Ryan’s 3rd BirthDAY

Ryan’s birthday fell on President’s Day.  It was great to have it be a holiday!

We did his “out to eat” holiday celebration over the weekend at Metro Pizza.  He grinned from ear-to-ear as they sang happy birthday to him and brought him a birthday sundae.  He wasn’t leaving until he drank every last drop.

Wes finally got to golf so while he was out doing that the boys and I joined some friends at Sunset Park.  It was our first time there feeding the ducks and playing on their new fabulous playground.  It was a great birthday morning for Ryan {even if he did have a serious meltdown at the park!}  He took a 3.5 hour nap that afternoon which was apparently much needed {and extremely rare!}.

We got Ryan a bike for his birthday and it was the PERFECT gift for him.  He constantly wants to ride it and has gotten quite good at it.

We had a little family gathering on his birthday for dessert.  We also did a last minute Café Rio run – it was fun that everyone could come!  Ryan had a great 3rd birthday.  Every day since then he has asked “am I still three?”

Happy birthday, wild man.

The Color Run

Back in October, it was my friend Jamie’s birthday.  She asked a few of us if we’d run the Color Run with her in February!  A group of us said yes.  I hate running but I had every intent of actually training for a 5K with the goal to run the entire thing.  I asked Sam if she’d do it, too because she was at my same running level and we could train together without holding anyone back.

Lets just say we didn’t train and Sam bailed at the last minute {she was recovering from bronchial issues} but my dear friend Kiley stepped in at the last minute and it was perfect!  I never see Kiley – especially without kiddos – so we had a nice leisurely walk/jog to catch up as we got blasted with color.

I was the designated driver in the mini-van.  It was quite smelly and full of color after I dropped everyone off but it was a really fun race.  Thanks Jamie for the invite!

Naters

On our way to Café Rio for Ryan’s birthday dinner, Nate was sitting in the way back of the van.  Out of the blue he panics and says “I just peed my pants.”  We didn’t know what he was talking about because this kid never pees his pants.  He says “I know I did – it feels wet.  Hurry!  I have to pee again!”  It was one of those really funny moments where Wes, Sam & I had a good laugh.

Later that night after tucking the kids in bed, I was following up on some work emails on the computer.  Nate comes in after a while and with watery eyes he says: “Mom – I can’t sleep.  I tooted and it smells so bad in there I can’t breathe.”  He was right – it was awful.

Love life with Naters.

Ryan’s 3rd birthday party

A birthday comes once a year and I think it’s fun to make it a big deal.  So we invited a few of Ryan’s buddies to come celebrate with us at Chuck E. Cheese!  I did not get a group photo nor a picture of every kid, unfortunately! But fun was still had by all.

It was a fun morning & a great way to do a party.  No more at-home parties for me!

Happy Birthday, Ryan.  Can’t believe you’re THREE.

Disneyland: kid-free in February 2013

Back to Disney we go.  Sam’s pass expires on March 15th so we had to squeeze in one more kid-free day at Disney! 

Sam picked me up around 8pm on Monday night, right after she got off work.  We hit the road and drove to Anaheim.  When we got to Barstow, I went to grab my credit card to pay for gas and that’s when I realized my purse was still in Las Vegas.  The hotel was in my name but luckily they were sympathetic and didn’t need a matching credit card or ID!  And it’s a good thing Sam actually had a credit card on her.

We stayed at The Sheraton for the first time {thank you, Priceline} and it was nice.  We got a full night sleep before heading to Disneyland!

Our main objective was to just have an easy day at Disney.  It’s always fun with the boys but it’s also exhausting.  We tried all kinds of new food that we’ve been wanting to sample & found a few new favorites: baked potato soup, garlic fries, chili con queso cone, cinnamon roll, fried pickles, etc.  The only thing I was not a fan of was The Monte Cristo sandwich. 

There was a celebration in New Orleans Square which was fun.  Lots of live performances with Princess and the Frog.

We took a few minutes for a Disneyland first – “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.”  Walt Disney had an admiration for Mr. Lincoln and the entire thing is wonderful.  I love seeing/riding things at Disney that were envisioned directly from Walt.  The “Voices of Liberty“ singers were also there – that was quite a treat.  Extremely talented people but a little cheesy for Sam and I.

We saw a few new characters.  Nate & Ryan would have loved to meet Jake.  Maybe he’ll be there on our final trip!

