Vacation Part 1: DISNEYLAND

We got back last week from a two destination vacation.  The first destination was California.  Since Eli's birthday is coming up on April 1st, we decided to take him to Disneyland and California Adventure.  We had a BLAST!  None of us had ever been to California Adventure, and it had been a long time since either Josh or I had been to Disneyland. 

The weather was GREAT, much to my delight.  I think that was what I was praying for the most.  The first day was absolutely perfect weather.  The second day was a little colder and overcast but still great park weather. 

Though Disneyland will always be crowded, I would say that it was probably fairly minimal compared to other times of the year.  Most rides didn't have too long of a wait.  We waited the longest for Dumbo and the Cars ride. 

Eli didn't like the ones that were too fast.  Surprisingly, he didn't mind it if it was high as long as it wasn't too fast.  He rode the jellyfish ride in California Adventure three times (it goes high and then drops you slowly).  And he couldn't wait to get on Mickey's Fun Wheel (ferris wheel), but he was crying at the end of the Cars ride because your car races another car, and it was just too fast for him.  He also hated Splash Mountain, which I can't blame him because I also don't like the steep drop at the end that soaks everyone (but he saw the steep drop before he got on it, so he knew what he was getting himself into...technically).  That was one of Josh's favorites though, probably because it was one of the few thrill-type rides that he got to go on with Eli and me.  Many of the fast ones he went on by himself because Eli either couldn't or didn't want to go (and a couple of them I didn't really want to try either).  I guess Eli is his mother's son. 

However, we all went together on the majority of the rides thanks to Eli being a tall four-year-old.  Yeah for height.  We were exhausted by the time we were done, but we had TONS of fun!  

Both Josh and I were hesitant to ride the teacups because we have discovered that as we get older, we don't do so well with lots of spinning.  I went alone with Eli, and thankfully it wasn't too bad.

Eli loved the Dumbo ride and wanted to ride it again, but we waited the longest for that ride in Disneyland, so once was all he got.

Eli's excited face just before entering It's a Small World

The Jedi training was absolutely one of Eli's favorites at Disneyland.  He got to choose one gift while we were there, and he chose a lightsaber.  It's funny because he's never even seen Star Wars.

The jellyfish ride that he rode three times in California Adventure

Eli loved the Redwood Challenge Trail in California Adventure.  It's based on the movie Up, and the kids do different challenges to get the senior wilderness badge at the end.  We seriously spent lots of time here, and I was ready to leave well before Eli.  He took his badge to preschool when we got home so he could show his teacher.

Dug the talking dog from Up

Cars Land was pretty cool.  Radiator Springs was set up just like it was in the movie.

This is the Cars ride that Eli ended up crying on at the end.  The first part is mild as you take a tour through various parts of the movie.  Josh and I loved the race at the end though, even if Eli didn't--definitely a favorite of mine.

The World of Color show at California Adventure was awesome.  I definitely recommend seeing it!

Razor Clamming

Growing up, I was a very picky eater.  My parents might capitalize and bold the word very.  In fact, now that I have my own picky eater, I empathize with my parents.  Fortunately, I grew out of it.  I have since acquired many tastes and likes for food that I never imagined I would.  Everything from tomatoes to artichokes to peppers I can now eat without gagging.  In fact, I enjoy them.  I used to sit at the dinner table for hours just staring at my food, thinking of ways to hide it without my parents knowing.  Now I sit at the dinner table for hours waiting for my son to eat (life is full of little ironies), but that's a different story, and I digress.

Despite my maturation in food tastes, however, there are still a number of foods I can't stomach.  One in particular brings back memories of my hours at the the dinner table, and I cannot bring myself to eat it.  CLAM CHOWDER!  To be fair, the chowder itself is not gross.  I love other kinds of chowder--salmon chowder, potato chowder, corn chowder, etc.  But clam chowder has an added ingredient which makes the whole thing taste awful.  The clam.  In my opinion, clams taste like little balls of chicken fat.  Their taste is overpowered by their horribly disgusting texture.  And now, to add insult to injury, this weekend I saw those little puppies alive rather than dead in my soup, and clam chowder is officially a thing of the past.  If I thought there was a small chance that I might give them another try, it has now been permanently banished from my mind.

