Final Glimpses of 2012

  

LOVE these pictures of Santa we got at the Seattle Nordstrom's!

      

                                     Paddle boarding Mrs. Claus.                                    Christmas light tour!

Christmas Eve at Grandma's House

We found the kids snuggled up watching a movie waiting patiently for the time to open presents. So sweet!

They were all excited about the Star Wars that Zach got!

Elissa loved the American Girl doll bunk bed!

Grandma loved the wood canvas that Holly & I got for her. Holly took the picture & put the quote "A Grandparents house is where cousins become best friends".  It turned out really nice.

  

Darin & I scored from the Boyd's!

We won't mention the little incident of Chad having to drive all the way back home for a wild goose chase. :-)

Zach was buried in the back on the way home. LOL!

After our 9pm Christmas Eve service, we hurriedly decorated cookies for Santa.

  

Ratcheting batman wings I tracked down on ebay.

  

Meet Elizabeth (Lizzy), Elissa's (Lissy's) American Girl Doll.

  

The kids showing Nana how to play games on her Kindle Fire. Classic.

Then Grandma came over with her's and they were teaching each other. :-)

Zach brought Grandma the photo album of his first year. Sweet.

I always….always forget to get family pictures on Christmas.

  

ANNUAL SEATTLE WEEKEND

        

We look forward to this weekend all year long.

We think we have been doing it since the year we got married……10 years.

We always go to Benihana's one night and then try a new restaurant the 2nd night. This year we went to The Brooklyn. So, so yummy!

Great times.

The sunrise the last day of 2012.

Our New Years plans changed at the last minute.

Kirstin text'd that Payton had the flu. :(  We picked up the kids from Patty's and planned a Star Wars movie marathon with them. Come to find out, you can rent Star Wars on any of the streaming media. Then Elissa's next door neighbor friend called and asked if she could spend the night, so we let her. She went and had a grand time. We watched Return of the Jedi that was airing on TV with Zach and then went to bed at 10:30pm. I know, lame.

BUT I'm excited for 2013!

My word for 2013 is CHANGE.

I know there is a lot of change coming with moving to a new house and all the ups and downs of buying and selling that will come. I know that there is change in store that I'm not prepared for. I'm praying to go through the change this year with grace and thankfulness.

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Memorial Weekend

What a wonderful Memorial Weekend!

Kirstin and her family were able to come stay for the weekend.

It was supposed to be 70 degrees on Friday and Saturday, so we were looking forward to the warm weather. It was a great day for Elissa's school BBQ. Last year we had to sit undercover because it was cold, windy and rainy. Today we were able to sit on the grass and enjoy the sun. That afternoon was the opening of our community pool. The kids were really looking forward to it.

We got to the pool around 4pm

It was perfect! The sun was out and hot. The kids were having fun. Then we hear this strange sound. Was that really thunder?? Then it comes again. Yep, that was thunder. After a few minutes, we start feeling drops of rain. The thunder doesn't stop, so the pool is closed in case lightning decides to follow. Wow, that was crazy! So we headed home to wait for Kirstin and her family to get there.

We had a great evening catching up. I think we all went to bed just before midnight. As I was tucking Zachary in, I told him when he woke up to just quietly climb down and go downstairs. Don't wake Payton or girls up, since they were also sleeping in his room. I had him repeat this back to me. Funny that at 5:45am there were 4 kids tromping down the stairs, waking up baby Braxton. So Kirstin talked to them first. She asked why they were up and Payton said, "Zach wouldn't stop talking to me." Then Zach said that he didn't want to go downstairs without his friends. Oh my sweet, early riser boy.

Zach, Jaice & Braxton

Payton

Payton with Elissa dunking!

Elissa was on fire! :-)

Darin and Brax hangin out.

Looks like it is going to be a beautiful day!

It was a perfect day! The sun was out and it stayed hot out all day. The kids had so much fun playing at the beach and then we played at the pool for just a short time.

We had a fun, fun day!

