::disney fun 2::

More fun to report on!
We got to visit all the parks on our little jaunt, though we didn't get to ride or visit everything that we hoped to. The Soarin' line was so long that we had to give up at Epcot, and the Peter Pan ride in the Magic Kingdom was hopeless.
We did get to do the Toy Story one though, and the new Star Tours (which was awesome enough to make me carsick!)
We got to eat a lot (too much) decent to good food and the weather was PERFECT. It didn't rain on us once and it was never warmer than 80 degrees.

We got to introduce Grandma to the fun of pin trading. Max got to ride the Rocking Roller Coaster for the first time and he was brave enough to go right back on again after.
Here we are hanging out waiting for one of our many meals to show up.



Probably the best part of the whole trip was getting to spend time together doing stuff that had absolutely nothing to do with work!
And the second best thing was undoubtedly the weather. It was so nice to have weather like that in the middle of our winter.

The sad news is that Sandy got sick the night of our second to last day. He got a big fever and was so miserable. So he was up half the night and then slept most of the next day. Kris went home that morning to get some work done, and the rest of us were supposed to play. I sent Kathy and Max to the Magic Kingdom and watched over little Sandy.
Finally he woke up and we all met up for lunch.

The poor little guy did his best to be a good sport. Then Grandma took him back for more napping and Max and I got to play for a while. This is a picture she sent me later that night.

He felt a lot better by then, thank goodness and was actually eating. You can see his little pink cheeks though--they're the give away that he's still a little sick!
Why do kids always get sick on trips?
The flight home was a bit trying with a slightly sick exhausted baby, but Max was perfect.

But that's getting ahead of myself.
Max wanted a churro the whole trip and we had such a hard time finding one. But finally on the last day when Max and I were exploring the Magic Kingdom I spotted some people enjoying churros. I stopped them and asked where the heck to find them. We finally found them and snarfed them.

(Check out Max's awesome pins. He did some good trading on this trip.)

And last for now, but not least I have a picture of Sandy riding the ant at the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" playground. Max LOVES that place.

Sandy liked it too, but the uneven-ness and texture of the ground made him feel a little weirded out.
I will leave you with a pretty awesome video of the crawling that resulted. True Mowgli crawling. He also fell on his little head several times because he got so unbalanced. I think that's what happened right when I stopped the video. Wish I would've gotten it documented. It was hilarious.

I'm going to report on the running later!

::disney fun 1::

So all the racing and running and such aside, we had some classic Disney World fun with our leftover time.
We took Kathy to the Animal Kingdom--she'd never been. I loved that Max was still afraid of the 3d Bug's Life movie under the big tree.

The safari ride was as neat as usual. Seeing all the different animals is always so fun.

The baby elephant was A-dorable.

Max was dying to go on his "most favorite" ride, the river rapids one where you get all wet. Of course the best opportunity to do that came up at like 5PM when the sun was almost gone. I'm a nice mom and I went with him anyway.

I definitely got wet and cold--and evidently the ride also caused me to make ugly faces.

On a different day we ate at the German buffet in Epcot. This is Kris's favorite thing to do. The food is so good. The little band that plays is great too, and Max loves to dance and goof around.
Besides the fact that we got seated at a communal table with a cranky old man and a lady that wouldn't stop talking, it was a good night. Actually the lady was really nice, though was too loquacious after a stein of Germany's best bier. And the cranky old man just turned out to be lonely. He talked to Max a lot during the meal and won a lot of points with me.


You can see Germany behind us. And how amazingly flexible the Sand is.

Here we are waiting for the bus so that we can visit our resort pool. The resort was fun, but so spread out that you had to take an internal bus everywhere.

It was a fun pool with a big water slide and a really cute toddler area that Sandy hated.

You can see that Max is set and ready to take some serious underwater videos.

Now this is funny. I have one child that ADORES the characters. I've never really liked people in big costumes that like. I still don't really like them. But Max loves them to death. He gets so excited when he sees them.

At this dinner he was essentially jumping up and down trying to be patient while the characters made the rounds.

BUT
I have another child who HATES the characters. Turns out he thinks they are terrifying, weird and creepy.


And those darn characters won't take no for an answer. They expect to be adored and are dismayed when it doesn't happen. Most of them just kept trying and trying until Sand broke down and I had to send them away.

No babies were harmed in the course of the evening, but he did get really mad. The rest of the restaurant thought he was pretty cute.
I think he's over it by now. I hope anyway.

::unpacking::

So we went to Orlando to join in with thousands and thousands of people for the Disney World marathon weekend. Kris and I ran the half marathon and Max did a kid race. Kris's mom came with us and saved the day by taking awesome care of the kiddos.
Anyway, I have stuff to post about that, but I'm going to have to go backwards--starting with the unpacking.

Finally five days after getting home I'm getting unpacked. I hate hate packing for trips, but unpacking is SO much worse.
But at least there was a cute baby keeping me company.

I've got to get my pictures in order and then I'll report on our fun.

::this year::

My friend Megan started a tradition a while back of choosing a word as a theme for the new year. Some sort of word that was inspiring, or descriptive of something a person might want to do, or be, or remember during the year.
Anyway, I always end up thinking of a scripture that has my word in it. And truly, during the last couple of years, I've though of my word/scripture, and it has helped me remember some of the things I needed to.

