Thanksgivng

I know I'm really behind.  I used to be kind of up-to-date with my blog, but now, I've decided it's better to record it at some point, rather than not record it at all!

What started as a quick "just us" trip to San Jose for a BYU football game turned into an 8-day family vacation to Northern California!  We saw the Joneses (sorry, no pic!), the Posts (no pics, again!), (Great) Grandpa and Grandma Miller, and the Heathcotes!  We had a great time!

Brian and Mackenzie at the game--we had fun with the Alie and Tyler, but will NEVER again buy a BYU tailgate ticket!  It took forever to get our food, and it wasn't even good!  Add to it that we lost the game!  

Look at this kid's eyelashes!  

My Grandpa (the kids' Great-Grandpa) celebrated his 78th birthday while we were visiting (November 19).  We wanted to do something fun to surprise him, so Brian and the girls went to get him donuts!  Later that evening, the Heathcotes came over for dinner and ice cream.  We had a fun day, but, all Grandpa could say at the end was, "Why didn't I have a birthday cake?"  We love you, Grandpa!

These kids LOVE to wash dishes!  

Leave it to Carson to dirty BOTH of his jackets on the same day.  As I'm recording this one month later, this "butterfly jacket" has now become one of his favorites!

Sadie, our cheerleader!  

Morgan, our daredevil!

What do you say about a picture of yourself?  Well, here I am!  

We played at the school playground in the neighborhood.  I remember playing at this school when I was a little kid!  And, my mom (Tammy), went to this elementary school.  It was fun to show the kids where Grammy Tammy went to school.

Brian, showing off that he can still do a pull up! (For the record: I've never been able to do one--ever!  And, I'm okay with that!)

Daddy taught Morgan to play chess a few weeks before our trip.  She wanted to challenge Great-Grandpa!  He was pretty impressed with her skill!

It's always been a fun tradition to have dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory the last night before we all head home from Sacramento.  So, we did.  And, for the first time that I can ever remember at this location, we got to eat in the main part of the restaurant!  Our group has always been so big (i.e. 25+ NOISY kids), that we've eaten in the back room.  I guess we've learned to behave ourselves a bit better as we've aged!  This is such a fun tradition!

Alie snapped this picture of Carson on Thanksgiving.  How she managed to get him to stay still for a picture is a mystery to me!  (She must have been dangling a piece of food by the camera!)

31

Brian turned 31 on November 15th.  Morgan was assigned to be the photographer that evening.  We had a great little celebration.  I bought a small cheesecake (his favorite, but we didn't want leftovers!), and he got a new polo.  Fun times!

Pretend City

I found super cheap tickets online a while back, so just before Thanksgiving, my old roommate, Maryn, and I, took our kids to Pretend City.  My kids favorite part:  the stage.  The girls loved getting dressed up, the stage lights, and singing along to the music!  Carson had a great time performing, as well!

Aside from the stage, the kids could dig in the garden, shop at the grocery store, make an art project, read in the library, and fill up at the gas station, among many other things.  Carson's favorite part was driving around in the Cozy Coupe!  I'm still kicking myself for getting rid of that when we moved from Colorado!

Morgan, Sadie, and their friend, Robbie (actually 3rd cousin), having fun on the fire engine!

Legoland

For Veteran's Day, we went to Legoland with our friends, the Vitzians.  Of course, I was too busy chasing 3 kids around an amusement park (confession: too busy chatting with a great friend!) to take many pictures, but here are some of the girls building their own lego cars to race down the track.  

Brian spent an entire summer (2005) in this exact room, helping kids build cars and race them down the track.  The girls had fun, but probably would have had more fun with their dad!  

Great Park

Back in November, when my sisters and their families came down for The Color Run, we also took them up to the Orange County Great Park.  While we didn't get to ride the balloon (people had lined up 2 hours before it opened that night!), we did get to take all the kids on the carousel and they had a blast playing on the playground!  

Carson's first carousel ride!

The balloon is decorated with a jack-o-lantern face for Halloween and we went just a few days after, so it hadn't been taken off yet.

I Love this Little Guy!

And, he knows he's cute!  

Book Fair Poster

Morgan's Elementary School held a contest to promote the upcoming Book Fair.  She was so excited to create a poster to hang up at school!  In fact, one of the moms on the book fair committee mentioned to me that her's (Morgan's) was the first poster displayed!

