The Family visits Disneyland

After months of plotting and planning we finally made it to Disneyland! Pants has been watching Mickey's Clubhouse in preparation of our big visit. The Boy has been checking the rides on line to come up with his list of "have to go on that ride" rides. The parents charged up our camera batteries and prepared for an afternoon of chasing the kids through the park. At the end of the day we were all happily exhausted and enjoyed every minute of our visit. I will say the the Holiday Parade was worth the 30 minutes spent saving our front row seats.













The One and Only Santa Claus Miss Pants and her assistants (her parents) Goofy





The Boy (isn't he a cutie pie?)

Santa flew in to Palm Springs

The Boy who is all of 10 and slightly jaded when it comes to the whole Santa thing chose to stay home and missed out on Santa's arrival at the air museum in Palm Springs. Apparently the appeal of having some peace and quiet was greater than the appeal of standing in line to see the fat man in the red suit.
Fortunately Pants was willing to amuse us and we were able to use her as our excuse to go and see Santa. At the air museum one of Santa's Elves flies Santa in so he can visit with the kids (and give the reindeer a bit of a rest).

The Family went to the Aquarium of the Pacific

Uncle N (the Dad) has been promising Miss Pants that he will take her to the big fishes when she came out here on vacation. Of course she has been calling to remind him and give him a list of her demands. We were to pick her up at the airport with a brown pony and a cake. We compromised a bit and found a brown pony stuffed animal and a cupcake.
We made a quick stop at Seaport Village to allow Miss Pants to run off some of her excess energy. There were lots of choruses of "Steevie chase me" "Nate you run now". I am pretty sure we achieved our goal of wearing out the kids because Pants napped on the way back to our house and the Dad asked me to drive because he was too tired!
Our first adventure was a trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. We had a few minor problems with birds. The lorakets were a little too eager to drink the nectar we tried to feed them and the pigeons were very interested in our picnic lunch.

Shout out to my NS/CS friends

It has been a crazy year for us all this year. Lots of highs and lows. Beej brought us all to tears with her tribute and fund raiser for Lisa. Firebird lead us in a covert operation to cheer up startsmart.
Over the course of the year we have shared many laughs and good times. 2009 is on our horizon along with the much anticipated trip to Las Vegas. I fear that city will never be the same after we are through with it.
Happy holidays to each of you wonderful ladies.

Merry Christmas to All

Since our family Christmas cards include a link to this blog I figured I would be nice and post an actual Christmas letter of sorts.
This year has finally come to a close. It has been a long year. $4.69 a gallon gas out here for a while. A lay off for the Dad. A long hot summer followed by a fall with a couple of forest fires in our area. So far we have had a pretty rainy December too.
Through out this year we did still have a lot of fun and adventures. Camping trips to both the beach and the desert. Hikes everywhere from mountain tops to the valleys and lakes. Some nice trips to the beach for a little bit of boogie boarding and sand castle building too.
We have been fortunate to have a lot of visitors this year too. Nana and Papa try to make it out every 4 to 6 weeks. Early this year by brother, sister in law and goddaughter flew out for a long weekend and started off the year of visitors. Over spring break they brought my nephews out for a visit. This summer was saw my Grandma and my aunts as well. The Fall saw my sisters along with my mother too.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to visitors.
The one and only Miss Pants celebrated her 2nd birthday with us and a trip to Disneyland. She has decided to bring her parents back for Christmas now. Given that it has been an entire 7 months since her last visit it will basically be all new to her again.
On behalf of the entire Reynolds' family we would like to wish you all a wonderful holiday season.

The Mom begs for Forgiveness

I would like to apologize profusely for the lack of posts lately. Life tends to get a little hectic from time to time. To bring you all up to date:
The Dad has finished his current semester of school (with excellent grades BTW). He is in the process of looking for a new job as he was laid off a few weeks ago.
The Boy is still enjoying school and hanging out with his friends. He has a regular "gang" of kids that he plays with. They have been building a large river and battleground in our background. Makes for a lot of messy kids covered in mud but grinning from ear to ear.
I, the Mom, have stayed busy running the house and working. Between the Dad and the Boy it seems we are always on the go.
Hence the lack of updates. You will be happy to know that one of my New Year's Goals is to keep our blog more current. And since another Goal is to make Sundays family fun days we should have a lot of adventures to post about.