Catch Up - Grayson's first "real" Yellowstone trip

I feel like a broken record (or as kids now days would understand- an ipod on repeat). I am so sorry I haven't updated. I am mostly apologizing to myself, but if anybody else has missed us- I am saying this to you as well.

So, let's start catching up.

In September I decided we needed a weekend away, so we headed over to my sister Joyce's house and took Grayson through Yellowstone park for the first time other than a quick drive through at 2 months old.

He loved it! We loved it! He saw a few animals, but the fires, among other things, had made it so less animals were out. But he did get to see a buffalo.

So excited to be in Yellowstone.

Photographer in training?

After a fun filled day- we came home to find not 1, not 2 but 3 Moose in Joyce's "backyard".

It was a fun weekend. I feel so grateful for this beautiful world Heavenly Father has created for us.

Zoo

It is hard to believe that the summer is winding down. We only have one week left until school starts up. I feel a little overwhelmed with everything going on for us, but excited as well.

For those who do not know, Mike and I struggled to start a family for nearly 8 years before we were told Grayson was on the way. We were thrilled last summer when we found out we were expecting after only 2 rounds of clomid (a pill fertility drug) to help me ovulate. Unfortunately, we ended up losing that pregnancy, and have been going through fertility treatments ever since. This month, we have returned to our fertility specialist to start more aggressive treatment. So I have a lot of appointments, and lots of hormones running through my body.

Mike has been on mandatory "extended scheduling" (overtime) because they are super busy at work. He has been working 60-70 hours a week, and while the paychecks are amazing, it makes for one tired daddy. We are just happy that his schedule starts at 5 am, so he is still home in time for dinner and a little time with Grayson before his bedtime.

Grayson is growing up way to fast. He has amazed me with how much his vocabulary has grown. He comes up with some of the funnest little games as well. He loves to run, dance, and he is super social. He loves animals and we have spent a lot of time at the zoo, making good use of our annual pass. We also are going to take him to the fair (on family day when no smoking is allowed) for him to see all those animals.

Speaking of the zoo, we went today and did the butterfly exhibit, as well as other fun stuff.

Hoping to find some more fun things to do this week before school starts!

MK Nature Centet

More Catch Up

Here are some pictures from my phone! YAY!

Risky Business

Cosmic Bowling

Finally Meeting his Uncle Joey

Mini Golf

Paddle Boats with Mike's niece and nephew

Day at the Beach- well, Sandy Point

Bad Blogging Mommy

UH OH! As Grayson would say!
I guess I am in big trouble. 2 months without a entry. BAD BECCA!!!!!

So, let's play catch up.

Mike:
Took summer classes and had 2 classes that both required weekly essays among other things. He was also working about 50 hours a week.

Me:
I have been doing a lot of crafting. I have a site for these crafts. They are all Disney crafts and posts. www.loveourdisney.com
I have enjoyed getting out and doing things with Grayson this summer. We have made good use of our zoo pass.

Grayson:
Growing like a weed. It is amazing to see how much he is changing. His vocabulary continues to amaze me. He has an amazing sense of humor. He is super social. Very polite, and plays really well with other kids considering he is an only child and doesn't get a lot of play dates.

The Family As A Whole:
We have had Mike's niece down here at the beginning of the summer, and then his niece and nephew down here these last few weeks. We have had a lot of friends who have given us passes to places, coupons, etc to use to go do things with them so it has been a fun filled time.

Mike's cousin, who was the ring bearer at our wedding passed away in July. It was a very sad situation. As a mother, I hope my son never feels that alone and desperate that he feels he needs to leave this world in that manner. The trip up for the memorial was bittersweet. Obviously there is the obvious reason that it was bitter, but it was nice to get to see family. Grayson finally met his Uncle Joey.

I have been bad at taking a lot of pictures, having a decent cell phone camera has made it hard. I am going to try to start posting from my phone to fix that, but until then, here are a few I have taken since I last posted.

