Colby Turns Two!

On November 13 Colby turned TWO! It's hard to believe that he is already this old. Time flies! He is still a man of few words, but he's getting more vocal by the day. He loves choo choo trains and Mickey Mouse. He loves to sing (and dance!) and eat. I swear this kid eats more than our other three kids combined.

For his birthday the Albertson's Kids Club sent a coupon for a free cake square, so we stopped by to get it on our way home from dropping Kylee off at school, and he ate it for breakfast. It was a HUGE cake square. He didn't finish it all, so the other kids shared it when they got home from school.

Grandma Karen was here visiting on Colby's birthday, so after Ally got home from school the four of us went down to see Carlsbad Caverns. Ally and Colby pretended to be bats.

They're also preparing to be spelunkers one day.

Instead of cake for Colby's birthday (since he already had his cake square) we made gingerbread cookies and let each of the kids decorate some. Since Colby loves trains, trucks, cars, etc., I made him a variety of different ones.

He wasn't quite sure what to do with his birthday candles, so finally Skyler and I helped him blow them out.

These are the cookies Kylee made. She used Thomas as a model for her train, and I thought it turned out really good!

After a fun-filled day, Colby fell asleep with his new Mickey Mouse doll. I can't wait to see what this year brings.

SNOW -- in Colorado

The second weekend of November we made another quick trip up to Castle Rock. Kylee and Skyler had eye doctor appointments on Thursday afternoon, so we left around 3:30pm. Skyler wasn't pleased that his eyes were dilated, so Andy let him wear his sunglasses. Next thing we knew, he was sound asleep within about 20 minutes of getting in the car.

We stopped to get dinner in Roswell since the next town after that is about 3 hours away, and it was already getting dark. Colby thinks he is such a big kid, and insists that we just give him his entire Happy Meal box. He unwrapped his cheeseburger and spread the paper out on his lap to use as a plate. He ate everything in his box, stuffed all the garbage back inside, and then held it out to me saying, "Done! Done!" I guess maybe he IS a big kid.

The Manitou Incline near Colorado Springs has been on my bucket list for a few years, so on Saturday morning Connie and I went with Karen and Rachel to hike it. We almost considered not going because it was supposed to be REALLY cold, but it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day, and once we started climbing the cold didn't feel cold! Rachel creamed us all and reached the top in 39 minutes. Karen got there in just over an hour, and Connie and I took an hour and 6 minutes. My lungs were BURNING. Spending so much time in a warm climate at 15 feet elevation makes it hard to climb a steep mountain in freezing temps at 7500+ feet. Plus, let's face it. I'm out of shape. Someday we'll go again and be faster!

When we got up on Sunday morning to drive home, this was the view out the front of Connie's house. Our little kids don't remember ever seeing snow before (last year when we went to Utah in December they were soooo disappointed that there wasn't any!), so they were really excited about the snow. It made for a slow drive home, but it was fun to see!

Halloween

Kylee's school did a Fall Festival that I took the kids to, and it was really fun. I didn't get a picture of Kylee because she was too busy with all her friends and didn't hang out with us "uncool" peeps.

We had a Carlsbad wards combined Trunk-or-Treat the Saturday before Halloween, and it was pretty fun. Skyler decided to be a tarantula for Halloween this year (in tribute to the one we saw when we were hiking). Ally was a witch, Kylee was Hermione, and Colby was very reluctantly the hotdog (he loved it once he realized people were giving him candy).

Skyler's class did a pumpkin party. They carved Jack-o-Lanterns and ate pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin seeds. The mom that was helping with Skyler's table took this photo. She said she told the kids to "look scary." I'm not sure why Skyler's leg is up on the table, but this photo cracks me up.

The kids kept wanting to buy a pumpkin every time we went to Albertson's or Walmart, and Andy kept telling them "it's too early". Finally it was the day before Halloween and we didn't have any pumpkins, and every store in town was sold out. There's a church in town that was doing a pumpkin patch fundraiser, so we went there. Ironically, they get their pumpkins from the same Navajo pumpkin farm as the church I bought our pumpkins from in Naples, Florida. I guess it was meant to be! We decided to go right when they opened since they were bound to run out quick, so Kylee was still at school, but I got pictures of the other kids posing in the cutouts.

