Last

I didn't make it through November posting every day. I DID post more than all of last year combined, so I'll count that as a victory.

Plumb tuckered out.  

Cheeto hands!

To catch us up on the Cali trip, the second day at Disneyland was much better than the first.  We did California Adventure that day and actually figured out the FastPass. Ha! We rode more rides and just had a better time overall, despite the colder weather.  Somehow my pregnant self did MUCH better than at Universal Studios two years ago, even though I was only about 3 weeks farther along that time.  Maybe it was the Florida humidity that did me in?

Nighttime!

Both nights we stayed until 11ish so we didn't get back to the house until after midnight. Thursday morning (Thanksgiving) we woke up, ate and packed the car and headed out. We hit the traffic I thought we'd be able to avoid. Darn Southern California. Such bad drivers.

The traffic was awful leaving the valley, and again at the Nevada border.  That was bad timing because we were out of gas.  Oops!  Good thing we made it into town before disaster struck.
We ate at the Greek restaurant again, our Thanksgiving meal, if you will.  It was a little ... different.

We didn't get back to Cedar until 8:00 Utah time. Lex was so happy to see us!! And we were happy to see snow the next morning.

Friday we ate Thanksgiving dinner with Slice's family and stayed up way too late watching Guardians of the Galaxy.  Saturday we packed AGAIN and headed out at noon.  We stopped at Costco in Spanish Fork and hit a snowstorm AGAIN going through Indian Canyon.  That time it was dark.  Another hour added to an already-long drive.

All in all, the trip was surprisingly relaxing. I asked Slice several times why, and we decided that not having Lex with us made all the difference. We love her to pieces, but roadtrips with less-than-2-year-olds are the pits. Not only that, but doing anything with two kids is SO MUCH easier than doing it with three.
But you already knew that.

Disney Day One

There were five billion people in the park so every line was wayyyy long. Slice and I are hoping that the kids remember something besides standing in line. Ugh.
Also, my whole body hurts. I don't know if I can do Day Two.
We'll see.

The beach

Missed yesterday. By the time I was headed to bed at midnight (California time!) I was too exhausted to post.

Saturday morning bright and early, Slice and I drove to the Newport Beach temple for the 7:00 session. It was in Samoan! And the by the time we got out the temperature was already almost 90°. CRAZY.  Crazy awesome, that is. 

We met Matt & Kim at Downtown Disney after lunch.  Lego store was the biggest hit. The kids wanted to stay and build cars to race forever.

Yesterday we went to church with our generous hosts (Slice's uncle & aunt) and relaxed. After an early dinner we drove out to Newport Beach, didn't get there until later than we hoped. The kids loved it anyway:

This morning we headed back out there for the day. And now I'm wondering how I've stayed away from Cali for 15 years. Newport Beach is heaven!!

The weather was so incredibly perfect, the water glittered like gold. The only thing that marred this gorgeous day was the parking ticket we found on our window 10 minutes after the freaking parking meter ran out. 

Cali

Warm weather makes me a happy gal. I should probably move somewhere else.

What we learned today

1. Road trips with very small children are basically the worst.
2. If you can go two different ways from  point A to point B, whichever way you choose will be the one with a snowstorm.
3. Leaving a 20-month old for a week is much easier AFTER a 5-hour drive during which she had 3 bad diapers and made both older siblings cry.
4. Baker, California has a really great Greek restaurant with REALLY GREAT food.
5. Once you hit the California border, speed limits become more like suggestions.
6. How to spell San Bernardino. It has two Rs!?

J/K

We're still here. Home. Slice didn't get off work until 5:00 today and we decided NOT to drive five hours in the dark. We've both hit deer in the last few months, and that's made us a little more paranoid.
Turns out, there was a 6-car accident on highway 40 in Fruitland right around when we would have been driving through there. Caused by ..... a deer!

Wednesday Wanderlust

November makes me want to travel.  Not just because it's fall and the impending doom of winter makes me want to curl up and cry hibernate, but because I've been to some pretty awesome places IN November.

Vienna:

You might recognize this Staatsoper from the latest Mission:Impossible

Vienna Boys' Choir!

Milan:

Home of DaVinci's Last Supper

Japan

Florida:

You may recall - from the last two specifically - that a trip during pregnancy is enough to cure me for a long time.  Well, whaddayouknow, we planned a trip for this November before I even got pregnant.  (Although it's not the big expensive one we planned way ahead, in case you're wondering. That's next summer.)

SO!
Tomorrow evening we will be on our way to sunny Southern California, via Cedar City where Slice's parents live.  They offered to take Lex while we spend 6 days in Cali, doing Disneyland and stuff.  Let me repeat: they offered to take Lex.
We'll feel a little bad about leaving her there, because we haven't yet left her for any length of time and she'll be a little lost without her siblings. But the idea of 12+ hours in a car and Disneyland with only two kids (who will actually remember it) is just too sweet to pass up. Also, she'll get completely spoiled by her grandparents, while they have some good bonding time. I'm all about bonding time.

But right now, I have 4 loads of laundry to do; Slice is nearing the end of a one-day roundtrip visit to New Mexico.  Poor guy's been in a truck since before 7:00 a.m. and has taken a longer drive than the one we'll be making over the next two days.
About that laundry....

The food

We're going through a phase here (PLEASE LET IT BE JUST A PHASE) where food is something of a struggle. To be more specific, Will and Emma like opposite foods.
I honestly don't think they do it on purpose because it isn't that obvious; the more I think about it, the more ridiculous it seems.

Right now, the foods that Emma refuses to eat are the ones Will would eat exclusively: toast, bagels, German pancakes, quesadillas, cinnamon/orange rolls. For the life of me, I can't figure out why she won't eat cinnamon or orange rolls.

The foods that Emma asks for are the ones that Will needs persuading to eat. (In some cases, he won't touch them no matter the method of persuasion.) Spaghettios, stew on rice, soup, string cheese, oatmeal, alllllll the yogurt. Most cooked vegetables and anything with multiple foods touching each other, like all the best foods in the world.

They're both obsessed with blueberries but won't try fried eggs or, heaven forbid, noodles with SAUCE on them. Will hates potatoes in every form. Lex eats anything and everything I give her, which makes me love her even more.

(Until I remember that both my older two were that way in the beginning ...)

Mondays make me lose my mind

AT least one day a week I wonder what the heck I'm doing with my life.

At least one of those days, every week, is Monday.

Mondays are crazy.  The entire house is a disaster from the weekend (when we were doing everything BUT cleaning), I have mounds of laundry to do, Will needs to be fed and out the door at 11:45, Lex needs to be fed and in bed by 1:00, Emma needs to be fed and entertained by 2:45.

At 2:45, one of my homeschool groups comes and talks about history (around my newly-cleaned kitchen table) for an hour. I give pop quizzes, print maps, look up Youtube videos to show. We write essays and practice calligraphy and talk about Cyrus the Great or the French Revolution.

After the kids leave, Will gets home, the babysitter comes, and then I teach piano lessons for two hours.  By the time I'm done it's 5:30 and I'm famished, but I still have to make dinner. Slice usually gets home after me - if he gets home at all. Some Mondays he works late, and then he goes straight to his fire meeting. The kids don't even see him on those days.

Occasionally I'm good and do a little FHE lesson, but more often, I'm lying flat on the couch while we watch a show or play together before the (awful routine and) blessed bedtime comes.  My only consolation is that after Monday is over, my week just got easier.

These are mine.