I just realized the majority of those are from the zoo trips we have taken. Grayson LOVES the zoo, and will go on and on for days-weeks about how "zoo is fun".
Of course, there were a few others. A day at Settlers Park playing in the water and then a squirt gun fight and a sparkler from the 4th of July.

I have a lot more pictures to share, but they are on my phone. I will download the mobile app and post away!

Look Who Is Two!

I can't believe how fast time flies. Grayson turned 2 on the 20th of May. My little baby is growing up!

"Shake Shake"

So to start- He had his well baby child visit on May 21st. He is 22 lbs even and 30 7/8" long. Perfectly proportioned and a tiny little bottle of energy! He is meeting or exceeding all of his milestones.

This age is challenging- Grayson is the king of tantrums- but so much fun at the same time. He is learning so much stuff. He can count to 10 with a little assistance. Unassisted it goes something like "one, two, five seven, eight, nine, ten". He can tell you his name- and is getting the pronounciation down pretty good. He can answer how old he is and his favorite color. If you ask who his best friend is he will say "Grayson" even though Mike has been trying to get him to say "Daddy"

He is very imaginative and loves to play with things in all different ways. He also loves figuring stuff out. He, unfortunately, has figured out how to unbuckle the harness chest clip on his carseat, can undo infant seats, knows how to tell if a wii remote is on/working (that tiny little blue light), and so much more. He loves figuring things out. Reminds me a lot of his uncle Eric.

He also is quite the ham- like Daddy. He gets comedic timing pretty good for a 2 year old and loves to make people laugh. He loves doing things like wearing our shoes and if you ask his name while he is doing so he will tell you he is the person who's shoes he is wearing.

Grayson knows too many words for me to count and is getting really good at using 2-3 word phrases. He still babbles tons, but like I have said before, he talks a lot more than a lot of kids, so it is expected. He still uses quite a bit of sign language which is nice.

Some funny stories:
Grayson likes to pray. A lot. So when we say the blessing before eating, he will look around, and if somebody is folding their arms "good enough" for him, he will call them out. Quite often "Coo Coo" (Cuckoo- or Mike's mom- another cute story I will tell in a different post) is the culprit. He also likes to yell "amen" at the end of the prayer.

I must get annoyed with Mike a lot in front of Grayson, and use his name when annoyed. Now, if Mike is doing something Grayson doesn't like, and doesn't stop when he says "Daddy" you here "Mike STOP!" or my favorite was one day he said "Mike stop noyying me"

We had a small party for Grayson the night before his birthday. He got some pig food (coins for his piggy bank) and some great educational toys (thank you!!! I was happy not to see more of the same old toys)

I made a cake and decorated it a little. I definitely need more practice.

One of his favorite gifts were some Melissa and Doug puzzles from his Almost-Auntie Brena

And of course, he loved cake!

And after chowing down for a few minutes, he decided we needed to say a prayer- even though we had prayed before dinner (at the party).

I think he enjoyed the cake.

I can't believe my little guy is two already! Time is flying by so fast.

Another Update

I feel so bad for being so behind. We have been busy bees, and school is getting into the home stretch of the semester, lots of projects coming due soon, so I have been spending most of my time doing that.

So, where to start?

We headed to California for Spring break. I won some hotwire dollars (for lack of better term) to get a free hotel stay. We met up with our friends the Bolanders down there. We went to Knotts Berry Farm, the beach, and thanks to some awesome friends, we got into Disneyland for free one day. It was a lot of fun.

I fell back in love with my Ergo on this trip. But not front or side, hip wearing. It was perfect for waiting in lines. I loved it! The pictures above are us in Fantasyland pulling (or trying) the sword from the stone, and then Grayson playing in Goofy's back yard. I wrote a pretty detailed post about our day in Disneyland on my Disney blog. Yes, even though I am behind on this blog, I have several others that I am doing. The Disney one is about things having to do with travel to Disneyland, Disney craft tutorials, and such. I just have so many friends asking for tips regarding Disney things, I decided to put it all in one place.

