the girls wanted.  Husband even got out a dremel tool so he could more exactly follow A’s drawing.  Papa managed to carve a Mickey (with E’s help), Minnie and Tinkerbell.  Grandpa helped L make a traditional jack o lantern and then a self portrait.  I carved a skull and crossbones and then Grammy and I made my favorite jack o lantern of the night—a fierce looking face eating a very distressed, tiny pumpkin.  Unfortunately I used A’s tiny pumpkin (from a class field trip) without her permission and she got really upset when she saw what I did.  The adults thought it was hilarious.  The children did not.

On Saturday morning I co-taught a launch class at the gym.  We dressed up as skeletons, with full make up and ratted hair.  It was so fun and we looked awesome.  After, A went to a friend’s birthday party while L went to dance rehearsal.  We ran some errands, made jack o lantern quesadillas for lunch, watched Halloween cartoons, visited the airplane museum and then got to do more celebrating that evening.  We all got dressed up again.  Husband and I wore our skeleton shirts—mine has a baby skeleton on the belly and husband’s has a burgers, fries and a coke.  L dressed up as Elsa, A wore and Anna dress and E very eagerly donned her new Olaf costume.  (unbelievably cute!)  But A was pretty reluctant so she only wore the Anna dress long enough for a family picture and then ran upstairs to change into the costume of her choice for trick or treating.  She returned in her Elsa dress.  So our two Elsas and Olaf eagerly raced outside to join their friends for trick or treating.  Husband followed them while Grammy, Papa and I stayed at the house.  A and E only lasted two blocks before they were ready to come home and then spent the rest of the evening racing to the door to pass out candy.  We had jack o lantern pizzas, a veggie skeleton and candy corn fruit cups (A and E had to be threatened to stay in their seats and eat their dinner before they could resume door duty).  L stayed out almost two hours, collecting a boatload of candy and finally returned home to eat dinner, full of excitement and so happy she could barely sit still. 

Let the candy rationing begin.

Legoland

Our adventure started on Wednesday.  The girls got to pull off the last piece of our countdown calendar.  Each morning for two weeks, they took a piece from the paper chain and opened it to find out what the day’s activity.  They did things like rebuilding kits we have, watching the Lego Movie, making lego brownies, coloring lego pictures, doing lego math and more.  Finally, they helped me pack and as soon as L was off the bus from school, we piled into the car and began our road trip.  We drove five hours south reading books, coloring pictures, playing with Barbies and playing with their tablets.  We finally arrived at their aunt and uncle’s house, ready to run and play, despite it being past bedtime.  The girls were thrilled to see their cousins and stalled as long as possible, playing, dancing and watching cartoons.  Eventually they settled into a big cousin bed on the living room floor and we all slept for a few hours.

At 5 am the next morning, we slipped all the sleeping kids into their car seats and began the next leg of our drive.  With the girls asleep, the car was quiet and I was so tired as I followed Bryan down the freeway.  After two hours, we stopped to let everyone stretch and get a little breakfast.  It had been raining on and off and we were rewarded with the most beautiful rainbow I’d ever seen.  It was a perfect, complete arch, rich in color and with a double rainbow shadowing just above.  The girls loved it!  The girls mixed up their seats to sit with cousins and we headed out again.

Four hours later, we parked at the beach.  It was gray and very overcast but the girls were definitely ready to wiggle and so excited to see the beach.  We had a picnic lunch, bribing the girls to eat with the promise of playing in the sand.  We decided not to put the kids in swimsuits, thinking it would be too cold, but we took sand toys down to the water’s edge and turned them loose to play.  Their uncle soon started a game of drawing a line in the sand and letting the waves chase them in.  L, E and cousin A loved it, dashing back and forth from the water’s edge.  Cousins C explored and A started an ambitious sand castle.  Just as we were taking bets on who would get wet first, A came to the water’s edge to fill her bucket with water and got caught by a sneaker wave.  It took her feet from under her and spun her several times.  She came up rather shocked and upset but recovered quickly.  Moments later, the same thing happened to E, but she was much more delighted.  L and cousin A got more and more brave, chasing the waves deeper into the water, hoping to get a spin cycle themselves and soon all the kids were soaked.  But they didn’t care.  They had the time of their lives, playing in the water, chasing waves and pretending to surf.  Especially little E melted my heart as she stood dramatically, hands out, wiggling her hips as she declared she was surfing without a surfboard in the receding waves.

