That's me. I'm a total blog slacker. Sorry, friends. But the good news is that I haven't been slacking in every area of my life. The better news? I'm back!! So grab a snack and get cozy, cause I've got so much to tell you about!!
We kicked off the holiday season by taking a road trip to Monterey, CA to visit my cousin Lisa and her family. Four days went way to quick but we were so happy to get to see them. The kids love to spend time together and our time with them was action packed.
These two are just as close as their mommas. When they get together they are always huddled up telling secrets and playing and reading together. They call each other "Kenz" and "Ab" which just about kills me every time I hear it.
After driving through the night and arriving at their house at 5:30 am, we all fell into bed for a few hours and then we were up bright and early for a fun filled day at the Aquarium. That place is awesome! We saw sharks and turtles and otters and jellyfish and tons of other amazing sea creatures. Then we went outside to eat our lunch. This picture was taken before a seagull swept in and stole Ben's sandwich from his hands mid bite. I can tell because no one is crying yet...
Lisa's mom always buys the kids matching jammies for Christmas so when it was time for bed, everyone suited up and then it was time for Thanksgiving stories...
There were three beds in the room but the four kids all just piled on the floor. After a busy day, they were fast asleep in just a few minutes!
Day two of our trip was Thanksgiving but because we had prepped most of the food the night before, we had enough time to play at the park in the morning.
After our yummy dinner the kids opened up their new pair of jammies. Thanks Auntie Lynne!!
The next day, we went to the beach. The kids swam. In the ocean. In November. It was awesome!!
The next morning, we packed up and headed out to Santa Cruz where we rode a train through the Redwoods.
Before our train ride, we took a walk though the big trees with some cute kids in ridiculous hats.
The train ride was fun and we even got to see Santa at the top!!
When we got back to our cars, it was time for us to say goodbye and start our trek home.
It is always hard for us to say goodbye to them but we had such a fun trip and we are anxiously awaiting their trip to visit us this summer (hopefully!!)
Once we were in the car, the kids fell asleep quickly and slept for most of the 14 hour trip home.
30 hours of driving, over 1800 miles and tons of fun in just four days. By the time we got home (at 7:30 in the morning) we were ready to start thinking about Christmas!!! So after a quick nap, Robbie headed out to get our tree.
As you may know, Christmas trees for us are a bit of a spectacle...
Thank goodness for good friends who are willing to come help us get it though the front door and upright!
Decorating the tree could be an Olympic event. It involves ladders and fishing poles and, more likely than not, at least one broken ornament.
But in the end, it is so worth it!!
Other newsworthy moments in the last month include::
Making Christmas cookies with my parents...
Visiting Santa...
Zoo Lights with friends...
Singing Christmas songs with the choir at church...
Snow!!!
Family Christmas gatherings...
New bikes from Santa...
which we rode in our jammies in the dark...
And lots of presents!!
Whew! No wonder I'm exhausted! We are enjoying some down time this week and we are ready to see what 2014 has in store for us. Stay tuned. It's bound to be exciting!!
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