DISNEYLAND - EPILOGUE

Life since Disneyland: I think we're all going through withdrawals! It's hard to leave 70 degree weather and come home to snow. It's hard to be surrounded by your fun aunt and uncles and Gramma and Papa, and come home and be with just Mommy and Daddy. It's hard to understand that we're not going to "'fornia" or Disneyland "in just a couple of weeks" again. It's hard.

You can often find CJ around the house like this: 

This is what came of our Mickey hat photo shoot. So much for making your kids take pictures :)

Dear Gramma and Papa,

Thank you so much for such an amazing trip! We had the time of our lives! We will never forget riding the carousel with Papa, or the Winnie the Pooh ride with Gramma, or all the fun treats and toys you got us. But most of all, we will never forget how magical Disneyland was, not only because of the beautiful giant Christmas tree, and the incredible fireworks, and the lovely Christmas music playing everywhere, and the fun Christmas parade. And not only because the food was good, and the rides were better. But we will never forget how magical Disneyland was because we were there with you! Thank you for making some amazing memories to last a lifetime!

We love you so much...with or without Disneyland!

Love,

CJ and Mattie

(and Mommy and Daddy too)

DISNEYLAND - DAY 3

DAY 3

We woke up early on Saturday so that we could hit up some classic rides before the crowds, one being the Dumbo ride. We still ended up waiting in line for about 15 minutes and CJ experienced what he'd experienced every day at Disneyland: until he rode that first ride and saw how fun it was, he was pretty much terrified to go. Check out his face here - he did not want to be sitting in that flying elephant, but he was trying to hard to be brave. He's even attempting to wave at Uncle Cam...

Mattie and Gramma ready to go

And of course, it only took about 3 seconds for CJ to realize how fun it was to make Dumbo go up and down himself. He loved it!!

This was supposed to be a picture in Dumbo, but the kids were so small, you couldn't even see their faces unless we got super close. Oh well - you can see the ride in the background :)

Silly girl

Gramma was able to catch a rare moment while they stood in line for the Pooh ride. Love it!!

Papa and Gramma took their grandkids on the Winnie the Pooh ride and I think it ended up being CJ's favorite. He still talks about how Pooh likes honey (and we don't watch Winnie the Pooh or have any Pooh books)

We're not sure why he's crying here, but it wouldn't have been Disneyland with toddlers if we didn't see this face a few times

The Toy Story ride: this was the last ride we rode at Disneyland. It also had the longest wait. We ended up waiting about an hour to ride it, which was hard on the kids (which means hard on all of us too), but it was totally worth it! We all LOVED it! And Daddy and CJ beat Mattie and Mommy only by the skin of their teeth :)

DISNEYLAND - DAY 2

DAY 2

California Adventure, here we come!

Daddy took Mattie on the nautical carousel. At fist she was a little scared, but then she loved it and would ask to ride the "sheesh," or fish ride, every time she saw it

Aunt Kels and Mattie waiting to see Woody

Alycia is one of Paige's best friends. They were roommates in college, and shortly after Paige got married, Alycia graduated and moved back to Cali. They've only seen each other a handful of times over the last 5 years, so it was so great that Alycia happened to be at Disneyland with her boyfriend (whose family was having a family reunion - hence the shirts :) at the same time we were. We kept trying to figure out a way to meet each other, and then Alycia actually unexpectedly spotted us! So we were able to go on a ride together and hang out for a bit. It worked out perfectly! It was so great to finally meet her wonderful boyfriend and to spend a little time together! We miss you, Leesh!

While the big kids went to ride on California Soaring, Papa and Gramma bought the kids Mickey hats and this bubble blower, which they all loved!

 The Cousins: Mattie (20 mo), Zack (9 mo), and CJ (3 yrs)

A rare moment: capturing Mattie's smile on camera! Thanks, Aunt Kels!

P.S. Isn't the castle beautiful?! Christmas Disneyland is magical!

DISNEYLAND - DAY 1

Bryce's parents have been planning a family trip to Disneyland for almost a year now, and the day to go finally came last week. We've got to admit, we were a little skeptical about how fun it would be. We didn't know how our kids would do since they are still so young and we knew that it was going to be exhausting. And we had no clue how much we would LOVE it! It was incredible!!

DAY 1

We made it! Mattie and her Uncle Cam

Sadly, this is the only group shot we got the entire trip

Mackay Family (top photo) L-R: Paige, CJ, Bryce, Tyler, Zack (missing Gaby), Dad/Greg, Kelsey, Mattie, Mom/Sheila, Cameron

CJ didn't really like the big characters; Zack didn't really know what to think; but Mattie - she loved 'em!

Waiting in line for a classic: Pirates of the Caribbean

CJ and Mattie on Pirates

We adults often found ourselves wishing that we were the kids and could be pushed around or carried all day. Isn't Aunt Kels so nice?!