We reluctantly left, wrapping the kids in their dry cover ups and drove to the hotel.  Grandpa had booked rooms for us at the Legoland Resort.  Even as we drove in through the winding entry, the girls squealed in delight at the large lego figures lining the drive.  As the hotel came into view, they were beyond excited.  I left the car and luggage with the valet as we went into the hotel to check in.  The girls were so excited about the amazing lobby with bright colors and lego décor in every direction.  And in the middle of the lobby, there was a giant lego pit.  The girls played and built as Aunt Stacy and I checked into the rooms.  The kids followed us down the hall, nearly shrieking at each new discovery.  The elevators were especially thrilling.  The doors closed and it transformed into a disco with music and lights.  From then on, every time we used the elevators, the girls would countdown to begin the music and break out dancing. 

We made it to our room and again, the girls were beyond delighted.  We were in a pirate themed suite, perfectly decorated to every detail.  The girls raced around the room to check it all out and immediately dumped out the bucket of legos provided for them to play with.  We took a few minutes to get our luggage organized and then Husband, Grandpa and Auntie Lu arrived, having drove in from the airport to meet us in California.  Once the girls were done exploring and ready to go, we played in the lobby for awhile, amazed at the giant lego castle/pirate ship play area.  And eventually, we left for the evening, driving up to the Oceanside Pier to have dinner at Ruby’s.  It was Grandpa’s suggestion and was so much fun.  It was like a 50’s diner with great burgers and shakes and the kids favorite—cardboard vintage cars that they played with all weekend and even brought home after the trip.

After dinner, the girls finished their treasure hunt provided by the hotel.  The clues they found were the code to a locked treasure chest in our room.  In the chest, they found a lego figurine and gold coin for each of them!  They figurines were Halloween themed and we would later spend more time in the giftshop trying to find a few more desired favorites from the Halloween collection.  Somehow we pulled them away from their new figurines and lego cartoons for a quick shower and said good night to cousins.  Then I fell asleep immediately while Grandpa settled into his sofa bed and Husband tucked the girls into their pirate ship bunk beds.  E was so excited about her “treasure chest bed” (trundle bed) but ended up firmly attached to Daddy and slept curled up next to him. 

Very early the next morning, L woke us up very concerned about the noise she could hear coming from around the corner.  She nervously begged Daddy to help her.  So he got out of bed, they donned hats and shoes (she was still nervous, he was rather comical), they prepared themselves with flashlights and cameras and they peeked around the corner slowly.  It was grandpa snoring!  So she cuddled down into bed with us and watched lego cartoons until everyone was awake.

On Friday morning we had breakfast at the buffet downstairs.  The food was pretty good, especially for a buffet.  The omelet I had made was fantastic and the kids loved getting to pick out all of their favorites and played through breakfast. 

Truth be known, pregnancy got the best of me and I had a rough morning.  But other than that, I was fine all weekend.  There were a handful of rides I didn’t get to do but that was ok because Grandpa doesn’t do rides and A has a tendency to get sick on fast/high rides too.  We did lots of wandering, Grandpa built a cane out of legos that made his weekend much easier and A took care of keeping my water bottle full.  Love my thoughtful little girls so much.

We finished getting ready for the day and shuffled through some group inertia before we were finally at the gates and ready to go.   Being resort guests, we were given early entrance to the park where a handful of rides opened early.  We picked out our first ride and wandered to it.  We got in the line and let the kids loose in the play area so they could build legos and race them down ramps while we stood in the line watching them.  Turns out, many of the rides had waiting areas like this which made the wait much easier for the kids.  The downside was that the lines were much longer than they looked.  In fact, Husband took L on the ride to us while we waited.  A decided to brave that ride as well but didn’t enjoy it near as much.  We rode the pedal cards together and then wandered back to Heartlake City where our girls were delighted to meet the characters from Lego: Friends.  In fact, they had no lines so one of the characters Emma, spent 20 minutes with them, even riding the merry go round with them and taking them to meet two other characters.  We wandered the set of the Lego Movie, where A and L took turns with our camera and then we went to the Lego: Friends show.  It was super cheesy but the girls liked it and had a blast dancing and singing along.  Meanwhile cousins wandered away to something else.  So we did a few more rides as we caught up to them and had lunch together.  The girls especially loved the drivers training and the mini figure store.  We made it about halfway around the park and stopped at a play area.  The girls ran laps around the maze of rope climbs and slides while the adults shared the infamous Legoland Apple Fries.  We made it around to Adventure Land, where the girls were eager to show Auntie Lu the “Egypt stuff”.  We did a few last rides and then explored the Big Store where the girls made lengthy wish lists.

