Feelin' Thankful and Black Friday

I only remembered to take pictures at one out of three of our Thanksgiving dinners. That's right, three. We're kind of spoiled. :) Dinner #1 was at my mom's house on Wednesday night. Lots of fun, yummy food, and good times with my family.

Maybe too much of a good time even. :)

The next day on Thanksgiving we headed to my Aunt Carol's in the afternoon, and then Jeremy's parents that evening. It was so nice to have Jeremy with us for all of the festivities, especially since that will not be the case for the Christmas this year; he has to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Yuck. No pictures from the two get-togethers on the day of Thanksgiving, mostly because I was busy scouring ads and planning my strategy for Black Friday, or Black Thursday, since stores started opening at 9:00 on Thanksgiving Day. It went something like this:

9:00 p.m. - Toys R Us. It was a madhouse, probably because they were the first to open of the night, but I ended up getting everything I wanted. I didn't even get in the door until a half hour after they opened!

Step 2 Cottage Playhouse
Little Tykes Slide
Little Tykes Table
Razor Scooter
Thomas Train Set

12:00 a.m. - Unloaded Load of Loot #1 at my mom's house. Revamped strategy since we had now missed the opening time for WalMart and Target.

12:30 a.m. - ShopKo. Still really busy after opening at 12:00. Waited in line for an hour to check out. Actually got a cart though, which is a bonus on Black Friday.

Princess Toy Box/Seat
Thomas the Train Toy Box/Seat
3 Drawer Craft Cabinet
Squinkies

2:00 a.m. - WalMart - It was dead by the time we got there, since they had been open since 10:00 p.m. the night before. We were in and out in less than an hour.

Leapster games
Cute Cheap Jammies
Cute Cheap Sweatshirts
Ants in SpongeBob Squarepants game

3:00 a.m. - Kohl's. My mom wanted to go over, so we did, but I was pretty much a zombie by then. I didn't buy anything. At least not that I can remember. :)

4:00 a.m. Unloaded Load of Loot #2 at my mom's house. Ate some turkey. Decided to stay at her house since if I went home my kids would be waking me up in 2-3 hours.

9:30 Woke up feeling refreshed enough to go out for another round. Picked up another it up another WalMart (Dora Kitchen and cute cheap t-shirts), Target, Kohl's (jewelry for me), WalMart again, Famous Footwear, and JoAnn's. Oh yeah, and I also went to a movie on Black Friday at 11:10 p.m. with my sister, Breaking Dawn, finally. Loved it.

Such a fun, long weekend. I'm looking forward to giving these kiddos their loot on Christmas morning!

Love

After a 14 hour day and 15 parent teacher conferences, I came home to these:



Jer got me a card and roses for our anniversary, even though we said we were going to hold off until next week when life's not so busy. (Right, because that ever happens, that life isn't busy...) Thanks so much honey for making today and so many other days of our lives so wonderful. I love and appreciate you more than you know.



Hayley left me a little something too: A ribbon-wrapped leaf and a note that said:

"thez Ius u spRIs Far the anavRSRaRee"
(This is a surprise for the anniversary.)

Love my kids, love my husband, love my life.

Carnival #2 and a Duck Butt

Saturday morning we headed to the Halloween Carnival hosted by our neighborhood ward. As a bonus, Jackson actually wore his costume. I should have realized earlier that a little bribery was all that was needed. I just waited until we were in the parking lot, stuck it on and zipped him in, and then pulled him in to the carnival and handed him a piece a candy. He got over being all costumed up pretty quick. There were games, and crafts, and Hayley's favorite...



Eating a doughnut off of a string! (I really should have videoed this. She thought it was so funny! She kept pausing every few bites to laugh.)



On Halloween night we headed up to Aunt Kimi and Grandma Bachman's neighborhood to go trick-or-treating. Hayley was so excited to see Payton! Good thing I got this picture of them before they took off, because after they started, they were out in front of the rest of us as far as we would let them go. They had a blast, and gathered a stash!



