Fall Break

Last week was Fall Break for Nathan and Benjamin, as well as their cousins in Arizona. So we decided to go visit for a few days! We had a lot of fun playing with cousins, playing with toys at both grandparents Partridge and Anders house, seeing a few movies, taking family pictures, going swimming, and just being with those we love!

This is Grandma-ma (Ryan's grandma) holding Elizabeth for the first time.Grandpa Anders with Elizabeth. He was out of town for a lot of our visit, so we were glad we got to see him.

I had to take a picture of Elizabeth sleeping. She had both hands up above her head, but then she moved her right arm as I was taking the picture.
Grandma Anders loved helping her grandsons play hand-held games. Benjamin is playing Yahtzee -- it is one of his mom's and grandma's favorites, and I'm glad he loves it too!
Joshua and Benjamin waiting with cousin Bryson for family pictures to begin. Everyone looked great. It's too bad Nathan didn't smile in almost ANY of over 150 pictures!
This is on our flight home. Benjamin was like this for most of the flight. Turns out he was getting sick and we had to keep him home from school the next day. Then the rest of us (except Elizabeth) have also gotten it.
Joshua would say as we were taking off and landing, "My ears are plugged!" I am not a gum person, so I always forget to bring it on the plane until we are actually on it and it is too late. So I told him to pretend to yawn.
Elizabeth was great for both flights. She slept most of the time. The ironic thing with our seats was that as we flew to Arizona, we were on a plane that sat 2 seats then 3 seats on the other side of the aisle. But Ryan did not come out at the same time we did, so we only needed 4 total seats. Nathan did not want to be the one to sit next to a stranger, so I told Benjamin before we even got on the plane that he would get the middle seat. He was okay with that. But then Nathan was upset that he couldn't have the window (the "stranger" got it on one side, and I wanted Joshua to sit with me and Elizabeth on the other). We talked about it a lot before we got on the plane and I told him he's a big boy and will just have to live with getting the aisle seat this time. Once we were on the plane finding our seats, Nathan threw the biggest 2-year-old-type tantrum! At least the 5 year-old and 3 year-old know how to behave!! The "stranger" was really nice and offered to let Nathan have his window seat, but Nathan insisted on sitting by me. Since all the passengers behind us were staring, I caved in and Joshua moved across the aisle by Benjamin and Nathan got the window seat by me. Then on the way home when we needed 5 seats because Ryan was with us, the plane was a 2 and 2 seater. The only way we could work it out was for Ryan to get to sit by himself in the emergency exit row, and I got to sit by all the kids in the row ahead. But because Ryan was in the exit row, I couldn't even hand him Elizabeth. Lucky Ryan! But the kids were well-behaved, so it wasn't a big deal.