Thanksgiving 2010

On the way up to Utah, we stayed at a great place in Las Vegas called Tahiti Village Resort.  It was really nice to stay somewhere that didn't require a long walk through a casino, plus the suite had two rooms, a jetted tub, a full kitchen, and a steam shower (which kinda makes you feel like you're suffocating, but is still somehow relaxing.)  The resort also has a big pool with a lazy river, but it was too cold to try it out.  We stayed there on the way back, too -- I think it might become a regular thing. 
      

    
My mom took the kids and I the rest of the way from Vegas, since Ryan had to work one more week before joining us.   When we arrived at my mom's place, we got to meet my new (and first) nephew Felix!  He's stinkin' adorable.  He spent a lot of time crying or threatening to cry, but that's just what smart babies do, right?  The kids loved him, and I enjoyed watching Kyle and Kelli have to take turns eating.  Yeah, sadistic, I know. 
      

    

          

We had a great time over the next week doing school, cooking, visiting with family, and riding on the tractor.  
  

      

Elise made a "star cake" with her kids' cooking set

She didn't actually eat much of it.

Kelli and I played Just Dance 2.  Ryan mocked us.

Elise was scared to get on the tractor at first

   
My parents are in the midst of constructing a workshop and a dog kennel out on their property, and Elise had fun playing in the foundation gravel.  
   

   
After Ryan joined us, he and I were able to take Connor to visit the Nephi City Police Department as part of his school project.  The Chief of Police was so cool about everything.  He answered all of Connor's questions, and gave us a tour of the police station.  It was pretty awesome.  
    

Machine Gun

Bullet-proof Vest

Chief Morgan

A couple days before Thanksgiving we drove up to Brighton Ski Resort and stayed in the lodge for two nights.  Ryan and I traded off watching the kids in the lodge while the other went out.  Connor did ski-school for the first time, and loved it, and I took my first ski lesson, as well!  I've snowboarded for several years, but I always felt that skiing might be more my thing.  I think I was right.  It seems a lot easier and much less scary.  Hopefully I'll get a chance to try again in February!  We had the mixed blessing of arriving at the lodge right before a blizzard, which brought sub-zero temperatures.  It made skiing a bit uncomfortable, but the runs were nearly empty, and Connor had a private instructor both days he did ski school.  
   

Connor got a sticker on his badge for every skill he learned.

Yes, obviously these are sideways.  I could explain, but I'd get in trouble with the Feds.  Lets just say that I wasn't willing to pay $33 per digital photo and the online proofs are booby-trapped.  (Lest you think me a total crook, I did actually buy the top picture as a print for $15 plus shipping, and it will be scanned and posted when I receive it in the mail.)

        

Connor Skiing!

Ski School

The kids spent most of their time keeping warm, eating cookies, and watching movies, either in the lodge common area or on our portable DVD player in our room.  
    

Watching "Benji the Hunted"

Yeah, Evan almost fell off the bed.

We were lucky to have purchased a snow scraper on the way up.  
   

  

   
Thanksgiving Day was awesome.  I'm disappointed that I didn't get a picture of the family all together.  The meal was great, and we all put blessings on our "thankful tree", which turned out really cute.  Kevin came down to stay at Mom's place for several days, and we had a lot of fun staying up ridiculously late playing this zombie game.  
   

  

Connor didn't actually play, but he stared at the zombie pictures a lot.

Grandma Cloe had another dizzy spell while we were in Utah, so she spent several days at the house, too, and it was nice to be able to spend time with her.  
   

  

   
We headed home the following Saturday, and when the kids got antsy around Saint George, Ryan suggested we stop at the temple and have a look around.  It turned out to be a great idea, since everything was decorated for Christmas and they had a bunch of cool displays. 
   

  

  

   

Coming out of Las Vegas on the Sunday after Thanksgiving was not the best planning, and it took us about eight hours instead of five, but we got home safely!  
   
I definitely needed this trip.  I had been struggling with feeling really overwhelmed before we went up, and had a chance to take a breath and kinda figure out what needed to change in my life.  For one thing, I read a couple of books and  was able to get Evan to start sleeping at night -- that made a big difference in my sanity (and I didn't have to let him cry, it was awesome!)  I also realized that I can't do everything I feel obligated to do, and I've been able to reduce my expectations a little.  That time to reflect was exactly what I needed.
   