Back at the hotel, the girls finally got to go swimming.  Husband and I sat poolside, watching them splash around and build with the large foam legos floating around the pool.  Cousins came to join and the girls wore themselves out playing together.  After swimming, we put them in pajamas and headed downstairs for a quick dinner in the café.  While we waited for our table, we stopped in at the kids pajama party and the girls went crazy all over again.  In less than one song, they made it to the middle of the dance floor and danced like crazy people (especially A with her ninja moves).  We pulled them away to go eat dinner, including a birthday dessert for Auntie Lu and then went back to the dance party for one last song before tucking them into bed.

The girls slept in on Saturday so I finished getting everyone packed while Husband took Grandpa to pick up his rental car.  Then the girls and I went to breakfast while Husband loaded the car and soon we were back for another crazy fun day in the park.  The girls built their souvenir minifigures (L and A built witches, E built Santa) and we tried out a few more rides.  Husband took L on the “crazy arms”, by far the wildest ride of the weekend, (quote of the day from E: “if anyone needs me, I’ll be in the stroller with my mango.” ) and we had lunch with the family.  We changed into swim suits before braving a few of the “you might get wet” rides and then let the kids play in the splash pad.  Husband, Uncle Bryan and Grandpa went to a MindStorm class while Stacy and I got the kids dry, dressed and took them to the duplo play ground.  We met up at the crazy arms again to watch Husband and Auntie Lu ride it at level 5 (L did it at level 2) and did a little more wandering and riding rides.  Usually Husband and L went on the ride while A and I wandered or cuddled (or rode a less intense ride) while E went back and forth between us.

Our last stop of the day was the Big Store where the girls made a beeline to their item of choice.  We told them they could each choose a souvenir less than $30.  L picked out the Lego: Friends Juice Shop, A chose the Lego: Elves ship and E settled on the Disney Jasmine kit.  She rambled to the cashier (and to several other strangers) “I really wanted the Cinderella castle but its lots more money so I picked the Jasmine today but I really want the Cinderella castle.” 

We finished up our shopping and got everyone and everything loaded into the cars.  We stopped for dinner at Rubios.  The girls raced through their quesadillas so they could play with their new lego figurines while the adults finished.  We gave Lu a lego set as a birthday gift and gave Grandpa a lego set as a thank you gift.  Then we all said goodbye, sending Lu and Grandpa to the airport while we drove back to Bryan and Stacy’s house.  The girls were all asleep within minutes and the drive went quickly.  (at least for the girls.  And me.  Since I slept most of it while Husband drove.)  We arrived at their house at 2 or 3 am and slept for a few hours.

Sunday morning, the girls were eager to play again.  Bryan and Stacy made us delicious pancakes and we walked to a nearby park with climbing walls.  The girls climbed to the top several times and had a great time.  Then we hid under some shade while a short storm caught us by surprise.  We walked back to the house and went out to lunch at El Pollo Loco (one of my favorites that is too far away to enjoy regularly).  Then the girls spent the drive home playing again.  We arrived home for a quick dinner, showers and just enough time to build their new lego kits and add them to our growing lego city.

Women of Steel Relay

Several months ago, I heard about a relay race here in my own valley.  I asked my boss about putting together a team to represent the gym we work at and she loved it.  I started putting together a team of instructors and then I found out I was pregnant and got sick enough I quit running for a few weeks.  Fortunately, by the time race day rolled around, I had started easing back in.  So I felt under prepared, but excited about the race.  Our team ended up being a mix of instructors and members, including me at 14 weeks pregnant, another runner at 22 weeks pregnant and another runner who is super fast but recruited only a week before the race.  But we chatted it up as a fun, non competitive, just-in-it-for-fun experience.  We designed and ordered team shirts and was really excited by the time race day came.

We had such a great time!  The girls I ran with were SO much fun.  We laughed and teased and cheered.  I LOVED this race.  It was much smaller than the relays I've done previously, with 6 person teams running 50 miles around our valley.

Our first few runners led the pack, immediately taking first place until the two pregnant runners slowed us down a bit.  On our second legs, the speedy girls snuck us into first again averaging between 7 and 8 minute miles (way faster than they had anticipated) and then the pregnant girls slowed us a bit again, averaging 11 to 12 minute miles.  By then, the girls sassy competitive sides had come out, realizing we had a chance to place.  So I pushed harder in my second leg, offering my last (and fortunately shortest leg) to another runner.  In doing this, our team kept the lead and took first place!  We ran across the finish line together to the rather empty finish line party.  We received our finisher medals and first place batons, took team pictures, devoured pizza and promised to run it together again next year.