Arizona for Christmas

What do I remember most about Christmas this year?
It's not sweet Chaplin singing christmas carols... it's this

this horrible tower of terror. I"ll tell you about it later in the blog.

December 22nd - the Boyds and Viens take over Foothills!

My brother's family and mine arrive at our parents winter home in Yuma, waking up the q-tips.

December 23rd: Yuma Territorial State Prison
It's a Historic Park now... but I was thinking of the movie 3:10 to Yuma.

I don't think so!!!

Get back in your cells





bang bang

After we broke out of prison, we went to a date farm.

Those are date trees behind Chaplin, and they look regal.
This farm had a little store where you could buy all kinds of 'date' stuff. I don't even like dates, but wait a second.. date milk-shakes, oh okay i'll give dates another try. OMG. I LOVE date milk-shakes.

In my imagination the boys are in Egypt.

If you don't know anything about Yuma, well that's okay - all you need to know is one word. LETTUCE. Yes, it's a lettuce fest here all year round. Great green globes growing row after row field after field of it. As much as you can imagine and then imagine more.

A crew picking as they follow the packing machine. Incredibly hard work.

Christmas Eve: A stop at the Proving Ground Entrance, and a trip to the desert

Shirley & Andy Viens
This tank is one of the de-commissioned pieces located right at the entrance into the US Army's Yuma Proving Grounds. On the Proving Grounds the US Army tests nearly everything "army" related. This tank had ammunition holes in it, and as much as I knew that there had been a soul inside that tank, I didn't at all have any feelings about it. Not like in Liverpool, where I felt it, maybe because in Liverpool life carried on living with the destruction, and this was just a tank removed from everyday life? Oh and the Proving Grounds might be more important to Yuma than Lettuce (but I'll have to go back to conclude on this).


Anyways - Here we all are in the desert! This is one of my mom's favorite things to do in Yuma - go out to the desert and exploring. And yes, maybe it could be fun... however from my point of view, I spent the whole time thinking of what could go wrong and was on constant look-out to keep Chaplin safe.

Yes there are BIG cactus in the desert. Big one with big thorns.
- removing cactus thorn from foot -

this area looks innocent right?. Notice that pointed rock sticking up out of the ground... behind the kids?

and this is the (un-marked, no warning, nothing to alert you to danger) open mine shaft right next to that rock. The hole is about 5' x 5' wide. Just seeing it gave me a chill. There would be no way of knowing it was there - but to just walk up to it and find it.. so imagine if Chaplin was walking around without supervision... it just gives me nightmares thinking about it.
And snakes... though dad said they were not out this time of the year. But still.

Anyways - the kids had a great time in the desert exploring. And when we got home mom made our traditional Christmas Eve dish, a meat pie called Tourtiere. My dad is french after all! Thank you mom - i missed it last year.


Hang new ornament on tree. Chaplin picked this up in Maui during the summer. So it went from Maui to Vancouver to Yuma (and home again...)

Set out stockings, write letter to santa and set out cookies and milk (I know Santa prefers wine)

Christmas Morning!


Gift from Santa. Guess what - Chaplin is playing with his Explorer right now as I blog, and the game is teaching him about brushing his teeth ... he is singing this song: "Brush Scrub get those sugar bugs away". thank you santa (and leapster).


After lunch the boys hit a few golf balls.



and another dangerous thing in the desert... a horny toad lizard.
Is that really it's name? I don't know, but that's what Adam told me it was called!

Merry Christmas Everyone - from the Boyd Family

December 26th : Why not go to Mexico?

Chaplin found this costume, I thought it was funny - it's like a mexican wrestling mask mashed with a spiderman cape. And it got even funnier when we walked back across the Mexican border and the US immigration officer looked down at Chaplin wearing a full on face mask.. then back at us like we were maybe smuggling a child across the border. I blame Adam.

And what could be bigger than Christmas for a child? DISNEYLAND!
That's right - we are on our way to DISNEYLAND.

Thank you Nana and Papa for the trip to Yuma and Disneyland!


It did rain half of our first day ... but maybe that cleared the crowds!
Sheri and I were very organized and we got fast pass tickets to all the rides the kids wanted to go on and we kept the group moving.


The sun came out!




And here is the Tower of Terror photo.

THE RIDE FROM HELL.
I'm sorry, but i have no other way to describe my intense feelings for it.
Adam said it might be too scary for him... but I was all "Why would the most wonderful place on earth let an innocent child ride a terrifying ride?" I WAS WRONG, oh so wrong.
The story of the hotel, adapted from elements of the television series, includes the hotel being struck by lightning on October 31, 1939, mysteriously transporting an elevator cart full of passengers to the Twilight Zone and causing an entire wing of the building to disappear. We go into the elevator into seats, and it goes straight up... scary... then the doors open and you see a mirror - we are looking at ourselves and a voice asks us "are you afraid yet?" then our reflection disappears! "You should be". the lights go off and we dead-drop 12 floors. horrible scary. Then the elevator goes up and the doors open - right at the top - looking out over Disneyland park. The we free -drop again. I am holding Chaplin as much as I can and he is crying, I am whispering to him "it's okay baby, it's okay" BUT my mind is not thinking that. Then the elevator goes up again and the doors open again. More accelerated free dropping. If you look at the photos.. you can see me covering Chaplin's little face. Adam is not worried at all, my mom is super excited (she loves thrill rides) and Jaydon is giving the thumbs up! You know the feeling of "fight or flight" i had the flight feeling but i was strapped into a seat and couldn't get out and I wanted to save my child. This was a horrible ride and I don't think I will ever fully recover.


After the horrible ride, we went for dinner where the kids got up on stage and sang.
They did not pay the children for their talent! too bad.

Day 2 Disneyland



then Chaplin took our photo...


Splash Mountain... I remember this ride from when i was 16. Did i just call myself old? This ride was a bit scary for Chaplin and I, he cried a little bit (remembering that horrible elevator ride). Adam thinks it's funny if you look at his frightened face.

not a scary ride at all! we loved it.

Adam and Tavis on Space Mountain ride. I would not go on it -No thank you.

The magical kingdom behind the boys. Where I should live.
We love visiting Disneyland. But a word of advise - don't go over Christmas break, it's too busy.

New Years Eve - December 31st

I guess the real 'fake' Captain Sparrow got lots of attention from the ladies!


HAPPY ANNIVERSARY ADAM & LORI.

one year ago we were in England and I started this blog. I hope you have all enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed sharing.