Building Our Eternal Family: November 2015

Trying out a new restaurant after a baby appointment.

First snowfall of the year.... mmmm tasty.

More baby appointments.

"The Wall" project is finally finished! Looks so great. I'm so glad Matt just jumped in and started this. We may have never done it otherwise.

These next 4 pictures were from the summer and got mixed up.

At our dinner party, in Washington, Finn entertained himself in their toy room as Captain America. He didn't want to take it off, so they let him wear it back to the hotel. They were so nice!

On the plane home from WA.

Not sure who's birthday we're celebrating here at Grandma and Grandpa Nelson's house.

Mueller Park, maybe?

Covey finished his biggest book yet. 544 pages!

This is the dollhouse my granny built for me when I was little. I've been saving it at my dad's house for the day I had a girl. Now it's time to fix it up!

I thought this was pretty funny!

Baby girl's room coming along...

My granny also painted me this shelf. It says "Julia's Place" on it.

Nick sent me this picture of them at Disneyland so I'd be jealous about all the fun we were missing out on. (They went for a full week and we could only make it for 2 days.)

Our first morning at the house in Anehiem!

Covey's carrying his list of "Must Do's"

First day was California Adventure. Matt was at a conference for the day, so he missed out on this park.

Papa Mike and Finn on Mater's Junkyard Jamboree.

Toy Story Mania was Finn's favorite ride. He begged to go on it again all day.

Covey went on Screamin' with Aunt Katie and again with Uncle Nick. They had me going that he puked his guts out afterwards. But he really loved it. Since I was pregnant and Papa Mike is old, we took the littles on the carousel and swings.

Mickey's Fun Wheel. Me and Covey were sitting on the other side. All the girls were screaming and Covey kept saying, "It's not even scary! Why are you screaming?" Finn agreed with him, though he kept was suspiciously quiet.

While everyone else went on Grizzly River Rapids, Mitchell was awesome and helped me out at the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. I was holding a sleeping Nixon boy, so Mitchell followed Finn around for me.

I also got to have some one-on-one time with Mitchell at the Animation Studio, while everyone went on Tower of Terror. Being pregnant definitely has perks! Love this kid.

Finally gave in to Finn's pleads to go to Toy Story Mania again.

After watching the World of Color show, we hit up Ariel and Mater's rides one more time on our way out. Finn had to go with Papa Mike again.

Day 2! Dad got to come!

A little tram tickling...

...and tongues.

We headed straight for the Star Wars rides. The boys rode HyperSpace Mountain twice, except for Finn who refused to go the second time, and got Fast Passes for later.

We didn't have time to watch this show, but I took a picture nontheless.

Then, we booked it back to the entrance to get a picture with all the grandkids and Papa Mike wearing Beatles shirts. Since Grandpa was paying for the house for us all to stay in and made it possible, we decided to do something special for him. All the kids paying homage to his favorite group of all time was pretty fun.

A little meet 'n greet with the main mouse himself.

This is definitely one of the sillier rides, but we went on it twice because the line is short.

I saved spots for the Jedi training show, while everyone went to Matterhorn. Afterwards, Covey was dying to go on HyperSpace Mountian again, so while he did that with dad and Uncle Nick, Finn and Papa Mike, and I went to meet some superheroes!

All the cool IronMan suits

Spiderman was the best! He was so cool and took his time with Finn. He showed him some spidey moves and told him if he's every scared, he can call him for help.

Then, I asked Finn to choose between meeting Chewbacca and Darth Vadar (because the lines were so long). He chose Darth Vadar, but when it was his turn to go up... he changed his mind. "I think I need to take a break," he said. Papa Mike thought that was pretty funny. I had to go up to him first and show Finn that it would be okay.

I took Finn and Nixon to the Tarzan Treehouse while everyone went on Indiana Jones. This is where Faye dared Covey to lick a stalagtite... and he did.

After a freak out at Haunted Mansion (by Finn), Pirates, and Splash, we headed to It's a Small World, because riding this at night is one of my favorites.

Finally! Matt and I get to sit by each other on a ride!

Then, there was time for one last ride before I needed to save seats for the Light up the Night parade. Finn chose Dumbo and Covey chose the Storybook Boats. He said it was a date for us.

While I saved seats, Matt took the boys on Big Thunder Mountain RR, which they all loved and then headed to build their very own double lightsabers courtesy of Papa Mike!

This was the coolest parade in the history of parades. Seriously one of the best parts of the trip.

On our way out of the park...

The next morning there was just enough time to have an epic cousin lightsaber battle before we all had to say good-bye.

On the way home...

We actually had a small miracle on the way down. Because it was so dark Matt missed the turnoff in Elko and we unknowningly went 3 hours into the middle of nowhere. We got caught in the desert with low fuel and there were no gas stations coming up until we would be well past out of gas. It was a nerve-wracking situation, but we said a prayer and somehow we made it to a gas station! Heavenly Father loves us!