I know how very lucky I am to have Larry in my life so I was looking forward to a day of celebrating just that. Unfortunately, poor Larry had the worst day of his fellowship so far. At least he made it home around 7:30 to lots of hugs and smiles.
We love you Larry, and we're counting down the days to the next year of your fellowship when we'll hopefully be seeing a lot more of you!
When I cleaned out my wallet after moving here I was a little sad that I would no longer need my Columbus library card or zoo membership or even my student ID for The Ohio State University. I'm happy to have a reason to keep them around now. So I took those along with some fake cards from junk mail and used up VISA and Itunes gift cards and filled every nook and cranny of my old wallet and now it keeps Creed busy for quite a while.
Thanks for the idea Reba, I hope that you don't mind me sharing!
I want to be the kind of mom who fills my home with cheerful art that I love, but the kids will appreciate too. Like this college by Kate Endle that makes me smile.
I want to be the kind of mom who gets my kids involved in the family gift giving. I came across a great idea for giving Christmas gifts and I'm tempted not to share it because this is what some of you lovely readers may be getting for Christmas. You really should read about it here, but the basic idea is to give couples a pair of wooden clogs full of goodies that the kids helped collect over the year. Then let the kids help collect clog fillers every year.
In case you didn't notice, that's where I got the idea for the Mickey and Minnie shirts that I made. If you buy one, be aware that it runs extremely small so I got Creed a much bigger size.
It got me thinking about some other little toys houses full of tiny animals that I've been drooling over. Latitude Enfant makes several including this little apple house with bunnies inside and one for Little Red Riding Hood, one for snow white, and a treehouse for all sorts of animals.
This little mouse house and family made by Pottery Barn is one of my favorites. I would have dragged this with me everywhere when I was little.
Actually maybe I just love little houses in general, they don't have to be filled with woodland creatures. This one is way way out of my price-range, but as long as I'm sharing, I thought that you might want to admire its loveliness. I want to move into this Printed Dollhouse I spotted on Ohdeedoh.com. It's for sell on Etsy, made by petitflaneur. It reminds me of a Lauren Child illustration
One of these little fresh fruit pies (and they are even more amazing than they look)
Even at $4.25, I couldn't resist one of these little yellow watermelon because I heart yellow watermelon, and I haven't seen it since we left Ohio.
A big Cinderella pumpkin that's now sitting on my doorstep
And our most extravagent, but favorite purchase, buttermilk syrup. I don't even like syrup, but Larry told me that I HAD to try it a few weeks ago and wow, was he right! We've been tempted to eat breakfast for every meal because it is so, so, so good! Our stash is dwindling so Larry told me that I absolutely could not forget to restock. Usually they sell two sizes, but they were sold out of the large jars so I had to settle for a small jar. I'm sure that it will be gone very soon!
Now I'm already working on my list of 28 new things for this year starting with going to the Sheepdog Festival and taking a much needed photography class from Candice.
I used to HATE that my birthday usually fell around the first or second day of school. I almost always got school clothes for my birthday while my siblings got them just because school was starting, and I often had no friends to celebrate with because we'd move just in time to start the school year somewhere new. A lot has changed and now I love having a birthday this time of year. This is always about the time when catalogues for community classes arrive and I'm busy thinking about all the cool things I might like to try to learn that year. Columbus had amazing Parks and Rec classes that were really affordable. The Salt Lake Community Learning Centers don't offer many options for kids, but they still have a wide variety of classes for adults. A few options that I think would be fun are basic drawing/composition, breakdancing (ok, I would never have the guts to take a breakdancing class, but I think it's so cool that they offer it), big Band Swing Dancing, Birding 101 (Creed loves birds and I find myself wishing I knew more about them), acrylic painting, yoga, lino and wood-cut printmaking, web design (I've designed a few websites, but I know nothing about programming), and harmonica (which I probably wouldn't take, but aren't you curious about it?).