After our stay in California, we changed our normal routine of driving home and actually stayed a night in Vegas at The Signature at MGM Grand. If you ever want to go to Vegas, and want a smoke free, casino free hotel- THIS IS IT! It was really nice and not having to worry about having to walk through a casino, or smell smoke was nice. We enjoyed dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe, walked on the strip a tiny bit, visited the M&M store, and called it a night. we were in bed before 10 pm. Not very adventurous. We decided between that, and the fact the traffic coming home during the day rather than driving through the night was much heavier, that we won't be staying over in Vegas again.

 We got back on Friday, and Saturday Mike went and picked up his niece Sienna who came and stayed with us for her spring break. We spent a day at the zoo, and just hung out. It wasn't her most exciting visit (especially considering we took her to Disneyland 2 times last year and Colorado in the summer), but it was good that she was here.

I had surgery the week Sienna was here. I have been struggling with infertility again, and we had tests done and found out my right tube was blocked. After trying to get around that, and having already met our deductible, we decided to go ahead and try to unblock during surgery. I was also in a lot of pain the last 2 weeks of my cycle (ovulation until next cycle). We thought that was also from the blocked tube, but my OB discovered I had endometriosis. He cleaned it up, and also cleaned up my c-section scars on my uterus, got my tub unblocked, and removed some other adhesions . I am currently in the last 2 weeks of my cycle, and not in pain. It is WONDERFUL!

Grayson update:
He is almost two already, which is just crazy to me! He has learned so much. He is starting to know his numbers, and can count a little bit. If you ask him how old he is, he will tell you 2.
He has learned so many new words and phrases that we are always amazed at what comes out of his mouth. He is still babbling a lot, but he is REALLY talkative, so it makes sense he would still speak more babble then a quiet child. He is also singing a lot now.
He loves to race and will even say "Ready, set GO" and expect you to run up and down the hall with him. He loves music, cars, and blocks. Mickey Mouse is still his best friend. I wish I could remember all the words he knows, and all the animals he recognizes and can make their sounds, but it is too numerous to remember off the top of my head. I am trying to compile a list before his 2nd Birthday.
He is still small, maybe weighing 21-22 lbs and wearing mostly 12 month clothing (some smaller some bigger based on brand).

I am going to try my hardest to update more often once school is out. Next semester (fall) I am attending full time, so I am not sure how well I will keep up then, but hopefully it will be better than this semester.

Our Crazy Life

Life is crazy in our house lately. Mostly because of school, family events, and a few other things going on. I thought it was time to maybe give an update. I must first apologize for the lack of pictures. Being a mom and student, and doing photography and everything else I have going on- well, I often just have my phone on me and snap quick pictures on there. They are fine for loading onto facebook, but not the kind of quality that uploads well to a blog, etc. So, my goal is after midterms (March 15th) I am going to start getting out my big dslr camera more and taking some real pictures of things we are doing.

On to the updates-

Mike and I are staying busy and Grayson keeps us on our tows. Mike is back on his fitness plan and doing really well. He has already lost 18 pounds of the 30 he gained back after Grayson was born. I am losing as well, slower, but that is expected as weight gain is common for women with PCOS. Luckily though- what I do lose, stays off, even if I have a day or two where I slip up.