The kids wanted to make Halloween cookies one day, so we made some gingerbread cookies and each person decorated their own cookies. I dare anyone to correctly guess whose are whose below (out of me, Kylee, Skyler, and Ally)!

#1

#2

#3

#4

Colby ended up eating more frosting than he put on his cookies, but at least he had fun!

Halloween night turned out to be the coldest night we've experienced in Carlsbad so far. It was in the mid-40s I think, and we were freezing! Gone are the days of 80-90 degree trick-or-treating weather! We just went around our little neighborhood, and it was fun. We were disappointed to find that we only got about 20 trick-or-treaters, though. We're a brand new neighborhood and we live on the furthest back street, so I guess not many people know we're here!

Random October

Mini Skyler -- I mean Colby -- has discovered a love of "choo choo's" -- just like his brother. He loves to line them up, carry them around, bring them to bed, etc.

Colby is in the process of transitioning from two naps per day to just one. I tried to have his one nap be after lunch, but there are several days when he just can't quite make it that long.

One Saturday we drove down to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, which is about an hour south of our house -- just over the Texas border. We went on a 4.6 mile hike hoping to see some fall leaves. It was kind of sad that as we were driving up there, Skyler said, "What is that orange on the mountain?" We said, "Those are the fall leaves." And he was like, "No, I mean the ORANGE. What is the ORANGE on the mountain!?" Then we realized -- our kids haven't seen fall leaves. They don't know that leaves change color!

The day that we went was pretty chilly and kind of rainy, but it wasn't too bad. However, there were a couple of parts of the trail where you had to cross the river by stepping on rock stepping stones. In this one (above), it was pretty wide - maybe twenty feet. Skyler got about 3/4 of the way across, and then slipped on a rock and landed on his bum in the cold water. Instead of running the other 1/4 of the way across, he ran back to me at the beginning, and then had to start over! I felt bad because then he was extra cold since his jeans and shoes were wet.

As we were headed back down the trail this tarantula came crawling out of the bushes beside us. He started walking down the trail directly towards us, and we had to go around him. I dislike spiders with all my heart (understatement of the century), and it was really scary, but we survived!

When Skyler brought home his first term report card, it had a note included that said he was getting an award and we were invited to the awards program at the school. I went (Andy was at work), and Skyler received the "Remarkable Roadrunner" award, which is supposedly giving to the kid who is friendly, helpful, respectful, happy, and always completes his work and homework ontime and with good quality. They only picked one kid per class to win this award, so he was pretty excited that he got picked. 

We finally ordered a bunch of rock (the pile below x 2) and spread it all down the sides of our house and in the planter box that we made all the way around. It was a lot of work, but it looks so good! Now we just have to wait for Spring so we can get some plants.

Skyler's flag football team did really well. They only lost one game during the regular season, and they ended up losing to that same team in the semi-finals of the Super Bowl.

Disney World - October 2018

The first week of October we decided to take one final trip to Disney World before our annual passes that we got as Florida residents were going to expire. It was kind of sad to not live 3 hours away anymore! Instead we had to drive to Albuquerque (4.5 hours), long-term park, fly to Orlando, rent a car...not quite the same, but it was really fun to be back in Florida again!

Since we arrived at about 3am on Monday morning, we decided to go to Hollywood Studios the first day. We never can spend a whole day there, so since we planned to sleep in and get a late start, it was a perfect place to go on that day. While Andy took Kylee and Ally on Star Tours, Skyler and Colby went to meet Olaf. Colby was not thrilled!

The kids were really excited to go to the new Toy Story Land that opened this summer. We'd been seeing the signs for it the last couple of times we went, so it was fun to get to go once.

