This is becoming an annual tradition to go see the temple lights on the weekend after Thanksgiving. So last year we went to the temple lights with my fam in Salt Lake and this year we went to them in Mesa, AZ. I even saw my good friend, Ashley and her fam their too! It was great to see them again, since we were only in AZ for a short period of time.
Claire was pretty hyper (after over tired stage, she gets silly), and that is how we got this cute smile from her
As I said she was pretty tired and she fell asleep on the ride home at 8:30pm, she hasn't done that since staying up till 10pm on the 4th of July (but she isn't napping anymore, so I guess it makes sense)
A few fun stories from the trip:
-On Thanksgiving day, after an early dinner Claire was having quiet time in the pack 'n play, we were all sitting around the table after dinner just talking and all the sudden Claire runs out of the room and yells 'ta da'. At first I thought maybe Jason let her out, but he was in the front room. We realized that the pack 'n play was too close to the bed and she must have climbed out. It was pretty cute, though!
-Claire saw the bird shiver and ruffle up his feathers, something he does before he naps, and Claire says 'bird cold'
-As I was changing Claire's diaper, I told her 'I love you' and she smiles back and says ' I love you' (first time she has done that without anyone prompting her to). She must have seen the sheer happiness and pride in my face, because she looks up as if contemplating, and then smiles real big and says 'sucker' in the most endearing way. Yeah, she was milking me for treats, but it was too precious to not reward her!
This is how we survived the long snowy ride home! A big thanks to Uncle Nathan and Aunt Amy for letting us borrow the monitor and to Uncle Tim and Aunt Laura for letting us borrow so many kid shows, including Baby Einsteins which Claire loved. Oh yes, and to Jason for his ingenious and sturdy setup (shown below).
Here are some notes from our trip: Just got home from a 12 hour drive from AZ.It usually only takes 10 hours but we are so fortunate that it didn’t take longer!
-Claire was a great traveler home, she didn’t throw tantrums when going back in her car seat (like she did on the way there)
-our plan to have her wake up at 5am worked out pretty good and she woke up at 5:30am and wasn’t over exhausted on our drive home and was amazingly patient (we did no quiet time/nap the day before and put her to bed at 5:30pm- for which she promptly fell asleep)
- when we were barely moving forward (going 0-5 mph) for about an hour, Claire calmed down after I explained that the power inverter was beeping (meaning not enough power) and that meant no more show on the laptop (which is amazing since she was hysterical on the trip there when we paused a show to answer a phone call). We read books until we started moving faster which she really loved as well
- I had a productive trip editing pictures on the laptop while Claire was able to watch shows on the other monitor that Uncle Nathan let us borrow
-we got home safely with no accidents when we saw lots of cars which were bigger than us that went off the side of the road
- there was no mysterious crying (where Lauren finally realizes Claire is sitting on a pokey toy even though it just seems like she just wants out of her seat- like on the way there- don’t ask how I figured that out, lol)
- Claire slept from 6pm (night we got home) until 7:30am
- Jason accidentally left the Honda’s battery power key on the whole week (which means the battery usually gets drained by the cheap radio) but was amazingly able to drive it to work/ school – which is great because Lauren had a lot of errands to run that day
-found out later from neighbor that I-15 was shutdown both directions near Cedar City that same night we drove home because an oil tanker got into an accident and hotel rooms in Cedar City were going for $350 for one night (fortunately we had the foresight, and weather updates from grandpa vdH to leave early that morning!)
Claire was pretty hyper (after over tired stage, she gets silly), and that is how we got this cute smile from her
As I said she was pretty tired and she fell asleep on the ride home at 8:30pm, she hasn't done that since staying up till 10pm on the 4th of July (but she isn't napping anymore, so I guess it makes sense)
A few fun stories from the trip:
-On Thanksgiving day, after an early dinner Claire was having quiet time in the pack 'n play, we were all sitting around the table after dinner just talking and all the sudden Claire runs out of the room and yells 'ta da'. At first I thought maybe Jason let her out, but he was in the front room. We realized that the pack 'n play was too close to the bed and she must have climbed out. It was pretty cute, though!
-Claire saw the bird shiver and ruffle up his feathers, something he does before he naps, and Claire says 'bird cold'
-As I was changing Claire's diaper, I told her 'I love you' and she smiles back and says ' I love you' (first time she has done that without anyone prompting her to). She must have seen the sheer happiness and pride in my face, because she looks up as if contemplating, and then smiles real big and says 'sucker' in the most endearing way. Yeah, she was milking me for treats, but it was too precious to not reward her!
This is how we survived the long snowy ride home! A big thanks to Uncle Nathan and Aunt Amy for letting us borrow the monitor and to Uncle Tim and Aunt Laura for letting us borrow so many kid shows, including Baby Einsteins which Claire loved. Oh yes, and to Jason for his ingenious and sturdy setup (shown below).
Here are some notes from our trip:
-Claire was a great traveler home, she didn’t throw tantrums when going back in her car seat (like she did on the way there)
-our plan to have her wake up at 5am worked out pretty good and she woke up at 5:30am and wasn’t over exhausted on our drive home and was amazingly patient (we did no quiet time/nap the day before and put her to bed at 5:30pm- for which she promptly fell asleep)
- when we were barely moving forward (going 0-5 mph) for about an hour, Claire calmed down after I explained that the power inverter was beeping (meaning not enough power) and that meant no more show on the laptop (which is amazing since she was hysterical on the trip there when we paused a show to answer a phone call). We read books until we started moving faster which she really loved as well
- I had a productive trip editing pictures on the laptop while Claire was able to watch shows on the other monitor that Uncle Nathan let us borrow
-we got home safely with no accidents when we saw lots of cars which were bigger than us that went off the side of the road
- there was no mysterious crying (where Lauren finally realizes Claire is sitting on a pokey toy even though it just seems like she just wants out of her seat- like on the way there- don’t ask how I figured that out, lol)
- Claire slept from 6pm (night we got home) until 7:30am
- Jason accidentally left the Honda’s battery power key on the whole week (which means the battery usually gets drained by the cheap radio) but was amazingly able to drive it to work/ school – which is great because Lauren had a lot of errands to run that day
-found out later from neighbor that I-15 was shutdown both directions near Cedar City that same night we drove home because an oil tanker got into an accident and hotel rooms in Cedar City were going for $350 for one night (fortunately we had the foresight, and weather updates from grandpa vdH to leave early that morning!)
1 comment:
I'm glad you had such a great time in Arizona! Love the makeshift television, what a clever idea! Claire looks so old in some of those pictures! Can you believe our kiddos aren't babies anymore? Can't wait to find out what you're having! Two more days!
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