Josh, Eli, and I went razor clamming with his parents yesterday.  Apparently, our little neck of the woods is well known for the sport, and to be honest, it's pretty fun.  It's sort of like digging for treasure, and there is quite an exhilaration when you dig up one of those clams.  You can use a shovel, but I think you have to be really good to use that method.  Most everyone uses a clam gun (pictured below).  Even then, you have to work quickly because they are fast and can burrow themselves deep into the sand.  As it is, they are already in the sand, and you have to have an eye for finding them so you can know where to dig in the first place.  X does not mark the spot, but there are little divots in the sand.  You go around looking for those little divots, and then you push your clam gun down into the sand at the spot.  When you bring the gun back up, you bring sand up with it, and hopefully a clam to boot.  Josh sometimes had to dig his hand into the sand if the gun didn't go deep enough.  I let him do the dirty work.  I kept my hands above the sand, but I did find a number of clams and discovered that maybe I have quite a talent for finding those little divots. :-)

Razor clams are quite large, and not at all what I had pictured clams to look like.  They are definitely not the most attractive things in the world with their wormy tongue-like bodies that protrude from the shell (sorry if I'm making you all dislike clam chowder now).  I let Josh kill and cut them out so that he can make clam chowder for himself to enjoy. :-)  For me, clamming is a case of the means being better than the end.  

The best time to go clamming is at low tide, so we got to see a beautiful sunset.

White Christmas

Christmas this year was a white one for us, much to Eli's delight.  Actually, a week before Christmas it snowed, and Eli was so excited.  He said, "I always dreamed of snow when I was in Houston, and now I guess today is my lucky day."  There was even enough snow for Eli to make his first snowman.

Eli made a graham cracker "gingerbread" house at a friend's house.

We were surprised to see snow again on Christmas morning.  We've been told it doesn't usually snow here, so I guess it was more than Eli's lucky day--more like his lucky week.  Here are some pictures of our Christmas:

Acting out the nativity on Christmas Eve

Eli gets a Christmas story on Christmas Eve.  This was the book he got this year.

Eli's note to Santa

Santa brought Eli a Spiderman bike.

We spent Christmas afternoon and night with Josh's family in Gig Harbor.

A Lot of Stuff that's Happened Since Our Move (a.k.a. Long Post)

I decided to finally make time to write about our move.  If I don't do it now, I may forget the details.  There has just been so much to do lately, which is probably good because there is LOTS of rain outside and it keeps me from thinking about it too much.

First, I will say that we have moved a number of times during our marriage, but this one gave the biggest to-do list, hands down.  There are just so many things you have to put in order when you move across state lines.  Even though we moved to Albuquerque a few summers ago, it was so temporary that we didn't have to make as many changes, though the actually cleaning and moving part was much more difficult.  Since we knew that Josh would be graduating and we would be moving, we kept a lot of things in boxes when we moved back to Houston.  I also downsized and scrubbed and cleaned and did so much when we moved in because of the condition of the place that when we moved out, it was fairly easy.  It also helped that Josh had to fly back to Houston for a week to finish up his work, so while he was there alone, he finished up any cleaning and loose ends that were needed.

I got the flu a week before we moved, so that was complete torture packing when all I wanted to do was go to bed and sleep.  But as happens, I got over it, and we were blessed to find out that we could all ride in the moving truck.  We thought it was illegal to have Eli in the front seat of the truck; plus, when we moved to and from Albuquerque, there were only two seats anyway.  When we picked up the truck this time, we discovered there were three seats, and after talking with some people in our ward and doing some research online, we discovered that we could put Eli in the truck.  It's not the safest and most ideal way to travel, so it is discouraged, but it was legal in all states that we passed through.  We got the truck on Saturday and packed most of it.  On Monday we called to add a tow to the truck so we could tow our car.  We got out of Houston a little later than planned, but I was so grateful that I didn't have to drive the whole way alone with Eli, and Josh was so grateful to have us in the truck with him.  Honestly, with me being so tired from the flu, I don't know how I would have made the drive.  I even had to ride in the middle (Eli wasn't allowed to ride in the middle, and his airbag had to be turned off), so I was cramped and a little sore by the end, but I was still incredibly thankful to be with Josh.

