Disneyland!

Last year the Jensens started trying to get the whole Rodgers family to take a trip to Disneyland. The rest of us weren't sold on the idea, me included. I was planning on being pregnant and didn't want to pay all that money and not get to go on all the rides. So the Jensens planned to take the trip with just my parents. Then back in October when they were getting ready to buy their tickets my mom started asking me to come along. My "plan" obviously hadn't worked and I wasn't pregnant and then I found out that they were going on Cade's busiest work week of the year with him traveling all over northern Arizona, which also happens to be my birthday. So I figured I should take Conner after all so we wouldn't have to be alone all week and actually be around other people on my birthday for once.

On Sunday morning Conner and I drove down to my parent's house, had lunch, waited for the Jensens to get their spare tire on (to replace the one that went flat the day after buying a new one), and were on the road. Conner did great on the drive. We didn't have anything for him to watch a movie on so we just went old school and brought a bag of things for him to do (books, music, puzzle, crayons, etc). He made his way through that bag and fell asleep right after the last activity until we got to the hotel. We all shared a two bedroom suite and Conner was so happy to play with his cousins the whole time. We went out to Outback for dinner and Cade was so jealous. I didn't know he liked Outback much, but he sure was sad that he missed out on a steak dinner. He never cared that he wasn't going to Disneyland (he isn't a fan of Disneyland, tsk tsk) but he sure cared that he missed out on Outback!

Eli, Conner, Tyler, Tyson hanging out in the hotel room.

The hotel gave out balloons during breakfast and I think that might have been Conner's favorite part of the whole week.

The whole gang posed for a picture for us! (Ok maybe not, it was just in the picture package that the Jensens bought)

The whole gang

On Monday we hit California Adventure and I unfortunately forgot my camera, luckily Carol Ann took a few for me. Conner was cautious most of the day, he didn't get upset about any of the rides, but he rarely looked happy either. He did love riding the spinning rocketship ride and we went on it 3 times while waiting for the rest of the group to go on some other nearby ride that he wasn't tall enough for. Later, grandma and I took Tyson and Conner on the spinning ladybug ride a few times while everyone else went on Tower of Terror. He started warming up to the ride finally and put his hands in the air and faked screamed since Tyson and I were doing it. He also watched the Bug's Life 3D movie without freaking out and we managed to last through the whole thing. (The previous 3D movies we've been to involved crying and walking out.) We don't have the movie Cars, so I borrowed it once a few months ago and tried to get Conner to watch it but he wasn't really interested in it. But he loved the Mater ride and has been talking about him since and tries to steal the Mater truck from the other boys in nursery. I guess we'll have to get the movie now.

This is actually on the last day and Conner just couldn't keep his poor little eyes open

Tower of Terror. We're on the front two rows on the left. It looks like my mom enjoyed it, but she wouldn't ride it again.

On Tuesday we went to Disneyland. We only made it through about half the park. On Wednesday we did the other half of the park. I had been promised much in advance that we were going during one of the slowest weeks of the year and there would be no lines. Overall I felt lied to. The first 3 days there were plenty of lines, not overly crowded but certainly more than I had been led to believe. Luckily, with fast passes and parent swap passes we never had to wait too long for any of the big rides. Jared was so nice and ran around to all the rides and got us fast passes everyday, thanks Jared! And our last day was great. We didn't stay the whole day and we were still able to ride everything in both parks that we had wanted to, with almost no lines. A friend of mine had told me that 4 days would be too long, but it turned out to be just right.

Conner did a great job of reading the map and telling us where to go.

Saying hi to Mickey.

Playing in Tarzan's tree house.

Conner LOVES all trains so the grandparents and us took a long ride around the park in the train and had lunch. It was perfect.

Thankfully Aunt Caryn was around to take these boys on the teacups or they would have missed out on such an iconic ride.

The Jensens getting off of the Matterhorn.

We took this picture just in time. The next morning the Christmas tree was gone.

