Disneyland/Kauai Adventure - Part 2

I often find myself wishing I could just bottle up a moment to remember it and save for later. Going to Disneyland with my 3 sweeties, much to my surprise, was one such moment. I was quite skeptical, given the ages of our kids, that it would be a waste of money as 1) they have only seen a grand total of about two Disney movies and 2) we literally had to you tube the word “rides” to show Isla what we’d be doing all day. She was thrilled nonetheless and her delight with the experience was contagious.

 

We didn’t really censor anything (as shown by the fact that the first ride we went on what Snow White’s Scary Adventure – I’d forgotten how scary that ride is! It’s name should have clued us in but it didn’t…) Afterword Isla asked “Was that ride a little scary?” We took her on Pirates of the Caribbean (again I’d forgotten how disturbing some of the scenes are) and I did my best to lighten the mood by saying things like “look at them throwing fireworks at each other!” In the end, this was her very favorite ride and she even put her hands in the air for the drops. She kept telling us absolutely adorable things like “I’m not scared because I’m so brave.” For some reason these comments made me love her twice as much as before, if that was even possible. We even took her on the Haunted Mansion ride. There was really no lightening the mood on that one but I tried nonetheless: “Let’s try and blow out all the birthday candles!” and “Wow, someone really needs to clean this house! Look at all the spider webs.” Even still, she was really brave (and continued to tell us so). 

The highlight for Graham was taking his two daughters with him on the teacups. They were hooting and a hollering and all three had their hands in the air. I’m pretty sure this was Emma’s favorite as she kept saying "teacup! teacup!" throughout the rest of the day.

Dumbo was also a big hit as was the carousel, for Isla at least. Emma wanted to be rescued from the ferocious horses I guess.

We got the spend the day with the Himes family who we hadn't seen since Christmas. They are Disneyland pros so they showed us the ropes and were all over getting us fast passes.

I was pretty disappointed that Isla was literally a curl too short for Splash Mountain. I think she would have done great on it! Graham and I went and got completely and totally soaked. I know, I know…I’m pregnant. I talked to my doctor and he left it up to me to do what I felt my body could handle and Graham said the ride was no more impacting than my driving (hey now!) so I just sucked it in and acted casual and there you have it. My only regret is not going on it again!

The girls both had a blast being able to "drive" the cars on Autopia.

Most of us ate Mexican for dinner; Emma on the other hand drank it. 

We arrived at the park when the gates opened and stayed until after 11 PM. Emma, who’d only taken a 40 minute snooze all day found a second wind and literally walk/ran the entire mile back to our hotel WHILE PUSHING her asleep older sister in the stroller. It was awesome and we received numerous comments from fellow walkers that the situation appeared reversed.

After a hard last year of grad school, this much-needed day of family time refreshed me to no end and I’ll cherish these sweet memories.

Disneyland/Kauai Adventure - Part 1

Attention one, attention all!! This will officially be my first solely iPhone picture post! I am LOVING my new graduation present (thanks Croziers!) and realize though the quality of the pictures may not be a great as what my camera can produce, I capture more in-the-moment pictures this way.

Ready to hear about our post-grad travels? Here we go! Originally I thought Graham was literally CRAZY to suggest a "quick" stop at Disneyland enroute to Hawaii. I'll be the first to confess I was wrong. It really was fun and worked out great, especially given our tickets from LA to Kauai cost us a mere $5 per person vs the $700 per person out of Seattle (thanks to miles!) The girls did awesome on the first leg of our journey. I think we have our iPod touch and our new iPhones to thank for that, not our expert parenting.

One perk about pit-stopping in LA was that we got to swing by Pasadena and pay Uncle Scott a visit. He was in the middle of a crazy week at work but was able to show us his totally hipster local of employment and then even treated us to lunch (unexpected spoilage!!) The girls love their Uncle Scott and were quite pleased to see him.

He took us to this great lunch spot/bakery called Euro Pane. It was there that I decided what I want my future kitchen to look like: white cabinets with black chalkboard, natural wood and green plant accents. Too bad they don't have a website for me to peak at and copy their design. Guess I just have to go back to remember what my kitchen needs to look like.

