Life is funny. Sometimes, the girl that your husband dates his freshman year of college becomes friends with your brother and sister-in-law, then moves to Oregon, and you hang out with her and her daughter with your family (sans brother, actually...) and it's not awkward. Go figure. And, yeah, true story.
While in Oregon for Christmas, we went to the Children's Museum with Steph and her daughter Molly. It was amusing to see Calista and Molly interact - they are both energetic and stubborn children, and we were a little apprehensive that they would be less than kind to each other. But they got along pretty well! Of course, it helps having fun things to do, and the Children's Museum is full of those.
Calista driving the bus. Kyler and I both pretended to be passengers, and she let us know when it was our stop.
They had a whole section of The Wizard of Oz, including these building blocks that Kyler and I are always suckers for. It's just so fun to put them together!
Instead of somewhere over the rainbow, she is under it. And about 10 seconds after the picture was taken, Calista asked if she could knock it over, and we consented.
Calista and Molly loved the "real" stuff best, like the grocery store and the veterinarian's. At the grocery store,
they took turns scanning each others items,
And then bagging them. What excellent service!
They are building something.
Because Calista has said at times wants to be a builder of trucks when she grows up.
Craig's favorite part was the large faux "Lite Brite."
He spent a lot of time putting the colors in and then taking them out again.
Our trip itself (to Oregon and back) was pretty uneventful, which we were grateful for, especially considering it was December, and we were driving over mountain passes with two little kids.
One of the stops we made - which I oddly didn't get any pictures of, oh well - was to the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre. It was awe inspiring, sobering, and amusing all at once, plus it was a great chance to let chitlins out of the car and run around. While we were driving away, though, Kyler and I both said we'll never look at that mountain the same again...
In both directions, we chose to stay in Sandpoint, ID. It worked well, I think. Children slept well...
Which means we slept well.
We obviously also had naps in the car on the road trip.
One of them, Calista told us she was tired and wanted to sleep in the bed in the hotel. We said, sure, we'll be there in about 40 minutes... and then next thing we noticed she was asleep.
Well, she did warn us.
While in Oregon, we did lots of fun things, which is why there are going to be fifty bizillion blog posts about them. But there are a few things that I'm not writing specific posts about but I still want to mention.
One of those things is our trip to the Portland temple, were Kyler and I got married. He and I actually took two trips, but we only took pictures of the time we brought the kids.
We have a picture of Kyler and I on our wedding day that is similar to this.
Aunt Loradona and Craig (with Kyler and Calista in the background).
Kyler and Calista properly.
It was so nice to take Calista to the place we got married and to teach her about the importance of the temple.
One of my favorite things about this trip was just seeing my family interact. Loradona had never even met Craig, and Calista loves Grammie and Grandpa!
Grammie and Calista went on a date to get their nails done.
Calista loved it and was really good as they put purple sparkly polish on - even if she did bite it all off of her fingernails pretty quickly.
Grandpa got in on the action, too.
Craig actually let him cuddle.
Probably because Grandpa also read his favorite book to him.
And Calista loved spending time with him
Especially outside! (Oh, how I wish we had a backyard!)
And of course, Aunt Loradona was fun to have around.
After all, she was willing to blow bubbles...
...and be a jungle gym!
Of course, they got to hang out a few days with their other grandparents on the way back, too.
Also a success.
My mom got out this little chair that used to belong to her when she was a little girl. Craig (and Calista) loved it.
Can you tell?
Any time it was available, he was sitting in it. And looking so grown up!
Craig didn't sleep that well on our trip, at least not when and where we wanted him to.
He slept way too often in our arms, and other places we didn't want him to. Like at dinner.
Seriously, we could NOT get him to wake up for anything for about 40 minutes. Then he was awake two hours past his bedtime that night and on and off all night... of course...
Calista loved the park as well as the backyard, and went there at least a half dozen times on our trip. One day Kyler took her, while they were gone it started pouring rain. The jacket Calista had taken wasn't waterproof, so she was getting wet on the walk home. Kyler did the fatherly thing,
and put her on his shoulders with his waterproof jacket over her. Awww.
She was still soaking wet, but not as bad as it could've been, and pretty cheering about wearing daddy's coat.
My family got to experience first hand the little climber that Craig is. One day, he climbed up the front of the couch, turned, and slide down over the armrest at the side, crawled back to the front, climbed up it, turned, slid down... repeat about 20 times.
He also loved to climb up on the chairs in the dining room.
Sometimes this was just to see things, but other times there was a very clear motivation,
like the yogurt his sister had left behind. (Who leaves behind Tillamook yogurt? Silly girl!)
Since it was a different environment, there were plenty of new and different things to enjoy.
Like wooden blocks that make a good phone substitute (although the phone substitute idea is nothing new),
Magazines to "read" like a big girl,
Dishwashers to help load and unload,
Soap that makes way more bubbles than the stuff we have at home!,
And stacks of chairs to climb up and be as tall as mommy.
Calista and Craig were around everyone long enough that soon they just acted like they always do,
Whew. After four weeks away from home, we made it back. And, as usually happens when we go out of town for a long time, there is plenty to write about. So here's my plan (subject to change):
A post about our travels to and in Oregon, and back to Canada, including random moments not included in any of the other posts.
I took Calista to ZooLights here in Calgary. We go to the zoo almost every week, and for months now, we've seen them putting more and more lights up in preparation, so I decided to let her see the finished product. It was just her and me. We bundled up: snow pants and long underwear, winter boots and scarves, the whole nine yards.
