Disneyland!

One of the highlights of our Southern California trip was a day at Disneyland with Megan. Poor Liam had to miss all the fun, but got to have a full day of Mamaw's undivided attention.

With running shoes and a hair clip, Megan made it to the bottom of the 40 inch height measurement - meaning we could take her on all the rides! She was a champ on Big Thunder and was thrilled with the speed, but was Not a fan of the dark. "Too many caves." Mostly she didn't like any of the "scary" stuff - like bat eyes and wolves. She tolerated all the other dark rides - like Snow White, Peter Pan and Buzz Lightyear - but she still wasn't a fan of the dark or bad guys in your face. So it'll be no surprise that Megan's two favorite rides were Dumbo and the Tea Cups. We skipped all of the extra scary rides (Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain) this time around. Maybe next time!

In fact, Megan liked the tea cups so much, it didn't even matter that we only got a pink cup one of the four times we went on that ride!

Megan was super excited to see Mickey and we waited in line for 20 minutes or so, but just like Santa, when the time came she chickened out. So I got a picture of me and Mickey instead!

The other big thrill for Megan was the Disney parade. Megan beamed the whole time as Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Santa and all of the "princesses" ("except not Jasmine") waltzed by. Fortunately, we got to see it all again the second time around while waiting in line for the teacups!

Megan was a trooper all day and rallied till after 8 PM without a nap. One of the nice things about staying past dark is that we got to see all the lights that were up for the holidays. The It's a Small World ride even had a complete x-mas redo. Megan loved that the mermaids sang "jingle Shells!"

First Day in L.A.

Just one day after building a snowman, we were enjoying warm California sunshine. Pretty nice, especially sicne weather reports from Oregon included A LOT of ice and snow!

Sunday night we had the first of our many Christmas celebrations. This was Mac's family's traditional Christmas eve gathering, with the whole extended family, held one week early this year to include us and made even more cheery with some great eggnog!

First Snow

Megan has been babbling on about snow for the last four months. So this morning when we woke up with a couple of inches of snow, Megan was elated. Nevermind that we had a plane to catch in Portland later that day! Time to go out and play! Liam got to take his first real romp in the snow, too.

When it comes to snow, Megan has a one track mind: SNOWMEN! It doesn't matter that we only had a few powdery inches at that point. So we made our dirty snowman, then hurried to get everything packed up. By 10 am we were in the car, destined for nine days in snow free L.A.

Dad's Weekend

While I was off running, Mac got to spend some quality time with the kids.

Fortunately, the annual medical society holiday party was that weekend, so Mac had something to do with the kids. Megan got to hang out with her friend Kate, and the little brothers had a good time, too.

Megan was pretty psyched by the free carousel rides...

But not so thrilled with Santa.

Megan had Mac relay the desire for new marking pens - she wasn't getting any closer! Liam, though, thought Santa was a pretty swell guy; apparently the way to Liam's heart is with a free jingle bell.

Megan's friend Kate had no problem with Santa. In fact, she had a whole list rehearsed! But she wasn't so sure about the carousel. Where do kids get these fears??

Even with the Santa fright, everyone had something to smile about!

No Future In Arm Wrestling

This past weekend I went to visit my parents in Sacramento for the sole purpose of running the California International Marathon. Several other runners from Salem were there as well. Although we didn't travel down together, one of the spectating Salemites recognized me and snapped this photo right at mile 26, with less than 400 yards to the finish.

I forwarded the e-mail to Mac so he could put it on our hard drive.

"That's a really good picture!" he called me up to say.

I thought he was joking. "Are you kidding me? It is totally unflattering, I've got chocolate GU all over my shirt, and my bangs are plastered to my face with some serious hat head!"

"No. I am serious. You look really strong, especially because that is mile 26!"

Maybe the picture wasn't all bad. "Yeah, I like how big my bicep looks."

"What biceps?!?" Mac wondered. "You don't have any arm muscles. I just meant your legs!"

I also like the blur of my legs and the background - it looks like I was movin'! Photo aside - I had a great race, averaging 7:17 miles for a personal best of 3:10:36.

Meg and Liam

Two cute phots of the kids. Too bad Megan's got a sh*t grin. Hmmm - I wonder where she gets that.

Good Solutions

"Mom, I need new markers. These ones are getting all dried up," Megan says to me while coloring.

"Maybe you'll get some new ones for Christmas," I tell her.

"Can you call Santa and tell him I need some new markers?"

"Ummm..yeah, I will," I reply.

"Can you call him right now? I want to talk to him."

(I had to explain that Santa was too busy making toys to talk!)

*****
Today at school Megan and two friends colored Christmas trees.
After school Megan held up two crayon tannenbaums. "Madeline gave me this one and Sophie gave me this one," Megan explained,"but I only made one Christmas tree, so I cut it in half and gave them each a piece."