while tanner was gone

tanner has had some fun the past couple of weekends. he spent some time in vegas for the mwc tournament, and this past weekend was in palm springs to watch a tennis tournament. while he was gone on his first trip, we sent him random videos and here they are...

eli was very upset he wasn't invited to go to vegas with tanner and "pio" (aka tanner's dad)

but he got over it, and this was that same night. i dont really understand what he's saying... other than "...by the guitar". this kid is seriously non stop... but i love it when he rocks out.

the next morning...

here are some pictures of our fun day at disneyland with westin and courtney (thanks for the pictures court!). it wasnt crowded so we were able to hit up most of the good kid rides while enjoying the sun. it was a great day.

there were more videos, but blogger is showing me no love right now... so we'll leave it at this.

dland

tanner has been working long 11+ hour days at work. he decided that having some family fun at disneyland was how he would like to spend his saturday. since it was crowded we only stayed for a couple hours, but it was great to be outside walking around in the warm sun.

btw- i am realizing more and more things i have spaced posting on. before i go to japan (in two weeks!!!) i want to be all caught up... so prepare yourselves.

a whole new disneyland

my sister jordan and her family came down to disneyland for a week. we recently saw her and her husband matt in vegas, but it had been far too long since i've seen my awesome nephews so i was so insanely excited for them to come out. eli and i were able to spend all day monday with them, most of tuesday, 1/2 day thursday, and all day friday. and what made it even more fun was my sister shan took the train down from santa barbara so she could come on friday, and my sister lauren who just got home from her mission took a little rode trip over with some friends so she also came to dland on friday! it was seriously the best.

eli was awakened to a whole new disneyland after our days spent there. he now loves the winnie the pooh ride, and whenever he sees pooh anywhere he says "pooh bear!" and gets excited. hands down his favorite ride is the buzz lightyear ride where he gets to hold the little laser gun. the first 5 times we went on it he would freak out and start screaming when it was over and i made him get off... but luckily he caught on to the fact that we will go on that ride again and again so he was okay. at the end of the week we got him a toy story set of balls, so whenever he sees buzz he also gets really excited which is pretty cute.

eli has also been awakened to his love of suckers. his aunt jordan was nice enough to buy him one every single day we were there and he loved every second of it. the sucker would seriously not leave his mouth till it was all gone, or he fell asleep (which happened twice while sucking his sucker... one time with the sucker stuck to his forehead... i wish i got a picture of that!).

here is eli and is super cute cousins: tyson, easton and brennen. they all take great care of eli and are super cute with him.

seriously i love them all so much!

this is my youngest sister shannon, my sister lauren who just got home from a mission in hong kong, and then my sister jordan! if you looked at the collage above, it shows us with gaps in between where we were standing. it was so awesome to be with so many family members all at one time, but we were still very aware that we were missing my sister kristen, and brother ryan (who is on a mission in taiwan) so that is where they would have fit in if they were there with us... we are weird, i know.

jordan, eli misses the fun and excitement of hanging with his super cool cousins. he also misses his aunt who takes such good care of him and always hooked him up with the best treats. we need to see you guys again soon! oh, and thanks for letting me steal all your pictures : )

dland with the marquis

chris and courtney were kind enough to invite tanner and i to some fun at disneyland and to stay with them in their two bedroom suite. on tuesday we left santa monica and drove to fullerton to drop eli off with carly. eli had a lot of fun with her and told me he wants to stay at carly's house more often : ). after dropping him off we then went to meet the marquis at disneyland around lunchtime. we took it pretty easy and i hung back with courtney on the more intense rides cause she is 18 weeks pregnant!

we left at a reasonable time, checked into our killer hotel room, and then walked across the street to cpk for dinner. after dinner we threw our bathing suits on and watched the fireworks (from dland) and then hungout at the hot tubs. when we got back to the room, we decided we could use even more food so tanner and chris walked back across the street to cheesecake factory (while courtney and i watched tv) and picked us up some healthy, delicious food. okay, i lied about the heathy but oh man it was good. we got the fried macaroni and cheese and two slices of cheesecake. they are doing a limited edition redvelvet cheesecake and i thought i was going to die from eating it it was so good (and the workers kindly told tanner that each slice of that baby (its is bigger than normal) is 1500+ calories) and i enjoyed every bite.

this is us munching on some yummy grub for a midnight snack.

the next day i actually remembered to pull out my camera to take some pictures. well, this first one tanner took which was sort of an action shot...but i didnt have many to choose from

we learned how to draw tigger and these are our masterpieces. notice chris's is blank ... he already threw his away but we wanted him to feel included.

group shot at california adventure. notice courtney's cute belly.

anyways, those were the few pictures that were taken. couple trips are so fun! thanks chris and courtney for inviting us... it was awesome!

disneyland bday fun

we spent most of eli's birthday at disneyland. i wanted to have these pictures posted earlier, but the past few days have been so super busy. we had so much fun at dland and are glad we were able to spend the day going on the kiddie rides with eli. 

on the ferris wheel at california adventure. this is the first time we've been on it because its been under construction for the past year. 

