Bearizona

While we were in Williams Arizona for the Polar Express, we saw a pamphlet for Bearizona. This is a new attraction as of this year and it was quite impressive. You stay in your car and the animals come right up to you. You can have your windows rolled down for all animals except for the Wolves and Bears. The kids loved looking through the binoculars and seeing every detail of these animals. They had probably 8 different animals from Buffaloes, to Wolves, to Bison and of course Bears. They are all fenced in with electric fences and have lots of space to wonder and rome. They also had a section, that was kind of like a zoo, where you get out of your car and can see baby bears, and foxes, and other things. This will eventually be somewhat of a resort and have a hotel and other accommodations. It was a great stop and we look forward to going back again next year.

The Polar Express

Ok, so you all know that our Christmas is not complete until we have ridden the Polar Express. This is our fifth year doing this as a family. You can click each year to see our past Polar Express trips. 2006 (didn't have a blog yet), 2007, 2008, 2009. We arrived to Williams, AZ and checked into our hotel. We then watched the Polar Express Movie to give the kids a refresher before we experienced the real deal. We then got the kids in their new Polar Express Jammies and headed out. We went in the Christmas Expo center and they had a few fun things for the kid to do, like coloring, making a Christmas chain, an electric train set up and Mrs. Santa. Cody did not want to sit on her lap, but Elena went right up and had quite the conversation with her. We then strolled through the gift shop, pottied up and got in line for our train car. It was a cold night, and we have turned into Arizona wimps, so we were glad we had our Utah coats to keep us warm. The kids (and Matt)love looking out their window as we travel to the North Pole. As we travel, the book is read over the speakers, as the elves walk up and down the isles to show the pages of the book. They also play the Hot Chocolate song as the chefs hand out the Cookies and Hot Chocolate. Cody graduated from a sippy cup to the real Hot Chocolate cup. And Elena decided she does like Hot Chocolate and we were SOOOO glad we DIDN'T graduate her from the sippy cup. Maybe next year little sweets. Then we go through this tunnel that is all lite up by Christmas light- otherwise known as the aurora borealis and we arrive at the North Pole. And again, my picture of the North Pole turned out blurry. Now I KNOW it must be the magic that ALWAYS makes my pictures turn out blurry.. happens ever year. After words Santa gets on the train and gives all the kids a bell. Cody was so lucky to be picked to get the first gift of Christmas, as Santa handed him his bell. Cody thought that was pretty awesome!!! Then we head back through the aurora borealis and back to the train station as we sing Christmas Carols. We love this tradition and look forward to many more years of ridding on the Polar Express. Such a magical start to our Christmas Season. Below are a few videos of the kids excitement of being on the Polar Express. You can tell Elena was just slightly excited.





These next clips are funny. The first clip is from last year. (sorry I filmed it sideways) There must be something about the Hot Chocolate Song that makes Cody do this, because it happened again this year as you will see in the second clip.

A Recipe for Disaster.

Matt had another Birthday! They just keep coming!!!! And in 6 months I will join him at this ripe old age. Well, Anyone who knows Matt knows he LOVES ICE CREAM!!!!! He always says Quantity is better than Quality. (Although quality is pretty good too) One of Matt's goals is to have a soft serve ice cream machine in our home. But since $8000.00 is not readily available and probably never will be....I found this one to hold him over. He somehow found out about it and couldn't wait even just one day to get it crankin. So the night before his Birthday, I gave into his persistence. This is where the title of this blog post comes into play. I mixed up the milk and cream and sugar, stirred it together and dumped it into the soft serve machine. I then licked the spoon and it tasted like garlic. Then I smelled the milk....and it smelled like garlic. I don't know if the milk was going bad, or why it smelled and tasted the way it did, but I hoped that it would magically turn yummy as it tuned into ice-cream. Well... long story short, it never turned into ice-cream. Matt was super bummed and so we decided to dump the mixture into a bowl and try it again tomorrow. As we pulled the bowl out, we didn't think about the hole at the bottom of the bowl that allows the ice cream to be dispensed out as soft-serve and it all went pouring out everywhere. Matt then went from bummed to ticked off at himself, for "ruining" his new soft serve ice cream machine. I got things all cleaned up and luckily had a carton of ice cream to help smooth things over with the whole miss hap. But to make it all better, we had take two on his actual birthday. This time we used a fresh new bottle of Milk, Cream and Sugar. And this time I actually read the recipe and mixed the mixture with the electric mixerr for two minutes, as opposed to swishing it with a spoon a couple of times. We let it mix for 20 min and then it was the moment of truth!!!!!! Drummer Roll............ and we have soft serve!!! The kids loved "serving" themselves and choosing the mix in they wanted. (this machine adds in a mix in as you dispense the ice cream. Any ways super fun machine and it turned out to be a great birthday for Matt after all. Oh and did I mention the Carrot Cake I made was simply Heaven!!! Don't forget to keep scrolling down to read about our Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving

At Cody's school, I saw these cute art project ideas that were done in other classes. I adapted them a little bit to work well for my kids. I think they turned out really cute and the kids had fun making them. We were delighted to hear that my brother John and his family were going to be staying with us over the Thanksgiving Holiday. My sister-in-law Cheryl, has a sister that lives in Mesa too and invited them to have Thanksgiving with her. Matt and I and the kids had a quite Thanksgiving together. The kids wanted to stay in their PJ's and we figured...why not. We put on the whole spread (well maybe not the whole spread, just the things we liked) and had a blast all together....and I might add that our feast turned out exceptionally YUMMY!!!!!

That night John and Cheryl and their 4 kids came. It was fun to reunite the kids, as they had all grown quite close to each other as we lived about 5 minutes away and were in the same stake and elementary school. Getting them to fall asleep was a whole other ball game. Cody, Johnny and Hannah all wanted to sleep in the little pup tent together. Cousin sleep overs are the best!!!! The next day was spent playing video games, watching movies, going to the park and lots of playing. John and Matt put in a door leading out to our one car garage. (this is worthy of it's own post). It was also nice for me and Cheryl to get some visiting time too. I really miss living so close to each other. That night we all went and saw the lights at Temple Square (here in Mesa). It was a COLD night for Mesa, but it was beautiful and no where near the cold of Salt Lake, or the crowds. There was a lot more lights this year then I remember there being the years before. Isn't it beautiful! It was also nice that we only had a 20 minute drive home, as opposed to a three hour drive when we lived in Sierra Vista. It was so great having family here for the Holiday! Hopefully it won't be too long before we see them all again. It turned out to be a really great Thanksgiving weekend!

Special Forces

Every morning there is something new that Cody has created with his Legos the night before. Here are just a couple of the creations that I actually stoped to take a picture of. I need to do better at taking time out like this to take a picture of these amazing set ups. So who do you think will win? Monster Trucks or Legos??? I don't know??? Imagine what could happen when you mix Star Wars, with Buzz, Woody and Sponge Bob.