Cousin Susannah Visits

Aunt Juliette and Cousin Susannah from Colorado visited for a few days and the girls were so excited to hang out with their cousin! Juliette and Susannah hung out at the beach and toured around while the girls were in school and over the weekend, Susannah stayed with us while Juliette was at a “Sister’s Retreat” in Newport Beach with some of Jake’s sisters.

Susannah has seven brothers!! With two sets of little twin brothers!! I can’t even imagine. So our very girl-centric family must have been a shock to her, but she seemed to love it and was so helpful and fun with the kids. She’s also great with hair and did a nice job curling their hair and putting it up. All the girls loved hanging out with Susannah, but Meredith grew particularly attached and wouldn’t let me help her with anything while Susannah was around.

“I want Susannah to help me go to the potty!”

“I want Susannah to read me a story”

“I was Susannah to get me dressed!”

I had to tell Meredith to leave Susannah alone so that she wouldn’t feel smothered and would want to come back!

 

We went to Aliso Creek Beach for the afternoon and had a beach bonfire. It was nice, but chilly for us, and we laughed that Susannah was constantly walking around in tee shirts and shorts, since this felt like hot weather compared to the snow she was used to.

Eleanor loved having an extra cuddler around.

 

Glasses and beach waves twins.

 

Lucero, Kennedy and Sebastian joined us for the beach bonfire. The kids hardly played in the sand at all because they were so occupied finding sticks to build a “nest.”

We were sitting down closer to the water, when I looked up and saw about 100 seagulls going crazy over something by our bonfire pit. Thinking I better go check it it, I ran over to our stuff, only to find that the evil gulls had somehow reached into our bag and pulled out a sealed, unopened Costco-size bag of hot dog buns and were fighting over it, ripping it to shreds! We’ve had seagulls steal sandwiches and other food that was just lying around before, but never have I experience that cunning of a seagull at the beach. Our hot dogs were bunless that night.

S’mores times.

 

When we got home from the beach last night, I asked where Sammy’s glasses were and we decided they must be in the car and that we’d find them in the morning. When our search in the morning did not turn up her glasses, I started getting a sinking feeling. I was not paying $800 for new glasses again! I remembered that Samantha had been lying on the sand, and Meredith had kicked sand in her face, at which point, Sammy had taken off her glasses and put them down so that we could get the sand out of her eyes. After interrogating her, we surmised she never put them back on, so they were still at the beach! I told her if we couldn’t find them, she would be doing a lot of chores to help pay for her new glasses, and she was pretty upset.

After they left on their rescue mission to the beach, I was already online picking out new glasses options. There was NO way they would be able to find them! Either they were lost in the sand, or someone took them.

Much to my shock, Sammy returned home, triumphantly, with her glasses! Jake had asked Sammy to say a little prayer in the car, asking Heavenly Father to please help them find the lost glasses. When they got out, everyone went to the bonfire pit we had been at the night before and searched. Amelia and Susannah saw something catch the light right below the fire pit and Amelia pulled out Sammy’s glasses, which were half-buried in the sand. A miracle! Samantha was SO happy to find them, and I couldn’t believe it!

Riding the ferris wheel at the Spectrum with Susannah.

It had rained so much that we went to see some of the waterfalls on local hikes.

Don’t know what Sammy’s deal is!

 

Susannah accompanied us to the park several times, and Meredith basically ignored me, preferring to play in the sand with Susannah and begging her to swing her.

Every parent has to put in four hours of volunteer duty at the snack bar for the season, and lucky for us, Susannah was there the weekend it was Jake’s turn (the league cut us some slack since we have two on the team and just made us have one parent put in the volunteer hours instead of both parents). Susannah helped with the kids during the game, while Jake was on snack bar duty.

Post-softball game park fun.

Susannah figured out a way to bribe Eleanor to crawl in a certain direction– she loves that Roomba!

Lots of love,

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Christmas Train and Hanukkah Party

Our Christmas season kicked off with our annual visit to Irvine Park Railroad to ride the Christmas train with cousins Noah and Hailey.

Waiting not so patiently to board the train.

All aboard.

Meredith asked the twins if they could pretend to be reindeer pulling her sleigh.