Fun Stuff We Did

In case you haven't noticed yet, I use my blog as a sort of long-winded Flickr album.  If I don't take a picture of something, I forget to post about it.  Sooo, here's some stuff we apparently did last month:
       
1. Math!  Connor's doing a math program called Right Start, which we mostly love.  It really emphasizes hands-on activities for learning math, so to document it for Connor's school I take a lot of pictures.  Here he is displaying ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands. 
    

    
2.  Mountasia Family Fun Center!  Yeah, it's a weird name.  Ryan got coupons from work to go do Go Karts and mini-golf at this place in Santa Clarita.  The kids (of course) loved playing the indoor video games to earn tickets, and bought some sort of valuable plastic junk with them.  Evan couldn't go on any of the rides, and Elise didn't want to (the boats allowed little kids, but she was afraid of getting water in her face - it's a phobia of hers.)  The mini-golf was fun, but when we were about halfway done with the course -- and thoroughly trapped at the far end, mind you -- Elise decided she was about to wet her pants.  The only way out was to backtrack, so we kinda abandoned our game until later.  When we decided to try again (a different course this time), the kids were exhausted and pretty much quit halfway through.  Despite how much complaining I'm doing right now, though, I have to admit it was a fun day.  We ended with ice cream and junk food, so everybody was happy!
     

   
3.  Oak Glen!  We did this last year, too, and it will probably be a fall tradition.  Oak Glen is a valley full of pick-your-own apple orchards, but has the atmosphere of a fair.  We got cider doughnuts at one of the farms, which may or may not contain a significant amount of cider, but they're awesome.  The owner told us that, although raspberry season was over, if we could find any leftovers we were welcome to them.  So, Ryan, the kids and I went raspberry hunting.  Most of the raspberries we found (and there weren't many), were dried up, but there were a few good ones, and it was a lot of fun just searching.  Elise rode a pony, Connor bought a marshmallow shooter, and we bought a bunch of cider and apple pie.  
      

    

 

       

Oak Glen was actually the first leg of our journey up to Utah, so at the end of the day we headed out to Vegas . . .
       

Evan gave Dad a break from driving.

Halloween

This year Connor started talking about his Halloween costume in July.  He was quite insistent that he was going to go as Mario, and that Elise should be Princess Peach.  Elise disagreed at first, saying she wanted to be a kitty (same as last year), but it wasn't a hard sell to convince her to wear a princess dress and crown.  

   

Evan's lobster costume is a hand-me-down from Elise, and still our favorite.

That's Connor's "Mario pose".  Think breaking bricks.

 Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, the church party was pretty much the main event.  They decided to invite the neighborhood as well as ward members for a trunk-or-treat, potluck, and spook alley near the bishop's house on Saturday night.  It turned out great, but it was a little overwhelming to keep track of my kids in such a huge, crowded space.  
     

Yeah, it was quite the event.

I think this was the costume parade.  Mario looks pretty scary, huh?

Connor doesn't share my crowd-induced anxiety.  Elise kinda does.

Poor Elise and Evan had colds, Ryan was getting over strep throat, and I was convinced I was coming down with it (turns out I wasn't), so we skipped the potluck part of the party in an effort to be considerate.  The candy haul for the evening compared well to regular trick-or-treating, so the kids were content.

       

County Fair

I felt brave this year and took all three kids to the county fair by myself.  Connor's class had a (kind of) field trip on October 1st, so we all got in early with the other school groups, and had free admission!  I say it was kind of a field trip because, although we were registered as a school group, it was really all the families showing up when they felt like it and doing their own thing.  We got there just as all the big school groups were leaving, but before any other kids were out of school, so the kids' areas were pretty quiet.  We mostly just saw Connor's classmates and a handful of other homeschooling families, it was cool.  We saw (of course) all manner of farm animals, did the petting zoo, and I got to milk a goat!  It's a lot more complicated than it would seem (sorry, I wasn't coordinated enough to milk, hold Evan, and get a picture at the same time.)

     

Connor thought these piglets were the cutest things on earth.

