Disneyland!

We surprised our kids at the end of January and took them to Disneyland! We told them on Sunday morning that we were going and 30 minutes later we were headed to the airport! It was a truly magical week with them!

We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott right outside Disneyland which was amazing. It was a 7 minute walk to the parks and made it easy to come and go. We did four full days at Disney- alternating California Adventure and Disneyland! We were there every day at 8 am when the parks opened, and the boys and I were usually still there at closing around 7-8 pm!

Highlights of our trip:

Lila- Lila loved meeting characters! She was totally smitten with Winnie the Pooh, Lightning McQueen, Daisy and Pluto. It was completely darling! Her favorite rides were the Winnie the Pooh ride and Mater's Junkyard Jamboree (which she rode about 10 times because she was too little to ride a lot of the other rides her big brothers were on). Other than that, Lila was kind of a lot of work. We figured out she did better (as did Ben) if they both went back to the hotel for a nap mid-day. Also, one day as the big boys and I went on a ride she was too little for, Ben asked her what they should do. She confidently responded "shopping". Lila was the only kid who came home with a souvenir. She talked her dad into buying her a little Minnie Mouse purse and she was super proud of it!

Hudson:

No one Disney'd harder than Hudson! He was the last kid standing pretty much every day! He set little "goals" for himself- a number of times he wanted to ride each ride. I think he made it on the Incredicoaster 6 times, Millenium Falcon 7 times, Thunder Mountain 6 times, etc. He tried all the treats and loved them all. He was really nervous to ride Guardians of the Galaxy, but after sitting out the first time Ben and Chase went on it, he braved it the next time and ended up loving it and riding it again with just Chase. It was such a blast to be there with him, he was just so enthusiastic about everything! Who would know that Hudson would be such a roller coaster enthusiast!

Chase:

Chase was so fun to have at Disneyland! He was so thankful for the trip, he literally thanked us at least 10 times every day. "I really needed a vacation!" he said the first day as we walked up to the park! Chase isn't scared of everything and loved everything. He was a little too cool for meeting characters...but he was a good sport for the little kids. He was super into trying all the treats, especially loving the dole whips, churros, and macarons. 

Davis

Davis was the absolute BEST kid at Disneyland. He was at the perfect age- every part of it was magical. He loved the little kid rides, loved the big kid rides, loved meeting characters, loved riding in the stroller, loved being with mom and dad. He was just the best! He was especially into the Avengers Campus and the Spider-Man ride. When we'd ask what he wanted to do next he'd always respond "Spider-Man!" The Spider-Man ride uses 3D glasses and all kinds of cool technology so you can actually sling webs from your own hands, something Davis has been practicing for about a year now. Every minute of exhaustion and money spent was totally worth it to see his darling little face light up with joy!

Galaxy's Edge was truly amazing. I'm not even that into Star Wars and I was blown away by how cool it all was! The boys were in heaven. We got to ride Rise of the Resistance twice (one of those times was a total miracle that a sweet employee I made friends with gave us FREE passes to get in the fastpass line so the boys got to ride it again instead of waiting in the 150 minute wait!). They loved the Millennium Falcon ride, where you get to actually fly the plane and shoot bad guys and all that. We went again at night which was even cooler. Our favorite food (Ronto Wraps) were also there. It was just so cool and I was so happy for my little boys to be part of it! Magical!

(Lila was fairly unimpressed with the whole Star Wars thing)

It was all just so exhausting and so fun to be there together! We got really lucky with crowds and ended up going on so many rides, riding their favorites over and over again. We all went to bed completely exhausted every night!

Another fun part of the trip was getting to reconnect with the Caldwells! We hung out with Mike and Meghan all the time when we lived in Provo. They lived next door with them and for awhile there we literally ate dinner with them every night! It's crazy to look at this photo now and remember when our little group was just the four of us- now it's 12! We hadn't seen them in about 9 years and it was so good to be back together again! It was so sweet to see Chase and Ethan hit it off immediately and have the best time together. Really, all the kids did. Hudson and Hallie are the same age and had so much fun. Vivi and Lila are close in age and were pretty cute together too. It was just delightful and we are so excited they are moving to Utah in a few months!

