San Diego/Quick Disneyland trip

I meant to just catch up quickly, and maybe do a "fall highlights" post, but I could see too much had happened, just in September, to do that. Then I thought I'd try a monthly catch-up. You know, September stuff, October stuff, and so forth. Sigh. Nope, not happening. My inability to skip over anything and need to document everything I'm aware of is why my blog is always so behind anymore. Well, that and my 4 children and messy house.

So, in early September Jeremy was going to an Epic Chiropractic Conference in San Diego, and had signed me up, too. We couldn't decide whether to bring Shawn or not, but since he was still nursing (some), I wasn't willing to wean him completely yet, and babies are hard for people other than their mommies to take care of. It wasn't as big of a deal to have someone watch our older kids, since they are getting bigger and more independent. David and Nicole agreed to come mostly stay at our house (they had a 1-year-old) so Reilly and Jaina could continue their school routine, and since Katy is the, um, more challenging one, (and doesn't go to school, therefore needing care and attention all day), we asked if she could go to the Gila Valley for the week, where our moms could shuffle her back and forth a bit. She was elated, so say the least. :) We ended up sending her a day and a half before (since that's when meeting in Globe could be arranged).

Shawn enjoyed the first couple hours of the trip, but had a ridiculous time trying to get to sleep in the car (again) and also had a hard time staying asleep. It made me really grateful the drive was only 6-7 hours instead of 12-18... We stopped about an hour short of Anaheim so Jeremy could get a good adjustment with a NUCCA Dr. he knows there, Tym Flory. They took quite a while going over stuff and chatting, but Shawn enjoyed the freedom to explore the office and practice his new crawling skills.

After making a detour to go visit Naomi and see her new house, we stayed the first night at my friend Karen's house, which was fun. It was fun to see how much her "baby" had grown since I had seen him last, when he was just 6 weeks old-ish! (vs. turning 2) Their dog, Harper, was very interested in Jeremy. Animals often are. It's like they can sense that he doesn't like them, and they make it their mission to sit by or on him. :) Jeremy had to leave super early the next morning, but I stayed there with Karen because we were celebrating Wesley's 2nd birthday that day. And guess where we were going? Disneyland! (Karen and Naomi were very generous and helped pay for my ticket, since even one day there is ridiculous, and our budget has been pretty tight)
It was a very different trip, but very fun. I've never gone just for one day, I've never not been there at opening (that I can remember), I've never been there with a baby, and I've never toured the park quite that leisurely. It was fun to experience it a different way. Along with Karen, Brigham, Wesley, Shawn and I, Naomi, her two girls, and her sister-in-law, Kris joined us. It was nice to have slightly more adults than kids, especially since they were all under 4, and since Karen and Naomi were both expecting. :)
Did I mention that it was HOT? Like seriously warm. And it was really crowded the first half of the day, until everyone realized how hot and even humid it was, and seemed to disappear a bit. I had a great time, even with my low tolerance for heat, but I was so so so so grateful I hadn't just spent $2000 to bring my whole family there for a few days. There would have been much sadness, complaining, trying-to-do-too-much, and probably heatstroke. As it was, our easy pace and no-need-to-do-everything (the rest of them all have annual passes) was perfect. Shawn LOVED it. There was so much to see, and that's his favorite. I don't think he ever cried. We took him on lots of rides, including Alice in Wonderland, Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin, It's a Small World, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, Winnie the Pooh (3 times in a row, due to no line and pre-schooler/toddler requests), Pirates of the Caribbean, Snow White's Scary Adventure, and the Carousel. He would have enjoyed most of the Fantasyland rides, I think, but the lines were a bit long and it was hot. The only one I really wanted to take him on that we didn't get to was the train. I thought he would really enjoy that. :) His favorite was IASW, followed by Pirates (I think). It seemed that he enjoyed the slower ones where he could just really look around and see everything.

His first ride - Alice in Wonderland (he enjoyed it more than it seems)

The birthday boy and his family

Loving Toontown (though he was sweating)

On Roger Rabbit - even that didn't seem to frighten him, though his face is funny

Naomi and Megan

After our third trip on Pooh...

Na with Shawn, Kris, Megan and Makenna

The food was great. I tried beignets for the first time. YUM. I also scored a corn dog (even though the little red wagon wasn't selling them that day!) and it scratched an itch I'd had for over a year. Another first for this trip was getting to check out the Baby Center. It was so quiet, clean and air-conditioned in there. There were some private chairs to nurse in, a sink area for cleaning/preparing bottles, some little todller toilets, and a nice changing area. It was also the only place I felt comfortable setting Shawn down to crawl around for a few minutes. And Shawn napped! I wasn't sure how it was going to happen. But with that heat, and all that activity, all I had to do was lay him down in a stroller, cover him, give him a bottle and walk around for a few minutes...

Wesley was excited about the beignets, too.

Thanks to Kris, Naomi, and Karen, I even got to go on a few "big people" rides that had little wait. I think Star Tours was less than 10 minutes. The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was super exciting because it had been closed the time before for a huge renovation, and is one of my favorites. And I convinced Brigham to try Splash Mountain with me, and to sit in the front. :) He had never been. I was sitting right behind him, and on such a hot day (they turn the splash factor up when it's warm) and with adults in the front, I got wetter than I have -ever- been on a water ride. I was grateful I wasn't wearing jeans or tennis shoes!