I always leave fairs determined to be a vegetarian.  I wish I would stick with it longer, though.

The ever-present bossy goat enjoyed assaulting my kids.

   

The kids begged me to let them ride these ponies, and after explaining to them that this would be our only big purchase that afternoon, I paid the six dollars each for a couple walks around this circle.  They loved it, of course.

    

  

We saw a cool bee exhibit, looked at some robotic dinosaurs, and took a free train ride around the fairgrounds.  Then we saw it.  Or, rather, I did.  It cost only a dollar more than the pony ride, so I broke my vow and spent more money.

    

The "train" ride was not exciting, but it involved sitting down, so I was sold.

Yeah, I've seen those "When Animals Attack" clips, but I figured we couldn't pass this up!

Proceeds went to fund an elephant rescue shelter.

It was a fun field trip, despite the rain, but those fairgrounds are just too big.  When we finally decided to leave after about four hours, I had a pioneer handcart moment where I wasn't sure if I could get everybody and the stroller all the way back to the car alive.

   

We have had several new families move into our Ward in the past couple months.  One of them has a little boy Connor's age named Hayden who Connor just loves to play with.  Here they are being knights.  Notice what Elise found to be her sword and shield.  I love her in these pictures.

    

   

Lastly, Evan has a new trick!  Yay Evan!  He's also finally sleeping most of the night since he learned to roll onto his tummy.  I guess he never could get comfortable on his back, and that's why he needed help every hour or two.  Hopefully that's why.  I'm enjoying having a bit more sanity!    
     

First Days of School

During the past two years, Elise has always been jealous that Connor got to go to Joy School and she didn't (except for when it was at our house.)  So, the first day of HER Joy School had her thrilled.  She very generously allowed Connor to attend, since his school hadn't started yet.  This year, we have the sweetest group of little three-year-olds you could ask for, and the moms are all awesome, as well.  After teaching five-year-olds, though, these guys just seem so tiny!
     

First day of Joy School!  Waiting for her friends to arrive

Painting the school rules

From left: Charlie, Connor, Elise, Andrew, & Sarah

Connor's first day of school was the following week.  After a lot of thought and prayer, we decided to enroll him in a charter school located about twenty minutes from us.  It's a unique classroom/home-study program, so he does all his math and reading one-on-one with me at home, then the class meets one day a week in their own classroom for P.E., science, "team challenges", and art, among other things.  He attends from 8:00 to 1:00, so he gets to take his lunch and everything.  Here he is showing off his backpack and school clothes.  
   

It took me almost an hour to sew that Mario patch on.  I still haven't added the five mushrooms.

What an excited kid.

The first day of school was a bit of a mess.  Ryan was going to meet me at the school to do the parents' welcome party together, but I was running so late I ended up just dropping Connor off with his dad and turning around to take Elise to Joy School.  I was really mad at myself for missing everything, but at least Ryan got some pictures!  
    

   
So far we're really enjoying the program.  Connor loves his class and teacher - he tells me every time I pick him up.  His favorite part is in the afternoon when they do art.  We're also having a lot of fun with the home study stuff.  The kids and I just lie on the bed and read the history, poetry, and read-aloud books together, it's totally cozy.  We don't know if we'll stay with this school next year, but for now it's working out perfectly.
    
This was also Connor's first year doing soccer.  His Joy School buddies were all going to be on a team together, so we couldn't resist.  Its been a lot of fun.  He has practice every Thursday afternoon and has games each Saturday.  In their age division they split the soccer field in half and play two 3-on-3 games simultaneously against the other team, which is perfect for giving each kid more play time.  We didn't expect Connor to be that into it,  but he loves it!  (Although he does prefer to play "defense", which seems to mean waiting for the ball to come to him.)  His coaches both do an awesome job of making it low-stress and fun for the kids.  The team is named the "Blue Speed Racers".  Yeah, they picked it.
    

Stretching before the game

So much exercise . . .

    
We were sad to see summer go, but this fall has brought a bunch of new, exciting activities.  Besides, we live in L.A., so it's kinda summer 10 months of the year, anyway.  The other afternoon I saw this horrible creature in our backyard, trying to swallow my kids.
   

We couldn't turn the sprinkler any higher, because Elise was afraid she'd get wet.