Back From the Dead

I know it's been a while. Blogging just hasn't been on my list of priorities.

Christmas:

Mercedes asked Santa for a dolphin blanket and she got a whole new bedroom set. She played nonstop with D-Rex, the robotic dinosaur. Who knew a toy could be so irreverent

Aspen got a new play kitchen; she only really cared about the chapstick that she found in her stocking.

I got matching Kitchenaid appliances; the first time I used the mixer I turned up the power too fast and we had cocoa and flour ALL OVER the kitchen.

Scott got himself a new mountain bike. I've given up trying to get him anything, he just gets it for himself.

Mercedes Birthday:

She had a dolphin party last year so she decided this year she wanted a snowflake party. I can't believe we have a seven-year-old!

Aspens 2nd Birthday:

The only cartoon Aspen likes is 'Elmo's World' so she had a Sesame Street Cake.

Ok, so I had to include this picture. I found my wigs from when I was bald from the chemo. This one was my blonde bob one and it looked so perfect on Aspen.

Gobble Gobble

We flew to Seattle, then drove into Bellingham, WA to my sisters for the Thanksgiving Holiday. My other sister and her kids also flew in and my Parents made the trek from Alaska; so it was all 14 of us in a 2 bedroom townhome. Honestly it was great being so close together! Grandma and Grandpa and the 3 oldest grandkids (Cortney, Austin and Mercedes) slept out in the garage on air mattresses. They loved their slumber party every night. Mercedes mattress had a slow leak in it so it gradually enveloped her.

-


I must say; we ate like Kings. Grandma and Grandpa brought fresh salmon, halibut, and shrimp (that tasted like lobster) from Alaska. The turkey dinner was great, but the Alaskan seafood was fabulous. I will not admit how badly I fell off the wagon; there were just too many treats.


Here's everyone (except Grandma and Grandpa and JT) on a walk to the park. Grandma was taking the picture.





Scott and I decided to head up to Vancouver (with Aspen) on Saturday. It's only 45 minutes from Bellingham. It was pretty, but rainy. As we crossed the border into Canada the speed limit signs switched from MPH to Kilometers. Scott looked at the dash and said, "This car doesn't have Kilometers!" so we never really knew what speed we were going. I don't EVER want to drive into Canada again. It took THREE HOURS to get back into the US at the border. Here's Aspen playing in the car while I did my Christmas shopping on the computer.





My little Pilgrim and Indian. Aspen would jump up and down on the couch yelling "Indian!" until Mercedes would put the hat on her and play with her.


We had a wonderful holiday. Isn't family the greatest!

Toddler Talk

Oh the wonderful verbage of the toddler. I spend half my day chuckling at what she says and how she says it. The other half I spend trying to not smother her with kisses and hugs.

Aspens baby talk:

Lall = pacifier (don't ask, I don't know where that came from)

Mee mee = blankie

Seis Seis = Mercedes

Bumpa = Grandpa

Bee Bah = what she calls anything she doesn't know the name of when we're reading

Got geez = cottage cheese; her most favorite food

Mo = phone

First Snow

This morning we woke up to a skiff of snow and within a couple of hours we had 3 inches. Scott sent me a text from Miami saying it would be 78 degrees there today. We love the first snow! When Mercedes got home from school we found whatever winter gear at hand and headed outside. Aspen was thrilled with the Spongebob hat.

DISASTER Weekend

So Scott and I flew out Saturday morning to do the Muddy Buddy race in LA. Just before we left my sister let us know that she had been up sick throwing up all night and couldn't keep the girls for Saturday, so we quickly arranged for Grandpa Fly and an Aunt to take them for Sat. and Grandpa would keep them Sunday. So on the flight I started feeling nauseous, which I attributed to motion sickness. We got our rental car, rented a mountain bike, checked in for the race, the whole while I was still feeling nauseous. We checked into the hotel and I took a nap hoping the motion sickness would subside. I woke up in a fog thinking - I'm not feeling well AT ALL. I then proceeded to spend the next 16 hours curled up in bed or on the floor of the bathroom vomiting and in intense pain. So we couldn't even do the race we flew in to CA to do. Not only did we not do the race I never left the room and made Scott watch after me. Meanwhile at home Mercedes had started throwing up and all I could think about was just getting home to our girls. We could've taken a 10 am flight out Sunday if it wasn't for the fact that we had to return the mountain bike after 11am; so we ended up making it out at 4pm Sunday afternoon. Thankfully I was able to keep everything down all day. I must say it's a torturous thing to be on an airplane when you're still sick and nauseous. Thankfully we made it home without incident to our girls. I do think Muddy Buddy will let us transfer our registration to a race next year - maybe Boulder in August; so start training and we'll all get Muddy! (And NO ONE is allowed to be sick)

Halloween

So Mercedes was a dolphin, for the 2nd year in a row and Aspen was a little devil. If we could have dressed her up as a tornado with angel wings then that would have been perfect. When we first started trick-or-treating she seemed totally amazed that she could just take candy from anyone and keep it; and then eat it. She was very good at saying "Tank tou" (thankyou). When Mercedes was the same age she would say "Thank you, welcome, see ya!" at every house. I love Halloween!

Disneyland Diehards

The only consolation to Scott traveling 3 days a week is mounds of Skymiles and Marriott points which means vacations more frequently than we would normally attempt. We felt compelled to use our season passes to Disneyland again so we headed off over fall break for 6 days of Disneyland mayhem. For Scott and I, 3 days would have been just fine at the happiest place on earth, but my Parents and sister Lexie and her 3 kids joined in and they are Disneyland Diehards. We did spend one morning at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach and one of Scott's friends had an extra ticket to an exclusive celebrity party in Hollywood, but other than that we rode rides and ate Disneyland food until we were sick; literally. The day we had to leave I had a few hours with just Mercedes and I (Scott and I didn't exist with Grandpa and cousins around) and we went on so many roller coaster type rides I finally told Mercedes we were done because I was so nauseated. She rode every single ride with a look of pure glee on her face. My sister and I would take the babies back to the hotel every night about 7 or 8 and Grandpa and Grandma would stay until 10 or 11 with the 3 older kids. They had a ball.

We were so busy having fun we hardly took any pictures, and half were on the camera on Scott's Blackberry.

Our last morning; we're waiting in California Adventure for the rope to open.

Aspen and her cousin Casch (aka, the babies)

I learned to always wear my raincoat on the wet rides. From front to back; Cortney, Mercedes, Austin, Lexie, Me, and Scott.

You can't see Scott's face very well, but our niece Cortney said he always looked constipated in the pictures. It was a miracle we got him on Space Mountain since he hates roller coasters.

No we don't know the two ladies in the front but look at Mercedes face. She was like that the whole trip. Her cousin Cortney is sittin next to her with Aunt Lexie and cousin Austin behind.

It was a good thing Mercedes wore her rain coat on the river rapids.