Eli's birthday, witches, and the snowy mountains

Eli's First Birthday!!!

Eli's birthday was on Sunday, October 4th. And what a birthday it was! It started bright and early, around 4:30 am to be exact. Our plane was leaving Long Beach at 7 am that morning, so we got up early to pack up the car and drive from Anaheim. We made it to the airport with a good 5 minutes to spare and hopped on our flight.

The first hour of the flight wasn't bad, excepting the fact that Eli's pee soaked diaper leaked all over my leg, but it really wasn't bad at all. Once we started our descent into the very windy Salt Lake Valley, it went a bit down hill. Passengers, including my poor nephew, Nathan, were making good use of their barf bags. Eli fell asleep amongst the ebb and flow and the plane, and I was actually having a pretty good time in the turbulence, until I looked at Jason's greenish colored face. Fortunately, he held his apple juice and pretzels down and we were all able to make it to the ground in one piece.

Eli was so excited to see our house and was ravenously hungry for lunch, so I rounded up some food storage and fed the kids, then put him down for a much needed nap. Once he woke up, we got back in the car (which was not a popular move for our birthday boy) and headed to Albertson's to break the Sabbath and purchase a birthday cake. I have been feeling guilty about this ever since, not of the Sunday shopping, mind you, but the fact that my baby's first birthday cake was an over processed grocery store bakery creation. I always make my kid's cakes, but the ox was in the mire on this one! No time, energy, or eggs in the house does not a birthday cake make.

After acquiring our cake and ice cream, we went up to Snowbird to celebrate his birthday with my family, who was visiting from St. George in our condo, which we share with my mom's family. We were under a bit of a time crunch, as my dad and sister were going back to St. George right after the party and the snow was coming down pretty good. Which was another feather in the cap of this birthday - the snow! Saturday, we played at the beach. Sunday, we froze in the snow. Not cool.

During the birthday party, Jason, who was still incredibly dizzy from the plane ride, fell asleep on the floor. The room was spinning for me, too, but I tried to be as peppy as possible for the sake of the party. Isaac and Alayna was acting borderline insane after the loooong week we'd had. And Eli was really quite angry and tired still. He ate cake, he looked at his presents, he attacked his cousin Hailie, and he cried. And that about sums up the party. It was much more relaxing for me, though! No real prep, no millions of people in my house, and no real clean up. I quite enjoyed it! Thanks for hosting, Mom!

Here are a collection of the best pictures I could get.

Hailie, Alayna, Eli, and Isaac. And, the mass produced birthday cake. Ta da!!!


Such a cutie! He was being a trooper, eating his cake despite the exhaustion. Love this kid!
Eli examining the Little People dump truck we gave him. All in all, he got a ball from Alayna, another ball from Isaac, a cute little fridge magnet set from Regular Grandma, and a See and Say from Wardle Grandma along with a handsome new shirt. I was trying to get a picture of him with all his new toys, but by this point in the evening, he was absolutely just done. It had been a very long day - no, a very long week - and he wanted to go home. It wasn't the most exciting first birthday of all time, but he'll never remember, right?

Gardner Village and Snowbird with my Family

We met my mom, Brian, Lindsey, and Hailie at Gardner Village on Wednesday for a little wandering among the witches. Unfortunately, every house wife in the southern part of the valley also had that same idea. The place was crawling with pregnant chicks and small children, so much so that we actually had to stand in line to take a picture with this witch! It was like being back at Disneyland, but colder and without all the gay people. It was fun, but would have been better without all those other people walking around.

I take my kids' picture by this witch every year. I've come to realize that you can never get three kids to look at the camera all at the same time while smiling and not moving. It just can't be done, so I take what I can get.
I just love his little jack-o-lantern teeth! His is such a cute little one-year-old!
Taken outside the restaurant at Gardner Village while waiting FOREVER to be seated! As usual, the babies are more interested in each other than posing for the camera.

We went and stayed the night up in a condo in Snowbird on Thursday, then spent the day up there Friday. We actually had planned to stay Friday night as well so we could spend more time with my family, but the plans changed. Jason and I went out to dinner to this uber fancy restaurant on Friday night, and just as we were finishing our meal, we got a phone call that Alayna was puking back at the condo. So, we skipped out on dessert, which was for the best really, and gathered our things. We headed back down the canyon with a Target bag for barfing in, and she made good use of it until she finally fell asleep somewhere in Sandy. Eli also threw up on the way into town, just for the record. All is well now, I think she just ate one too many chocolate covered almonds after swinging on the crazy swings at the Snowbird playground. So, even though it ended rather abruptly, we still had a lot of fun hanging with the fam.
Eli and Hailie have a strange relationship. They are very interested in mangling, tackling, biting and mauling each other, but they do it with love.
The three kids "playing in the snowy mountains" as Isaac referred to it over and over again. I kept trying to get him to walk over to the tram area and watch it, but all he wanted to do was play in the snowy mountains. It was freezing, if you can't tell.

Well, another busy but enjoyable week down. Only two more until Isaac goes back on track. I still need to post pics of Disneyland, the beach, and Isaac's soccer game, but that will have to come another day.