So that's our big California trip! It was just amazing. I was so thankful for Ben for going along with my crazy plans. A whole week at Disneyland definitely wasn't his first choice as a family vacation, but he never complained and helped me wrangle all the kids and crazy all week long. It was one of those things that I'm just so glad we made it happen- time with just my kids and husband and no chores, piano, friends, school or other distractions was just what we needed!

 

January and Covid

 January is kind of the worst! We are lucky that we have two cute boys to celebrate, because otherwise the month is kind of a drag. We started on New Years Day with Chase coming down with strep! He was sick for a few days (or course, it was over the one weekend we weren’t insured as Ben started his new job Jan 3). That kind of set the tone for the month!

Then Omicron, the new Covid variant was running rampant! I adopted a “come what may” attitude as it seemed like everyone was getting it and my kids were both exposed at school their first week back! The week following their exposure Chase had the slightest traces of a cold, but it never really amounted to anything so I didn’t think much of it. The next weekend was Martin Luther King and so the kids had some extra time off school. On their Tuesday off, Hudson told us he had a sore throat first thing in the morning. Ben and I started checking his throat for signs of strep, handed him a glass of water. Then he said he felt like he needed to throw up and we quickly ushered him to the sink. Within a few seconds he passed out cold! Fell backwards as stiff as a board and smacked his head on the tile floor! He was OUT. It was really scary for a few seconds there before we got him to come to. He was combative, confused, and it pain. We got him settled to the couch. I quickly changed and ran him into Instacare. After a few hours there he was diagnosed with a mild concussion and they ran a Covid test, since he did have a sore throat.

The next morning we got his results- POSITIVE! I was kind of surprised, because besides the whole passing out thing, his symptoms were fairly mild. At this time, Utah was running very low on tests, so they asked people who were low risk to stop testing. In fact, the doctor in instacare told me that if he came back positive, just assume the rest of the family had it. I put together in hindsight, that the super mild cold symptoms Chase had the week before were in fact Covid. Ben had a little scratchy throat during that time as well. Lila had a bit of a fever the night before Hudson passed out and was fairly fussy the next day, Davis was a little lethargic the same day. The little kids had to be test through the study they are in, so I took them in for tests and like 10 days later found out that they were both positive- after we were all out of quarantine and everything. I had a few days of slightly sore throat and fatigue (although that might have just been because I had been quarantined at home with four small children for a week!). So basically we all had it, although everyone’s symptoms were super mild. Had Hudson not passed out, I wouldn’t have even thought a test was necessary.

During this same time, the kids school went on soft closure due to too many cases, so school wasn’t in session anyway. And we didn’t really have any plans that week that were interfered with. So we just stayed home, which was mostly fine, except that we all started going stir crazy! To make things harder, the weather was awful during this time! So cold, we’d try to go outside for some fresh air but all end up back inside in 20 minutes because we were so cold! In that respect, it was probably the hardest quarantine we’ve had to do yet. But all in all, I felt blessed that we got through it with very mild cases, no long term symptoms and it didn’t interfere with any major life stuff. I was so excited to send the kids back to school! Due to the holiday and the soft closure, they were out for 12 days!

Lila played in the water and got her pants wet. Went upstairs to change and came down with this little number. It’s a shirt, she’s wearing inside out as a skirt. She was sure it was “so pretty!” I finally convinced her to change (photo below) so we could go to the store. While we were there, a sweet old gentlemen took a photo of her sweetly pushing her little grocery cart around. When I caught him, he sheepishly smiled and said, “She’s just the cutest thing I’ve seen all day!” I have to say I agree!

When the big kids went back to school and I just had the little two home again the house felt so peaceful and quiet! We love having the big kids around, but it was nice to get back to our normal routines too!

This is the look of a little girl who snuck into daddy’s office while he was working, knowing full-well she wasn’t supposed to.

I think I took this on their first day back to school- I just remember thinking Chase looked so cute and so big at drop off! 

I loved walking in to see this little scene, she was reading stories to her stuffed animals. It is so cute to see the way she plays with babies and stuffies- she’s so mothering to them!

Lila is super girly, but she also appreciates trucks and Lightning McQueen and Super heroes!