I’m never very good at the shooting rides – but this time I had an extremely high score and I thought it needed to be documented.

Every time the day is done and we’re headed to the parking garage, we always have to guess where we parked.  We usually guess right but it’s always an adventure finding the car!

Thanks to Sam for a great trip!

Disneyland in January 2013

Back to Disneyland we go!  We're hoping to squeeze in as many trips as we can before our passes expire.  I think I will add January to my list of favorite times to go.

We had another 2 day adventure at Disney.  This time it was just me, Sam & the boys.  The night before we left Sam got out the tape measure and gave Ryan another measure.  He was 39.5" inches which is just a 1/2" shy of a lot of big rides!

We left my house shortly after 6am to make the drive and drove in to Disneyland around 10:30am. We wanted to try a few new things this time so we made time for the rafts over to Pirates Island, Indiana Jones {Nate actually liked it} & the Pixar Parade on Day 1.  

Ryan has always wanted to ride Splash Mountain {one of my all-time favorites}.  Sam was brilliant and took her mitten & folded it and put it in Ryan's shoe so the band was under Ryan's heel and wa-la!  He was 40" tall.  I had to carry him the entire way because you can imagine this isn't very comfortable but he was a trooper to be able to ride the big rides.  He absolutely LOVED Splash Mountain.  After the big drop he says - "more drops?  bigger drops?"  He was kind of disappointed there wasn't a bigger one!  Nate & Sam were in the very front and they got pretty wet, which doesn’t matter in the summer but it was pretty chilly outside!  Ryan and I stayed dry.  It was wonderful to be able to take our entire party on a big ride.  A Disneyland breakthrough!

On Day 2 we got to the park quite early so we could get in line.  It paid off!  After waiting behind the big rope a large crowd was slowly escorted to the Cars ride - Sam was 9th in line!  We waited all of 2 minutes before getting on the ride that typically has a wait of 90 minutes.  Ryan loved this one, too {thanks to the mitten trick}.  He waved and said hello to all of the cars in there.  

Every time we go to Disneyland Nate wants to play the arcade games over by Toy Story Mania.  This time, I said yes.  It was pretty fun & we won!

Natalie, Reed & Dean met us for a few hours this afternoon.  We let the boys explore in the RedLands Wilderness area and it was a huge hit!  There are large rope bridges, slides, etc. for the kids to run around and explore.  They even had a ceremony and were crowned "Senior Wilderness Explorers".  The UP characters are in there - kids loved it!

Sam & I have been waiting for Nate to want to ride some big rides.  Somehow he agreed to try Tower of Terror if we'd buy him the stuffed penguin he wanted.  Deal!  Ryan had no clue what the ride was but is up for just about anything so he came, too. Yes - we took a 2 year old on Tower of Terror {again, thanks to the mittens}.  Both kids survived but for obvious reasons did not like that ride.  Ryan wimpered for a brief second but they weren't traumatized!  Now Nate says he's ready for Space Mountain on our next trip.

When we went with Ali & the girls in May 2012, we got on the swinging cars on the ferris wheel and it was one of the funniest and most terrifying moments for Nate & I.  Somehow we got him back on it this trip and he agreed it wasn’t so bad!  I on the other hand, am perfectly fine never doing that again!

While Disneyland is fabulous and we love it - I do have to just record that even the happiest place on earth is a challenge with these boys of mine.  Sam and I come back absolutely exhausted & I am in physical pain from holding Ryan.  But we continue to go back because it's magical and worth it all.

New Years Eve & Day

By the time New Years Eve comes around - I'm not up for much.  Christmas is a wonderful but hectic time of year and being the secretary in primary kicks my butt every year with the endless things to update and create so New Years Eve is spent at home. Exhausted.  

We were lucky enough to have Sam join us this year.  It was perfect.  We played a ton of games and just chatted & enjoyed each others company while we rang in 2013.

I was introduced to the Dillards New Years Day Sale this year.  Never knew this beauty existed.  Wes was out shooting things with a friend so I was going to haul my kids with me to the sale until my dad called on my way down there and told me to bring the boys to him.  What a life saver - after going to the sale - if I would have had my kids I would have turned around and walked out!  It was a zoo but such a fun sale.  I'm thinking that's a tradition.

January 1st is my dad's birthday so we took him bowling in the morning while my mom was out and about.  And then that night we did dinner & a movie with my parents and Sam.  We saw lots of movies that week - loved it!