Waits Family Annals

Christmas came this year with a lot of anticipation. Connor enjoyed the daily advent calendar where he got a small gift every day leading up to Christmas (magnets, rub-on tattoos, toy cars, etc).

We went to the mall and let Connor sit on Santa’s lap and ride the Christmas Train (not the Polar Express, too many licensing issues).

On Christmas Eve, we started a new tradition where we give each other pajamas and go look at Christmas lights. We went to Hartwood Acres. Connor was surprisingly into the lights. We spent about 30 minutes slowly moving through about 2-3 miles of lighted displays, and there were no tantrums. Every so often he would gasp excitedly and point at a rendering of Santa Claus or some other Christmas icon (except Jesus, no Jesus).

For Christmas, we opened presents (and in one picture, you can see I got the gift of conjunctivitis). Connor enjoyed and enjoys his new presents. He really enjoyed his new drums (linked is a video of him playing his drums).

One of the Garvin’s presents was a trip to Color Me Mine in Squirrel Hill. Connor did a great job participating and even painted a few things for his Grandparents. Grandpa got so into his cereal bowl that I don’t think he looked up from his black bird painting for at least 45 minutes. Connor supplied the handprints on the bowl.

All in all, a great holiday that included Katy moving in with us as she transitions from college to professional life.

Yes, we traveled 2,000 miles to go to a Red Robin franchise that doesn’t serve burgers with “some pink.” Not completely true. We traveled that far to visit my parents who live in Provo, and Liz’s parents were able to come up for a weekend, and we happened to eat at Red Robin. While eating, I was told to take LOTS of pictures. So I set the camera to the multi-frame setting and let her rip at the side of Liz’s head. After 12 pictures and figuring out what that sound was, she turned and gave me this look. Perhaps it was time to stop.

I shifted my focus to the other members of the table… primarily the boy, and Liz’s parents since they were leaving shortly. I wanted to get as many pictures with both sets of grandparents and Connor. Hit the jump for the rest.
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Down in Barstow, we are getting Connor used to being pampered and fed vast amounts of sweets and other delicious things. He is playing (mostly) nicely with his cousin; though his version of a hug — a tackle — is not her version of a hug! He finds the blue LED button on the television more entertaining than every toy in Granny’s house, and loves playing with the snack packs of Sun Chips. He gets more use out of the sun chip bags than he does our of his noisemaker toys. He also enjoyed a visit from his Great Grandparents living here in Barstow.

Enjoy more pics after the jump:

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I can’t believe we ALL finished our white water rafting journey.  After mom falling out of the first rapid, I thought we were doomed.  Then a rapid came and the only one to stay in the raft was Ben.  After lunch, and after Dad floated down the river and was rescued by another raft, things got better.  We hated getting stuck on rocks, which happened a lot since we are not 10 year olds.  When we went through the “rock garden” we knew we were doomed.  We got a little testy at the end with each other, but still laugh at Todd who was our coach, “Row Freakin Forward!!!”