Three Day Weekend Recap

For us Nevadans this past weekend was a 3 day weekend commemorating the day Nevada gained it's statehood. It was fun having Daddy stay home from work on Friday.

Friday we saw The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D! Loved it! Of course it is one of our all time favorite movies and it's even more fun in 3D with popcorn and a huge diet coke.


Saturday we woke up and hiked Lone Mountain. Carson and I stopped at the bench and took a break while Alan and Cole went to the top.


We had "linner" at Red Robin one of our family favorites. We like it there because it's noisy and so no one cares if our kids are noisy too, which they usually are.


I got a silly surprise present from my Mom and sister Gretchen. They are microfiber mop slippers. I'm always complaining about how dusty and icky my pergo flooring looks and they saw these at Bed Bath and Beyond and thought they would be the perfect solution to my problem. I have to admit they are fun to put on and slip and slide all over the floors. Plus I am pretty confident that these babies could definitely secure me a spot on What Not to Wear. Could you just see the horror on Stacey and Clinton's faces when they see me wearing mop shoes, lol.


And finally a Happy (belated) Birthday to my sister Gretchen or Aunt GG as the kiddos all call her, who turned 30-something on Sunday. Love ya! I still need you to teach me Soulja Boy.

Thank You Yellow Mammaw and Red Pappa

I had to hurry and snap this picture of Carson and his money and then take it from him before he ate it.

Cole loved his pirate card. I hope he grows out of this goofy smile phase soon.

Cole chose a Geo Trax train.

Carson is just happy to be here and along for the ride.

The boys were delighted to receive their Halloween cards in the mail. Cole especially loves getting mail, it makes his day. He immediately wanted to head to Wal-mart with his cash to pick out a toy. As I pushed them thru' the store he would tell random strangers that his Yellow Mammaw sent him $5 in the mail and his baby brother only got $1 because he was little. He is such a nut. Anyways, after much deliberation he decided on a train to add to add to his Geo Trax collection. Can you believe that there are still trains we don't have? I thought for sure we had them all, it looks that way when they are dumped out all over his room, lol.

BIG HUGE HUGS & THANK YOUS! We love you guys! Happy Halloween!

Disneyland: Days 3,4 & 5

October 20-22, 2007
The days started to blur together so I will just combine them into one big random post. Beware, there are alot of photos...

Cole's most very favorite ride was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which he dubbed "Cowboy Mountain". He rode it 18 times and I'm not exaggerating. He would inform the worker at the front of the ride that he was tall enough (because they checked him every time) and that he would like car #1, lol. It is the wildest ride in the wilderness.


While Daddy and Cole were on Splash Mountain or Waterfall Mountain as Cole renamed it (his second favorite ride), Carson and I met Pooh Bear. Carson was enamored by him, he snuggled into his fur and cooed and giggled.




We finally rode Nemo. It was by far the longest line in the park. We used our early entry pass to get in early and stand in line. We only waited for one hour as opposed to the two it would normally take. Carson was captivated by the underwater scenery. It was an amazing ride, those Disney Imaginears are pretty smart.




The boys enjoyed the carousel at California adventure. Cole rode a dolphin and Carson was on an otter.


Watching Dad blast off on the roller coaster. Cole was bummed he was too short to ride, maybe next time.


Cole with Lightening McQueen

and with Tow Mater. We heard they are adding a Cars Land At California Adventure in the next year or so. How fun will that be !?


The obligatory photo in front of the flower Mickey inside the main gate. All of Mickey's orange areas are actaully baby pumpkins. Pretty cool.


Seriously, he is the cutest little mouse ever. I couldn't resist buying these ears, aren't they awesome?


Monster's Inc...


More of the completely amazing decorations. There was an area of the park called Woody's Halloween Round-Up and it was full of carved pumpkins that were just so cool. My favorite was the Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas.


One of my highlights of the trip I didn't get a picture of. One night Cole and I went down to the sing-a-long at the Grand Fireplace in the hotel's lobby. He got up there with a few other 3, 4 and 5 year olds and sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and You Are My Sunshine while accompanied on the guitar. It was so sweet, one of those Mommy moments that warms your heart. It's always touching to see you child be sweet and innocent and just all around cute.

Monday the 22nd was our last day in the park. We got set to leave at about 3:00 in the afternoon and headed out towards Vegas hoping to not get caught up in any of the California wildfire freeway closeures. But unfortunately we spent about four hours on the highway and only made it about 40 miles to find that the Cajon pass was closed and we were stranded in San Bernadino for the night. We got the last room in a scary Days Inn that was a little too close to the fires for comfort. The howling winds made it hard to sleep and we all just really wanted to be home in our own beds. The next morning we got back on the road and headed home.


But, despite the unseasonably hot weather, the crazy huge crowds in the park, the gusting winds, the wildfires and the ash and soot, we had a great time. The boys loved every minute. It was so fun to see Carson wide-eyed and amazed at all of the magical things surrounding him and Cole was our little daredevil this trip. Thanks Alan for being the coolest dad and husband and taking us to the Happiest Place on Earth! We love you!

Disneyland: Day 2

Friday October 19, 2007
Our favorite little Mouse

And his cute pirate big brother

The genius Disney Imaginears transformed Tom Sawyer's Island into Pirate Lair. As you can probably imagine Cole was in heaven. They passed out treasure maps before heading over on the raft, Cole studied it religiously and found the treasure!