The girls had already written a letter to Santa, and after much deliberation and browsing the Lakeshore Learning catalog, they decided they wanted “puppy purses” (stuffed animal dogs inside a plush purse– 19.99 for 3 at Lakeshore, so DONE). Meredith also asked for candy, and Samantha and Amelia asked for new play doh and new shoes.. nevermind that they already have plenty of pairs each. They are both in love with the glittery Sketchers Twinkle Toes kind that are colorful and light up, but I don’t buy them because the light ups aren’t allowed at school and I like to buy neutral shoes that can go with any outfit. Nevertheless, they are total girls and love getting new clothes and shoes, so they decided to put that on their Santa list this year in the hopes that Santa would bypass mom’s preferences for shoe buying.

Christmas Train in years past:

 

Storytime with Mrs. Clause.

Meredith ran up to meet Mrs. Clause, but then had second thoughts.

We let the kids use their tickets to choose a few activities. Their favorite is always “ice fishing” and “winning” the cheap stuffed animal prizes.

Getting so tall.

Amelia and Samantha raced each other in the jeeps while Meredith went crazy in the bounce house.

Our other adventure with the cousins was hanging out at Auntie Lynn’s Hanukkah Party! It was a good thing Auntie Lynn made approximately 12,000 latkes, because the girls gobbled half of them up. Latkes with applesauce, yum! They were equally excited about the delicious blintzes, cute Hanukkah cookies and playing dreidel/winning gilt (we didn’t tell Meredith that they were chocolate, and it surprisingly took a while for her to figure that out).

Zack gave my biceps a rest from holding Eleanor.

Eleanor loves Great Grandpa!

Lots of love,

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Balloon Ride at the OC Great Park

When the cousins came down in October, we went for a Halloween balloon ride at the OC Great Park and spent the morning playing and biking with Noah and Hailey!

Ready to ride the great orange balloon, decked out as a pumpkin for Halloween.

Up in the air.

On to the next attraction…

Such a perfect fall day for a picnic!

Eleanor was napping in the morning, so I drove separately and joined the group when she woke up.

Rock climbing on the playground.

Poor Noah looked confused with the twins’ unique checkers “rules.”

The cousin biker gang.

Meredith and Hailey were so sweet with each other!

Eleanor wishing she could ride a bike too.

Meredith showed zero interest in her Strider bike basically the entire year until just recently and now she’s a pro. She rides all over town.

Meredith was getting ready to knock down her Jenga tower when this kid stole her thunder. I don’t think he expected the blocks to land on his head and hurt. He ran away crying while all the parents couldn’t help but laugh.

Going on a walk later after all the cousin excitement.

Lots of love,

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San Diego and Eleanor’s Entourage

Meredith planned the perfect time to break her knee and have a full length cast on because just a week later, Grammy, Grandpa and Aunt Sarah came to town! By then, the cast didn’t deter Meredith much, so we went about our normal activities. We had always wanted to try taking the train down to San Diego, and the girls finally got their chance with Grammy, Grandpa and Aunt Sarah as their volunteer tour operators.

Photo by Sarah:

A life goal fulfilled.

Ok, I’m over it.

There’s a local blog I follow which had a “practically free” day trip to San Diego itinerary. Kids were free on the train and most of the activities were free as well, although we’d definitely skip some of the activities and just do the children’s museum or Balboa Park next time.

They stopped at Old Town for some sightseeing around the shops and Mexican food for lunch. They also played at the park and then hopped on the train back home, totally exhausted from their journey. Photos by Sarah.

While our visitors were here, Jake, the girls, and everyone else took a walk on the San Clemente beach trail and stopped for breakfast and dessert.

Meredith was not going to let her cast hold her back from rock climbing.

Eleanor also welcomed visitors from afar coming to pay her tribute! Great Aunt Linda and Great Uncle David drove from Yucca and Annie and cousins Jack, Eleri, and Rhys came from Connecticut for the day, bearing gifts for everyone. Eleanor adored all the cuddles and attention. Meredith and the twins were so excited to play with their cousins and enjoyed a full day of swimming, playing and non-stop snacking.

Photos by Sarah:

Cuddles with Grandpa.

Chilling with Grammy.

Hugs from Great Aunt Linda.

Mesmerized by Great Uncle David’s beard.

Tea time with Great Aunt Annie.

The only person she would smile for was Great Grandpa!

So tired after a long day of visitors!

Rhys was especially so cute with Samantha and Amelia. It was a special treat to play with cousins all day!

All sugared up on strawberry shortcake.

Our pool was definitely at capacity!

Lots of love,

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