Grayson is the one everyone really wants an update on.....
He is doing great. He had a huge growth spurt a while back and is officially over 20 pounds! A little sad because it was an easy answer when I didn't want to explain to people why we continue to have him rear facing to just say "he hasn't reached the weight required to forward face" but I plan to use this as a teaching tool when people wonder why he is still rear facing.
He is now, at 21 months, in 9-12 month clothing. He is perfectly proportioned, just small. Continues to be healthy and meeting or exceeding all milestones.
We did however, have our first ear infection recently. Followed by an allergic reaction to the antibiotics. That was not fun. But he is all better and now is fighting off a cold he caught. We have all been sick recently, for about the past month or so, someone is always sick in the house, but we are finally on the mend.
Grayson amazes us every day with how much he is learning and how much he knows. I will forget a lot of stuff, but right now some of his words/phrases are:

eat, night night, poopy, more, agua, milk, book, shoe, sock, bye bye, hi, whats that, where'd it go, I get it, help, uva (grape), cheese, yogurt, cookie (granola bar), cracker, no, yes, door, sock, shirt, Mickey, Pluto, Pete, Goofy, Daisy, car, see, blue, red, down, up, light, please, thank you, banana, apple, hot dog (from the hot dog dance- hot dog refers to Mickey Mouse, not the food), puppy, kitty, cat, pray, go bye in car, head butt (yes- he head butts and asks to do one if you don't offer- thanks Mike), color, Mommy, Daddy, Gamma (Grandma),  door, tree, bird, baby and many more that I can't think of right this instant

He can sign eat, nigh night (sign for sleepy), more, poopy (the sign for diaper- he signs diaper and says poopy), dog, cat, book, mommy, daddy, milk, water, hurt, all done, and I think there are a few more.

He knows the colors red, blue and purple really well and is doing better at green. He also knows what a goat, duck, frog, snake, chicken, cow, cat, dog, pig, horse, lion, and sheep say (I think that is all the animals he knows but I might be missing some).

This age is a lot of fun, but very trying for me. Grayson wants to do everything himself, and I worry about the mess, or think how I can do it faster, and Miss Anxiety, me, gets all stressed over the tiniest things. I have gotten better, but it is still hard to let him go ahead and let him pick up every toy by himself, or let him put the socks into a pile as I separate them from our other whites, but I am getting better.

All in all, our family is doing well. We are excited to be going on vacation at the end of the month and looking forward to relaxing and having some family time as well as meeting up with our friends the Bolanders.

Sick

We have battling a lot of sickness in our house this last month. It started off with teething- not a sickness, but that triggered an ear infection in my little man. His first. After a week with him back in our bed, not much sleep, and some other personal things that were going on, Mike and I caught colds ourselves. After starting to feel better from that, I came down with a stomach bug this weekend. To say the least, it has not been our healthiest month.

I hope to get blogging more soon. Unfortunately, I have found that a smart phone and quick upload to facebook, has me taking less pictures with a "real" camera, and therefore, I feel like I have nothing to blog. I need to get back on track. And thanks to my little sister Amanda, I now have a handy blog planner that I hope will help. Especially since I have several blogs.

Speaking of blogs- I have a new one. Not quite ready to announce it here, but I will soon.

Disney On A Dime- My Top Tips

A lot of people have asked my best money saving tips for going to Disney. We love Disney and wish we lived closer so we could go all year long, but we can't, so we settle for once every few years- but last year we spoiled ourselves and went TWICE!

So, I am going to share some money saving tips. Some of these tips are specific to Disneyland (where we go since we are closer to it then DW) and some of these are general- for any travel.

I can get a little excited when telling people my money saving tips and jump all over the place- so I am going to try and keep it organized. Wish me luck on that!

WHEN TO GO
When wanting to do Disney on a dime, you have decide WHEN you are willing to go. January- April 1st, Disneyland offers a discount on their tickets. However, if you are going during spring break, it will be VERY CROWDED! Going during spring break, summer, Thanksgiving, or Christmas breaks will also bring higher hotel prices. Sometimes it is worth it (kids can't miss school) and other times it isn't. Is it possible to go a long weekend in October and then only miss 1-2 school days to save the extra $300 for the week on hotel? For some it may be, others it may not be.
Also when deciding when to go- think about how you plan to get there. If you are traveling from Idaho in the winter- you could end up going through snow storms. Heck, when we went last spring break we hit a white out snow storm between Twin Falls, ID and Jackpot, NV. Flying may take less time, but may be more expensive, especially if you choose an airline that charges for bags checked. If you decide to fly, try to use Southwest (2 free bags per ticketed passenger), or try the name your own price on Priceline. If you are going down for the Holidays, pick dates that are typically less popular for flying. When we went to Texas in 2010 it saved us $200 each to fly back ON Thanksgiving.

