Back to California: Sad Times and Fun Times

So this summer I won a couple of Disney gift cards from a sweepstakes Bashas did. I was pretty. darn. excited. The only thing better than winning cash is winning money that has to be spent at Disney. :) Pretty cool. So with part of it Jeremy said I should do something fun like go to Disneyland with my sister. Um, okay!!
We originally planned to go the first weekend in December, because that day worked best, we thought. But then she found that she needed to move it to the Monday after Thanksgiving. So we did. But then that reason was gone, so it seemed like we had moved it for no reason. Until I heard the crushing news that one of my best friend's dads had died, and his funeral was going to be held the Saturday before our planned trip in the same area. Suddenly the timing of our trip seemed like a bit of a blessing in disguise, because I was able to drive home Friday with my family, and turn around to leave for California about an hour later and make it there by Friday night. I stayed with my other best friend, and got to hold her sweet new baby. The next day we were both able to go to the funeral and support our dear friend, and I was able to offer some help to her family with carting things around. I was so grateful to have the opportunity to be there, and to have that trip already planned, also on a flexible enough weekend that I could go two days early. It was a tender mercy for sure.

While I was gone, the kids and Jeremy stayed pretty busy putting the tree up, getting out of the house, and meeting up with some cousins to see Wreck It Ralph 2!

Emily was sweet and willing to rent a car and drive out to meet me Sunday evening, so I picked her up at the John Wayne Airport (and adventure, since I had to go down in an pick her up at the car rental return) and we spent the evening at Downtown Disney. It was a super fun time, and so fun to explore and see all the Christmas decor and shop and be together without our nine crazy kids.

We stayed at kind of a sketchy hotel, but it was super cheap, haha. It didn't feel unsafe, it was just about as basic as you can get! But bright and early the next morning, we were at Disneyland, and we rocked that day, let me tell you. We had park hoppers, and used MaxPass, and rode 26 different attractions, took 35,000 steps, and I finally found someone that would drag ME around Disneyland like I do to everyone else! She was slightly more excited than me to be there (because she hasn't been without kids or to California Adventure since 2005, and has only been to Disneyland once a couple years ago with all 4 boys, including a nursing baby...) and her legs are longer, haha. We had a great time, and I'm so glad we went!

September and October

Catch up. Haha. Like that's even possible. I enjoy each of our children, and my life is good, but I get frustrated at how I can't live this life and also keep up on documenting it. But I can't just stop trying. It's too important to me! So I do what I can here and there, and when I catch up on some family videos, or family scrapbook, or individual scrapbooks, or my blog/journaling, it does bring me joy. So here goes.

Other Exciting Things That Happened in September:
* We went to a 9/11 thing in downtown Mesa with Jeremy's dad. The kids enjoyed seeing the firetrucks and climbing around on them. It was really still too hot too bit out even at 7 PM, but it was nice to do something different.
*A lot of our Weech family was in town at the same time (even Nicole and Carlee) and we got to celebrate my nephew Hudson's first birthday. Always fun!
*Jaina decided to try tumbling this year instead of dance, and her classes (Monday afternoons) started.
*Shawn starting learning how much trouble he could get into if employing our tall stool to climb up to reach things.
*Shawn and I went to Makutu's Island with Carlee and Nicole for their toddler time. It was crazy, but fun.
*I finally took the box of t-shirts I have been hauling around for 10-15 years and cut them up and turned them into a blanket. One side is mostly high school, and the other side is BYU and some stuff we've done since we got married.
*We got a new vacuum! This was very exciting, since our previous one is one we got for $50 (highly recommended though) when we first moved to Iowa. It just was NOT picking stuff up anymore. We got a Shark from Sam's Club, and it was amazing what it managed to pull out of the carpet in it's first day or two on duty.
*Reilly and I got a chance to go to one of Spencer's football games down here at Phoenix Christian. They hadn't had any really close games yet that season, but it was a really tense, fun game (that we thankfully won). Reilly usually goes to bed by 8:30 though, and he was dragging by the time it was over around 9:30.
*Reilly turned 9 and had a fun friend party at Mesquite Groves Aquatic Center. They had a blast, and there was very little planning/clean up for us. Win-win!
*We got to spend an evening checking out the Supermoon Lunar Eclipse, and went to our friend's house, the Shoemakers, to check it out through their fancy telescope.

October: 

Great, awesome month. 

Early in the month we used our POGO passes to take the kids to a Diamondbacks game with Jeremy's dad and sister. Fun, but they usually go a little late when our kids are used to being in bed by 7 and 8. Riding the Light rail is always fun though, and they loved exploring Chase Field.

We took advantage of October break and of the (very large) nest egg I'd been saving up, apart from our budget (by selling things we didn't really need and by doing a painting for my dad) and went on our first real family vacation since we went to Disneyland in early 2013. One of my best friends helped make it possible by offering to let us stay in her family's beach house near Carlsbad. It was a great trip! My friends and their families joined us for the first two days, and it was so fun to be all together and to enjoy the beach! In October many of the places around San Diego do kids free deals. We took advantage of that to visit Legoland (the kids had been dying to go - we had fun, but I don't see repeat trips in our future) and the San Diego Zoo, which was awesome. We also went to the Mornin Battalion visitors' center and stopped to see the San Diego Zoo. Our AZ Science Center membership hot us into two big museums in San Diego, and we checked out Balboa Park the same  evening. It was a busy trip, and we wore ourselves out a bit, but it was fun.

In true feast or famine style, we got some nice pictures of our whole family together on our vacation, then also finally got some official family pictures taken by Debe Jorgensen. We did them at the Mesa Arts Center, and they turned out amazing! It was a good choice to do them outside instead of in a studio, which I think would have been a disaster with our busy group.

We finished up the month of October by celebrating fall and Halloween several different ways. We had dinner and did a fun pumpkin patch with Jeremy's mom, Ashley, and Chloe, and the kids got to pick out pumpkins and do a Halloween craft at home. We carved/painted pumpkins for a family night activity. Then the day before Halloween the two little kids and I did trick-or-treating on Main Street, and we did some regular trick or treating Halloween night, as well as dinner at Chipotle. But I'm glad we did the other stuff earlier, because Halloween night was one of those "expectations vs. reality" nights, and it was a little rough here and there. Especially when Reilly ended up home throwing up instead of going around the neighborhood, and Jeremy was wiped out after several days out of town and didn't feel up to much gallivanting and celebrating.