Tuesday, September 28, 2010

September Birthdays 2010

September birthdays have come and gone again. We celebrated on Friday (mine and my mom's birthday). We all worked, then went over to my parent's house for dinner. We ordered Olive Garden to go - so Yummy!! My brother, Chris (the birthday boy), and his girlfriend, Kristin, came over from Tempe. And my brother, Cory, drove up from Tucson. And of course my grandma (the other birthday girl) came over too. It was a nice relaxing evening catching up with my brothers, spending time with my mom, and actually getting to see Kristin. She started dental school in the fall and has been so busy she hasn't had time to come to the west side of town lately. Ryleigh and Kristin became buds, even though Ryleigh didn't know that Chris and Kristin were 2 different people. When we'd ask her where Kristin is, she'd go find my brother. Ryleigh did have fun "playing" video games that night. Her facial expressions were hilarious.
From September photos

From September photos

From September photos

From September photos

From September photos

From September photos


Saturday, Chris and I had a "date night". My parents offered to watch Ryleigh and Ryleigh could not pass up playtime with grampa! She has him wrapped around her finger!! Sad that our date night included grocery shopping without a child, and Cheesecake Factory for dinner.
Ryleigh loves playing with her babies now taking them for walks in her stroller.
From September photos

Gramma explaining to Ryleigh that the pool is broken. My poor mom had pneumonia a little over a week ago. Wednesday she was fine, and by Friday she was in the urgent care. Then she broke out in hives as a reaction to the pneumonia bacteria. Thank goodness for antibiotics and steroids. She was able to enjoy her birthday weekend!
From September photos

Silly girl... her current cheese face.
From September photos

Sunday, Ryleigh still hadn't had enough of Grampa. I was going shopping with my mom and Ryleigh heard I was going bye-bye and insisted she go too. And when she found out I was going to Grampa's house, she just HAD to go. "RyRy go" "RyRy byebye" "bye bye momma, RyRy go too" Crazy kid basically insisted she go, went and got her shoes and everything. She's definitely a toddler with a mind of her own!

apartment photos

Alright here's our new apartment. We aren't hanging stuff on the walls due to the hope that this place is just temporary (6 months-ish). Stuff is still in boxes. Our dining room is a storage room. And we still are losing thing constantly since we don't know where everything is.

Walk in and to the right of the "entry" is the kitchen.
From september2010

From september2010
On the opposite wall is the fridge and the pantry.
And to the left of the "entry" is this:
From september2010
Living room
From september2010

From september2010

Master Bedroom. Someday we'll get a matching bedroom set and a headboard lol
From september2010
Master bedroom hall. Linen closet on the left, walk in closet behind mirrored door on the right. 2 closets down to 1... tight squeeze :)
From september2010
Master Bathroom
From september2010
Hallway. Full size washer and dryer on the left, more linen closets on the right.
From september2010
Ryleigh's Bedroom
From september2010

From september2010

From september2010
Yes, she has the best furniture in the family!

And here's our dining... STORAGE room, and Ryleigh's dining room.
From september2010
And Ryleigh has a new "playhouse" from one of the moving boxes. Chris even spiffed it up with a door.
From september2010

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

We're settling in AZ

Just wanted to do a quick update. We're still alive. We in Arizona and settling in. The move wasn't as smooth as it could be due to a very uncoordinated moving company. The apartment is very nice. The layout is much more functional, even if some of the rooms are smaller. Our dining room is still full of boxes, but we've unpacked most of the stuff we need for now. I have started at Midwestern. I had a few days of orientation and today was the first day I got to go into the classroom. I'll take over that class next week and it will be mine for the rest of the quarter. I've been assigned about 5 lectures between now and the middle of October and one at the end of the quarter in November. Midwestern is really such a happy university. I'd forgotten how nice and friendly everyone is. I was wandering around campus and got lost with all the new buildings (when I was there, there were 5 buildings, now there's at least 10 that all look alike :) ) no one had a problem stopping and giving directions. It was so nice to learn about all the neat programs that Midwestern has for their employees and for the entire campus (Trick or Treat/Halloween party for the kids of all students and staff, staff Thanksgiving brunch, staff Christmas lunch, Easter Egg hunt). Not having to wear a pager or carry my cell phone at all times has been nice.

