Merry Christmas and Big Bear Lake!! (Week 129)

Merry Christmas!  This post is a week late - yikes! - but the holiday break has been so hectic that we just couldn't get around to it.  But here it is - and its a doozie.  Highlights of this post: opening Christmas Day presents, Christmas Day dinner, and our Big Bear Lake snow trip with our friends the Garners!

This Christmas was the first where Tyler seemed to understand the concept of presents!  I think we may have gone a bit overboard but hey, it's his first one, why not make it memorable?  Hopefully we didn't screw ourselves and he'll expect this many presents in the future.  Next Christmas we'll have another kid, so he'll definitely have less!  Here we are Christmas morning!

Here's a silly video of Tyler playing with Mojo Christmas morning. He's very clear that Mojo "not play with MY toy, play with YOUR toy!". It's so fun listening to Tyler speak - he's getting more and more clear. We've just started practicing the alphabet letters at home (key word is JUST started) but he's great at shapes and colors.

Most of you guys probably know that Tyler is OBSESSED with Thomas and Friends trains.  He lives/breathes this stuff.  His room is decorated with Thomas stuff (thanks to Auntie Trina and Auntie Mariam!) and he's literally got some sort of train set in each of the common areas for him to play with.  Every morning when he comes to our room, he asks if one of us will play trains with him.  He has a Thomas backpack that he has to put all his trains in and take with him wherever he goes.  He loves watching Thomas and Friends episodes on the TV, my iPhone, and ESPECIALLY my laptop (thank goodness for YouTube playlists!).  So...it wasn't hard to figure out what to get him for Christmas. :)

Here's a short video of Tyler opening his first Christmas present.  I thought it was funny that he went straight for the largest present! Heehee!  This was his only non-Thomas train present as well.

Here's Tyler with one of his presents - he posed happily with all of them! 

Opening more presents!

Finishing shot of the loot.  I was kind of hesitant to post this picture because it's proof that I totally went overboard with gifts this year.  Ack!  SO not going to happen again!    Hopefully Tyler will remember this Christmas - his first real one and last one where he's a single child! :)

My in-laws came over later that afternoon.  We had bought gifts for them to give Tyler.  (Yup, you guessed it - more Thomas-related stuff!).  Tyler loves riding the scooters at school, and we thought it'd be perfect for him to have his own scooter for home.  And of course he needed some protective gear as well... Here's Tyler with his grandparents.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! Side note: Tyler has been super more sociable lately with family members.  Before he would be shy and only let certain people hug him, but now he's quite the social butterfly.  It's great progress!  He still gets shy around people he doesn't know though.

So of course, we had to head outside and try out his new scooter and protective gear.  Ahhh - how cute is he.  He's so grown up!  He had no problem with his scooter (although the grandparents were WAY too protective and worried of him falling).

Here's a short video of Tyler on his scooter.  He really liked it!  His favorite thing that day was to keep riding over the little blue reflector bump in the road (signifying a fire hydrant).

Here are a couple more shots of Tyler.  I like the one on the left with his diaper sticking out.  My little Tyler is totally growing up!

That night my brother Lindon and his wife Michelle joined us and my in-laws for Hot Pot dinner.  (My parents were in Houston visiting my older sister).   I love that Hot Pot is so easy to make, and no preparation really necessary!  Maybe I'm just lazy. :) 

Tyler got another present that night - a Thomas and Friends bath toy - a boat named Bulstrode with a squeezeable Thomas.  He LOVED it.  My brother and Michelle sure picked the perfect gift!  As soon as he opened it and we told him it was for him to play with in the bathtub, he declared "I want to take a bath" and started heading upstairs.  This is the kid who we have to convince a lot of the time to get into the bathtub - you'd think he'd be used to it because he gets a bath everyday! 

We had to convince Tyler to wait a second and take one group picture real quick before he headed upstairs.  He was VERY quick to give everyone a hug and kiss just so he could get upstairs as soon as possible! 

The next day my girls (Mariam and Trina) and Mariam's husband Frank came over for dinner.  Oops forgot to get a group picture!  Doh!  We even busted out some boardgames - woah! - I actually had to unpack the boardgame box that was stored under the staircase untouched since our move in 2007! 

Auntie Trina and Tyler.  I rest easier every day knowing that Trina will be helping us watch Tyler when Will and I are in the hospital for delivery.  It was stressing me out thinking about how Tyler would deal with me not being at home - but there couldn't be a better solution.  Tyler won't even notice I'm gone.  haha!