After returning Scotty to work, we popped into the Norton Simon Museum to get our fill of European artwork (are you sensing a Euro theme?) Graham still had his student ID card which made the visit extra cheap (technically his paperwork was not totally processed so he was still a "student"). They had some famous pieces there including this Van Gogh:

Then we made our way to our hotel in Anaheim (~3/4 mile from the entrance to Disneyland) for a swim in the pool. Isla had a blast and was shrieking with delight every 2 seconds as she splashed around. It was there that she officially did her first full bob! After a refreshing swim, we headed for the Rainforest Cafe for dinner, not totally realizing it was smack dab in downtown Disney. It's safe to say I am NOT a fan of "downtown" but we opted for patio seating and were in and out of there in no time and able to escape from the crowds. Isla discovered the ketchup AFTER the meal and proceeded to lick it off her plate.

Emma is crazy when she's awake and she's a crazy rocker chick when she's asleep. Love her!

Graham and I secretly ate a pint of Ben & Jerry's in bed while Isla "slept" (read: chattered about teacups and elephant rides and dreaming of rainbows) in the hotel queen right next to us. She and ducky finally did crash... 

Baby Crozier #3: 28 Weeks

This baby is due in 12 weeks!!

Holy moley.

Thankfully I think my nesting urges may have begun to kick in yesterday (yes, just yesterday) so I'm hoping that means we'll find some motivation to do something to prepare. We've done quite literally NOTHING.

The pregnancy is progressing well overall. I "failed" (or rather literally "straddled the fence" per my doctor) my one hour glucose tolerance test with a level of 130. I got to go spend another 3 hours in the lab to complete a 3 hour test. It was sort of nice (minus my arms looking like a pin cushion at the end) as it was the first time in WEEKS I'd sat down alone for that long - you take what you can get when you're a mom I guess!!

I totally thought I'd fail the screen and so spent a week following the GDM diet and even tested my blood sugars for a couple days (all were fine). But then my fasting came back at 49 (HYPOglycemic!!), my 1 hr was 165 I think (normal less than 180), my 2 hr was 138 (normal less than 155) and my 3 hr was 73 (normal less than 140). I passed with flying colors - hallelujah - and may just have been caught at Ben and Jerry's in celebration a mere 3 hours later. I'm still planning to follow a modified version of the diet, just to be safe - with indulgences of course!

I'm still running! But barely. Most days I go out and mid-run think "this will be my last run" but then I do it again and feel on top of world. My legs feel like they are asleep the entire time (hence my wavering desire to quit) but my doctor thinks its only a circulatory issue. I'm averaging 2-4 mile distances and plan to keep going as long as I can!! That runner's high is an addicting substance!

We are making progress with name options. I feel a little better about our list this time around and we may actually go to the hospital with names picked out!! A girl can only hope...

The after party

 I promise this will be my last graduation post. Maybe. 

 I struggled for weeks and weeks to try and come up with a way to say thank you to all those who were so vital in supporting us and lifting us up in prayer over the past 3 3/4 years. I even joined Pinterest to try and glean some ideas!!

 In the end, I settled on a casual party thrown in honor of Graham but also in honor of our guests to say "thanks for sticking by us!" 

 I also threw in a from-the-heart-toast (read: I cried) in which I tried to vocalize how much everyone there meant to us. Words never seem like quite enough but hopefully they got the point across. 

 We ate Asian pork tacos and fruit and had strawberry shortcake with homemade ice cream for dessert. Thanks Isla for the ice cream!

 

 I was so glad Graham's cousin Mark and his wife Heidi were still in town for the occasion. We love this couple!

 

 We missed having our out-of-town friends there to party with us as they were a tremendous support to us as well. 

We are thrilled to close this chapter of our lives and try our hand at being parents without grad school to complicate it. Here we are already over a month out and still feel like we are waiting for life to slow down, probably partially because Graham's still studying for his certification exam. I guess our pace won't slow unless we make it. Prayers for his test which is scheduled for Monday night!! We are praying for clear guidance after that's done.

   

Class of 2013

 Ok now for the actual graduation ceremony!! It was probably the best ceremony I've ever attended to one key reason: the graduate degrees walked first so we stayed all of one hour to see Graham walk and then *cough* excused ourselves to go party.

  We had a great turnout of family come to show their support - I think 17 in all!!

 Gideon won the "best dressed" award: shorts, rain boots, sunglasses (and reportedly hands thrust in pockets as he strolled)

 Look! The man of the hour on the big screen! They totally butchered his name and called him "Graham Closure" - kind of fitting, given the walk marked the end of his tenure at SPU.

I was SO HAPPY it was OVER!!!

 Proud parents

And the brothers

 The whole crew

Even just posting these pictures gets me all proud again. This day meant a lot to us!