I took this at 6:30 am on our first day of quarantining. The boys we’re already on canvas getting their school work done!

And this was at 7:20 the morning Chase found out Hudson had tested positive so he wouldn’t be going to school either. Already on canvas getting a start on remote learning. With all the challenges that remote learning brings, I’m so thankful for boys who don’t fight it, just dive in and get it done!

Before the whole Covid thing happened we had a fun morning with cousins! The kids got this funny idea to do a huge doggy pile. Chase has like 250 pounds of kids on him here! I love that these kids all get along so well! Lila and Rosie have their own little thing going, and usually Hudson and Nora escape into their own little world. But on this day they all kind of went into different groups. Hudson was playing board games with Anna downstairs. Chase took Nora and Davis on a scooter ride. It was pretty cute to watch!

Yaya and RoRo! These two are too much cuteness to handle. 

She pretends she has a phone on her all the time, makes calls to Heidi and Nana, and sends texts and takes pictures. I loved how she was propped up this day with her play phone.

My four sweet kiddos! Gosh I love these guys. This was one morning before church. Our new schedule is 10:30 church which I love. We have time to do a little Come Follow Me message before church and we are still home in time for naps.

This photo of the kids in my parents tub is so I can remember other yucky parts of January- LEAKS! We had two separate pipes leak for two separate reasons! Luckily they were figured out pretty quickly and pretty inexpensively, but we did have to not use any of the upstairs sinks/toilets/showers for a few days. I took the littles to my parents house twice to give them a bath. We still don’t have the drywall repaired!

Chase and Hudson both went on birthday dates with their grandparents. My parents took Chase to a Jazz game, which he loved. They said they forgot how fun Jazz games are, but mostly being with Chase made it fun because he was so excited about everything. And then Ben’s parents took him to dinner and to Target to pick out his own present, and somehow he sweet talked them into this thing! He loved building it- it took him a few days! It’s like 2000 pieces!

Just hanging with my girl. She gives the camera the best cheesy smiles. 

I took this photo one morning early in January- and just tried to remember there is beauty in the world even when everyone is sick, there’s an inversion, it’s freezing and miserable.

Lastly, in January we finished up our living room! We started back before Thanksgiving with the mirror and the pictures. This photo doesn’t do it justice, but the gallery wall turned out beautiful. I framed some of my favorite photos and it looks so pretty and clean! The new couch showed up right after New Years- so we finally have a living room that is comfortable and really inviting! I still want to add a few more decorative touches, and Ben would still really like to redo the flooring, but we are pretty happy where it’s at!

Hudson is 9

Our sweet Hudson James is 9 years old! This kid is really something else. He is the most nurturing, creative child you’ll ever meet. I’ll ask him (or not even ask him) to play with his little brother and sister and he will keep them entertained for hours! The other day he was building a whole zip line for them! I am so grateful for his help and Davis and Lila absolutely adore him for it!

His birthday celebration was fairly low-key as the kids were out of school (more on that later), but it meant we had more flexibility in our day! He wanted blueberry muffins for breakfast and opened a few gifts before starting his online school for the day. I snuck him out for lunch at Old Grist and then I made short-ribs for dinner. He requested no cake, but homemade apple-crumble ice cream instead. That’s so Hudson- he doesn’t conform to norms and always knows what he wants!

Some things about 9 year old Hudson:

• He got his yellow belt in karate and is loving it! He goes twice a week.
• Asked for blue light glasses for Christmas and wears them pretty much all the time. Mostly I think he wanted another accessory. He’s always been one to appreciate accessories- which reminds us of the winter he turned two and he wore a sideways cap and old lanyard for about 6 weeks straight!
• He recently learned to make scrambled eggs and is super proud of himself. I love that my boys love learning to cook!
• He mostly hates practicing the piano, but we are making him stick with it anyway because we think it’s good for him. He’s actually a pretty decent little pianist.
• Loves school and has a whole bunch of friends in his class. His BFF Richie isn’t in his class this year but they still play at recess and they go early every Friday to eat breakfast at school together.
• We just love everything about this cool kid. He’s smart, confident, loyal, compassionate and a very deep thinker.