Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate for 2021 December

Arthur started an adorable baseball class today with a few friends. It’s called sandlot, and they just learn skills and scrimmage rather than play on a league. The coach was so fun, the kids all got to pick a nickname (“Shark”), learned moved to cheer on the other players after each maneuver, danced, ran, and cheered. It was so adorable and uplifting. And it wore him out. They also handed out baseball cards every time the kids were good at cheering, or doing the “salutes” or being good listeners, and at the end, Arthur got an award for bravery for playing with one arm.

For Arthur’s birthday, we finally took him to go on Indiana Jones at Disneyland, Which he’s been asking to do since he first went on it six months ago. John, Arthur and I bought day tickets, and we went and rode it twice, and then went on a bunch of other stuff. We also hung out with my cousins Jill, Brynn, and Deirdre. John and I brought Arthur home and worked for a couple hours, then went back for dinner, date night, and more cousin fun. It was a long day, but tons of fun. We made the most of it.

For his birthday, Arthur requested popsicles instead of cake. So even though it was quite cold today, we met lots of kinder friends at the park right after school and handed out popsicles. Unfortunately, Arthur couldn’t play with his friends because of his cast, but he still had fun. One friend brought him a balloon, which flew away, but he carried the Pet String around for hours afterward.

This weekend, Sienna and Arthur got their 2nd dose of Covid vaccine, and John and I got boosters, so we expected to be laid up. It wasn’t as bad as we thought though. We took it easy on Saturday, and took a nap, and then even made an appearance at a friend’s 40th birthday.

Sunday afternoon was the kids Christmas piano recital. They took turns practicing all day and it was so fun to hear. They all did great in the recital. Maggie played Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desire and Do You Hear What I Hear. Dalton played Where Are You Christmas? Sienna played Silent Night and Deck the Halls. She had gotten excited memorizing Deck the Halls and playing it too fast and then her fingers wouldn’t do it at regular speed. But other than that, it was all great. We know nearly all the other students, so it’s always fun to see them play as well.

I signed Maggie up to participate in Laguna Niguel stake’s Chalk Walk. They gave us a 4x8 black painted plywood, and a box of pastels and a couple weeks. Maggie did a scattering of white trees, with a big, rainbow colored star on top of the center one. I thought it was lovely. Last night we went down and drove through the parking lot to look at the chalk drawings. Some of them were incredible. We are already looking forward to next year.

Tonight we tried to go see the Christmas Snoopy on Ice show at Knott’s. It was SO crowded. People were lined for for the NEXT showing, three hours away. No thanks. We got in the shortest line we saw, which was for boysenberry soft serve. Then we left and got Stonefire for dinner instead. Oh well. There’s always next year.

A little travelogue from our trip to Florida/Bahamas.

12/17: left an hour late from LaX, missed our connection. Stayed in a seedy hotel the airline paid for, after a two hour line, be a vending machine dinner.

12/18 flew to Tampa and drove to Orlando. Not in the plan, but we made it work. Had a great time at Epcot, even though we only had four hours. We did the four rides we wanted to hit, plus two others, and had yummy food for dinner. Got the trip back on track. It feels very Chadwick to have made that evening happen.

12/19: Animal Kingdom. Waited 3 hours for Pandora. Then really enjoyed using fast passes to other rides. Everyone loved Expedition Everest.

In bed this night, pillow talk with the big kids about favorite things of the day, and things Maggie remembered from our last visit.

12/20: so happy to get on the Disney Dream! Everyone vaccinated, tested immediately before boarding. Masks required and limited capacity, enforced social distancing. It was so nice to feel so safe and do something so fun. We enjoyed the water slide in the rain and several ice cream cones, before everyone was on board.

12/21 Bahamas - Atlantis, lazy River we kept getting stuck in. John and the older 3 kids swam in the ocean. Arthur had to wear a cast cover at the beach, so he preferred the pool. The area was reserved for just our excursion, so keep cruise people from mixing with others. Dinner with Crush the turtle, who called Arthur Marshall.

12/22 bonus sea day. Supposed to go to castaway cay. Instead we ate brunch at Remy (yummy food, fun water menu), watched Encanto, and after dinner, went on the water slide a bunch of times in a row with no line. It was only cold the first time. I love my fun family. Dalton won a hat in a Smash Bros tournament in the tween club.

12/23 finally made it to castaway cay and we did all the things. John and Dalton ran the 5k, then John took Dalton and Maggie swimming and did the water slide. Meanwhile, I floated on inner tubes with the littles, and took them to the splash pad. Arthur whined about his cast cover and just wanted to hide on my lap on the floatie. After lunch, we snorkeled with sting rays. Sienna was terrified of the fish in the water and Arthur wasn’t able to reach deep enough to pet any, which was a bummer. But everyone else had a blast. John then took the older kids out snorkeling in the open water, while the rest of us did more tubing. Finally, we got a bike rental and went for our first ever family bike ride, with Arthur in the baby seat on the back of John’s bike. It was so fun! 12/24: Kennedy Space Center. Tried freeze dried ice cream and a launch simulator. Fun play place, saw real space shuttles, touched a moon rock, learned a lot. And finally made it home! Direct flight is the way to go.

Just a few of our top moments from our Disney world/ Caribbean Cruise trip.

Making up for a bad start to the trip by managing Epcot like the Disney pros we are.
Talking in bed with Maggie and dalton about our fun day at Animal Kingdom
Crush mishearing Arthur’s name as Marshall
Running to the water slide after dinner and riding over and over again in the dark. We got to our room at 7:25 after dinner, changed, and some of us managed to ride 7 times before it closed at 8. It was a fantastically fun family experience and everyone loved it.
Our first family bike ride, on Castaway Cay. After the bike ride, the place had basically cleared out even though there was an hour until e had to be back on board. We closed the place out, and got a golf cart ride back to the ship.

Sienna says “pacific” instead of specific. “A pacific amount of time.”