WHERE TO STAY
This is probably one of the biggest ways to save money, and one of the most important things you can look into, take your time and really think about.
First- Do you know anybody  with a time share that you might be able to use? When we went this last October, we were able to use my sister's time share and have a full 2 bed/2 bath condo with a full kitchen. It saved us a lot of money on lodging, but also on food because we were able to make meals, stock the fridge with snacks, etc. Because it would have used up too much of her "points" to stay in Anaheim, we went ahead and stayed in Oceanside. It was well worth the hour commute. We had several people so we were able to use the carpool lane as well.
Second- if you don't have a time share available, and no relatives to stay with, then next best thing is to weigh your options. If you are going to need 2 rooms anyways, I highly suggest looking into something like The Residence Inn by Marriot. They have FULL KITCHENS (including ovens) and 2 beds and 2 baths. Much like the condo. Usually the cost of the 2 bedroom is cheaper than 2 hotel rooms in the area and you get the full kitchen.
If you only need one room, I suggest doing hotwire.com. Why hotwire and not name your own price on priceline? Well- hotwire asks how many guests (therefore you hopefully won't get 1 double bed room with 4 people), and gives you a small list of amenities that the hotels in a certain group will guarantee. You can go to another site like tripadvisor and research the areas offered to be sure they are safe. They also tell you the price they are cutting it down to, rather than you having to keep putting in amounts until your offer is accepted.
If you belong to a "club" for hotels (wyndham rewards, marriott rewards, etc) and know well in advance you will be going to Disney, you can book any small trips in between now and your trip at that hotel chain. Save up your points and then redeem them for free nights during your Disney trip. We did this back in 2007 and were able to get an entire room for FREE!!! YEP FREE! Sure, it was at Super 8 (on Disneyland Dr) but our room was clean, had a mini-fridge and microwave, was walking distance to the park, and you could watch the fireworks from the hot tub. It was well worth it.

TICKETS-

Disneyland has so many different ticket options it can get confusing.
I highly suggest you ALWAYS get the park hopper ticket. It is nice to be able to go to the other park if the lines are just to long at the current one. If you enter DCA (Disney California Adventure) and then find that you are not enjoying it, you can head over to Disneyland and the other way around. Plan on spending most of your time in Disneyland, but that park hopper option is always nice.
Go for 3 days or more. This gives you a ticket you can get called a Parkhopper Bonus ticket. The bonus- a magic morning entry where you can get in an hour earlier than others and the lines are shorter. It is nice for rides that don't have fast pass (Matterhorn) and also to do the kids rides without a long wait. There are also characters out with NO LINES!
Do you know someone who is military? If so, they can usually get discounted tickets on base. Even here in Idaho- out at Mountain Home or at Gowen Field they can purchase discounted tickets. Ask them if they are willing to get them for you (you pay of course ;P).
Does your work offer discounted tickets? Mike's work has a huge site with tons of discounts to millions of things- car rentals, hotels, cruises, and they have something called "Tickets at Work" that offer discount tickets to tons of theme parks. Including both Disneyland and Disney World. It is generally $50 cheaper for a 5 day ticket from there then from Disney. Other places (Knotts Berry Farm) are 50% through his work. It is great and I am so thankful we have that available to us.

FOOD
This is the biggest way you will save when going to Disney. No doubt about it.

When we were there in October- an ice cream bar was $6, a bottled water was $2.50....NOT WORTH IT!