We knew it would be a long drive, but until you do it, you don't realize just how long it is.  Somehow, though, it was made shorter by being together in one vehicle.  The first day we drove from Houston to Ft. Stockton, TX.  The second day we made it to Cortez, CO.  The third day we drove to my brother Nephi's home in Logan, UT.  We got a break on the fourth day because we spent Thanksgiving day with him and his family.  We had a great time and delicious food.  Thank you so much Nephi and Aubrey!  The fifth day we drove from Logan to Kelso, WA.  This day was incredibly long, and I would not recommend it, especially since we ran into a crazy rainstorm through the Columbia River Gorge, and it was dark.  The roads were barely visible, and it made me feel claustrophobic.  I was grateful to get out of there.

On the sixth day we had a short drive to Aberdeen (about an hour and a half or so), and we had help unloading from our new ward members.  Even some neighbors came to help.  It was the quickest move-in we have ever experienced.  Plus, Josh's parents came and helped and brought us lunch.  It was great!

I had to take Josh up to the Sea-Tac Airport a couple days later because he had to go back to Houston to finish up work, so Eli and I were alone here for the first week.  At least I was busy unpacking and putting our home together, but poor Josh was there in Houston in an empty apartment for a week.  To make things worse, he missed his flight out of Houston to come back here and had to sleep overnight at George Bush Airport.  Then when he came back, he had to start a new job, so there was no time for rest. 

But we are settling in now and enjoying the Christmas season.  The house is not completely put together, but there's not much left to do.  Eli insisted I put up Christmas decorations first, so the tree was up before most of the bedrooms were unpacked.  I've had a lot of distractions with it being the holidays (not the best time of year to move), but I've never been one to put a house together in a week anyway.  Since we have a bigger place than we're used to, we lack some furniture.  For example, we have both a living room and a family room, but we only have one couch.  Currently our family room has a TV in it but no couch.  We also have a dining room area as well as a breakfast nook, so we have an empty dining room area since our table is in the breakfast nook.  But we are just enjoying the space.  Having a yard is great, though we also don't have anything to take care of the yard because we've never needed that stuff before.  Fortunately our neighbor let Josh borrow some of his stuff.  He also goes fishing a lot on the many rivers that are here, so he brought us back some salmon.

People weren't joking when they said it rains here a lot.  Fortunately we had done our research and came mentally prepared.  Still, it rains almost everyday.  Sometimes the sun peeks out for a little while, but then it gets cloudy and rainy again.  It gets dark here very early too.  Eli asked me the other day, "Why is it already getting dark, Mom.  Is it nighttime again?" :-)   That has been an adjustment for us all coming from Houston, land of sunshine.  I guess we have summer to look forward to, though.  It doesn't get dark until about 10 PM or so.

I am also adjusting to the shopping.  When I go to the grocery store, my jaw drops at the prices.  I knew things would be more expensive, but it will still take some time to get used to.  Actually, some people in the ward have given me tips on where to shop, which has been helpful.

I have to get used to driving to get to things as well.  We actually live in a community of homes called Central Park.  Since the closest stores are mostly in Aberdeen or some in Montesano, we have a little drive to get to stores.  If we want to go where there is major shopping, we have to drive to Olympia, which is 45 minutes from our house.  Josh is in heaven though because there are all kinds of state parks and outdoor activities around here.

We have enjoyed a few activities already.  The town of Montesano, which is about 10 minutes from our home, has a festival of lights every year.  They put on a parade and have a number of events.  We took Eli to a puppet show that he enjoyed, and he loved the lighted concrete mixer that was in the parade.

We went out to Ocean Shores, which is the town right on the beach.  It's about half an hour from where we live.  The waves were HUGE.  It was also very COLD.  It should be fun to go there in the summer though.

 Eli is now in preschool.  In Houston, the options for preschool were not options I particularly liked.  I either had to pay a lot of money or put him in school all day.  At four years old, I just don't think that's what he needs.  Here I have the option of sending him for two days a week for two and a half hours each day.  I can handle that, and it was something he wanted to do.  He enjoys it and has made some new friends.  Since they don't have playgroup in this ward as they did in Houston, preschool will be good for him.  It was a little difficult for me on his first day, however.  He looked like such a big boy, and I realized I will be sending him to kindergarten in less than a year. 

Here are some pictures:

Eli's first day of preschool

Eli's favorite thing in the parade

Eli helping Josh rake the front yard in the rain

Eli freezing at the beach

Eli wanted me to make a candy wreath for Christmas

Our decorated Christmas tree and mantel.