Other Things in Irvine

Since we flew in on Christmas Eve, we had a few days after Christmas planned in Irvine, and we took full advantage of them with everyone. One of the main things we had planned was to go to the Discovery Science Center to go to their temporary THOMAS THE TRAIN exhibit. My mom found out that it was going to be there while we were there, so she'd bought tickets ahead of time and it was so cute. Basically half of it was just a bunch of train tables--including a GIANT train table. We walked into the museum and Dane was entertained by some of the exhibits, but as soon as he saw the giant Thomas he immediately wriggled down from Tommy's shoulders and RAN into the exhibit and we couldn't peel him away from the train tables for the next while. He was so, so happy (except when a kid took away the Thomas he was playing with). It was adorable!

Giving me a ticket to the Island of Sodor.

After a long time, we brought him to some of the other exhibits at the museum, including a cookie decorating area. He loved all of it! It was adorable.

Bethany had several basketball games while we were there, and we were able to go to one on the night after Christmas. I was nervous to bring Dane with us, thinking he'd scream and run away or fall through the bleachers or something, but he was actually enthralled with the game and watched the first full quarter. He has been talking about "Buhbuh" playing basketball for a while now and I think he LOVED seeing a real game. He was also perfectly happy just wandering around the bleachers for the rest of the game--we never even had to pull out the Kindle.

Buh (Dane's new abbreviated nickname for Bethany) was not pleased to see that we brought Liam, her life-sized cut-out from One Direction, to the game to cheer her on. Tommy had the idea to put a NHS jersey on Liam and put him in the stands, but Bee was really embarrassed! I can't imagine why. We all had a great laugh at Liam being there to cheer NHS on, though.

Another day, we went to the beach. It was supposed to be really chilly, but it was actually pretty nice! No one wanted to get in the water--except Dane--but we parked ourselves behind a large sand dune so he couldn't see the water for a while and he was super happy. For some reason he remembered going to the beach over the summer and he'd been asking to go to the beach all week before coming to CA, so I was happy to oblige him with that.

Dane running after the seagulls with Austin. He was chasing the birds the whole time we were there--it was so cute.

 Right before we were going to leave, Dane ran in and fell in the water and got soaking wet. Shocking! I had unfortunately not brought him a change of clothes so he had to hang out in a diaper while we cleaned up and had a picnic lunch.

Still chasing after the birds.

We got some delicious tacos from a Mexican place near the Balboa pier, and it was a FANTASTIC lunch.

And we had to get a family picture at the beach before leaving--I'm so glad we did!

We flew out on Monday evening, so we had the morning to do something fun too before Dane's nap. We decided not to go too far and went to the Irvine Regional Park--like we've done basically every time we've visited there since Dane was little, haha. As we were driving in, we drove past the little train and the horse rides, and I said, "Dane, do you remember going on a horsie last time we were here?" and he said, "Yes, I ride on Echo." That was his horse's name--from when we visited in JUNE. I didn't even remember that--and we have definitely not talked about it for MONTHS, at least. That boy has a mind like a steel trap, I swear!

We first went to the little zoo there--it's only $2 and the perfect size for a toddler--and then we rode on the train, and we were back home in time for lunch. Perfect outing for a little guy!

 Checking out the mountain lions.

Dane was totally terrified of the petting zoo and goats over the summer, but he LOVED it this time! He ran around petting and brushing all the goats, and even was brave enough to feed the goats out of his hand. It was super cute!

Train ride--no trip to Irvine is complete without it (apparently!).

 Of course, like I said--the best part of being with family is all the bonding time. Dane got a lot of that.

They got these enormous smiles out of Dane by saying, "Dane, don't smile! DON'T smile!" And of course--voila!

Some of Dane's BIGGEST fans.

Thinking about Dallin with our Dominican flag in front of the house!

Saying good-bye at the airport. Dane was convinced that Austin and Cole were going to come with us. Next time, buddy!

Christmas Eve and Christmas day in Irvine

We bought tickets to visit our families at Christmastime back in September, before we'd started seriously househunting and before we'd ever dreamed we'd be moved into a home before Christmas. By the time Christmas rolled around, we were stressed and tired with all the excitement and upheaval that comes from moving. But since we'd paid for these tickets already, we weren't backing out! And we of course were looking forward to spending time with our families. But every time we fly now, we have a serious conversation about how great life would be if someone had figured out how to Apparate, because of all the work and craziness involved with flying across the country every time we want to see our families. We also had a creepy/scary experience at the airport with someone trying to get our itinerary from the airline, which made all the traveling that much more enjoyable. But once we got to Irvine, we were glad to be there and to relax. 

I feel like I probably say this every time I write about a trip to see our families, but every time it becomes more and more true--the best part about this trip was seeing Dane interact with our families and seeing how much he LOVES them and how much they love him. It is so, so much harder to travel with kids, but the rewards are so, so much more valuable to me. When I sit and think about it, I am blown away by how lucky Dane is to have such a loving (even obsessed!) family who can't wait to see him whenever he breezes into town. I was so glad we were able to get some good bonding time in this time of year, since we won't be visiting our families until summer, and we even got to do some fun things in each place too. 

We flew into Irvine on Christmas Eve morning (cheap plane tickets that day!) and then, after getting Dane down for a nap, drove out to Riverside to meet the Myres cousins to see the Mission Inn. It's a very cool, old, historic hotel in Riverside (of all places!), which was actually really fun to walk around and sightsee at.

This is what it looked like inside--all courtyards and chapels and different levels and old architecture.

Serious Bethany, so spiritual in the chapel.

We then went back to my family's house for Christmas Eve dinner and traditions--including the candy game (where Aunt Sara reads the Christmas story with candy bars), the Nativity story, and a white elephant gift exchange.

Dane loved my family's big old snowglobe (again--he loved it last year too!).

Best part of the white elephant gift exchange was Bethany's hat--she got a hat, was disappointed, someone took pity on her and stole it, and then she opened another present and got ANOTHER HAT! I was very pleased with my Yoga Cats calendar.

On Christmas morning, Dane woke up at 5am (or thereabouts)--not because he was excited for presents (because he had no idea what was going on), but just because of the time difference. He and Tommy watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on the couch for a while before the rest of the house started waking up. 

Dane was SO excited about the first few presents he got. My dad got eight Thomas the train characters and put them out by everyone's stockings, so Dane saw them first thing in the morning when we came down. He would have been satisfied then and there, before opening a single present or even his own stocking. It was kind of downhill from there--he had this mountain of presents (just mostly small things wrapped individually) and after he'd opened about three, and got a Thomas the train for his wooden train track, he was DONE. He could not open a single other present and just contented himself with playing happily with ALL of his new trains while the rest of us opened the other presents. 

This was what he was doing instead of opening his presents:

Let that be a lesson to me: one good present is better than lots of other presents. But it wasn't really my fault--I didn't know about all the "surprise" Thomases coming with our stockings and the other presents he was going to get from everyone else at the house. Spoiled boy!

We all got our hand plates from the Murphy family reunion this summer, from Grandma Murphy.

We skyped with Dallin--hooray!--and Dane took a nap, and then in the late afternoon we all went to the park and played in the sand (Dane), talked (me and my mom), and played volleyball (everyone else).

Dane is wearing his Christmas present from Miami that Camille and Brandon sent him. He was super pleased about it!