All the kids were really good the whole time. Our longest wait was for some Toy Story ride in California Adventure (which is nothing special so I don't get what the huge line is for). It was close to an hour. The nice thing was that Conner, Tyler, and Tyson all fell asleep and got a decent nap in so we didn't have to entertain them during that long wait. The bad thing was they were all asleep in our arms and it was painful. Everyday Conner fell asleep while waiting in some line, slept about a half hour and that was it. He also stayed up too late and got up at his normal time but was just fine. Until the last day. On the last day he was tired and not interested in any rides, but still wasn't cranky. On our way out we passed one of the rides he had liked and I thought he asked to ride it but I wasn't sure what he said. So I asked him if he wanted to ride it and he told me it was too late.

A bit mesmerized underwater in the Finding Nemo submarine.

Conner wasn't thrilled with Autopia the first time around but he loved it the second time.

Conner and I with Grandpa and Eli in the car behind us.

Saying hi to grandma and grandpa in Toon Town.

Jared and Tyson on the Roger Rabbit ride (I think).

Conner and I

Grandma and Emma

Grandpa and Eli

With no line, we just had to hit up the Merry Go Round.

Jared's birthday was on Tuesday, mine was on Wednesday. Jared didn't get a birthday pin, but he and Carol Ann picked one up for me. He should have worn one because he really missed out on every single employee he passed wishing him a happy birthday. It must be a requirement of the job because even the shuttle driver wished me a happy birthday. And on another day, the shuttle assistant, (you know, the guy who points to the bus and says get on here) told us "Have a positive day".

Playing in Toon Town

We're flying over Neverland!

In the monkey cage on the Casey Junior train. We had to wait a little bit for this one and Conner kept saying "Think I can, think I can" while he watched it. And in case you notice, my birthday pin is upside down only because Conner had been playing with it in line, not because I can't pin things on right side up. Also, check out Emma's hair bow.

A priceless picture of my mom on Splash Mountain

It's a Small World was still decked out for Christmas.

 

The rides aren't the only fun things at Disneyland. The shuttles are pretty awesome too!

We left about 4:00 on Thursday and got slowed down by rush hour traffic for awhile and then stopped for dinner. After that Conner was out like a light for the rest of the drive, it was great. I thought for sure he would be ready to play once we got to my parent's house around midnight, but he just played for a few minutes while I got ready for bed and then he was ready to go back to bed again. And thanks to my dad for driving the whole way both there and back!

The Holidays - All of Them!

This year's Thanksgiving was spent with the Rodgers' in Mesa. Everyone, including the Entrekins and Jared's mom, were able to make it. We like to keep our Thanksgiving meal the same, but we decided to try out a few ideas from pinterest for the appetizers this year.

Turkey veggie tray - So cute, but not enough vegetable lovers around to eat it.

 Cornucopias with M&Ms and nuts inside, as our name cards

After dinner we celebrated R.J., Jen, and Conners' birthdays, which are all within 4 days of each other and Thanksgiving. I made these cupcake pies, fitting for a combination of Thanksgiving and birthdays, I thought.

After dinner we checked out the ads, but Black "Friday" just isn't what it used to be. I don't like shopping on Thanksgiving. I can handle midnight, but any sooner is just annoying. And give me a break Michaels, you're a freaking craft store, you don't need to open at 4 pm while I'm still enjoying my feast! Anyway, there wasn't much that I really wanted this year and Cade and I had already bought our gift to each other (a Vitamix). But we still needed Conner's birthday present and I wanted to get out shopping in the crowds. (Yes I like the excitement of Black Friday shopping and I don't mind the crowds, I don't even mind the crowds all of December. But once December 28th hits, I'm ready for people to be out of my way again.) 

Cade and I made a plan to meet up with Carol Ann and go shopping while Conner slept at my parent's house. We started at Walmart for her. I can't figure out why Walmart hasn't copied other stores and gotten a better system yet. We passed all these pallets of electronics that crowds were hovering over like vultures just waiting for 10 pm to strike so they could swarm in on their goodies. It looked dangerous. But Carol Ann grabbed her non-threatening items and we were off to Target. Cade stood in line while I was browsing around for things. I got the crockpot I wanted and checked out the really nice sheets at a great price, but of course my size was all out already. I was still looking through toys when Cade told me him and Carol Ann had already checked out. We decided to part ways then and Cade and I went to Toys R Us. We were wondering around, trying to decide what we could get since what we came for was gone, when my mom called and said Conner was screaming and not stopping. So we drove all the way home, but of course he had fallen asleep by then. Cade had been contemplating going to Cabellas because they were giving out a ton of prizes to people in line, but Blake decided not to go and I had to stay home in case Conner woke up again. We didn't want Cade to drive all the way out there and spend the night in line by himself, so we went to bed.