Non-stop action!  The next day (12/27) we headed up to Big Bear Lake with the Garners.  After our Bahamas trip, I think I've become much better at packing for Tyler.  Since we were only staying for 2 nights, it was way easier than packing for 7!  Plus we didn't have to wake up super early in the morning (as we've previously done), so that was a bonus too.  We met up with the Garners for a quick lunch and then hit the road.  (Tyler is notorious for falling asleep in the car on the weekends if we're driving anywhere between 1030-noon, but it usually takes him maybe 5-10 minutes.  This time though, on the 5 minute drive to lunch, he was already passed out! Haha!  As soon as I whispered to him that Kaden was there, he got really excited and woke up quick!)  After lunch, Tyler went down pretty quick again in the car.  Thank goodness he's a good car sleeper!   

The drive up to Big Bear was actually pretty quick...until the last 20 miles or so!  Then it was a deadlock standstill at points.  The slow traffic woke Tyler up and we had to listen to some whining of "I want to play in the snow" over and over again as he fell asleep and woke up a few times.  Ugh!  Luckily he didn't stay in a bad mood for long. Here's a short clip of Tyler playing with his little Santa Clause snow globe toy - I think it's so funny when he makes Santa's "ho-ho-ho" sound!

I was really relieved when we finally got to the cabin.  We've actually never stayed in a cabin like this before - our previous snow trips were always for boarding with more people and we would stay in large cabins or condos.  Since we aren't familiar with the Big Bear area, our friends chose their usual place.  It was definitely smaller than what we were used to - but we didn't really need that much space anyway!  Here's Tyler and Kaden at the lobby of the check-in office - they were both really happy to be out of the car!

It was a cute little cabin - looked way smaller from the outside though!  The two bedrooms were upstairs on each side of a VERY creaky staircase.  Same with the doors to the rooms!  I wouldn't have minded so much if it wasn't such a pain opening/closing the door each time and worrying about waking up a sleeping kid!  Tyler and Kaden wasted no time in playing with their toys. :) Tyler brought his backpack full of Thomas trains (no tracks though) - I figured that would be enough to entertain Tyler for the weekend.  Kaden had a HUGE amount of toys though - wow!  Sharing was... eh... as good as to be expected. :)

Here's a cute video of Will and Tyler playing with Kaden's little sister Kylee. She is so cute and Tyler is so gentle with her - I sure hope he will be this gentle with baby Katelyn!

After we got settled in, we headed outside to let the boys play around in the snow.  Tyler LOVED stomping around - it was so cute!  Tyler had been so excited about this trip - he was SO ready to play in the snow!  I loved that he didn't have a problem wearing his snow jacket/gloves/hat and pants! 

Here's Tyler and Kaden in the snow.  So glad Tyler got to share this fun experience with his friend!

That night we headed to dinner at a local Italian restaurant.  The wait was ridiculous!  They had a pool table there that people were playing and Tyler decided he wanted to play.  Ack!  Let's just say he had a meltdown.  Not fun.  The food was alright - my pasta was way overcooked and the pizza took forever!  Oh well.  Afterwards we went across the street where they had a huge decorated Christmas tree and ice skating rink!  Tyler was slipping and sliding on the icy ground - but he thought it was hilarious for some reason.  He did NOT think it was funny though when Will slipped while holding him!  I was not amused either!  Anyway, here's Tyler hugging a giant lollipop!  (Good thing he doesn't eat candy...)

Back in the cabin, we started a fire in the fireplace and hung out with the kids.  Tyler liked the fireplace!  We have one here but we've never lit it...it's too much of a pain to get to behind all of his toys!

Tyler lucked out with bathtime too.  The bathroom had a tub but I wasn't too sure about its cleanliness for a bath - so.. (GASP!) he didn't get a bath the two nights we were there!  Lovely huh.  We brought his inflatable Thomas the train bed - which I bought on clearance for like $9.99 a while back before he was even into trains!  We put it between our bed and the wall and he was so excited!  He would tell us that he was going to sleep on his bed, and mama sleep on mama's bed!  Kaden wanted in on the fun too.

