Life Lately

So....Christmas is next week. Seriously!? Where did December go??

Anyway, I had great plans to make each of these their own blog post, but then December disappeared and I ran out of time. So..., here's a quick little update on what we've been up to:

DISNEYLAND!!  We went to Disneyland for Lydia's 1st birthday! You know, she was just BEGGING us to go, and we, being the nice and kind parents we are, finally consented to going. Or..maybe it was just that Lydia got stuck with some Disney nuts for parents and so we dragged her along as an excuse to get us there. Regardless of our reasons, we went and had the best time ever!! The parks were both decorated for Christmas, there were Christmas parades, the firework show was all Christmas-ey, and so was the World of Color. It was so fun to be there around Christmas time and to hear Christmas music being played all over the park. My mom and my little sister came with us, and we stayed across the street from Disneyland. I've never stayed so close before, and it was so fun to just walk right across the street each morning to get there. I wish we could have stayed longer, like always, but Disneyland is EXPENSIVE! Holy smokes. It almost broke our bank to go and Lydia is still FREE!! Sheesh. But we had such a fun time with her there. She was able to go on a lot more rides with us than I thought, and she really loved them. We rode on It's A Small World, the teacups, all of Fantasyland rides, the Haunted Mansion, Pirates, The Little Mermaid, Monster's Inc., and all of the Bug's Land Rides with Lydia. That's a lot, huh!? But her very favorite ride was Dumbo. She was just laughing the whole time. It was so so so cute! I love Disneyland, and it is so much better with a kid. I can't wait when we can go again with her when she's a little older and can get excited about seeing Mickey and the princesses. :)

She LOVED It's A Small World! I guess because there's so much to look at. :)

This was her 2nd favorite ride - the ladybug bop in Bug's Land. She would just laugh and laugh as it spun around and around.

Dave ran a Thanksgiving 10k. Nevermind that he was the only one that ran in it! Ha! He wanted to sign up for an official Thanksgiving 10k, but they were kind of expensive and he just thought it was so silly to pay to run something that you could totally do on your own. So - he mapped out his own route, and my sister helped me make a finish line, a medal, and a poster for him. We went and cheered him out at the finish line of his race. We got a few strange looks from other runners, but we didn't mind. Dave felt like he still got to run a Thanksgiving Day 10k, and it was completely FREE!!

Don't mind my homeless look. One of us decided to get up and run a 10k, the other one chose to sleep in and run a much shorter distance on a treadmill. :)

He won 1st place!! Hahaha. And last place too, I guess. :)

My cute little piano students had a Christmas recital. I rented out the recital hall of a piano store that is close to our house, and so they got to play their songs on a baby grand piano which made them feel really cool. It was so cute to see them so excited to play their songs. I was so proud of them and all of the hard work they put into memorizing their songs. They did SUCH a good job, and I just couldn't stop smiling the whole evening. I love teaching piano. It is the perfect mom job for me, because it lets me still be at home with my cute Lydia, but also lets me get my teaching fix in. We are taking a break for the rest of December, but I am excited to start back up again in January.

PORTLAND. The building that Dave works for recently got bought by another company called Generations that is based out of Portland. They were having a conference that Dave needed to be to, as well as a Christmas party that I was invited to, so they flew all of us (even Lydia) up to Portland for the weekend. While Dave was at his conferences, Lydia and I and Heather (Dave's boss's wife, who also came) explored Portland a little bit. We went to the Pittock Mansion, which was absolutely beautiful. The Pittocks were a family that kind of went from rags to riches in Portland and are a big part of Portland's history. The house was all decorated for Christmas, and it was really fun to go explore each room. I had much more fun than Lydia did - she didn't like that she couldn't touch anything.

What a view, huh??

Henry Pittock's office. 

They had a little music group playing Christmas carols. It was so fun!!

When everyone was out of their meetings, we explored some more of Portland together. We did Powell's bookstore (my favorite bookstore EVER), Multnomah Falls, Voodoo Donut, the Grotto, and Saturday Market. We definitely saw some fun and interesting people - the city of Portland is very COLORFUL. Haha. 

Lydia at Powell's.

We ate breakfast at the Multnomah Falls Lodge. It was SO tasty, and something we want to do again next time we are in Portland. 

Only in Portland. Lydia wouldn't take her eyes off of him for one second.

Some Voodoo donuts. That one with the yellow writing on it is a voodoo doll. The writing says 12-13-14, a popular day at Voodoo Donut. The pretzel is the pin in the doll, and right underneath the pretzel is raspberry filling, so it looks like blood when you cut into it. Haha. 

The Grotto was really beautiful. It was like the Temple Square of Portland. It's right in the middle of the city, and the whole thing is centered around a giant man-made cave where they normally have a replica of the Pieta that Michelangelo carved for St. Peter's Basilica. That was covered up for December, and replaced with a giant nativity with a star hanging over it. It was beautiful, and fun to see all of the lights. 

On Saturday night, we went to the company Christmas party. It was a cocktail party, so Lydia obviously wasn't invited. Luckily, one of my very best friends lives in Portland and she was nice enough to babysit for us! Lydia had so much fun with her and her hubby, and we were so grateful that they were able to watch her. After the party was over, we went back to their house and hung out there for awhile. We actually slept at their house, since Lydia was already asleep and we wanted to spend time with them. We stayed up way too late playing my new favorite game, Pandemic, and just catching up. Hannah made us the YUMMIEST breakfast the next morning before we caught our flight. We were sad that we had to leave so soon after seeing them. Dave and I always have so much fun with them, and it is always hard to say goodbye. Luckily for us, since Dave's company is based out of Portland now, we will be flying up there a lot more often now! Yay!!

Lydia had the greatest time unloading all of their cupboards. 

I cannot handle the SASS in this picture!!

Every time we get together it makes me wish that we lived closer!!!

We had to replace our water heater. When we came home from seeing some Christmas lights this week, we tried to give Lydia a bath and found out there was no hot water. So, we went and looked downstairs at the heater, and sure enough, it was leaking out the bottom. It wasn't a horrible leak, and there was a drain right by it so it didn't do any damage. Thank heavens! We turned off the water to the heater, and called our totally awesome neighbor who arranged to help us install a new one the next day. We were so lucky that he was able to help us - we were sure we were going to have to call a plumber and spend a ton of money paying a plumber PLUS paying for the new heater. We have the best neighbors EVER, and were so appreciative of the help. He and Dave got it installed the next night without any snags, and I enjoyed a nice hot shower the next morning. I ended up feeling so grateful for good neighbors and that there was absolutely no damage. It could have been so much worse!

Well, I think that's all folks. Thanks for tuning in! Merry Christmas!!!