Paige's 4 year pics

Thankgiving

This year, we headed back up to Auburn to celebrate Thankgiving with extended family as usual. Unfortunately, Crissy has not been feeling well, but we were able to rent a minivan and pick-up Grandma and the boys.  The downside to this year- Keith & Justin's brother Dan's family were not able to join us.  The upside was that his brother Stan was able to join us for the first time in years.

It always amazes me how close we have become with the Parada's (Justins Grandma's sisters family).  Sometimes, I feel like Justins "Cousins" Chris & Kevin are kind of like brothers to Justin (And more brother-in-laws) to me.  We all just get along so well and have a great time.   This year was a little harder since it was raining and Minga's house is smaller.  But the kids made their annual trip to the Auburn Ravine bridge and I set-up my laptop with DVD's in the back room.

It would have been nicer if we had been able to stay in a hotel as originally planned as driving up there and back (just under 2 hours) is tiring.  But Justin was scheduled for the 11:30PM-6:30 AM shift at Kohls so we had to get him back for that.  We hope to rent a house next year, assuming business keeps picking up!

What better place to take Paige for her 4th birthday than Disneyland???   So, when Mikaila decided to go for her 16th birthday and my parents rented a house for all of us to stay in, we decided to forgo a possible ski trip this winter and head on down.  And the added bonus- Chelsie's boyfriend Tony was coming!  So we all got to spend some time getting to know him (And yes- we really like him!)

Chelsie & Tony made matching shirts for all of us!

The house my parents rented was really close to a disney parking tram so we did a lot of walking.

Surprisingly, Paige rode the Bobsleds & Space mountain, but the rest of the day took it easy with rides like Dumbo & Winnie the poo.  She also LOVED meeting several princesses even if she did not love waiting 45 minutes in line to do so.

 We got a great family shot in front of the castle (Even if Justin & I are not really smiling) which we used for our Christmas cards this year.

We watched the holiday parade before heading back to the rental house for a nap & some food!  Paige loved it.

After dinner, we headed back to the park.  Everyone else spent some time in California Adventure while Justin, Paige & I rode some more rides in Disneyland.  We watched some fireworks, Paige got to play in some "Snow" and we met up with everyone for our last ride which was Small World.  Watching Paige's face was a blast!

By the end of the day (Close to midnight) We were all exhausted (Especially Chelsie & my who had not slept much the night before since we were sharing a bed with Paige.).  Paige did so good all day with no major meltdowns.  After we got her to sleep, we all hung out a little more.  Chelsie, Tony & I stuck our feet in the hot tub, that was not actually HOT.  But it did give me the time to talk to Tony a little bit and get to know him better.

The next morning, I was grateful we had only spent one day in Disney.  Not only was I exhausted & sore (Just started physical therapy on my ankle), but it was pouring.  We had originally planned on going to downtown Disney for some shopping.  But since it was pretty much flooding outside, we just hung out.  We cooked a huge Brunch (Eggs, pumpkin pancakes and bacon).  Then we decorated the cupcakes and had a great dinner (Teriyaki steak skewers) and celebrated the birthdays.  Luckily the house was not only hugs, but had lots of things to do including WII, A pool table, a ping pong table and lots of rooms with TV's.

Unfortunately, Chelsie & Tony had to head out that night. On Monday morning we packed up the cars and headed home.  We stopped at a friends hotel room to visit them since they had come in the day before and we hadn't seen them in a while.  And then we went to downtown Disney to buy our souvenirs.  And then it was back home!