The next morning, after ordering in breakfast from the Grizzly Manor Cafe (rated top breakfast place by Yelp and having HUGE pancakes!!) we headed to the Alpine Slide just down the street from our cabins.  What a cool place!  They had tobaggon rides as well as sled rides with a "magic carpet" that takes you up the slope (perfect for lazy people like me!)  Unfortunately, I was limited to just staying at the bottom and taking pictures.  Sigh.  Here's Tyler all bundled up!

The boys decided to ride the tobaggons first.  To get to the top, you have to take a chairlift up!  Ack!  I watched as they waited their turn to board and, I have to admit, was super nervous.  What if Tyler freaked out at the last second?

He seemed very excited though, and was being silly as I took pictures of them in line.  Here he is hiding his eyes behind the ropes.  Silly.

I think I was getting close to an anxiety attack as Will prepared to board with Tyler... but no problems!  Whew!  What a relief!  Still, I can't believe Tyler got on a chairlift! :)

Here's a picture Will took at the top of the hill with Tyler.  They're sitting on these heavy sturdy yellow sleds that have a brake in the front.  Basically you have to push forward on the brake to get it to go faster, or it will automatically slow itself down.  Tyler has such a funny smile in this picture.  He's ready to go!

I felt like I was waiting forever for them to show up!  Tyler was not too stoked about the first run because...they couldn't go fast!  There were a couple of sleds in front of them that were slow which caused both Will/Tyler and Stacy/Kaden's sleds to go slow.  Boo!

Their second run was much more enjoyable and faster!  Tyler loved it!  Here's a video of their ride.  I wish I could have gone down with him once!

Here's a MUCH happier Tyler at the end of second ride.  He loved it!

Afterwards we decided to hit up the tubing section.  Good thing we came pretty early, because it started to get really packed later in the day!

I'm starting to be a really paranoid mom - I was getting nervous about Tyler riding the Magic Carpet too!  But luckily no problems - it was cute watching them go up!

Tyler was such a thrill seeker.  He LOVED the sledding - especially when they would go fast and backwards.  Love it! 

We had a quick lunch at Taco Bell and then Tyler took a nice long nap.  Love the naps!  For dinner we headed to a local steak restaurant.  Long wait again too!  I guess that's to be expected during the holiday week!  Here's Tyler and Will!

Quick family group picture!

I thought this picture was pretty funny - Tyler was asking for milk while we waited so Will took him to the bar to get some (this was also the waiting area for the restaurant).  Tyler at the bar - waiting for his drink! heehee!

Back at the cabin the boys got ready for bed.  Tyler is pretty good at brushing his teeth, but he totally wanted Kaden's toothbrush when he saw it - it was a spiderman toothbrush that lit up!  Hmmm.  Reminds me that we really need to get him off the baby toothpaste - but he likes the taste AND that it comes in a Thomas and Friends theme! Hah!

The next morning we took it easy as we packed up our gear before heading across the street to do some sledding of our own.  It was so cute watching Will pull the boys in a sled up the hill!

Tyler was a thrill seeker as usual, and really enjoyed the sled rides.  He was shrieking in excitement as they came down.  Something about seeing your kids thoroughly enjoying themselves is just priceless!

Here's a video of Tyler and Will coming down the sled.  At the end of the video, when the sled stops, you can hear Tyler yell "Do it AGAIN!!".  Hah!

Here's a picture of Tyler and me.  I wonder if we'll have time to visit Big Bear again before the baby comes... Hmm..

We set up Will's tripod to get some group shots - of course Tyler had to be the photographer!

Family picture!  We had such a fun time on this trip - can't wait to take Tyler to see snow again!  When I ask Tyler where we played in the snow, he'll say: "Big Bear Lake!!"

Ooh, can't forget Tyler's interest in making snowmen!  Ok so the main snowman's pieces we put together for him, but he enjoyed adding little bits of snow on the top.  The funny thing was that he had no problem picking up balls of snow and moving them, but if he walked and fell and his hands touched the snow, he'd look at them all panicky and SCREAM!  Really really weird. 

Here's a short video of Tyler adding finishing touches to his snowman. :)

Finshed product!

Here's a group shot with the Garners - Kaden is a few months older than Tyler and they go to school together.

And last picture of the trip - Tyler and Kaden! Great snow trip - can't wait to do it again!  Actually, can't wait until we can get Tyler on a snowboard!  I figure next season I'll still be pretty busy with the new baby, but maybe I'll get to squeeze in a snowboarding trip! :)

Whew, this post is done!  Only one week late!  Hope you guys all had a Merry Christmas!