 

i was so excited to get eli his birthday button. too bad eli hates anything that he feels shouldnt be attached to him in anyway (unfortunately like hats), so he wouldnt wear the button. i tried putting it on his stroller strap and that wasn't good enough for him either. oh well, we took the needle hook off the back and just let him hold it. 

 

tanner was very excited about getting eli a mickey mouse shirt. so after we got the button we went and picked out a shirt. here it is in our family shot in front of the castle. 

 

poor eli was very tired

dumbo was my favorite ride with eli 

 

 steering the back of the train 

 

small world. 

 

eli with his bday balloon...that hit me in the face like 20 times while walking around during the day

 

eli's with his birthday cupcake. he hasn't really had any sweets in his life so far, so im sure he greatly enjoyed this, despite being tired. 

 

and finally he passed out while we were on our walk back to the car.

it was a fun, full day. and yes, i will have one more post (maybe tonight but probably tomorrow) for eli's bday party. then i promise, im done posting about his birthday. 

by the way, what is up with the underline? can anyone tell me how to remove it? there is a line underneath the second half the pictures which makes the writing also be underlined. if you know please let me know how to remove it!

disneyland with the merrell's...again!

i love that my older sister, jordan, and her family love disneyland because when they come i get to drive down to anaheim to hang out with them. i feel a special connection to my nephews and cant wait till eli gets older so they can all play together. last week i spent two days with them, once on monday which was special because my brother ryan was in town so he was able to come, and then again on thursday. here are some shots - 

ryan with all his nephews

on the carousel...i ended up riding with eli to make it more fun

at lunch jor showed eli how fun it was to use a baby carrot as chew toy and he loved it. whenever he dropped one he wasn't too happy about it. 

cute cousins

future bff

with the castle

group shot at the entrance

eli had a long day, and apparently tanner did too. i took this shot and then about ten seconds later...

i took this. eli gave in to his exhaustion.

eli 6 month + random

i forgot to do the update on eli's 6 month appointment. everyone thinks he's huge and the majority of people guess that he's older than he is, but it turns out he is still in the 50% for his weight and he is in the 25% for height. he is starting to roll around like crazy and its so fun to watch. it took him a little while to catch on from rolling from his back to his stomach, but he is a pro now. here are some picture updates

in palm springs for thanksgiving - eli's first time swimming (he loved it)

i needed to get some things done in the living room so i put eli in his crib to chill for a little while. i went back in to turn off the lights to have him take a nap and this is what i found. he likes to sleep with his face pressed up against things so in this first pic its the bumper that he was aparently having some fun with before he fell asleep, and the second pic he used a pillow.

last saturday evening we went to california adventure/disneyland. i loved seeing all the lights, and the fireworks show was great with the christmas music mixed in. i love disneyland.

i finished the book left to tell yesterday while at the park with eli, which is an autobiography of a survivor of the rwandan genocide. she is very inspiring and i wish i could have the faith and forgiving spirit as she does. i couldn't stop thinking of the horrific events that took place all last night after finishing the book, and found it hard to believe that evil could fill so many peoples hearts with ignorance and hate to the point of killing a million people only 14 short years ago. anyways, heres eli looking cute as usual at the park with me.

merrell family vacation

its been far too long since my last post. sorry mom! but in the mean time i have been busy and having fun. my oldest sister, jordan, came into town with her husband and three boys. i had so much fun hanging out with them while they were here and miss them a lot already. so here was last week -

tuesday late afternoon jordan + fam arrived at my apartment in santa monica. that night we ate dinner and spent some time on the santa monica pier. tanner was really excited to take my two older nephews on some of the fun rides, but unfortunately they were all closed by the time we got there. maybe next time.

easton keeping eli company in his crib

cutie brennen waiting his turn to get in

wednesday was disneyland day! i love that place. we spent the day between disneyland and california adventure and one of my new favorite rides has to be the toy story mania game at c.a. it was definitely worth the 30 min wait.

eli and i waiting in line for the haunted mansion

on thursday eli and i drove down to meet up with the merrell fam and my grandparents at sea world. it had been a long time since i saw my grandparents so it was great being able to catch up with them even if it was only for 1/2 a day.

after the shamu show

my mom's parents with all the great-grandsons

tyson and eli were best buds on this trip. it was so cute seeing tyson interact with eli and how protective he was of him. before tanner came around i liked to think i was one of tyson's favorite people, but now sadly, even in my little elton family, i think the order is now eli, tanner, and then myself. oh well.

jordan and brennen came with eli and i to a hotel that night. i was very glad because as you can tell by the way we moved the desk, we were a little worried with the sketchiness. i dont know if we will have tanner book another hotel room for us in the future.

friday we went to the animal kingdom park. i dont know if its cause i've been to tanzania on an actual safari, or the park was just a little lame, but i wasn't too impressed. but we still had fun spending time together so thats all that matters

eli was apparently a little bored with the park as well

i had so much fun with jordan and her family and am already wanting them to come back. jor, why dont you just convince matt to move here? that would be awesome.