Thanksgiving 2012

We were not planning on goiung home, but a few weeks before the holiday, I decided to go.  Steve had already exhausted his vacation days for the year, with our beach vacation last month and the time he wants to take off between Christmas and New Years.  So, it was just me and the girls.  I am still on leave from work and Carolyn is not yet confined to a school calendar, so why not?  We went back for 9 days.

I cannot say it is easy to fly with two kids by yourself, but thankfully, both girls were angels and made it pretty tolerable.  By now, Carolyn is pretty self sufficient on a flight: she watches movies and plays games on the I-pad, can get up and go to the bathroom by herself, and knows that her job is to help me all day.  Elizabeth is just a happy baby.  She was a little squirmy, but also loved cuddling and napping while I held her.  She cried, but probably not more than a minute combined during all of our flights. During our layover on the way back home, I let Carolyn pick out a special prize from a toy store in Minneapolis because she was such a big help to me on airport days.  She picked a beautiful pink princess cowboy hat.

The trip to Ohio was fun, relaxing, and full of family.

There were plenty of cuddles and hugs and napping with grandma Lynn and grandpa Mike.

There was lots of time with cousins, Addie and Emerson.  Carolyn especially loved her day out with Grandma Lynn when they went to Chuck E Cheese, the dollar store, and a movie.  She talks about it everytime she pulls out her beautiful new "hair" she got that day.  The living room dance contests were also fun.



We spent an afternoon with my friend, Kristin, and her kids.  I enjoyed the time together, but let's just say that Carolyn and CJ (both about the same age) did not get along well.  Carolyn, dominant and headstrong, was a bit overpowering to CJ.  At the end, when we were saying goodbye, her "double whammy" hug just about sent him over the edge.  She told me in the car, "Mom, I am just not very good with boys." 



Of course, there were the thanksgiving festivities, including the making of noodles the day before, watchign the parade in our jammies, and the feast and mayhem on Thanksgiving day.

There was a pizza party with all of my mom's cousins. 

(no pictures on my camera; post later if I get them from my mom)

There was a bowling date with Katy and family.

There was even a whirlwind trip to Cleveland to see the Altmans.  We enjoyed a breakfast with Scott, Char, Hayley and Travis; and an evening with Grandma Carol and Grandpa Harry.

And before we flew back home to Utah, we helped decorate my parents' Christmas tree.

I am so glad we made the trip.  We missed daddy, but enjoyed our time with family.

Arrgh.

Carolyn was invited to a "mermaid and pirate" birthday party.  She really wanted to dress up as a mermaid, but I convinced her to be a pirate because I had no idea how to make a mermaid costume without pulling out the sewing machine.  She agreed., but only after I said I would dye her hair pink and make her a "girl pirate." 

I used the dress and shoes from a witch costume, and red and white striped stockings from a Raggedy Ann costume.  A pretty awesome black hat, some pink hair dye, a white shirt, and an eye patch, earing, and hook from the 75% off shelf at the costume store-- made the whole thing come together pretty nicely.  For less than $10.

She and Steve practiced her pirate talk for a while.  When she got to the party, her friend said, "Hi Carolyn!"  and her response was, "They call me Captain One Eye, Matey."  She then told the girl's mom to "Walk the Plank, you Scurvy Dog" 

Snow Storm

Winter made her appearance in Salt Lake; and it was a serious storm. The snow started flying on Friday afternoon and did not stop until Sunday afternoon. I am not sure how much snow accumulated, but it was a lot. Probably close to 24".  We do not usually get multi-day storms like that.  Once it stopped, the sun thankfully came out and the temperatures rose to the 50s, so it all melted as quickly as it fell. 

By Sunday afternoon, we were going a little stir crazy (since we hadn't left the house all weekend), so we got on our winter gear and explored the neighborhood.

It was true Utah powder.

Carolyn and Steve came in shortly after this for some hot cocoa.

Elizabeth liked it, but was probably inside napping by this time.

 



Family Photo Challenge

Have you noticed that I really like photo booths?  Here is another photo strip.  It has all four of us, so I guess it is our November photo.

 

Food

A big day for Elizabeth ....  her first tastes of food. 

Ah.  I forgot how messy meal time can be. 

Vacation

We decided it was time to take a family vacation. The vast majority of our travels are to Ohio, which we love, but we rarely get to go on a true vacation.  We considered Hawaii, but ended up booking a trip to Alabama.  I was hesitant about going to Alabama, but now that the trip is over, I am pretty sure that we will go back there again some day.  We loved it.

We went to Orange Beach, Alabama.  We left on November 1; returned on Nov 9.  We flew into Mobile Alabama; the girls were both great on the airplane.  We rented a large home on the beach, not because we needed the extra space, but because we liked the location and the price was right (off-season).  Carolyn was impressed with the house.  She thought it particularly neat that there was a TV in every single room, and that there was a set of bunk beds too.  Oh, and as you can see in the video, she also liked the shell decorations.

 

We had a bunch of baby equipment delivered for Elizabeth  This made her quite happy.

We quickly made ourselves at home and were very comfortable in our new home.  There were 6 bedrooms, as many bathrooms, several porches, a couple of living rooms, and am ample kitchen and dining area.   

The house was only a few hundred feet from the boardwalk to the beach.  This was both of the girls' first visit to a beach.  The weather was in the 70s the whole week.  It was the perfect, crisp beach weather, in my opinion.  Because we were there off-season, we had the entire beach to ourselves.

The water was chilly, but that did not keep Carolyn from learning how to "surf" (on a boogie board).  We also did a lot of shell hunting, sand-castle building, and kite flying.

When on the beach, Elizbeth mostly hung out in her tent or in the stroller.  Sand and babies are not that great of a combination.  And, she was not all that impressed with the ocean either. 

Orange Beach had plenty to do.  One of our favorite places was called the "Track" which had several different kinds of go-carts, an aracade, kiddie rides, putt-putt golf, bumper boats, etc.  Carolyn was just barely tall enough to drive her own go-cart.  She likely got whiplash the first time she tried it because she crashed so hard into the side of the track. The second time she was a little better (see video), and by the third try, she had it.  My favorite activity was the large wooden go-cart track.  I also went on the bumper boats with Carolyn and she, of course, thought it was hilarious to drive us into the spraying fountains.

One morning, on my way to the rec center for an exercise class, I found a great park with a huge playground. We went there a couple of times.  Carolyn made a new friend each time.  And Elizabeth experienced the swings for the first time.  After our first trip to the playground, Carolyn came home and said, "Dad, we found a playground that looked like a castle.  Mom fell down, skinned her knee and threw the baby.  I got a bloody nose.  And we all got about 15 mosquito bites."  All true.  Thank god, Elizabeth was strapped into her car seat when I tripped and fell.  

Orange Beach / Gulf Shores has a zoo.  It is a very small zoo, but for its size, it has an impressive number of large animals -- includuing lots of tigers and a couple of lions.  You really get to see the animals up close.  In fact, it was kind of unnerving to walk through the zoo because of how close all the animals were to the walking paths.



We took a boat ride on our final day to look for dolphins.  We saw LOTS of dolphins.  

 

The seafood was pretty spectacular.  All of the locals were so nice.  We will definitely go back to Alabama.  For us, it was the perfect vacation.