Growing Up Geurin: 2012

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Disneyland!

Neil and I decided to take a trip for our family Christmas gift and also for our last hurrah as a family of three. We didn't have to think long about where we should go - Disneyland was an easy choice! Landon loves a Disneyland documentary on Netflix and still talks about the trip we took September of 2011. This time we stayed for 3 days and did the parks for 2 1/2 days, which meant we also got to explore Disney's California Adventure! This was also the first time we've done a vacation with just the three of us. We had a wonderful time and made lots of wonderful memories with just the three of us!

We surprised Landon with the trip on the day that we left by letting him open a Christmas gift that was filled with Mickey stuff. He was more excited about opening the box than what we were trying to tell him. When we told him we were going to stay in a hotel, he got really excited. Go figure!

The Lego store at Downtown Disney was a big hit!

Day 1: Disneyland - it was rainy in the morning, but we got an early start anyways. It was an amazing day for crowds. We waited 10 min for Peter Pan and that was our longest wait! We were able to ride lots of rides multiple times. I think we rode Buzz 4 times in a row. The Tiki Room and Small World were also favorites, much to Neil's delight. If only the Carousel of Progress was still open....

Day 2: California Adventure - Our first time to this park and it was fun! Landon loved all of the Pixar movie attractions like Bugs Land and Cars Land and Toy Story Mania. We also had lots of fun on the huge Ferris wheel and other Boardwalk rides. Bugs Land was his ultimate favorite. We went at least 4 times and we never had to wait for rides.

Nighttime Fun: We loved being at Disney at Christmas - especially at night! The Christmas trees, lights, shops, shows and the castle were gorgeous! The first night we saw "World of Color" in California Adventure and had an ice cream treat while we waited for the show to start. The second night we saw "Fantasmic" in Disneyland, got to play in the "snow" while White Christmas played through the park, and saw Small World all lit up for Christmas.

Want to make a kid happy? Give him chocolate ice cream way past bedtime.

So happy to see Small World at night!

Day 3: We went to both parks and rode our favorites one last time and then ended the trip with a Christmas parade. This was by far the most crowded day and we were so thankful we'd done everything else earlier in the week. We all loved the parade down Main Street USA!

Bass Pro Christmas 2012

Geurin family tradition is to go to Bass Pro the Saturday after Thanksgiving for pictures with Santa and general "outdoorsy" fun!

Landon is explaining his list to Santa.

1. Play-doh icecream machine

2. Stompeez (slippers)

3. Mr. Pencil leap frog game

Playing in the boats with his cousins!

Monday, December 17, 2012

Just Landon

Landon Robert - almost 5 years old and ready to be an awesome big brother. He told me that he is a "baby expert" and will help change diapers and is VERY excited for his baby brother to be born.

Cue the Confetti - Behind the Scenes

A huge shout out to my wonderful husband for doing lots of work for our photo shoot. He put up with me asking him to try on lots of different wardrobe choices, got off of work early that day, wore a sweater in 80 degree heat AND hung all of our lanterns! Oh, and he also made that AMAZING video of the whole process. Wow!

Cue the Confetti

My dear friend and photographer extraordinaire, Melissa Darst, gave me the idea to do a gender reveal photo shoot. It was also time for our annual family pictures, so we did a fun shoot to capture our family at this stage AND reveal the gender of the next Geurin. I searched and searched online for the perfect reveal idea and found confetti falling from a paper lantern. I put a false bottom on a lantern and a string attached, so the idea was for Neil to pull the string and the blue or pink confetti would rain down on us. Melissa found an amazing tree to hang our lanterns from. This tree was in some one's front yard and she left them a note asking for permission to shoot us in their front yard! Oct 11th was the big day - sonogram and photo shoot! The sonogram tech wrote the gender on a card and sealed it for me. I gave Melissa the card, along with the special lantern and blue and pink confetti. She filled and hung the lantern, we took our places and the fun began!

The string broke when Neil pulled on it, so he had to "help" the confetti out

It's BLUE!

Both Neil and I were convinced it was a boy, so we weren't surprised - just very happy. If pink confetti had fallen, Melissa would've captured our very shocked faces. I will treasure these pictures forever! I love all of the blue confetti stuck all over us and it was perfect!