On the way to the zoo, the first time ever in the nighttime, she told me, "It's dark, but there will be lights so I can see." Calista also noticed the moon as we were driving, especially since she and I studied the letter M this week, and the moon just that morning. "Look Momma, the moon! He's following us! He wants to come to the zoo with us. He's nice."
Her excitement was off the charts. As we pulled into our parking space, she said in her squealiest voice, "I soOOooo excited!" And so was I, mostly to watch Calista looking at the lights.
Every moment was magical for her and left Calista in awe. Seeing the lights with a three-year-old reminds me to celebrate all the little beautiful things.
She got to visit with Santa. Calista has been talking about seeing Santa for a while now (where did that come from??), and when the time came, she happily rushed up to him, but didn't want to sit on his lap, so she didn't. No worries. She was still thrilled.
He didn't ask her want she wanted for Christmas, and she didn't volunteer - I definitely didn't mind. We did walk away with a couple candy canes - yum!
After Santa, we headed to the skating rink they had set up. She definitely wanted to go skating - "on a frozen lake," - so we went to grab a pair of skates for her. I decided to just stay in boots, since I'm not terribly steady and I wanted to make sure she didn't hurt herself. It was a good move, Calista did not want me to let go of her hands (both of them!) the whole time. I tried to convince her to hold on to the wall so I could get a quick picture, but no dice. She seriously loved it, though, in spite of her unsteadiness. We went all the way around their rink twice. At every exit, I asked her if she want to be done, but she said no - "This is so fun! I skating!" Once we got off the rink, she finally consented to a picture:
Pink ice skates and all.
Right outside the skating rink there was a voice-activated light-up tree. Calista went over to the microphone and started singing Jingle Bells and dancing. The the tree started singing Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas is You," she paused and listened for a moments, then started singing "It's Christmas! It's Christmaaaaaasss!" and dancing. It was one of those moments when I thought my three-year-old was about the cutest thing in the whole world.
I am so glad that Calista and I were about to spend some time together, just the two of us. We played tag in an area of hay bales in the kid zone - oh, the giggles! - and we walked all around until Calista tried to sit down on the sidewalk and said, "I don't have power... I tired." So home and to bed we went.
But not before stopping and taking a picture with an orca... obviously.
Merry start of the Christmas season to all, and to all a good night (after zoolights).
For the first time, Calista got to pick her own costume for Halloween. Craig just got stuck with whatever we wanted him to be - a rock star, to show off the mohawk that is slowly becoming less obvious as the rest of his hair grows in.
He studied hard for the role.
Calista has been talking about what she wanted to be for a few months. If you asked her back in August, she'd rattle off a list of about a dozen different things, including dinosaurs, witch, cat, princess, dragon, etc. But slowly, that list changed to be just one: dragon. "I'm going to be a dragon for Halloween," she announced, and has stuck with it. So, I found her a costume, and the joy on her face when I showed it to her was fantastic. Calista took her costume from me, held it close, and begged to put it on immediately. (She didn't get to, since she was buckled into her carseat, but when we got to our destination, the first thing she did was try it on).
Also for the first time, Calista truly picked out what we would carve on our not-pumpkin jack-o-lantern. When we asked her what she wanted on it, after a few moments of deliberation, she declared she wanted a spider.
So, a spider we (Kyler) did.
As long as there was watermelon to eat, Craig was a happy camper.
When we were done carving and about ready to put in the candle, Calista wanted to "sing 'Happy Birthday' - to everybody!" and then blow out the candle.
We were about to convince her to hold off until after we got a few pictures.
A spooky watermelon spider!
And one last first: for the first time, I got the kidlets matching pajamas!
Calista loved her "spooky boo 'jamas," and Craig... didn't want to sit still.
He's 13 months old, what do you expect?
Being in preschool now (what a big girl!), the day before Halloween she had a party and got to wear -her costume.
And roar at everybody, obviously.
For Halloween itself, , Calista got into the dragon again (roar!), and Craig got to have his hair dyed for the first time - he hated it. I didn't get it anywhere close to his eyes, but he still acted like the world was ending. Once I was done, he was fine.
And hardcore.
After a quick trip to the park, we went to show off their costumes at their "grandma's" apartment.
There is a little old lady (90+) at church who is in love with Calista and Craig. She showed off the kiddos to all her neighbors, too, and Calista roared at every one. Apparently I should have brought Calista's candy bucket in. I didn't because we weren't actually trick-or-treating there, just visiting... but we left with my pockets bulging with candy, and everyone's tummies bulging with cookies, candy, fudgesicles, chips...
After than we headed to the mall to make a craft and get more candy.
Calista had a lot of fun with the glue, and did everything all by herself.
This girl is growing up so fast!
Craig discovered that the rock-n-roll lifestyle has to take a break sometime, too.
Because, seriously folks, it's exhausting to be a rock star.
It's exhausting be a dragon, too, and Calista was more than ready for a break when we got home from the mall.
She couldn't get her shoe off.
After a little recuperating and dinner, as well as Daddy coming home, we headed to our final stop of the day: the office here at our complex for their haunted house and massive amounts of candy.
All in all, a pretty good day. Anyone want to share a peanut butter cup?
Kyler and Jeanette got married on the 25th of August 2007, after knowing each other for four years and being each other's rebound date. It's a healthy relationship.
Calista driving the bus. Kyler and I both pretended to be passengers, and she let us know when it was our stop.
Instead of somewhere over the rainbow, she is under it. And about 10 seconds after the picture was taken, Calista asked if she could knock it over, and we consented.
they took turns scanning each others items,
And then bagging them. What excellent service!
Because Calista has said at times wants to be a builder of trucks when she grows up.
These little girls somewhat patiently awaiting their grilled cheese.
Thanks for the fun day!