We take snacks into the park. Small bags of chips, frozen water bottles, sandwich baggies of gold fish, etc. We used to take a cooler with sandwich stuff and leave it in the car- go back to the car at lunch and eat, and then go back to the park.
In October we did something different- we actually rented a locker. Just before you go through security there is a picnic area hidden off to the side. It is very nice and quite. (We always come from the Mickey and Friends parking structure and when you get off the tram and are facing security, the area is to the left. It has lots of green shrubs surrounding it.) WE LOVED IT! When we would go back to the car on previous trips, after sitting on the tram, then in the car, you started to realize how tired your feet were. We also ended up changing our minds and just eating in the park a lot. With the locker- we kept a cooler in there with our lunch stuff, paper towels, paper plates, and utensils. We also kept extra cold drinks to take back in the park after lunch, extra snacks, and then we also were able to keep all our sweatshirts in the locker and send one person to get them before it cooled down. Our medium sized locker was $12 a day- but it was well worth it and definitely saved us a TON in food and beverage.
Also- refill your water bottles/camel packs in the park at drinking fountains. There are tons of fountains in the lines. Pirates, Thunder Mountain, etc all have them.

SOUVENIRS
I always love souvenirs. However, it is important that you focus on things that will 1) be used and 2)remind you of your time and bring back all the memories
Do you have a Disney store? We used to. Back in 2007 we raided the Disney Store clearance for T-Shirts for us and our friends and their 5 kids. When we all arrived in Disney I gave them the shirts.
Make your own Autograph book. The same year I also made autograph books for all the kids. I was able to personalize them and they were a lot cheaper then the ones you buy in the store.
I also made journals using notebooks and scrap book paper. I had several other fun things that I did. It made the need to spend a lot less intense.
After that, I focus on things we will use over and over (clothing) and things that will last and remind us of the trip. Ornaments are a big one. We purchase a tree ornament on every major vacation we take. Fun photo frames to frame a picture from the park are also great.
PHOTOS- take your own. The ones by the park cast are ok, but not worth the price. And guess what- if you ask them to take one with your camera- they almost always will. NEVER give a DSLR camera to another park guest. Point and shoot- go for it, but please, do not hand someone your $600 Canon/Nikon to take your picture. If you really want a picture of your whole group, and you are not wanting to ask a cast member to use your camera- pick 2-3 key locations that you want them done and get the photo pass and use them there. Print your favorite one or buy the CD. If you do decide to do the photo pass all over the park- BUY THE CD because once you hit a certain number of pictures, it is way cheaper than buying the prints.

OTHER WAYS TO SAVE
If your hotel is close- walk to the park. Parking is now $15 a day. YIKES!!!!! If someone else in your group doesn't want to walk and is willing to pay for it- woohoo! But if your hotel is only 1/2 mile away- WALK! But do expect that the end of the first day, that walk back will seem 3 times as long.
Book a trip through AAA or even just buy park tickets through them. It will get you extras. Like this month, if you book through them, you get free parking PLUS a 10-20% discount at Disney and neighbor restaurants and gift shops. SWEET!
Find fun ways to save for your trip- so yeah, this doesn't SAVE you money on the trip, but we have a change jar I decorated to be Disney. We put all our spare change in there and you would be surprised. In 2007 a year of change saving paid for our gas to California and back. It is also a great way to save pennies to smash.
If you use Swag bucks, etc save up your points for airfare gift cards, hotel gift cards, restaurant gift cards, etc. Use these to eat out while on vacation, buy your flights, or pay for your hotel.

Disneyland is a lot of fun, and it can be done on a really cheap budget, if you plan carefully. People think I am crazy when I start planning 6-9 months in advance, but when it makes it so you can do your entire trip for under $1000 for 4 people- it is worth it. Our next time will hopefully be while the park is all decked out for Christmas. If not this year then next. We are already watching to see what kind of deals are out there, although we won't decide when we are going for another 3-4 months.