happy christmas

Christmas 2014 was simple, happy, and quite different from years past. A lot of our regular christmas traditions were switched around a bit because we would be catching a flight christmas morning. We spent most of Christmas Eve finishing the packing and getting ready for our trip to Arizona.

We also took time on Christmas Eve to exchange family gifts. Every person bought a gift for everyone person. I loved taking each of them shopping. It was fun to see the Littles pick things out at the dollar store for each person and be so sure that Kyler wanted a Guardians of the Galaxy coloring book, daddy needed marshmallows, or that a hairbrush would be perfect for Papa. Kyler and Kacin set their own budgets and used their own money to buy their gifts for each person.

Eric and I deliberately cut back this christmas. Some new clothes, books, and art supplies. Nothing extravagant. Santa simplified, too. Our kids were very gracious about everything.

My favorite part of opening presents from each other were the hugs. Lots of sweet hugs! Now that is what Christmas giving is about.

On Christmas morning, there were three children up since 4:30am, but who knew they had to wait until 6:30am, ready at the top of the stairs while Eric went downstairs to turn on the christmas tree lights.

Lots of smiles about what santa brought them.

We had a quick breakfast, woke up Perry to show him that santa came (He could care less about the toys santa brought him--he loved that big barbie car. I figured he would prefer that. I told Layla santa brought that for her and Perry to share. But, at this point, it is all Perry's. He now sleeps with it every night. Layla is ok with that, too. Santa would've saved a lot of money if he had known Perry would prefer that over some pretty sweet Playmobil cars and toys . . .), and then we were off to the airport.

After surviving our three hour flight, I was too busy being happy that we were in Arizona with family and sunshine to take any more pictures. We arrived in Phoenix around 3pm and spent the rest of the day playing at Grammy and Papa's house. Jacqui, Josh, Logan, and Macie came over that night. They stayed the night so once the kids were in bed we got a game of Ticket to Ride in. They next morning, we exchanged gifts with each other.

I'm so grateful for family. That's what made our christmas so wonderful.

Merry Christmas 2014!

agents of SHIELD

SHIELD needed us.

As SHIELD's newest recruits, we fought along side Thor, Captain America, Spider man, She-hulk, and Iron man for a night.

We wore cool wristbands (that did nothing. you were supposed to scan them at the different activities to track your progress and they were supposed to buzz at some point to tell you it was your turn for the ride, but apparently shield was having technical difficulties).

We participated in training activities. We went through a maze of laser beams, flew like iron man, and shot our weapons.

We called the Avengers to stand by our side.

Then we were off in the 3D dome fighting alongside some great super heroes.

We had a lot of fun! It would've been better if it wasn't so crowded. We waited a long time to try the things we did, and we didn't have time to try two of the things.

But it was a Marvel Experience worth having.

home again

After a week and a half in our arizona, we arrived home safely yesterday. 

My home is wherever eric and my kids are, and washington makes a very wonderful home, but a piece of my heart will always be in arizona.  I can't get enough of my arizona skies.

And in all that time there, completely unlike seattle, we never once saw a hint of traffic on the freeways. Just zoom everywhere you go. I got passed going 85 mph on the freeway. You can never do that on a seattle freeway.

Between christmas and birthday celebrations, family time, and adventures, I have a lot to catch up on.

When we got home yesterday afternoon, I made my family catch up on all the chores they haven't had to do while we were away from home. We unpacked suitcases, vacuumed floors, took out garbages, put christmas decorations away, and did five loads of laundry. My kids were wishing we were still on vacation and they were playing at the park again.

It feels good to be home, but we are already missing our family we said goodbye to in arizona. Someday we need to get home and family in the same area. Until then, we feel so blessed for opportunities to visit.