If you live close to a university, most of them offer life-long learning courses too and they are much lees expensive than a regular college course. You can check out the University of Utah's Lifelong Learning catalogue here. They also offer some courses that are really tempting to me: beginning drawing (I really really want to learn how to draw), introduction to metal work: art jewelry, beyond sushi: Japanese cuisine, designing with fresh flowers, containers for fall gardens, introduction to mime (ok, I'm joking, but I think it's awesome that they offer it), storytelling, ghosthunting 101 (just making sure you're paying attention, again I think it's funny that they offer it and it would be interesting to see what they have to say), sculling, fencing, ice skating for fun and exercise, and full-moon snowshoe hike.
Alas, Larry's schedule is such that it's pretty much impossible for me to take a single one of these classes, but next year his schedule should be much better and I can't wait to see what they offer then because I am absolutely signing myself up!
He showered grandma with lots of slimey kisses
And he didn't mind falling in the water or being completely covered in sand.
After we cleaned up, we went to Fashion Island for lunch and some Pinkberry frozen yogurt (it is so, so good!)
Then we went back to grandma's for a long nap and to play with some of Larry's old toys.
And we even got to go on a walk with Tom before we headed out.
And I was right! I just hope Melinda got a better picture of it than I did. (Did you know that they make those cute baby clip-on Minnie ears for babies? That was news to me)
Thank you Randall's for the best trip ever!
Since Creed doesn't even like to swing I was nervous about what Creed would think of the rides. At first he wasn't much of a fan, but he loves the Casey Junior train in Fantasyland.
The highlight of the day for the grown-ups was snagging these Dream Fast-Passes. Disney gives away all sorts of surprise things as part of their year of a million dreams theme. Jason saw someone handing these out just in time for us all to get one. It had two cards with Fast-Passes for every single ride that had a fast-pass in Disneyland and California Adventure. And it just so happened that it was also the day Larry's mom and step-dad we coming to stay with the kids in the hotel room after they fell asleep so the grown-ups could ride the grow-up rides. It was AMAZING! We just walked right on to every ride we wanted to ride. Between that and Jason and Melinda's Ride-Max schedule, the longest line we waited on all day was under ten minutes!
So, so cool!
Truth be told, it was a much needed break that evening because Creed had a rough day. He didn't quite get the rides and started teething again and seemed miserable for about an hour in the middle of the day. He was crying and I couldn't figure out what he wanted so I finally let him just pull everything out of my purse during lunch and he pulled out the Motrin, pointed to it, pointed to his mouth, and pointed back to the motrin. Sure enough, I looked in and there was the sharp points of new molars. Poor guy! Amid all that, he still was very excited to meet the characters. I let Melinda take most of the photos so I didn't have to juggle so there are sure to be more photos later, but I did catch him meeting Goofy on my camera. When it was our turn, he ran right up and hugged him.
The evenings were cool so I slipped on his babylegs under his shorts and he looked so cute!
We took a day off to hang with grandma and hit the beach, and then it was back to Disneyland again the next day with the Randall's. Creed had to sit by himself on the train ride again. Larry bought a little stuffed Mickey for him before we left on the trip and he carried it everywhere so you will notice it in a lot of our pictures.
The crowds were a lot bigger on the weekend, but it was worth it because Creed was so happy to be there and actually started to enjoy rides (although, you wouldn't guess it from this photo, but you have to have a picture with the castle, right?)
By far his favorite thing was the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show. Can you see him standing up and clasping his little hands because he's so excited to see Mickey on stage. He dances and bounced through the whole show and kept grabbing my hand and trying to go closer to the stage.
We also got to meet of with the Giglias for lunch (which Creed slept through, but it was still fun to chat with PJ).
He also really loved Bugs Land in California Adventure. I have to include this lame picture because it's the only one that I took on Flick's Flyers and when we got off the ride, Creed pointed back and said, "More, more!"
He actually expanded his vocabulary quite a bit on this trip saying things like Mickey, Minnie, and pointing out the letter O everywhere (his favorite letter, but he only knows like three letters). Every time we passed this sign, he tried to escape to see the O so we had to take a picture.
I've always loved Disneyland, but it's so much better being there as a parent and watching your little one enjoy the magic.
Thanks to the Randall's for letting us tag along to the happiest place on Earth.