So my pick this year was from the Book of Mormon: 2nd Nephi 2:25.
"Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy."
JOY is my word.

There isn't enough joy in my life. I am so busy, and frazzled and pushed from thing to thing, I hardly have time to see all the good in what's happening around me. I'm so blessed, but I sometimes can't even see it with how quickily everything has to go. Often I feel the opposite of joy--dread, darkness, all those things that come with exhaustion and responsibility and being a grown up.
I want to be joyful. That is what I'm looking for in my life. I'm going to do my best to remember this word and this scripture all year, and make it happen.

In President Monson's talk from October 2011 he spoke so much on this topic.

"This is our one and only chance at mortal life—here and now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now."

And more:

"If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly.

Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important—and what is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know. Wrote William Shakespeare, “They do not love that do not show their love.” 3 We will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown. Rather, our regrets will come if such things are omitted from our relationships with those who mean the most to us."

I should just copy and paste the whole doggone thing here, it's so good. But rather than that, just go and read it yourself.

And be joyful! I'm going to try to too. Thanks for the inspiration Megs, as always.

::::

::this year last year::

Lots of change in two cute boys. Love them so much!

::christmas report::

Alright, here we are reporting on how our Christmas day went.
It was a good day--really it just flew by. It's nice to have Christmas on sunday because it's appropriate, but it's sure different to have to run to church in the middle of all the festivities.

Sandy woke up at 1AM so sad and sick. Max of course got waked up by this--he usually doesn't but he must've just been sleeping so light. Anyway, Max was told that he had to take a bath before we could go out to the Christmas room, and so there he was when Kris went to fix the baby, in the bathroom, getting ready to start a bath. Wishful thinking!
After that everybody went back to sleep, thank goodness, and Max woke up when his alarm went off at about seven.

Once we got everybody clean, sparkling and at least half dressed for church it was time for the fun to begin.

Sandy was able to stay awake for about a half hour before he had to go back for a morning nap. The poor guy just didn't feel well at all. It prettymuch broke my heart because he's so much fun when he feels like himself. I was looking forward to him having a fun day. Oh well.

Here's Max lying on a pillow Kathy made him among the Christmas spoils.

And Sultan of course, always likes to be in the middle of everything. He thought that the quilt there covering Sandy's rocking horse present was really there for him to make himself comfy on.


After we had some fun opening presents we rushed off to church--it was tough, nobody really wanted to take a break to get ready, so we were very much almost slightly late.


Aren't the boys matching sweaters cute? It took me a while to find matching sweaters in a boys 8 and an 18 months! But I think they just look adorable.


Church was nice.
Afterwards we ate a yummy lunch of leftovers and Sandy was in serious need of a nap. He wasn't too happy when I tried to take brother photos. But they're cute anyway.




Awwww.
After that we got to open more presents, and talk and video chat with family. It was fun. Really fun and pleasant.

Here's Sand amid the riches and spoils, after one of his many naps.

For dinner, Kathy's best friend Dixie and her husband just happened to be driving through on their way to AZ. So of course we had to have them come over. Kathy made a delicious dinner and we all got to eat, enjoy, and hang out for the rest of the night. I wanted to to get a picture of John & Dixie, but I guess the day just got away from me.

So there you go, such a lovely day. It was so fun to have Kathy here. Thanks to all our family for your love and gifts and support. We wish we could've been with you all!
Christmas just zooms by so fast, doesn't it?

::christmas eve pt 3::

After the Canyon Road walk (and yes mom, we can totally take a walk there next time you come.) we headed home. Max was a little anxious to get to bed on time (for once in his life.) He had been using google maps and NORAD to track Santa all day, and knew the man was getting closer by the minute.
We ate some delicious clam chowder for dinner that Kathy made. Mmmm, it was good. We opened our Christmas Eve PJs. Max was thrilled that once I again I tracked down some big boy footy PJs. He said, "I didn't think they CAME in my size anymore!"
Then Sandy went to bed because he was wasted, and the rest of us went into the festive living room for scriptures and stories.
Best part was that Kris built the inaugural fire in our living room fireplace. It was so pretty and cozy. His mom was psyched for the fire!
So we had to take some photos in front of it.
Remember those ridiculous Max picture faces? Well brace yourself for more.....

It was dark in there so there are some funny shadows on people's faces...sorry!

This may not be Kathy's favorite picture, but it's so perfect--the exhausted adult trying to hand onto the CRAZY kid.
I have the exact same look on my face in this one.

And a few more just for good measure.

(Oh my GOODNESS can you believe that face?!)


We read our stories (some scriptures, some Tomie DePaola pop up book, some Little House on the Prairie Christmas.) And we sent that little insane boy to bed, where he proceeded to fall asleep pretty well really.
Then we grownups watched It's a Wonderful Life (some of us cried, some of us didn't) and did our Christmas thing.

Then besides Sandy waking up sick at 1AM and also waking up Max who thought it was time to get in the bath and get ready for the day, things went smooth.
Christmas report to come, whew!!