Jackson had a good time too, and was so cute tagging along after his big sister. Too bad he wouldn't look at the camera for anything! I had to resort to taking pictures of his cute duck butt backside, which wasn't all bad. :)



It was a very happy Halloween! Fun times with family, tons of candy, I feel like we got our money's worth out of Hayley's costume, and I'm just relieved that Jackson wore his at all!

Halloween Carnival #1

The Thursday before Halloween we headed to the Kearns Recreation Center for their free Halloween Carnival. I was glad Jeremy could come with us, since he would be working during some of the Halloween festivities during the weekend before the holiday. No surprise that Hayley was really into the spook alley, games, prizes, and candy, but it was so fun to see Jackson really get a lot more excited this season.



Hayley's a cowgirl this year. Her costume turned out super cute, especially considering I bought all the pieces on sale at the after Halloween sales last year. I know you can't see her face in the last picture, but that face I am making is me laughing at Jeremy as I ask, "Are you taking pictures with the camera upside down?!" He was. Because, you know, why make things easy on yourself?



I bought Jackson the cutest duck costume last year for him to wear this year, but he was having none of it. I put it on him a few times, and he would just walk (waddle?) around and cry and pull at it until we took it off. So then my mom got him a cute puppy costume in an bigger size, thinking maybe the duck one was just too small. Nope, same result. It was only when I put the boring skeleton shirt on him that I actually started to get some Halloween smiles. So I cut him some slack for the carnival, but I may give the costumes another shot on the actual holiday.



We finished off the night with free drinks and cookies. The kids had no problem sharing the "cookies as big as my face!" as Hayley put it.

Traditions

October, Halloween, and all the related activities seem to become more and more busy each year. There are lots of traditions that I look forward to, including going to The Pie and then Thriller with my mom and my sisters. This year, before we got to our seats, my mom could not find her glasses, and it took her a while, and dumping out her entire purse, and finding a pair of Hayley's sunglasses, before she found them. In the front pocket. Thriller was great, complete with scary zombie dancers.

From Thriller, I headed up to meet the girls from my fourth grade team for our annual weekend at Debbie's cabin. It was so beautiful, and peaceful, and the Rhino rides and company were lots of fun.



On our ride we saw this broken deck, a porcupine, a sun dog, and the amazing view from Windy Ridge.



And we found "my" lane. Too bad it was "dead."



One last tradition that we finally started this year was carving a pumpkin with Hayley. Neither Jeremy or I are big into carving pumpkins. We both think it's kind of gross, and messy, and stinky. Plus, it's the adults that end up doing most of the work. Hayley drew the little face though, and I carved.



The little yellow guy did turn out cute!

Cabin Trip 2011

Hayley and I flew home Friday morning. Our flight was super early, after us being up super late, and Hayley promptly fell asleep leaning against me. Which was fine, until I fell asleep on the shoulder of the random guy who was sitting next to me. Twice. Sorry Stranger, and thanks for nonchalantly shrugging to wake me up and then pretending like it didn't happen.In spite of our being tired, my mom and step-dad and sisters were at the cabin for our annual Cabin Trip, and I figured why waste any time. So we went home for long enough to do some laundry and re-pack, and then we headed up to the cabin. It was a fun time, full of playing games, reading books, playing on the deck and in the snow, and Jackson helping Dad and Grandpa on the ladder...



What were they doing on the ladder, you ask? Just cutting down trees so they wouldn't hit the power lines if they fell down. With a chainsaw. Because they would rather do it themselves then pay someone to do it. Since this made both my mom and I very nervous to watch, we took the kids on a walk to the Bear River Lodge for a treat. We passed the stream which was super high from the snow we had a few days before.



Jeremy and Robert were both alive and intact with all of their limbs when we got back, and we enjoyed the fire later that evening with all the firewood that had been sawed off earlier that day.



Jackson was happy to have most of his favorite people hanging out together all in one place.

He was also happy to be entertained by Hayley's shenanigans with his Thumper.



Love those cute kids and their cute cabin giggles!

Surprise! (Or, maybe you aren't really all that surprised...)