She's our budding little artist!

Stitches

This seems like such a long time ago now, but I've been slacking on my updates, so here goes!

The day after Halloween, Morgan tripped on the steps at school.  The office called not more than 10 minutes after she and Brian had left (he drops her off in the morning, on occasion).  I was still in my PJs, as were Sadie and Carson, so I called Brian, and he turned around to go pick her up.  The nurse ("health aide") had done her best to clean her up, but was pretty certain she would need stitches.  

When they got home, Morgan was still crying, and wanted Mommy (me) to take her to the doctor to get checked out (we didn't mention the "s" word yet).  So, Brian took over the mommy duties as I quickly changed and off we went to Urgent Care.  Lucky for us, it's right around the corner, and, I had called ahead and there was no wait!  Yay!  

We went right in and the doctor got straight to work.  He was a cheerful guy, and did his best to keep Morgan calm.  She stayed mostly calm, and was very brave about the whole thing.  So, 3 stitches, 2 x-rays (to make sure there wasn't a concussion), and 30 minutes later, we were headed home!  

Here's what she looked like the day of:

And, here's the actual stitches, about 3 days later:

After about a week, we went to the Pediatrician's office to have her stitches removed.  Once again, a very brave little girl!

She was really bummed because she wasn't allowed to RUN the Color Run that Saturday, for fear the stitches would split, but, even now, 6 weeks later, loves to show everyone her battle scar on her forehead!

The Color Run 2012

On Saturday, our family, along with the Joneses, some of the Montierths, and Grandpa Dale and Grammy Tammy, participated in The Color Run.  We had a lot of fun.  And, as I look back through the pictures, I am having just as much fun reliving the  event!  

A quick explanation for those who may not have heard of this event before (don't worry, it was foreign to me until this summer!):  Basically, it's a 5k that you can run/walk and every kilometer or so, you pass through a "color zone", where people toss colored corn starch onto you.  By the end of the race, you are a mess of color.  It's a blast!!!

I will admit, I was a little hesitant back in June/July, when Alie invited us to join them on this adventure.  I seriously hadn't really ran since high school.  But, Brian and I were up for the challenge, and, given all the trails in our neighborhood (our neighborhood is called "Painted Trails") and beautiful California weather, we couldn't pass up the opportunity.  So, way back when, we attempted to get into shape.  Or, at least enough to run a 5k.  

The day before, I decided to make "hair curlies" for the girls.  Not knowing how messy we'd really get, I'm glad I didn't go out and buy new ribbon just for this!  The girls were excited to sport their festive clips!

We woke up at 6 am on race day, drove over and hour and a half (by the time we got into the parking lot) to Qualcomm Stadium, and let the fun begin!  Okay, for me, it didn't really begin until I crossed the finish line.  Yeah, I love running that much.  

And, when we got home, we scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed in the shower.  And, 5 days later, Morgan still has blue hair and I can't get the blue out of Carson's ears.  But, it was so.much.fun!  

Thanks, Alie and Tyler!

So, here's our family before and after.  It's a good thing we drove the Kia! 

And, here's all the fun we had in between!

Alie, Jack, and Tyler Jones

Brian asked them to chalk a "Y" on his shirt during the run.

The Brothers-in-law, Tyler, Rich and Brian

Sisters!  Mackenzie and Alie

Somewhere, underneath all that powder, is Carson!  You think he had fun?

Papa Dale and Grammy Tammy
(surrounded by their motley crew: Afton, Morgan, Mei, and Sadie)

Even her tongue is blue! (But, the stitches were well covered and made it out clean!)

Sadie, smiling for the camera!

Grandpa Dale made it!

Jack had so much fun, he fell asleep!  (Well, spending the previous day at Disneyland wore him out!)

Smile!

Just had to include it...silly Brian!

I think Morgan and Carson teamed up with the purple!

Carson, you can thank your Daddy, when you're older, for giving you an entire bag of purple to dump down your shirt!

We made it!

Mei, Rich, Afton Montierth

The kids were so pooped, we had to get creative in getting them back to the car!

Even Grandpa's hair got colored!

Absolutely exhausted!

Imagine what the people at Jack in the Box were thinking when I walked in to order lunch?  I just laughed off all the strange looks and thought, "I just had a ton of fun!"

So, who's in for next year??