Thanksgiving 2017 Trip, Part 2.

The week of Thanksgiving was so fun. I forgot to take a lot of pictures that I wanted to, because we saw SO many people. It was good for the soul to be around so many people we love.
As a parent, you want to see your children be loved by other people as much as they are loved by you. It was so fun to see Cora and James be around their aunts and uncles and friends and see that they have a big support network!
Some highlights from the week:
- Cora really hit it off with Krystel. They even hula hooped together.

Cora loved being with Grandma Murphy.

 -Austin came over and taught Cora that chocolate covered almonds are called "rabbit poop", or "rabbit poopies" in Cora's words. She even offered some to Dad's cousin Wendy.

-We also had a cousin dinner. Look at poor James' face!

 -Angel baby fell asleep.

- We got to visit the grandpas. It was very peaceful, much more than I expected. We miss them so much, but we're glad that they're both in a better place now.

We also got to teach Cora and James about where their middle names come from, since Great Grandma Madsen was buried right next to Grandpa Myres.

 I love that they are only 3.7 miles apart, so we can always visit both of them now!

 -We also got to see Taylor and Emily, and go to dinner with a few more cousins. Then Brandon and Taylor went to play basketball with Austin and Dallin.

 We got to tour BYU campus and hang out with Krystel again while Brandon finally finished up notes. Cora LOVES the older girls right now!

Tuesday night we got to see some of our friends from Miami, Devon and Raechel (who are in the process of moving to Utah) and Jaran and Aubry (who moved to Utah in February) with their baby India! We went to a mall in Sandy that was decorated like Hogsmeade. It was kind of lackluster, but we had so much fun catching up and talking to them.

 (Don't mind James passed out on my shoulder above)

Just 2 bros doing bro things.

 We left Grandma Murphy's house on Wednesday to go to Grandma Myres'. I love that we can see each grandma EVERY time we go to Utah, but it never seems like enough time!

 As soon as we got to Grandma Myres' house, Cora took all her stuffed animals from the little bench on the stairwell. She called them "my muppets" and had so many in her hands that she slipped down the stairs. What a cute girl.

 I wouldn't mind Utah for the big yards and the view. It's stunning.

We were staying in the apartment in the basement, and Cora was in the front room of the apartment. The first night, James cried out randomly. Suddenly, we heard a door open and saw a flood of light. Cora had jumped up from a sound sleep and ran out the door to run upstairs because "Buddy is crying!" What an ANGEL big sister! (Brandon then slept on the couch by her so she couldn't run away in the middle of the night anymore. I think we're in trouble for when she gets into a big girl bed.)

 I didn't get a picture of the whole group, but Cora got along great with the Holladay Myres. She and Luke jockeyed for position a little bit, but they had so much fun running around!

 James got along with Krysel's grandma.

 On the way back from Thanksgiving dinner, we stopped at the house that is decorated like Up.

 James is a little thumb sucker!

 Both the kids napped HARD after Thanksgiving dinner.

 I loved this. The boys love the boys. They couldn't get enough of holding James' hands.

Would it really be Thanksgiving with a 2 year old if it didn't end in macaroni and cheese?

 Look at those buddies.

 We went to the park with all our siblings. Cora had a great time with her uncles chasing her around!

We left early Saturday morning to start the drive home. In order to avoid the Vegas traffic, we decided to take a new route home. That was sure exciting! (More on that later)

We loved seeing everyone in Utah! We had so much fun playing games, going to Jazz games (Brandon, not me), and just seeing so many people. It makes me almost want to move to Utah. If the medical profession wasn't so saturated and the schools weren't so bad I wouldn't mind it just for the love we feel there. But we still debate that every time we drive in!

Thanksgiving 2017 Trip, Part 1.

It has been an adjustment learning to deal with vacation time instead of school breaks. And in order for Brandon to keep his student loan repayment, he can only take off a few weeks a year. So when we found out that he would only need to take 3 personal days to have an entire week off at Thanksgiving, we took advantage of that! We hadn't seen my grandmas in a while, and haven't seen my siblings for a while either. It is hard when we don't have a home base anymore to all meet up. So we decided to go to Utah!

We drove to Bakersfield (just about 90 minutes south) the first night, just to get a tiny head start. The hotel took forever to get the pack n play to us, so this is what James had to sleep in at first. 

  

 A few months ago I learned about a "live list", which is similar to a bucket list that only has 10 items on it at once. The first thing I wanted to do from the list is visit the Seven Magic Mountains in Las Vegas.

Cora was freezing, she said "it snow dad?" Poor kid, it was only 55 degrees. Not freezing. 

I was in the middle of making James a hat, and I didn't quite finish it. Poor kid.

The rest of the trip went without incident. We got dinner in St. George and ran around the temple grounds for a while to get Cora's energy out. Temple 32 for us!

It was 25 degrees when we got there, and we were FREEZING. Poor James' face was so red, I think he got a tiny bit sunburned at the Seven Magic Mountains. Either that or he is just too sensitive. Only Vaseline helped.

Halloween Activities 2017.

This was the first year that we actually got to enjoy Halloween with a kid. Cora finally got into the idea of Halloween and trick or treating, which was so cute!

Cora didn't quite get the concept of dressing up, so we just went with what she was obsessed with. First it was Tangled so we got a Rapunzel dress, then as soon as I bought it she became OBSESSED with Beauty and the Beast. I mean obsessed. We have had the soundtrack on repeat in our car for over a month and she wants to watch the movie every day (not that I let her... but she does watch it at least weekly). So when I found this dress at Target:

 She was SO excited!

So I found a red collared onesie online to make into a Gaston costume. But it didn't come through, so I had to whip something up really quickly. I found this pattern and I can't stop laughing at it.

 Cutest lumberjack ever! We said he was Paul Bunyan, and found his Babe to go with it.

 Our first Halloween party was the week before with Music makers. That bearded hat doesn't stay on for long, so I snapped a few quick pictures.

 That night we had the ward trunk or treat. I didn't have time to make myself a good costume so I bought a hat and green face paint and went as a witch. But BRANDON wins for best sport.

I begged him to dress up as Zoolander for Halloween. 

He did it because I said he would make Bethany so happy.

I still can't stop laughing at it. It was totally worth all the times he's going to hold it over my head.

 On Halloween we went to the park instead of story time at the library. Our cute children's librarian wasn't going to be there so we didn't go. SO many princesses everywhere!

 These are 3 boys who were all born within a month of each other. Clive is June 21, James is June 30, and Ruben is July 18.

 Not only that, but they all have sisters that are the same age! Well, they'll be in the same grade at least. It's so perfect.

The friends in our ward invited us to go trick or treating with them. Cora loved it and walked for 45 minutes straight before deciding she needed to be pushed in the stroller. Since we went with friends we didn't mind pushing her around! 

Our group:

 

 

James was a festive pumpkin, and he stayed in the Moby wrap all night.

 Cora was only scared of a few houses. But we were able to convince her that they weren't scary... I think. At least she didn't have any nightmares that kept her up!

When she would go to each house she would say "Twit oh tweet" and then after she got the candy she would say "Thank you very much!" in the cutest voice. We got a lot of comments on that.

I think it makes us a real parent that we hate Halloween candy now. Brandon and I are both on low sugar diets now so this was not a good idea. Luckily, I already traded Cora her candy for a Cinderella doll (she doesn't know it's a trade). She picked Cinderella and not Belle? She's crazy.

Overall, a fun first experience!