The new slinky coaster was just as fun as we thought it would be. Ally was so excited that she was tall enough to go on it, and the line wasn't actually horribly long. Also, since Colby is too short to go, we were able to get a rider swap so the older kids each got to go with Andy and then again with me.

While Andy and the older kids were in line for the slinky coaster, Colby and I went to try out the other new ride - which I don't remember the name of. It was a spinning space thing. It made me dizzy, but Colby had a fun time (despite his face in this photo!).

When we left Hollywood Studios the kids were tired, so for the first time ever we actually took a tram back to the parking lot. Andy walked with Colby in the stroller, and they arrived at the car at the same time we did (because Andy runs fast!).

We ended up eating at Sweet Tomatoes twice while we were in Orlando because we love it...and I had coupons. We don't have a Sweet Tomatoes anywhere near us in New Mexico, so we hadn't been there since we left Florida.

On Tuesday we went to Animal Kingdom, which is one of our favorites. At the petting zoo Ally was convinced that the goats were mad at her, and for the first few minutes she just ran away from them crying. Finally we convinced her that the goats were NOT out to get her, and then she enjoyed brushing them.

This time they also had some other animals out, including a couple of pigs.

We had fast passes for the safari ride, and just when we were almost finished it started raining a little bit. By the time we got off the ride and walked towards the exit, it was pouring. People were running for cover everywhere, but it wasn't cold at all. I realized that the safari ride line is all covered, and the jeeps are also covered, so we decided to see if we could just go on the ride again while it was pouring. There was no line at all, and we walked right on. It was fun because since it wasn't quite so hot as it usually is, lots of animals were out.

Skyler was tall enough to try Everest this time, and we convinced him to do it. He was TERRIFIED, but he went anyway. I took a video of him riding it and the whole time he was like "I hate this. I hate this. I don't like this. AHHHHHH!" But then he agreed to go again when it was over, and he was disappointed that he didn't get to go more than twice...so I guess in the end he liked it? Kylee discovered the beauty of single-rider lines, and went on this ride 7-8 times.

All the kids love the Kali River Rapids as well. I took them on it once, and then Andy took them with the rider swap pass. Then we went again when the park was just about to close because there's never a line at night. Nobody wants to risk getting wet when it's dark!

Skyler was also tall enough to try the Whirly rollercoaster (I don't remember the name!), so Andy, Kylee, and Skyler went on that while Ally, Colby, and I went on the Triceratops spinning thing. I love trying to take pictures of Colby. He grimaces and yells "Cheeee!"

Wednesday we went to Magic Kingdom, then Thursday to Epcot, and then Friday back to Magic Kingdom. By the end of the week we're always so tired, but at the same time it seems too short! I will miss living in Florida because it means we won't go back to Disney nearly as often. I just love seeing how happy the kids are there.

Last time we went I convinced Skyler to try Space Mountain and he HATED it. Like an "I'm never going on this again" kind of hatred. This time I convinced him to give it one more try. He made me hold onto him the whole time, which made for an awkward ride for me, and he was still terrified, but I was proud of him for giving it another try.

While the older kids were riding the Goofy Coaster (Ally's professed favorite ride, aka Barnstormer), I let Colby go play in the splash pad area. I didn't want him to be miserable when all his clothes were soaking wet, so I took off his shirt so that just his shorts would be wet. He had a BLAST. This kid loves water so much, and thinks it's hilarious when it shoots him in the face.

I think I have more photos of Colby than anybody else because he was my pal while the bigger kids went on rides with Andy. On Friday we went on Dumbo 5-6 times in a row because there was no line at all so we could just get off and then get right back on. Finally I got too dizzy and had to give up.

He also loved that he got to go on his own horse on the carousel.

On our way home they changed our flight and it made for a loooooong trip! We had to get up at 3am to get to the airport in Orlando, then we arrived in Denver and had to wait 5.5 hours for our connection. Then we flew to Albuquerque, and then we still had to drive 4.5 hours home. Andy I were awake for like 22 hours straight, and we were tired. Definitely wishing at that point that we could just drive 3 hours and be home...