California

It's been busy at our house and I haven't been very good at keeping up. Let's start with Thanksgiving... We took a family trip to California and visited 2 days at Legoland, 1 day at SeaWorld, & 3 days at Disneyland over Thanksgiving week. It was a lot of fun, but I very much missed being with the rest of the family on Thanksgiving day. Shane gave me tickets for
my birthday back in August, so it was a long time planning and seemed like it took forever to get here. Here are some fun pictures from our trip.

We started off our trip at Legoland. It was the highlight of the trip for Bricker. Can you tell by the look on his face?

Everywhere was decked out for the holidays. Here the kids are in front of a Christmas tree made out of legos.

Bricker & Madelyn

And lets not forget Tate! I wanted to retake this picture, but Shane said it was perfect :)

This was our first ride of the whole trip. I wanted to get Bricker on a rollercoaster... Here him & I are in the backseat. Lets just say he didn't want to go on anymore rollercoasters the rest of the trip! Madelyn surprised us and went on everything.

Next stop was SeaWorld. Shane's favorite of all the places we went, because it was less crowded and free for military families. By the way, Shane was a trooper. He absolutely didn't want to do this trip, but did it anyway for the kids & I.

Shane & the kids got a kick out of feeding the sea lions.

Disneyland was our last stop, and where we spent Thanksgiving day. My Aunt that lives in California was able to meet us here for this portion of our trip. Disney was the highlight of Madelyn's trip. It was the worst of Shanes! Lets just say they meet their maximum occupacy Thanksgiving weekend! We were there 3 days and didn't even have time to go on all the rides because of wait times! I've been to Disneyland lots and never seen it that busy! I decided from the begining though that we were going to make the best of it, so we tried!

This picture was a great moment... Earlier that morning while we were getting ready Madelyn colored a picture out of her Mickey Mouse coloring book and decided she was going to bring it with her to Disneyland that day and give it to Mickey. I was thinking she would forget about it as the day went on, so said ok. Well what do you know, we found Mickey that day! She ran up to Shane & I and asked for her picture then proceded to the line to wait to see Mickey. Only to find that he had to leave for a parade. She was so sad. Shane said to just give it to the guy leading Mickey around, so we went back up to the line and I explained to Mickey's helper she wanted him to give the picture to Mickey. Mickey's helper then said we could go wait in the corner where Mickey would be leaving and she could give it to him on his way out, it would be more special that way. Madelyn was thrilled! It was the cutest thing as she handed Mickey her picture, and he gave her a BIG hug. It made her day. So that made the whole crowded Disney trip worth it! We had such a blast. The kids did awesome, considering we did 6 days of amusement parks in a row. This is Madelyn on our last day at dinner.

She ate her dinner & was out. Thanks Shane for letting us go, you're the best!

So... That was our California trip. Once we got home I had 3 days to unpack and wash up all our clothes and pack again. And lets not forget little Tate turned 2 right after Thanksgiving! So we threw in a birthday party for him before we left again.

I can't believe he's 2. Was it really 2 years ago Shane left me home alone to go camping with his buddies and I went into labor...

After all the parties, laundry, and packing Shane & I headed off for our annual trip to Las Vegas for the first 3 rounds of the NFR (National Finals Rodeo). We always enjoy this trip, and I think this is what got Shane through our California trip, knowing that his trip was soon! I forgot the camera this year. I'm so mad at myself... We had a blast though. Along with the rodeo there are a bunch of convention centers at the casino's that do Cowboy Christmas. Consisting of anything you can possibly image to purchase and all things cowboy. We shopped and shopped all day then went to the rodeo at night. It was fun. So now we are finally home and getting settled back into a routine again and preparing for Christmas.