Conner used to be very cooperative with pictures, but lately he has decided never to smile in pictures and we don't have any good pictures from his birthday.

I've learned that as soon as the Christmas season starts you have to start doing things you want to do or Christmas will come and go and you won't get everything in. So this year we went to the temple lights over Thanksgiving weekend.

For Christmas we went to Mesa again. Cade's parents were coming to stay with his sister in Scottsdale so it worked out nicely. Cade finished up Conner's present on Friday afternoon and then we headed out. I found instructions on pinterest for this great sandbox that has a lid that turns into seats when you open it. Cade doesn't like doing any kind of wood working, but I've always wished he would. I even made him go to Home Depot once and walk around so he could get that great smell of wood to inspire him, but it didn't help. But making something for his son was just the inspiration he needed. He did a great job and hopefully it will be the first of many wonderful projects!

Cade spent Saturday hunting, and my mom and I went shopping (for things I needed to buy of course because she was long finished). On Sunday we just hung out with my parents and Ashley and Blake and even got my dad  to play a game of Scattegories! Cade and Blake went hunting on Monday morning, came home way later than they were supposed to because "we were trailing a deer, we couldn't just leave" but it didn't matter anyway because they still came home empty handed. I think Blake has come to realize how much work (and boring) hunting actually is and won't feel a desire to do it again anytime soon. Then Cade and I visited my grandma, aunt, and uncle and then did a little more shopping. 

Finally it was time for Christmas Eve dinner of fondue and then family presents!

Emma loves her new clothes!

Ashley loves her gift card

The boys like to help Conner out

A rare smile from RJ

Cute Tyson

There's Blake

Conner loves his new train set

Christmas morning we woke up from Cade's mom texting us at 6:45 telling us to hurry and come over, even though we had already said we weren't coming until about 8:30. So we got up, Conner didn't care about any of the new presents, he only wanted to play with the train set he had gotten the night before. Eventually he came around and started helping everyone open their presents. After eating some delicious breakfast burritos, courtesy of Cade this year, we went over to Natalie's. Unfortunately we never bothered to take any pictures, but we had a good time playing pickle ball, playing with new trains, Bop It Smash, and Russ's new Ipad. Cade and I enjoyed dinner at Natalie's and then again back at my parent's house.

Sadly, this is the only picture we took all of Christmas Day.

The day after Christmas we went clothes shopping for my birthday. Although we found a couple of small items, it was a pretty unsuccessful shopping trip. That night we took my mom's buy one ticket get one free coupon from SRP for the Zoo Lights. I thought since Christmas was over it wouldn't be that crowded, but it was packed. When we got there they were already diverting traffic to another parking lot because the zoo lot was full and when we left there were still huge crowds of people arriving. This was our first time at zoo lights. It was fun to do something different but I didn't think it was great and won't need to go again for a few years. Conner wasn't very interested in it either.

We at least enjoyed dressing Conner up in his hat and mittens our friend gave him.

The Sunday after Christmas we had a good snow storm. The Jensens finally came up to use their sleds that they had received for Christmas in 2011! Ashley and Blake came and spent the night Sunday as well. Once the kids were in bed the grown-ups enjoyed playing Wits and Wagers and eating No Bake cookies that Carol Ann forced me to make. Monday morning the Jensens drove to Flagstaff to play in the snow, while the rest of us watched Batman (whatever the last one is called) and then went and had pizza. Then the Entrekins left us and the Jensens came back to celebrate New Year's Eve. The kids played games and watched movies and Emma babysat so the adults could go to Dairy Queen. The Jensen kids were all occupied for over a half an hour playing with play-doh since they don't get that luxury at home, it can't be "micromanaged". Once the boys were distracting us too much from our movie we sent them to bed, about 10:30. Our movie ended two minutes before midnight so we woke Emma up, had a toast with Martinellis, set off a couple of fireworks, and called it a night.

The kids and the play-doh

Playing in the cold

Playing Kerplunk

Our holiday season was great and we had fun spending so much time with our families. We're sad to get back to regular life, for a couple of days before some of us head off to Disneyland that is!