We had not one, not two, but THREE visitors during the weekend right before Thanksgiving. Our sister (technically Jeremy's sister, but she's mine just the same)and her husband visited us as part of their epic 54+ day road trip around the country. They are Melissa and Jon, and are known as MeliJon. And then our cousin Briana (from my side of the family) came to visit as part of her trip to a wedding. Jeremy spent all week getting the kitchen and house projects done before they arrived. It was great to have a functioning, beautiful house for our guests!
We took the family to the tidepools in Carona Del Mar. The highlight this time was seeing way more starfish than normal (thanks to Jon) AND we (well it was really me) found FOUR sea slugs!! One interesting thing is that we did not see any of those fist-sized blackish purple crabs that hover in between the rocks. Maybe they're seasonal?
Tanner was very well behaved. He got curious and touched some starfish!
During the day on Mon,Tues & Weds, Jeremy and I had to go to work, Briana visited with other friends, and MeliJon babysat Tanner. Melissa and Jon were the perfect substitute parents! Tanner fell in love with them. During the 3 days that they watched him, they took Tanner to Mile Square Park, the neighborhood park, a bike ride to the pier, an afternoon on the beach, a trip to Target, and skateboarding! They also played lots of games at home like dancing to dubstep, playing dress-ups, jamming on the piano and reading stories.
At the park, Tanner went on all the slides, including climbing up to the super, duper high one. I didn't know he liked slides that much.
He LOVED the wheel. He's really been into cars and anything locomotive. He's been playing with cars and making them go "vroom" since he was 10 months old. He watches the Baby Einstein episode of "things that go" on Youtube. Lately, he started saying "beep, beep" in addition to all his other car noises. He even tipped the stroller over so that he could turn the wheels like a steering wheel.
I feel like Melissa and Jon were an answer to prayer by being willing to spend some of their vacation taking care of Tanner. I had no luck getting a sitter for that week and prayed that someone would be able to. When Melissa said she would love to, that meant the world to me! And it was so fun to have Melissa and Jon light up our home with their spunky personality. The two of them make a perfect couple. They have this genuine way of always being happy and getting along with literally anyone. I've admired Melissa since the day I met her, and one of the major perks of being Jeremy's wife is that I get to have her as my sister-in-law.
During the evenings, we all partied together (Mormon style)! First, we made and ate amazing food together. I LOVED being able to cook without Tanner getting into everything- Jon was the main entertainer during meal making. Melissa and I cooked together; it was so nice to have an extra hand in the kitchen and she made me feel like a professional chef! Our dinners included Thai Cashew Chicken, Parmeasan Chicken, and Spaghetti with pink sauce, and Dominican ChickenRice&Beans. My favorite part of the whole food thing was sitting around the dinner table with all 6 of us, eating healthy, yummy food and having great conversation. I feel like the
Food Nanny would be so proud (she's my new hero and has a cute TV show on
ByuTV). We really DID achieve La Vita Vera- The True Life.
After dinner on Monday, our party time continued by going to Downtown Disney. We spent a lot of time in LegoLand. Jeremy made an ice cream cone, specifically sherbet swirl.
I made an M.C. Escher sculpture.
Briana kept Tanner entertained in his stroller for awhile. But then he realized there was a huge table with little things that you can throw everywhere. So he got involved with "organizing" the lego parts.
Jon and Melissa started making a city, which became the City of Jon. We helped them complete it.
You'll notice the park, fire station, house, and Chinese restaurant. The skyscrapers aren't featured in this picture. Jeremy's breast cancer skyscraper was the funniest. He used all pink legos.
Then, we enjoyed the Disney fire work show while we all had our first taste of french beignet, compliments of MeliJon. It was SO good!! Tanner cuddled with Briana during the firework show. She is so good with little ones!
Then our partying continued at home. Briana and I spent hours talking about our jobs. She is currently working as a speech therapist for toddlers, so it was really interesting to learn from her. We also dug up the letters that she sent me while we were growing up (remember, that's what people did before email). Some of the letters were super funny. I haven't been able to play or visit with Briana for a long time, so I'm so glad she was with us! She is such a beautiful, loving, smart person. We've made lots of fun and sweet memories together over the years and it was really nice to keep making memories with her and to have her at our house.
On Tuesday night, we all partied around our fire place and made s'mores. Melissa and Jon taught me, Jeremy and Briana how to play Dominion. Briana and I won on our first round! Since then, Jeremy and I have played maybe 14 rounds of Dominion with MeliJon and we can't wait until xmas break to play more with them. We love it!!
It was so great to have both Briana and MeliJon with us that week. It might sound like having 6 people in a tiny 2 bedroom town home would be stressful. But it was just the opposite! It really was a blessing to have all of them with us. I found that their energy kept me going through what would have been a really rough week of work. It couldn't have been more perfect.