A Little Time Away

Fri-Tues, 2.17 - 2.21.12

Cle Elum, Bella Lodge

We usually rent a cabin with Kirstin and her family at least once a year. This is the first time that we have done it for President's Day Winter break. I think it will probably be the last too. :-)

We left Friday afternoon around 2pm, from our respective homes and cars. The guys were going to follow after they finished work. It was raining hard up until we got to the pass and then it was dry and clear with just a few flakes coming down. I made really good time. I was very surprised to get to the turn off for the cabin and there is like 3ft of snow everywhere. I can see why it is a snowmobile in/out cabin.

 Here is the side yard with a hot tub and it's own pool w/a water slide. I would love to come back in the Summer and take advantage of the pool and sun!

It was snowing as we got in on Friday and it did not stop until Sunday. It kept snowing and snowing and snowing. We watched the news and found out that a Winter storm had come in and we were going to get at least 7 inches. Saturday morning the pass was closed. Wow, we were not expecting this at all. Though it was beautiful as we were sitting in the warm cabin with the gas fireplace going, drinking hot coffee. :-)

That's Zach out there in the red & black.

And Newman running around with him. Newman loves the snow! Behind Newman is the snowmobile parking area & trails.

 Jaice, Zach & Newman

 Newman found something interesting in the snow. He kept digging and digging. Crazy dog.

 Cute dog.

Now some warming up inside.

 Zach & Payton play really well together. They are either playing some kind of imaginary game or swapping their DSI and iPad. Braxton got a little time to play with them too. :-)

And then zonking out with exhaustion at the end of the day.

Kirk left Sunday afternoon while the pass was open and the getting was good. The weather was warming up, so it should be no problem getting home on Tuesday. Darin left Monday morning and it was a little icy, but otherwise it was fine.

Tuesday morning I got up and checked the pass and it was closed due to high avalanche danger. They would give an update at 10:30am. Well, I never thought that would really happen. I had planned Zach's birthday party for 3pm that day at the bouncy house. This was not good. Kirstin got up and I told her and she just laughed. :-) I figured that we could stay in the cabin until it opened - no one would be coming in to rent it mid week. Well later I called the property management company and it ends up the owner is coming in today. Bummer! So Kirstin and I get it going. We don't know what we are going to do. We don't want two car full of kids sitting on I-90 waiting for the pass to open.

We got in a little birthday celebration for Zach. Monday I went into town and got some fresh cinnamon rolls from the Cle Elum bakery. Yum-O!

Happy 5th Birthday Zach!

At 10:30am the update on the pass is that they would continue to evaluate, but no time for it to open. Then we got a call from the property manager with good news. The owner was stuck too and he said that we could stay as long as we needed and if we had to stay the night then he would give us a discounted rate. We slowed down again. I figured if it wasn't open by 3pm, then we would just stay another night. I didn't want to drive in the rain and dark. Then Darin calls me at 11:30am and says the pass is going to open at 12pm. So we kicked it into high hear. It is raining so we are soaked by the time we have it all packed.

I did remember to get a picture of all the kids just before we got in the car to leave.

 

We left at 1pm. This was our drive over the pass.

Lots of trucks. We were going between 30-45 miles per hour.

We made it safely over the pass - though there were several crazy drivers that kept on cutting us off. We stopped in North Bend for lunch. Then we headed home. We were packed full. Newman decided he wanted to sleep on top of all the bags so he could see outside. He didn't like being on the floor between the kids. Then Zach had his swords (straws) to keep him busy. We were all ready to be home.

The fun didn't stop when we got home either. Zach had been getting an increasing cough and on Monday I noticed some little red bumps on his back. So I was telling Darin that when I got home and he was looking at Zach and Elissa. They both had little red bumps. Then he walked in our room and told me I had big red bumps on my back. What?! So I run to the walk-in clinic to find out that I have folliculitis from the hot tub. Nice..... Then I take the kids in Wednesday morning and they have the same thing along with their colds. We are all on antibiotics.

It was worth it.

We had a great time.

We just won't go in the Winter again. :-)