While we were planning our upcoming vacation to Las Vegas, I was thinking about how fun it would be to add on a few days at Disneyland. On a lark, I checked how much airfare would be from Vegas to California. Only $29.00!! Then I found some people on KSL selling their unused Disneyland tickets from last year (when the prices went up) for a super great deal. I think you can see where this was going in my head... I talked to Jeremy about it, and he said he would be just as happy to head home with Jackson, but that Hayley and I should go and have fun...

So, we did. :)

Hayley was so surprised and excited when I told her, especially since we were leaving the very next morning. The first few hours there, she kept saying "I can't believe we're in Disneyland. I can't believe we're in Disneyland RIGHT NOW!" It was so fun and low key to have just the two of us there. We did quite a few things that we usually pass by on our way to something else. We went on the new Little Mermaid ride, which was darling, watched the new Phineas and Ferb Rock and Roller Dance Show where Hayley was picked to learn the Fireside Girls' dance, and played at the Redwood Creek Adventure Trail, where we met Russell from Up who we'd never met before. It rained a little on us, but not too bad, and we enjoyed the parks until closing at 8:00 and then watched World of Color.



The next day we woke up early to head to Minnie and Friends: Breakfast in the Park. On our way there at quarter to eight it started to rain. I was hoping it would just sprinkle for a few hours and then stop like it had the day before, but that wasn't the case. It rained for nine hours straight, finally letting up at about 5:00 in the evening.



The Breakfast in the park was super fun. Hayley decided this year that she wanted to start to collect autographs from all of the characters, and started her first few pages with Captain Hook, Minnie, Chip and Dale.



We finished off the morning with the Fairy Godmother and Winnie the Pooh and Friends.



After breakfast, we headed back to the hotel room for our first clothing change of the day, including our "stylish" new rain ponchos. We were both all for going back to the parks, and I was so glad that we did, because we soon realized that Rain at Disneyland = No Lines. It was great! We basically walked on to many rides that often have a very long wait. We also rode the train around the entire park and then some, which was a fun way to keep dry, and get a different view of the park. Not quite dry enough however, and by afternoon, Hayley had gotten three unplanned souvineers: sweatpants, socks, and shoes. (I had only packed shorts and capris for her, and her shoes were old worn ones, which apparently had holes.)

After our purchases, we headed to see Mickey, Goofy, and Donald. It seemed as the day went on, more and more people were scared back to their hotels by the weather, because we waited maybe five minutes to see each of these guys.



At 5:00 when the rain stopped it was like a miracle. The sun shined down on us and must have sent some Pixie Dust with it, because we experienced a great case of right place at the right time. The outdoor Princess Fantasy Faire had been closed for Princess Meet and Greets all day with the rain, and had a scheduled closing time of 6:00. Seeing that there were now people in the line, we went over and discovered that the princess would be coming out for the last hour. We saw the first three, then got in line again and waited about ten minutes and by then they had switched to the second three princesses.



We stayed until the park closed at 8:00, and got some dinner and a treat on the way out. Hayley decided that Matterhorn Macaroons were her new favorite Disneyland treat.

We were expecting our last day to be more of the same rain, rain, rain. Imagine our pleasant surprise when we woke up to clear skies and sunshine! It was wonderful, but also noticeably more crowded in the park than it had been the day before. We made sure to fit in Musical Chairs with Alice and the Mad Hatter, who informed us it was "Mad Hatter Day" since it was 10/6. Clever. Here's Hayley becoming a "Spooky Unwinner" (getting out) and telling her joke. Yes, we knew what was coming and had practiced. :)



Another highlight was meeting Flynn Rider, who has never been there with Rapunzel when we have met her before. They were so cute talking to Hayley. She told everyone who looked at her Autograph Book that, "Flynn and Rapunzel are married, that's why they sign on the same page."



We ate some nachos from Whitewater Snacks and some Mickey pretzels, rode a bunch of rides, including the new Star Tours which Hayley loved, watched the parade, played with Stitch, and saw Minnie and Pluto in their Halloween costumes.



Hayley even got me on the Teacups since she was a sport and went on Haunted Mansion that she wasn't so crazy about.



After three long days, and a week in Vegas before that, Hayley was pretty tuckered out. It was so much fun to spend some time at Disneyland with this fun little girl!