M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!!!!

Creed doesn't really enjoy TV for the most part, but there's always been one show that catches his attention, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He loves Mickey Mouse so much that he can spot him everywhere and performs little dances of joy every time he spots him, even if it's on a paper cup. I was talking about this with the Randall's at their cabin last weekend when they announced that they have annual passes to Disneyland and happened to be going that weekend and had plenty of extra room in their mini-van. Knowing Larry wouldn't get time off for ages and I was not ready to brave Disneyland with Creed on my own, I decided on Wednesday to tag along. So bright and early Thursday morning (well, actually dark and early) we were on our way to Disneyland.

Now normally, I would be extremely hesitant to take a trip like this with friends. I would worry about Creed having a rough time and ruining everyone's trip, but the Randall's have a baby the same age (Sara) and are completely understanding and helpful. Creed and Sara are so much alike that I would swear they were separated at birth if I wasn't absolutely positive that I only had one baby. The whole trip we were all marvelling at how similar they are and struggling to figure out which one of them was crying or talking because they even sound exactly the same.
I couldn't resist making matching shirts for them right before we left because Sara loves Minnie just as much as Creed love Mickey. I just thought the shirts would look so cute when they wore their mouse earsAnd 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.

Cabin Fever

We headed out this weekend stay in the Randall's little cabin in the woods.Larry especially enjoyed these signs along the drive out there before we got to the dirt roads.We left after Larry got off of work on Saturday and it really was the perfect break that we needed. Melinda brought brownies for one more birthday celebration.It was fun to see how similar Creed and Sara are. Sara showed him how to enjoy the new swings Jason installed.And Creed followed her example and grinned while swinging for the first time ever!And after dinner the kids piled up the foam pads and created their own slide.And Laura and I built "the biggest block tower in the whole world!" I had so much fun playing and laughing with this sweet little girl. She told me that her secret birthday wish is that Creed and I could come to Disneyland with them to celebrate her birthday. Creed was so excited to be at the cabin that he decided not to sleep at all that night so our plans to drive down in the morning to make it to church were aborted. Instead we got to have a big breakfast, nap, and wade in the river nearby.
Creed loved throwing rocks in the water.And I think it's official that Larry is secure in his friendship with the Randall's because he sported his gnome pajamas.

And Crocs with socks. Wow!
I wonder why he was running away in both of these pictures. You'd think he didn't want to be memorialized for all to see in his fine glory!

Just in case you're wondering

Some mornings when I wake up, my hair looks like this. Jealous?

Creed Learns What a Sheep Says

Our Labor Day started out rainy and gray. Larry was busy working so Creed and I decided to spend our morning puddle jumping. He's so crazy cute.
That's about all that we had planned so when my parents asked us if we wanted to meet up in Soldier's Hollow for the Sheep Dog Festival, we said, "Uhhh, sure." My Grandma Borup had a jewelry booth there so she had tickets for us and we helped her take down the booth afterward.
We came late in the day, but still had the chance to see the last few sheep dogs compete. They herd one group of eight sheep down the mountain and through certain gates, then they go back up the mountain and find a second group of eight sheep and bring them through certain gates to join the first group. Then the dog gathers them to the left of his master and they have to sort out five sheep with red ties around their necks and lead them into the pen all facing the same direction. And all of that has to be within a certain time limit and it is scored accordingly. To be honest, I often had no idea what was going on, but it was fun to see.
And the sheep dogs were cute.

But some of the sheep on display looked like they wanted to eat you.
Creed loved looking at the sheep up close and quickly picked up Sheepese and was Baaaaing all night. Here are my lovely parents.
And my grandma. You can just get a glimpse of some of her jewelry behind her.
Oh, and let us not forget the award ceremony, complete with a Scottish bagpipe band.

Rugged

So, I'm having a really hard time find an area rug that I like that I can also afford for our living room. We have an old rug there for now so I'm not in a total rush, but I'd like to get settled and decorate a bit more, but I need a rug first. Do you have any suggestions of places to look?

I thought I had finally settled on this one until I showed it to my mom and she said that she really liked it, but she was suprised because it didn't seem like something that I would choose. She's right; I do tend to lean towards modern, clean lines or bold graphics so will this rug look funny in my house? Do you like it or is it a little too grandma-ish, especially when I'll have my leaf plate collection hanging in the same room.

Northstar

I have to note one more fun thing that we did while we were at Lake Tahoe (I didn't bring my camera so I was waiting to steal photos from Marissa and my mom). In the summer you can ride the trams and gondola at Northstar ski resort for free (unless you want to mountain bike, and then you have to pay a small fortune, but it looked really fun). It took two gondola rides to get to the top of the mountain.

We enjoyed the view and then we hiked a little over a mile and took a different tram down
Creed let his grandpa hold him a bit and he hiked a bit, but I carried him most of the time

I was worried about riding the tram down with a toddler so I made my parents ride down on both sides of my while I held Creed in my lap (I thought the employees probably wouldn't allow a toddler to ride an open tram, but they had no qualms). My fears were unwarranted because Creed was completely captivated. He didn't budge an inch and loved looking around.And I'm so glad these two cousins had a chance to get to know each other a little bit.

Swiss Days

So Friday, Creed and I drove up to Midway to browse the Swiss Days craft Fair with my mom. It is always EXTREMELY crowded so my hands were busy steering Creed's stroller and I only dug my camera out of the bottom of my bag at the end of our outing. I thought I would be able to find plenty of photos online to capture the Swiss Days ambiance, but alas, I cannot so just imagine a few of the cutest elderly couple you can conjure up wearing traditional Swiss outfits, and of course an accordion player. At least I caught the guy playing the cowbells.

As for the booths, I thought about putting together a snarky post about some of the hideous stuff you can find at Utah craft fairs (or really most craft fairs for that matter), but let's focus on the positive instead (and maybe I'm the one with horrible taste because many of those booths of country, toll painted delight were swamped and there were people all over walking around with schellacked antlers wound with fake greenery and plastic animals). At any rate, one of my favorite items I failed to photo for you, but they were small pieces of wood painted cream of light turquoise with antique clear and blue-green jars in different sizes strapped to them using those metal straps used for plumbing (wow, that is a bad description! Just trust me that they were cool). They would have made really pretty organizers and they were only $20. My mom and I both agreed it would be hard to make them for that price.

I also liked these button magnets at the Clementine booth.
And of course the Halloween gourds from JeniBee. My mom has a big collection and I have two. I know they look a little crazy, but I love the rustic feel they add to my Halloween decorations and they just make me smile.
My favorite part of Swiss Days was that there was actually a booth there just to promote Switzerland. They were handing out all sorts of promotional goods, and I loved the striking simplicity of their design, and it was fun that they came of with some designs just for Utah.
Creed was remarkably well-behaved. It may have had something to do with the whole plate of cookies that grandma bought him to eat as we walked around. He was so good in fact, that I decided to stop at the outlets in Park City on the way home. He normally only last a few minutes shopping, but we made it through multiple stores. He would have happily stayed longer, but I was shopped out.