Clayton Disneyland Trip!

In February we went to Disneyland for a few days with the Clayton family and had so much fun! I loved getting to watch William experience the magic of it all. And it was amazing because all of our kids were tall enough to go on most of the rides!!

The first day we did California Adventure.

William thought Cars Land was so cool. We waited in line to meet Lightning McQueen but he left and we met Mater instead. He was pretty sad but I told him we would come back and try again.

The kids just loved hanging out with their cousins! I hardly saw Sophie, Lydia and Easton most of the time as they were just having so much fun.

William insisted he wanted to meet Anna and Elsa with the girls. Elsa touched his shoulder and he blushed and smiled and was just in awe of her. He still talks about how Elsa touched his shoulder and he liked it haha.

We went back to Cars Land in the evening and William finally got to meet McQueen!!

The next two days we spent in Disneyland. Easton thought Star Wars land was the coolest. He was in complete awe of the storm troopers and loved the Millennium Falcon Ride. 

William got to meet his favorite character ever! Mickey! Easton had been telling him for weeks that Mickey was just a guy in a suit and was fake. But William declared after he met him that "He didn't have a zipper! Mickey is real!"

For Christmas Aimee gave me a gift card so I could get silhouettes of my kids! It was amazing to watch the artist just cut them out by hand!

William just thought it was so cool that characters were just wandering around. He gave Donald a big hug.

On the way home we stopped at Seal Beach to play and enjoyed a delicious local bakery.

February

Easton finally was able to harvest his baby cabbage from his garden and decided he didn't want to eat them but had plans on selling them for a dollar each. So he took his wagon down to the street and stood with his sign on the side of the road. I was a bit worried for him because he was so determined but a nice gentleman stopped and spoke with him about his garden and purchased one for $5. He was so stoked he packed up and headed home. And was excited to learn both grandparents bought his other cabbage heads.

We went and checked out Fort Lowell Day in town and learned some history of Tucson. The kids got to make adobe bricks...

We watched the cavalry practice on their horses...

And they learned how to make  paper flowers

January

We had Lydia's 9th birthday party in January since December is always so busy for everyone. She wanted a camping theme so we set up a tent with board games and enjoyed a bonfire with hot dogs and smores.

The kids had spirit week at school and had to dress up as Dr Seuss characters. Easton and Lydia decided they wanted to dress up as thing 1 and thing 2.

Sophie decided she wanted to cut her hair.

Lydia had a choir concert for school and did such a great job.

Our family went on a hike through Sabino Canyon. There was so much water which the kids were pretty excited about.

Sophie is now officially in Young Womens which is so crazy!

We were able to take her to the temple for the first time and it was amazing to be able to have both grandparents there! She made a goal this year to learn about the names she takes to the temple before so that way she feels more of a connection with them.

New Years

We started a new tradition for new years eve this year. Every year we will pick a country and celebrate new years how they would. This year we picked Scotland! And I was happily surprised that to start Hogmanay you must clean your house to invite good spirits. (The kids weren't too excited about this and thought that maybe we were making it up). Then at midnight (which happened to be 5pm our time) we sing Auld Lang Syne which is the song that plays in America but actually originated in Scotland! and drink whiskey which we replace with Martinellis sparkling cider. Followed by first footing.

We had to prepare a bit for first footing which involves being to first to your neighbors door to greet the new year and present a gift of salt, shortbread, coal, whiskey, or black bun. So we made shortbread empire biscuits.

Then at "midnight" we marched down the street to bagpipes to deliver our treats.

We came back home to prepare our meal of bacon butties and mash. And of course dessert with sticky toffee pudding!

We finished the evening with a caber toss and dance that the girls practiced while we cooked.

New years day we went for a hike to Tanque Verde Falls.

Sophie got a camera for Christmas and had fun taking pictures of all the water.

We made it to a cool waterfall and stopped for lunch.

William loved that there was a cactus that looked liked Mickey and Easton found one that looked like Yoda.