Visit to WA

With the kids year round school and having from Dec 21st to Feb 4th off of school I decided a trip to WA was in order. We left on Jan 3rd (when Jeremy had to head back to work) and then got back home on Jan 22nd so we enjoyed close to three weeks of vacation. The kids traveled really well and we had a few different stops built in and a hotel stay each night. Then we got a chance to visit with a lot of family and friends for our stay! It was so fun to see everyone and hang out and bonus - I got to teach at my old school for 6 days while Grandma and Gram had kid duty so it felt like a true vacation for me too. We were bummed Dad had to stay and work but it is a busy time. I didn't get very many pics of all the things we did, too busy having too much fun!

Our first hotel night on the way up. (I forgot swimsuits so we had to run out and grab some)

 First stop, Auntie Jenny's. Unfortunately our Seahawks lost but we still had fun cheering for our team.

 Blurry pics of the cheering cousisn

A canoe ride with Uncle

Some quiet relaxing time

We made it back to 'our' side right in time to see the twins get dedicated at church!

Arriving at Grandma's enjoying the bed!

Kate was 'helping' Gram read her new book. Telling all kinds of made up stories about the pictures she saw.

If you look carefully you can see Kate wrote her numbers 1-10 on the chalkboard

Gram and Lucy would enjoy morning yoga time.

So blessed to visit old neighbors Bob and Mary (the girls even got to have a sleep over there)

Lucy enjoyed visiting with the dogs at Bob and Mary's

Kate was quite decked out for a trip to the Lamb's house.

 More morning yoga, Kate joined in this time.

Our pool on the trip home (way nicer than the way up)!

At a friends house playing in the band!

So many incredible memories, if it wasn't so hard for me to teach a traditional schedule while kids were year round schedule I could do this forever and enjoy vacations in off times like Jan, May and Oct. We truly enjoyed ourselves and survived very well for the long car ride both ways.

December Fun

Hard to believe how fast December is going. We have had a ton of fun and crammed in a lot of great activities already!

Note Kate and I were alone in this bed, the amount of space I had...the small spot to left in the photo. My little snuggler!

We even managed to go to a Seahawks party down here! Our friends family were in town and the brother in law is a huge Hawks fan. We managed to enjoy celebrating a W together. Kate even got a makeover from 6 year old Lilah, she was thrilled

Last day of gymnastics - ta da. Kate brought little cards for each kid and handed them out at the end.

Breakfast with Santa

Our HOA did a fun breakfast with Santa thing

Cookie decorating

Santa performed the telling of the Night Before Christmas

It was a fun family event.

Church Santa Pics

Right after breakfast with Santa we ran to our church and got more pics with Santa and did fun crafts.

Sirens with Santa

Our local fire/police work together to host a big parade called Sirens with Santa. They collect toys for tots and have all kinds of emergency vehicles with sirens blaring and one decorated sleigh with Santa. It was a pretty fun outing.

This house (above video) is less than .5 miles from our house, it does a huge light show/display every year. Pretty fun to see.

We headed to WA for the weekend and were able to get in to see our favorite Santa, this year they also took these additional pics of the kids.

Same Santa for our 5th year

Cookie Decorating

 While I was sad to miss cookie day in WA this year I did have each kid pick out a type of cookie they wanted to make with me. Lucy went for chocolate chips with mint M&Ms, Kate did gingerbread cutouts and Jaydon picked snicker doodles. I then made no bake cookies for Jeremy and he got in on the decorating action.

 

 

 

Kate's Christmas Concert

We got ourselves on the wrong side of the sanctuary but Kate enjoyed her Christmas concert and I attempted to get a couple pics.

Croatian Hall Santa Dinner

Immediately after Kate's concert we ran to the Croatian Hall to enjoy a lovely dinner and visit with Santa. The kids had fun playing with their friends and we enjoyed another lovely meal and socializing time. Above Kate with her friend Gavin. Below Lucy with Lilah and Mia.

Jaydon with Marco, Mateo and Luca

The kids sing some songs and in order for Santa to arrive they have to sing really loudly because he gets lost. It was great.

Sharing the mic or just trying not to be the one holding it at the end.

Santa!

Kate was thrilled, Lucy was not happy. Also we found out about 7 hours later that Lucy had the flu so that may have contributed to her not being super happy.

Yummm...dessert

The 5 of us

Our friends Erica, Lilah and Gavin

All of us together with Santa

As I mentioned Lucy came down with the flu, poor girl it always hits her hard and she can't seem to stop throwing up until she gets a zofran in her system. I had neglected to take pics the week before when both Jaydon and I came down with the 12 hour flu! So at this point Jeremy fought it hard and seems to have been successful and I can only hope that Kate doesn't get it.

Hard to believe it is only about half way through December - we have had a lot of fun so far!