Hopefully I'll get around to taking pictures this weekend. My computer sorta crashed and lost a start up file. So I'm running windows 7 over Vista in order to keep access to all my old files, while starting over again and reloading everything. So hopefully I'll get some photos up of our new apartment and the Midwestern Campus.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Disneyland part 3 - Celebrate!

We got a pretty good seat for the parade. Ryleigh was up and dancing the ENTIRE time! She LOVED it! And this parade wasn't just a parade, it was a street show. So they stopped and danced and sang in front of us, then moved on further down the parade route. They let the kids play drums, form a conga line, and go out and dance with them. And the music was such an upbeat mix. We hoped they had a CD of the music, but sadly they didn't. Here are some pictures of Ryleigh. They're blurry due to her spaztic dance moves. At the end there are 2 short videos too.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

She's working on her footwork, check out the sway in her skirt!
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Every so often she'd need a break and this is how she'd sit.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

I'm not sure where this new hand gesture came from, or what it means, but she was really excited when she was doing it.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Mickey and Minnie's float.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Winnie the Pooh and Daisy Duck. And if you look closely on the other side is Woody and Jessie.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Videos of her dancing.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

After the parade, we took the Disneyland Railroad all the way around the park for one more tour.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

On the choo choo!
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

We had a very magical day at Disneyland. Ryleigh had a great time! When you ask her if she saw Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse's house, she gets a huge grin and giggles.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Disneyland part 2 - Characters, Fantasyland, and ToonTown

After Ryleigh's brief nap, we noticed Mickey out in the Main Street Square. Even though we were trying to get her to go back to sleep, we couldn't pass up Mickey Mouse! Even though she wasn't really in the mood to meet him at the time.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

After Mickey, we found Chip (or Dale, I always confuse the two).
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

And we found a good view of the parade. But it was just the short VoluntEAR parade (that is about a half hour before the real Celebrate! Parade). This was Ryleigh's first time seeing a parade. She was in awe.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Instead of waiting for the Celebrate! Parade, we decided to hit up Fantasyland. We went on Snow White's Scary Adventures, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Pinnochio's Daring Journey (Sorry no pictures, the lines were so short.) And of course the Carrousel!
Check out her posture! I'd love to sit that straight!
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

And you can't pass up Dumbo!!
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Then we headed over to Toontown.
"Let me out Dad!!"
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Mickey's House.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

We went to visit Mickey Mouse again. This time Ryleigh was a little more friendly. She gave Mickey high fives, fist bumps, and even blew him a kiss, and kissed his nose :)
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Off to Donald's Boat House.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Pushing the button for the horn.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Goofy's House
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

From Toontown, we saw just about everything we wanted to see, and it was almost time for the parade. So we headed down to Main Street to get a good seat.

Stay tuned for the parade, featuring Ryleigh's wild dance moves!

Disneyland part 1

On Wednesday, we went to Disneyland. We needed to go one more time before we left California, and it was Ryleigh's first visit.

Our first stop was to get Ryleigh a pair of Mickey Mouse Ears!
Here is Ryleigh's hat getting her name embroidered on the back.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Watching her ears be made.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

She can go find Mickey Mouse now!
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Ryleigh's first Disneyland Ride was Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters.
Getting ready to get on.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Shooting some Zurg's people.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

"BUZZ!!!"
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

After the Astro Blasters, we went to Finding Nemo's Submarine Voyage. Chris and I had season passes to Disneyland before we had Ryleigh. The line for this ride was always so LONG we never went on it. So this was a first for all of us.
Here's the back of Ryleigh's hat, while we were waiting in line.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Here's our Submarine!
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Ryleigh's ready to find Nemo.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

After Nemo, we went to It's a Small World. We were getting ready to park the stroller, when we looked at Ryleigh. She was staring at the ride like this - taking it all in.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

What's so funny guys?
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

In the boat ready for It's a Small World.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Just checking things out.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

She's in awe. She's getting ready to go on the Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Pictures with Winnie the Pooh.
From 2010.09.01 Disneyland

Then we ate lunch at the Hungry Bear Restaurant, and then tried to get Ryleigh to go down for a nap in her stroller. We went down to Main Street to shop for a bit while Ryleigh hopefully got some sleep. She got about 30 minutes.

Stay tuned for the post-nap adventures...