We have so many digital photos from our phones that it is ridiculous and also kind of sad because I don't ever do anything with them! I went off Facebook right before our vacation, which is why I've decided to resume blogging so I can at least do something with all of our pictures. And in case anyone is wondering or is on the fence trying to decide whether to delete their Facebook account or not, it is seriously one of the best decisions I have ever made. I am not even exaggerating. It's embarrassing to admit, but Facebook was competing with my children (and husband) for my time and attention and usually won. Now that I am working, my time with the kids is limited and I want to enjoy and value the time I do have with them and with Facebook at my fingertips I was valuing other people's lives more than my own family. The first two weeks after deleting my account it was like I was going through withdrawals because I kept thinking to check Facebook or post something, but eventually the thoughts went away. Now it's been over a month and I have not intention of returning. I feel like I have my life back, I feel more present, and honestly like a huge weight has been lifted. I know that probably sounds dramatic, but I'm serious that it feels so refreshing to be done with it. Anyway, with all of our photos I hope to blog most of them and follow what a couple of my friends do and turn each year of my blog into a book. I'm determined one of these days I will do it, but I need to go back all the way to 2008 so I've got some catching up to do!
Here are the rest of our photos from around Christmas time in no particular order.
Christmas Eve dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. Scout was enthralled with all the fish.
Christmas Day downtown Disney.
Borrowing Sawyer's Mickey Mouse hats that Nana got him.
At the hotel getting ready to go to Disneyland Christmas Morning.
Don't let Sawyer's melancholy face fool you, he was super excited.
Unbeknownst to us when we booked it, our hotel was a two minute walk away from the Disney parking garages where the Disney trams pick people up to take you into the park. It was the perfect location!
Early morning picture taken outside the Disney Starbucks. The crowds were still at a minimum.
Sawyer and Matt on Space Mountain. That is a legitimate look of fear on Sawyer's little face. Apparently the kid in front of him was just as scared since he went into hiding.
Scout and I outside the baby changing station that was such a lifesaver! It was full of changing tables, the tiniest child size toilets, microwaves and sinks for making bottles, and attendants who were so nice and would help you with anything. I met a guy in there who was changing his little daughters diaper next to where I was changing Scout. He said he was there Christmas Day solo with his three children, the youngest being four months, and had flown from Utah with all three of them by himself so his wife could recover from surgery in peace and quiet. That made our 13 hour drive to California with a five year old and a ten month old seem like nothing in comparison!
Night time downtown Disney. You can kind of see just how many people were there that day. It was a zoo!
Originally I had decided not to put up any Christmas decorations since we were going to be out of town anyway. One day though when Sawyer and I were home and Matt was away we decided to put them up to surprise daddy when he got back. In the end, I was glad we did since the kids liked having the tree up so much!
We were going to drive to and from California the shorter way by going by the base of Mammoth. Then last minute we decided to go through Utah so we could surprise Sawyer by stopping at the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving point. It was well worth the extra car hours!
Even Scout had fun making friends there.
Sawyer's two favorite things the past six months have been dinosaurs and sharks so he was beyond excited when we saw the prehistoric shark section!
I wish there had been places like this when I was a kid! They had a room filled with sand with pretend dinosaur bones hidden in it that the kids could unearth with all sorts of tools like real archeaologists. I was half tempted to join Sawyer and help him and the other kids dig!
But like always you can only have so much fun before not an ounce of more fun can be had. This kid had hit his limit once we got to the gift shop and was less then amused when I had him try this hat on. We called it quits after that, picked up some Thai food to eat back at the hotel and put the kids to bed. Sawyer slept on the hide-a-bed in the room and Scout in our pack n'play. We watched a kids movie on cable and all of us were out by 9:30 since we had an 11-12 hour drive ahead of us the next day.
The next days drive actually wasn't too bad. We took our time and stopped to stretch our legs when the kids got antsy. For the most part it was a pretty easy car ride, or maybe it has just been a few weeks now so I've already blocked out the bad parts! Occasionally they took naps at the same time so then it was like Matt and I were practically on a date and could chat!
That night when we arrived at Nana's apartment we were famished! She and Matt went to go pick up some pizza for us and returned with this behemoth!
Carol had a stuffed dog that Scout loved to tackle and climb all over.
This was taken in Santa Monica at a little cafe we ate at for lunch before walking down to the beach.
I love this photo of Matt and Sawyer headed down to the water.
And lastly, we had yet to take the kids to see Santa before we left for California and I just assumed it wasn't going to happen this year. Then Christmas Eve we stopped at some outdoor outlets to walk around because the traffic was so bad on the freeway down to Anaheim and the kids were going bonkers in the car. When we walked up to the stores there was Santa's workshop set up in the square with Santa, Mrs. Clause and some elves practically just waiting for us to arrive! There was no line and we could take our own photos for free! Scout and Sawyer both weren't sure what to make of them so I think I was more excited for this unexpected photo opportunity than anyone else was!
We had a great finish to year 2014!
