Thanksgiving

On Wednesday after Taryn's gymnastics we all drove up to Massachusetts for the long Thanksgiving weekend. Mommy went out to dinner with her friends that night and the next day they woke up, watched the parade and then Taryn got to go to the movies with Mommy, daddy and Uncle Dan to see Tangled! They loved it!
While they were at the theater they saw advertisements for Daddy's next movie, Rio. Taryn was so excited to see the stuff, especially the big beach ball!

When they got back from the movies we watched some football and waited for Uncle Brian to get off work so we could eat our delicious Thanksgiving dinner... one minor set back was the oven fire... but no one moved too much to help Grandpa put out the fire except mommy to take a picture of it! But everything turned out delicious!

All weekend we hung out with the family and a few friends. Only a few because Uncle Dan got a stomach bug on Saturday and we didn't want to infect too many people!

But they did get a chance on Friday to visit the Lamoreaux Family, so Taryn and Jake could play with Annie and Lea. Both kids loved their dogs Lady and Lloyd.

Getting a picture of all the kids together was nearly impossible!

It was a very relaxed weekend. Happy Thanksgiving!

Jake's 1st Haircut

On Sunday night (November 21st) Mommy and Daddy decided it was time to say bye-bye to Jake's curls, as they were quickly starting to look like the mullet Taryn once sported. Jake was very good about the hair cut at first... until Daddy had a little mishap with his ear. After that Mommy finished up the job, but Jake was not a big fan of the "hair cut" anymore. He looks very cute, like a little boy now!

Helping Daddy with Leaves

On Sunday the kids helped Daddy rake, blow, and apparently shovel the leaves (they are very excited about their new snow shovels.) They liked it when Daddy blew the leaves at them and they would go crazy!
It was cold out and the kids had to wear their winter hats... Jake liked his so much he didn't take it off for the rest of the night.

Saying Goodbye!

It was hard to say goodbye to our friends on the Tuesday, but we had such a great trip! And Taryn said as we were leaving the house... "Mommy don't be sad we can come back next year!" Oh to be a kid again! It was such a great vacation getting to spend time with family and friends. We really got to see Jake's personality come out this week and everyone had so much fun watching him be so silly. It was great to see the kids all get along so well and it was really the most stress free vacation we have taken since having kids! We will definitely be taking more vacations with the Halifax family.

We might have to watch out for these two though :)

For the flight home we flew out of LAX and it was so easy! The kids slept the entire way home and were excited to get back and see Cooper!

Disneyland Vacation-Day 5

Tuesday November 15th was our last day going to Disneyland.... it was also Mommy's 30th birthday. So we tried to enjoy every minute of the festive atmosphere. As you can see from the family photo we tried to get by the Christmas tree Taryn was not feeling it at first :) She really doesn't like taking time out of her busy ride schedule for pictures :)

After our attempt at a family photo we went on some more rides. The kids really liked this Peter Pan one.

And Jake really wanted a foam sword, which meant Taryn needed one as well as Aubrey.

On the train ride the kids chose to sit in the cage. They had been asking to go on this ride for days and we finally found the start of it. Here are some videos of them having fun.

It was a really relaxing day at the park. We went on a few rides we had missed and got to repeat a few of our favorites!
There were even time for pictures in front of Walt Disney and Mickey while Jake napped in his stroller again.
It was a good thing he got his napping in because at 4:15 we headed over to Mommy's Disneyland birthday party hosted by Pat E. Cake. Most of the other birthday boys and girls were just that... boys and girls. but Mommy liked celebrating there because the kids had sooo much fun! Everyone got their own cake to decorate in the cake decorating contest, and there was singing, dancing and all sorts of fun with Minnie and Mickey Mouse. It was quite the celebration, the kids kept saying "Cheers" and hitting their new sippy cups together. It was a very special birthday celebration for Mommy.

After the party we went on our last rides of the vacation. Taryn had been dying to go on the rocket ships so it was fitting that that ended up being our last ride of the trip! Then we watched teh holiday parade again, but this time in dark with all the pretty lights.
Then our family went to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Downtown Disney called Naples. It was delicious and Mommy was very excited to have such great spaghetti (one of her favorites) on her birthday! There was an amazing balloon man at the restaurant who made a Lightning McQueen balloon for Jake and a Pluto on a leash for Taryn.
After dinner we watched the fireworks (fire workings according to Taryn) and headed home for some much needed rest.