After getting up at 4:30 AM to make a 6:30 AM flight and then pretty much going straight to Disneyland, you can imagine that CJ, Mattie and Zack were pretty tired by the time evening hit

But Mattie and Zack didn't let being tired stop them! Teacups with Papa and Uncle Tyler (Zack's daddy)

The last ride of day 1 was pretty relaxing: It's a Small World. With the Christmas themes from around the world and all the Christmas lights, plus the Christmas music, it was probably one of the favorite rides there.

PROFESSIONAL INTRO TO WENATCHEE

Bryce's firm places an article in the newspaper announcing new attorneys they've hired. Click HERE to read the brief article published on Wednesday introducing Bryce, and his colleague, Kyle, to the Wenatchee area. If you can't get to it, you can read it below:

FUTURE PHOTOGRAPHER

CJ loves to take pictures. He is constantly asking to take pictures, look at pictures, play with the camera, and he's often getting into trouble for getting into Mommy's camera without permission. Lots of the pictures he takes are of nothing...but a lot of them - a surprising number, actually - turn out pretty good. These are some pictures he's taken over the last few months:

That's how Mommy feels when she wears heels too, Mattie :)

CHILD LABOR

Hey, we need all the help we can get :)

SNUG AS A BUG

This is JJ.

He is CJ's best friend.

He goes almost everywhere with CJ.

CJ takes good care of JJ...

as you can tell.  

SWEAT EQUITY

For buying a brand new house, we sure have put a lot of work into it so far. The biggest project has been staining the deck and the fence. The deck is finally finished, and we've started the fence, but we'll be lucky if we can finish even just the outside perimeter of the fence before winter. Oh well. Here's what we've done so far:

BEFORE

 DURING

AFTER

 CHANGES TO THE EXTERIOR OF THE HOUSE

The To-Do list this Spring: landscaping!

(and finish staining the fence)

OCTOBER 2010

CJ's first painting. This is how he kept himself busy during Conference...among other things :) 

And Mattie kept herself busy too. Don't you love how she colors on her belly?!

Mattie's been hearing about the potty for months, but it's all been directed towards CJ. So when she started saying she was poopy, but didn't have any poop in her diaper until a few minutes later, we thought now was the time to test it out. In the pic, she had said "poopy" but had no poop in her diaper. So Mommy put her on the toilet, and sure enough, she went a tiny little poop! Yea! Her first time going potty! However, it was also her last, so we haven't started potty-training her yet...she still needs a little more time.

CJ playing dress-up in his too-small hat, his sunglasses that he picked out himself and bought with his own birthday money, and Papa's old watch

MILESTONE PICTURES

Mattie Gayle - 19 months old

Curtis Jason - 3 years old (38 1/2 months)

We don't love this pose - very unnatural - but we liked his smile

P.S. Mattie is not her normal smiling self in these pics because she was kinda freaked out by the whole process, so we're happy with what we got considering she had been crying just moments before

We met Bryce for lunch one sunny afternoon and enjoyed playing at Confluence Park, which is right by his office

CJ likes to help get the mail. On this particular day, when Mommy picked him up to see inside the mailbox, his eyes zeroed in on this Toys R Us catalog. It was the only piece of mail he grabbed, and then he ran back inside and plopped himself down to check it out. He probably sat there for at least 15 minutes perusing each page! 

Mattie had fun opening some mail too

On October 18th, after months of waiting (almost 3 months), we finally found out that

Bryce PASSED the WA Bar!!!

BRYCE'S SWEARING IN

Bryce was sworn into the Washington State Bar Association on October 29, 2010.

Each applicant must be presented to the court by an attorney, so it was really special that Bryce's dad, Greg, came over from Bellevue to introduce and present his son

Bryce taking his oath in front of the judge. Not pictured are two other attorneys to Bryce's left, one of which is Kyle, who also works at JDSA, and other is Kyle's fiance, Kate.

Congrats after the swearing in

Ring pops: this is how we kept quiet the only two children present

Bryce Mackay: official attorney

Yes, Mattie and CJ have donuts smeared on their faces. That's ok...it kinda covers the ring pops that were smeared there first :)

Like father, like son

(and I promise, Bryce's mom was there too, but for some reason I didn't get a pic of them together on my camera)

Bryce's professional business card, which he received the day before he was sworn in

This is the article that was printed in the Nov 7th issue of the Wenatchee World

Playing in the rain

HALLOWEEN

Oct 28th - These are the fruit snacks that Paige made for CJ's Preschool Halloween party. Bryce helped by doing most of the jack-o-lantern carving

CJ's Preschool class (L-R): Elizabeth, Kayden, Vivian, Reagan, and CJ

Mommy didn't want CJ getting his costume dirty before he got to wear it for Halloween - she spent way too many hours working on it - so he was dressed up as a pretty casual sheriff :)

 Oct 30th - CJ went as Woody and Mattie went as Jessie (both from the movie Toy Story) to our church's trunk-or-treat

Kermit and Miss Piggy

The Mackay Clan

Resting in the trunk and testing out the goods after making the rounds

Kermit giving Miss Piggy some suga'

Happy Halloween!