Some random photos. I loved the fall decorations throughout the park!

One of our favorite Disneyland traditions is to eat dinner at Goofy's Kitchen in the Disneyland Hotel. It's fun to see the characters and take pictures with them, the food is outrageously delicious and it's just tons and tons of fun.

Disneyland: Halloween Time

Thursday October 18, 2007
We surprised the kids with tickets to Mickey's Trick or Treat at the California Adventure park.
Of course costumes were a must! Don't we have the cutest little pirates ever? And yes, I'm totally biased, lol.

While we were hanging out on Pirate's Pier to get our picture taken with Pirate Goofy we ran into Cole's buddy Brayden who was also dressed as a pirate. They had fun together sword fighting and playing. Wow, it really is a small world afterall.

Our family picture with Goofy. I dressed as a zombie, lol. Seriously, I look like I haven't slept for a hundred years. (Or 8.5 months).

Cute Mickey Ghosts marked the trick or treat trail. Where there was a ghost, there was a treat. Mmmm.

This year Cole was finally tall enough to ride the bumper cars, or bugs I guess they are. He has been waiting since he was 22 months.

Alan tried to take Cole on Tower of Terror (he was tall enough) but after the spooky intro Cole declared the ride to be evil and wanted out.

Disneyland: Day 1

Thursday October 18, 2007
We arrived early afternoon and checked in at our hotel. The Grand Californian is an amazing place to stay. When we pulled up there was someone to greet us and whisk us upstairs to check in (avoiding all of the lines at the main check in desk downstairs).
They took our family picture and then escorted us to the concierge lounge where they serve yummy snacks and treats throughout the day. There are even two mini fridges stocked with diet coke(and other stuff too, lol). Score!

Here is Carson in a cute Mickey Mouse High Chair getting ready for a snack.

Love these cute brothers, Cole cracks Carson up.

Carson's first ride



Mmmm, we got back to our room later that evening and discovered that Mickey left us some yummy cookies to decorate.

*click photos to view larger
Then it was time to get ready for Mickey's Trick or Treat at the California Adventure Park!

We're Off To The Magic Kingdom

We are taking the boys to Disneyland in the morning. Halloween at Disneyland is my absolute favorite! I love the decorations and I love the Haunted Mansion transformed into The Nightmare Before Christmas. This year we are doing something really fun! I think Cole is going to be so super surprised! Also this time around we are staying at the Grand Californian, we have wanted to stay there since it opened and it's always booked. I hope Carson does ok, I'm worried about travelling with him, hopefully he will be a good boy and enjoy everything and not be scared.

Photos from past Disney trips, Cole looks so little...

New Wheels

2008 Buick Enclave: Our new car (except ours is silver)!

So yesterday on his way to work, Alan decided to stop off and test drive cars. We have been talking about getting a new car for me for months now and we just never seemed to get it done. So he calls me around 10:00 am yesterday morning and says he's down at the Buick dealership and he is in love with this car and could I come down and drive it. Ummm, yeah! So I wake Carson from his nap and haul the boys down and drive the car. It's amazing! We're sold! And now it's parked in our garage. The only problem I have with it is that I think it's too nice for 2 little messy boys to ride in, there is going to have to be some serious "no food in the car rules" from here on out.

My hubby rocks!!!

Pumpkin Patch

This morning I surprised the little guys with a trip to Gilcrease Orchard to pick pumpkins. I didn't tell them where we were going and when we got there Cole was super excited. It was hot and dusty and lots of fun. We found 6 pumpkins! They were a little picked over this year, you seriously have to get there like October first. I want to go back and get some apples and zucchinis too. Mmmm. On the way out we bought some yummy fresh apple cider and gulped it down, I knew I should have bought the gallon bottle (or 2). Just another excuse to go back. Also, we need to go again for photos; sadly the battery on my camera died and the pictures I did get were severely over-exposed. ( I haven't mastered my new lens' learning curve yet).

Captain Columbus By Day & Chef Cole By Night

Cole's school did a unit on Christopher Columbus this week to commemorate the holiday. Of course Cole was enamoured with him and why not? The man had 3 really cool ships. This morning I caught him and Carson playing Columbus. Of course those plastic tubs did contain toys at one point so obviously a huge mess was involved. Aren't they cute? I love that Cole is starting to include Carson in his games.

Uh-oh, looks like the first mate might go overboard:


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The night before, Carson went to bed, Alan was at a Young Men's activity and Cole and I were able to hang out together and have some Mommy/Son time together. We decided to make some Halloween treats. This recipe (I use the term 'recipe' loosely) is foolproof, Cole made them literally all by himself except for putting them in and taking them out of the oven.

First you start by unwrapping lots of Hershey Kisses, (we used the candy corn variety; very festive). Then you line up little twisty pretzels on a cookie sheet, (I used this as an opportunity to practice counting and patterning, 5 pretzels to every row and 7 rows). Next place one kiss in the center of each pretzel and pop them into a 350 degree oven for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for about a minute or two and then place an M&M in the center of each treat. Last cool all the way until they harden back up. Ta-Da! A yummy kid-friendly recipe they can make on their own and feel successful. And they are yummy, they have that salty/sweet thing going on.

Unwrapping the Hershey Kisses:

Ready for the oven:

What's with the cheesy face?