Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Christmas

Only two catch-up posts left! One after this. Hope you enjoy!

I know Christmas is long gone, but I still wanted to post about the great time we had. I'm lumping our whole vacation into "Christmas" because, well, that's the reason we were gone. I got to spend a whole month with family, which was great.

I left on Dec. 10 and flew to San Diego for a little girls (and kids) getaway with my sister, Mom, and Grammy. We spent about a week there. Mostly going on walks, relaxing, some hot tubbing, one day at the beach (but not the water. . . too cold), and we even tried the pool. Pool was not a good idea. Brayden had goose bumps while he swam and then he whined after getting out because he was frozen so we had him dry off in the sauna. But he was a trooper. I was the lucky, sacrificing mother who got to get in with Brayden and you better believe I went strait to the hot tub while my mom took Brayden to the sauna. I met them in there. Brayden, Zander and Makaila loved being with their Grandy and Grammy and got some good bonding time.

After that, we all went to Utah and I met up with Preston and the rest of our families. Things of note that we did:
- Zander got his special name and blessing in my parents home
-  I got to see my little brother for the first time in 2 1/2 years! (he was serving a mission in the New York, New York South mission.)
- We played lots of new boardgames
- I got to go to the temple with my sister (so much closer! and no need for baby swap!)
- I saw a ton of high school friends! I need to better at staying in touch!
- We met our newest little niece and nephew - they're 3 yr old foster twins that Preston's sister has.
- We saw Preston's grandma for what we both feel like will be the last time.
- Went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert
- Stayed up til 3:30am playing with cousins and aunts/uncles on New Year's Eve. We had 9 am church the next morning.
- And last but not least, we opened presents! More than we expected (again). We planned on checking 2 suitcases. We needed 4. :)  Such generous family.

Here's the good stuff- pictures!

Flying out to San Diego

Did I mention my Mom came to help me out? THANKS MOM!!

Brayden's battle wound from the elevator... now I understand why kids should't touch the doors. In Brayden's defense (and partly mine as the responsible adult), he wasn't actually trying to touch the door.  The door opened for an older couple that was with us and the husband was trying to keep Brayden from exiting too early, so he put his hand in front of Brayden to block his path. Next thing ya know, Brayden was crying and his finger was jammed pretty good in the door. But, he was very brave!

A boat parade of Christmas lights!

Brayden and Grammy watching the boats

Bathtime with Grandy

A makeshift baby seat. Brayden would push him around in there :)

Swimming outdoors in 60 degree weather. Cold.

Cute cousins



Brayden likes fitting in small spaces. He seriously asked me to put him in there. He opened the cupboard, pointed and said "up?"



Once there was a snowman named Zander

Old roommates!

This is the Up house replica. Right in the neighborhood of my old roommate, Ka.

Before haircut

After haircut

Christmas morning at the Brown's! (we did Christmas two days in a row, so this was technically Christmas Eve morn)

7am - can you tell?


Zander with his great-Grandma C. Possibly the only time he will ever meet her.

Our fun Christmassy family. Brayden's shirt is a little elf :)

Meet Zander Clause

Christmas Dinner

Brayden's new favorite place. . . in the dog kennel. Jack liked it because Brayden would let him out when no one was looking :)

Long story, but the short explaination is that this is performing artist Colby Rampton and his wife after a private performance thanks to my little brother Dan (also in the pic). Preston stayed home with his fam while he can. But, one of "our songs" (our favorite one) is done by a group Colby used to be in - Loose Change. It's called the dragon song. Look it up. My fav.

Smiles with Aunt Beck

New Year's fun for the kids before bedtime. We (not the kids) stayed up 'til 4.

2 comments:

Sherri and Graham said...

So many great memories in these pictures. Thanks for posting them. It was so fun to have you guys here. I can hardly wait until we can get together again :)

Donna said...

Oh what great pictures! It is so fun to be able to see some of the pictures you took while here and to recall the different experiences we had! I love the Zander and Beck picture! I also love the sheer joy on Brayden's face in the picture with Grammy, where they are watching the boat light parade! (Of course, I love ALL the pictures, but those really brought a smile to my face when I saw them.)