Tubing at Snoqualmie

We finally made it up to Snoqualmie to go tubing the week between Christmas and New Year’s. It was so fun, although a little odd to be snow tubing in a misty rain. For added adventure we surprised the kids with an overnight stay at Cle Elem. Plans to go ice skating at Suncadia the following day had to be scraped since it was pouring rain. The kids have been asking ever since to go again. This will definitely take up residence on our repeat adventures list.

Christmas!

We woke up really late because we all had a hard time going to sleep on Christmas Eve. When we finally made it downstairs, Santa had definitely been by and left lots of good stuff. There were lots of gifts under our tree, too. As is tradition, we opened Santa gifts first, followed by Dad’s French toast breakfast. Afterwards we finished opening gifts from family. The rest of the day was free to play, eat and relax.

And this picture just cracks me up. Wondering whether or not the K’nex roller coaster construction was going to pan out was practically more than he could take. I’m happy to report much success!

Christmas Cow

Our little Christmas cow would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas. So would the rest of us!

Christmas Eve 2011

Christmas Eve saw our usual tradition of looking at lights. This year we went up to Big Valley to the same place we happened on last year. The family who puts on the display works on it all year, so by the time Christmas comes there are thousands of lights.

Then we went home for Christmas Eve chili and the annual opening of Christmas PJs.

Anticipation of Christmas morning was at an all time high! The kids were excited, too.

December Happenings and Randomness

Random happenings in December…………

Riding the ferry to go have dinner with Dad downtown. The Spaghetti Factory to be exact. A family fav.

Christmas prep. Excitement was definitely in the air. And had been since February.

Annual viewing of the videos Santa sent. Good news all around. Both Jake and Payton made Santa’s nice list. I think Jake actually sighed with relief. I asked him if he thought there might be any chance he thought he’d be on the naughty list he grinned sheepishly and quickly changed the subject!

Payton’s Christmas performance. More like herding cats, but cute anyway. Payton and her best friend, May-lin. Opposites in every way possible, but two peas in a pod.

Merry Christmas, Northwest Style

Nothing beats a bright, warm, sunny day at the beach.  But second best is a cold, gray, misty day at the beach.  I mean, no one else goes on those types of days, so we have the whole darn place to ourselves!

Today we went to one of our favorites beach spots, and true form, it was just us.  We “planted” a tree and decided it would be our second Christmas tree this year, decorated beach style.  We had lots of fun rounding up sea grass and shells and stayed until our noses were red and our toes numb.  So, an early Merry Christmas to you!

Leaf Piles

The leaves hung on for a long time, but they’ve finally started falling off the trees.  The kids have been waiting to rake them into jumping piles for a long time.  They were both very focused when it came to the actual raking of the leaves.  And then the jumping began!  Jake jumped, and jumped, and jumped.  Payton stood in the middle of the pile and jumped up and down a few times but didn’t quite get the appeal.  She preferred to ride her bike, but did come back for a few more tentative tries.  Jake kept at it for a long time.  Then a warm house and hot apple cider won out (I was freezing and not above a little incentive!).

Little Gymnast

Payton loves to jump off things: the couch, the stairs, her bed.  And she loves to stick the landing and proclaim “good jump!”.  We decided to channel her energy into proper gymnastics, in large part due to the daredevil nature her jumps were taking on.  She loves them!  And she loves her pink leotard almost as much.  I didn’t get many good pictures of her doing much in the way of actual gymnastics, but she had a blast.

Blackberry Picking

I really thought we’d be drowning in raindrops by the time October rolled around. So imagine my surprise (perhaps downright, giddy excitement) when the sun came out instead. So blackberry picking we went.

Halloween Happenings

The buildup to Halloween happened all month long.  There were decorations to be made, cookies to be frosted, costumes to decide on, pumpkins to carve, all culminating with the much anticipated Halloween feast.