Christmas Break

Christmas Break was wonderful - so nice to be all together again.  Gingerbread houses wouldn't be the same without Natali.  Sadly, I didn't get pics of everyone's houses this year. The first pic is of Kate's.  She made a model of her ballet studio complete with the bathroom. Mack made a soccer stadium with plenty of candy storage under the bleachers.  My favorite was Natali's Emerald City complete with Yellow Brick Road.

Christmas wouldn't be complete without decor and a star on the tree.

As a part of Christmas break Mack had his well child check up and had to get shots.  He had a pretty awful response.  His arm was red and swollen.  He had a fever and just laid around for a day or two and once all that passed he still didn't want to move his arm or have it touched for several days.  No fun.

But it was pretty fun when I used vinegar instead of almond to flavor the Christmas Wreaths- at least we had a good laugh and enough ingredients to make a second batch.

For one day of Light the World we made scones and mini banana bread for the Gables employees to say thanks for serving during this crazy time.  The kids made a nice poster and wrote some notes.  We even sang Christmas carols there later in the month when we went caroling.

I may have backed into the garage door...and it didn't get replaced until the end of March.  Greg was such a great sport to let me park in his garage spot for 3 months.  This picture was taken after a ton of effort from me (but mostly), Greg, Sean Walker, and Brother McKeeth.  It was quite a feat to get the door up enough to get the van out and then like this.  The nest day a garage guy came by and got it all put back together by himself in less than 30 minutes!

Christmas Eve morning Greg and I got up early and painted the toy room.  No more nasty brown.  

Somehow I don't have any pics of Christmas morning, but Lily made this awesome rainbow from her new air clay.  We went to Val's one afternoon to ice skate, but the kids had so much fun playing that we never got to the rink.  However, we did get this awesome artsy photo with Natali's phone.

We headed up to McCall for the second half of the break and found an amazing weather phenomenon.  The lake was frozen but there was no snow on top.  I had never seen that thick of ice with no snow on top -there were even people ice skating.  We had to check it out. 

 

On the ice there were such cool patterns.  This looks like a hole but it is totally frozen over.  

 

The snow crystals on the ice were so awesome.

We got to ski three times.  Once with cousins, once just us and once with Dad.  The snow and the skiing were great.  Lots of good times, skittles, and new adventures eatting lunch in the car.

 

 

 

 

Lily got this flippable squishamello stuffie for Christmas and she can usually be found wearing it like a hat.  It kept us laughing.  The condo was in the middle of a remodel, so Val and I did a lot of cleaning while there, but we still had a blast.  We love that place and I love skiing with these kiddos.

 

Grand Canyon and Mesquite

 We had Thanksgiving week off so we headed down to Utah, picked up Natali and headed to the Grand Canyon.  We drove two cars down so we could leave one with Natali.  After a night in Kanab we parked the CRV in a church parking lot, piled in the van and headed to the Canyon.

The views were amazing but the kids were getting restless so we had to get a little silly.  I made the kids pick different photo poses every time we got out of the car.

We walked around and did a bit of hiking but mostly we just drove around and enjoyed the amazing views.  So incredible.

We threw a lot of rocks over the edge to see if we could hear them land.

We had some issues with porta potties - long lines to use overflowing potties, toilets with piles of poop on the seat, lots of holding it for the next one; but we survived.

Andrew was a disapointed not to view any wild life; I kept reminding him that was not the point of going to the Grand Canyon.

We drove back to the car and no one complained about a little more wiggle room for the 3 hour drive to Mesquite.

Then the cousin time began.  The big kids had such a blast with McClain.  They spend hours shooting McClain's guns (especially his homemade potato gun), playing games, and just laughing together.

We had an awesome hike on top of the mesa.  Greg, Brad, Neelie and I decided to hike down to the car.  Everyone else drove down and went home while we kept walking. Somehow we managed to get lost and what we thought would be a two mile walk turned into a 5 or 6 mile meander.  By the time we got to the van I think we had walked over 10 miles.  I got a bit of a sunburn but I loved the time talking with Neelie so all worth it.

Lily loved her papa time and gave him a few foot rubs.

The girls hardly left the twins side; making videos, choreographing performances, playing games, crafting, and baking.

In order to keep Nani down I made as much of Thanksgiving dinner as I could.  I baked rolls at her neighbors house, going back and forth and back and forth till all 4 dozen rolls were done.  The pie crusts were a bit suspicious but it all worked out and we feasted.  The kids loved their cousin time, especially Mack and McClain, but we had to head home.  Natali stayed behind to help grandma decorate for Christmas and just enjoy some one on one time with Grandma and Papa.  We said goodbye to everyone and the CRV and made the trek to Park City for a night with cousins and then home the next day.

50th State!!!

Covid has definitely put a wrench in Greg's travel style.  He had a big trip in the works for our 20th anniversary but...yea Covid so when I scheduled my sister's trip he decided to redirect my flight on the way home to Charleston for a weekend away together.  South Carolina was my 50th state so it was a pretty big deal.  The morning I left Denver Greg texted from the tarmac that there were snow delays.  The outlook got worse and worse - chances of me spending a few days alone in Charleston was looking high.  Miraclulously, he got to town 15 minutes before our dinner reservation.  So blessed.  We stayed at this adorable inn and enjoyed some fine dinning both nights we were there.

This was Husk, our restaurant the first night.  Yummy.  We also ate at Fig which was really fabulous.  we also indulged in some amazing coconut cake and incredible BBQ.  

Our first morning we took a historic walking tour.  It was so fabulous.  The city really is incredible.  I hadn't realized the depth of history nor the number of original structures.  It was like steping back in time.  I soaked it up.  These colorful buildings are from aptly named Rainbow Row.

I loved the vines growing on these steps and the lemon trees. Of course I didn't take very many pictures although I did send Natali a bunch of Marco Polos to share the architecture with her.

The famous pineapple- symbol of southern hospitality.

So many cool old churches and cemeteries.  I loved this tower that seemed to have dragon scale siding.

We checked out of our room the next morning and visited a beautiful beach.  There was a group of school kids playing on the sand - their school butted right up to the beach.  How cool would it be to have recess on the beach?

Then we went to the Middleton Plantation.  The gardens were amazing, not to mention the remaining buildings and the river views. We saw a handful of alligators, an exteremly long snake, a bunch of turtles and cool fish jumping.  We may have sent Andrew a lot of videos at school that day.

I loved our time there and we only got rained on in the last 10 minutes as we ran through the gardens to our rental car.  Then off to the airport for me and a long drive to North Carolina for Greg to start his work trip.  It was so wonderful to have a few days away from the kids just enjoying Greg's company, good food, an amazing city and a huge milestone.