A Very Merry Unbirthday

Allie, Gabe and I went to Disneyland for the last time last Tuesday. Our yearly pass was nearly done, and it was the only day that we could go during the week. Jeff was supposed to come with us, but some last minute things at work prevented him from accompanying us. That was really a bummer since it was his birthday! I felt a twinge of guilt going to Disneyland without him on his birthday, but he assured me that it wasn't a problem, he was going to be working late that day anyways. Allie, Gabe and I had a great day. The park was not very full, so we were able to go on all our favorite rides for the last time. Allie and Gabe were both selected to do the Jedi Training again. This time we wore our Star Wars costumes. They spent the rest of the day "forcing" me around the park and enjoying the comments about their Jedi status from all the park employees. All in all, we had a great unbirthday celebration at Disneyland without the birthday boy. Now our passes are done, and we won't be visiting Disneyland again for quite some time. It has been a great year.

The Force was with us on Thanksgiving.

Since we already had our Thanksgiving dinner needs satisfied, we asked the kids what they would like to do that day. We had several ideas, make taffy, and go camping in the RV, but the resounding winner was to have a Star Wars movie marathon. So that was what we did. They wanted to watch all six movies in one day, but I wasn't up for that. So we watched the first movie on Wednesday night, then movies two three and four on Thursday. We finished with Episode 5 on Friday and six on Saturday afternoon. It was a great Thanksgiving weekend activity! We really enjoyed watching all the movies and being together as a family. Now they are campaigning for a Harry Potter Marathon next year. On Thursday we were also able to go visit my Grandma for a while. We boycotted the traditional turkey and had a great ham and baked potato dinner followed by a delicious blackberry cheesecake dessert.

Thanksgiving Premonitions

We had thanksgiving dinner early this year. My cousin had her traditional Thanksgiving dinner at her house this year a little early since she and nearly everyone else would be out of town on Thanksgiving. So on November 13th, we had the whole thanksgiving day, turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and of course, pumpkin pie. Everyone was there, the Malmrose family, Aunt Jeanne, Uncle Greg and Aunt Joyce, the Kirk Broberg family and Susan Broberg with her family. The only thing that was missing was the after dinner football game in the backyard! Afterwards, we felt that our Thanksgiving needs had been satisfied for the year, one dinner is enough for us. So we voted to have our very own Thanksgiving this year sans turkey!

Anniversary

Since I have been enjoying playing volleyball so much lately, Jeff thought it would be fun to go to a college volleyball game for our anniversary. It was a wonderful idea. We went down to Cal Lutheran University (about a half hour away) to watch the Division 3 tournament. It just so happened that the home team was playing. We were able to cheer them on to a victory. We topped off the evening with a dinner of Mongolian Barbeque. It was like a buffet, we selected the frozen meat, vegetables, noodles and sauce, then they fried it on a huge skillet while we waited. It was a lot of fun, and very tasty. It was a great date.

Halloween

Our Halloween theme this year was Tangled. Allie was Rapunzel, Maddie was Mother Gothel, Gabe was Flynn Rider and Jayd was the frying pan. We had a great time at our ward party on Friday, then trick or treating with some friends on Monday night. The kids wanted Toby to be Pascal, but I didn't think they would appreciate that at the church and I was worried about him going trick or treating. So we found a stuffed substitute.

AWE.....He's so cute!

My newest nephew, Austin Williams Eichelberger, or AWE, was finally born on October 21, just missing my birthday by days. Despite his extra 11 days in utero, he was unable to best his older brother, Collin, as the biggest baby in the family, he was a measly 9 lbs 1 oz, a full 7 oz smaller than Collin. But size certainly does not diminish cuteness! We were so grateful that Krissy and Austin were able to come up and visit us on Thursday and to retrieve Collin. Collin had come to stay with us for a few days while Krissy and Austin got to know each other on the outside. We held the tiny baby, and took pictures. I had fun taking pictures of Allie and Austin's feet. They were just so tiny! Allie did a great job of helping with Collin. They really bonded while he was here. She was like his little mother.

Going to Grandma's House

As a child, going to Grandma's house was always fun. She lived in LA, about 6 hours away from where I grew up. It meant a long drive, sleeping in the office, playing with the wooden games, and always crowding around the pump organ to gently play the little finger songs that we were allowed to play. There were many memories at Grandma's house. It was always there, but it never changed.
No longer. Instead of going to Grandma's house, a small piece of Grandma's house came to me. After a few years in a nursing home, Grandma has come to realize that she should sell the house. My dad (along with his siblings) spent 2 weeks going through her possessions and dividing everything among children and grandchildren. I didn't think there was any bit of a possibility, but the old pump organ came to live with me, along with a wooden game, a painting done by her and a few other trinkets. It looks lovely in my front room. My favorite part is when I open the organ, I get a pleasant whiff of "Grandma's house."