Alice and the Mad Hatter checking on sleeping Shawn

We ended a little early, around 6:30 or so, since all the little kidlets needed to be in bed, and since the heat had wiped us out a little. All in all it was a super fun day, and I'm so grateful I got to go, especially with two of my best friends!! The last time we were at Disneyland was about 9 years ago, and I played tour guide that time. :)

The next morning, early, Shawn and I got up and headed down to San Diego. Having never driven in CA traffic by myself, I was grateful it wasn't too busy. It was still a little intense, especially when Shawn decided to cry for the last 10 minutes. The conference was right next to Sea World, and it was beautiful down there, if just a little warm. It wasn't too bad since it was right by the ocean. :) When I first got to the conference (right around 9 am) I started to wonder what I was thinking bringing a 9-month-old to a chiropractic conference. He was struggling to go to sleep, and wasn't interested in being quiet or polite and I ended up stressed and just walking around with him in the stroller in the parking lot forever trying to get him to sleep. There were a few other rough patches, but mostly it was a good experience, and I really enjoyed most of the speakers. Their messages, information, and energy was great! We stayed the night in between in a nice hotel across some water, and since Shawn never took much of a 2nd naps, and since we kept him out late, he actually slept mostly well in the hotel room. The reason we were out late is because we went to a fancy dinner as part of the conference that evening. It was SO very tasty, and Shawn behaved pretty well. We didn't get to stay for much of the presenter or socializing, because he really needed to get to bed, but it was a fun experience.

The next night, when the conference was over, we drove back up to Karen's and stayed the night again. Shawn slept so-so there. Why are all our kids such difficult sleepers?  I guess they come by it naturally since neither Jeremy nor I are very good at that skill.  The next day we were trying to meet up with a friend from school, Maureen, who was visiting with her fiance from Ireland(!). Their schedule was a little crazy, so we ended up waiting around for quite a while, and grabbed burgers at a super yummy place called "The Counter." SO good, and such variety! We put Shawn in the wrap and tried to get him to sleep, but that didn't work out so well. He finally crashed out about the time we were meeting Maureen. That whole afternoon was a little rough, and Shawn did a lot of crying between California and Mesa. :( We made it though, and the trip was worth it. It was the first time we had been on vacation (without everyone) in quite some time, and even though Shawn was a lot of work, he didn't ask questions or talk back or give opinions, so it was still nice. :)

The Rest of September

September was a super busy month. Shawn was super busy. He started getting into everything! He's getting the army crawling thing down, sitting up well finally, and starting to pull up to things and see the world in more of a three-dimensional place (instead of just the floor space). I put batteries in our Fisher Price chair (that was a 1st birthday present for Reilly, and is one of the few big toys we've moved all over the country with us. It's always a favorite!) and he is loving it. His other favorites are getting into the bottom drawers in the kitchen and swinging doors open and closed. The weather has been really pleasant for September, at least in the mornings, and Shawn and I have been getting out for some early morning walks.

In the first week of the month we got a ton of rain. Like record-breaking rain, that caused some major flooding. Our part in the excitement was limited (thankfully) to our store room getting kind of soggy on the bottom and to some of our windows leaking. Also, one or two ceiling leaks, but nothing very damaging. It took a while to get the roofing fixed though, because our HOA's roofing company was pretty busy with roofs that had caved in and such during the crazy storms. (It seems like there were two really big ones, just a week or two apart, so they were having a hard time catching up)

Oh! Another exciting thing that happened while we were in California was that Phil & Sophie's baby was born! Hudson Parker is a real cutie, and we were excited to meet him! Kinzi and Baiden came and played with us a couple times in the first week or two, and it was a little crazy having 4 kids 4-and-under, (we even made it to the mall...) but fun.

We've been getting much more regular about having our Family Home Evenings, and though sometimes they go more smoothly than others, it's nice that we're at least having them. It really helps that the kids are old enough that they know when it's Monday, and they ask all day what we're doing. Here are some pictures from a FHE in September. Shawn isn't as interested in what is going on and sometimes needs extra entertaining, especially since it's right before his bedtime and he's getting grumpy.

(leading the music)

Jeremy's MTC companion (who he's stayed in contact with pretty regularly over the last 10 years) finally got married this month! We were so excited for him (them) and I would have loved to have been there. If we hadn't just left the older kids for 4-5 days already (and recently done a long drive with Shawn that didn't go well) I would have tried to go too, but it's wasn't meant to happen. Jeremy had a great visit staying with our friends, the Frandsens (our neighbors at Palmer), and even got to see one of his mission presidents at the wedding. He had an awesome weekend, and a nice little vacation away from everything that he really needed.

Also, Reilly turned 8! Our stake does stake baptisms, which wouldn't be happening until October, which was a little weird, to have him 8, and not baptized yet, but he still had a good birthday. This was not a year for "friend" parties, so we celebrated by having dinner at Chili's, he went to a Diamondbacks game with Daddy and Grandpa, and then we made him a Ninjago cake. He also got this really cool Lego Chima set that Jeremy had found on clearance a month or two before. They were all excited about that one!
(Oh, and one of his favorite presents was also that we signed him up for a 6-week karate course, taught at the school once a week after school. He was very excited about that!)