Road-trip to Florida!

With the cold snowy weather we were having here in Ohio, and knowing that Mike & Song were less than 20 hours away down in Florida, we figured that a visit to them would be a perfect New Year’s destination. We had a great time escaping the bitter cold, visiting with their family, watching the cousins play, and even if we didn’t get to spend too much time on the sunny beach – it just means we have to go down for a visit again all the much sooner.

We had fun stopping at all the state lines – It’s something our girls have come to look forward to. The only one we missed was Georgia… but we snapped a pic from the road on the freeway on the way back.Oh, and our car hit 200k… and we drove straight through a mountain/hill in the longest tunnel  ever!

We went to a beach near Tampa… the water was at least a little warmer that what we have been used to out West, but it was still too chilly for a swim – oh well. But the cousins had fun running around and playing. The girl’s zonked on their way home counting out their shell collection.

We walked around the lovely neighborhood, took in the ‘summer’ Christmas scenery, and even visited Dr. Mike at work. Malia is wearing his Air Force hat… I’m sure pictures like that are in our near future…

We also celebrated Gwen’s 1st birthday on New Year’s Eve and then Aaron’s on the second.

Song took some amazing pictures of our family. You can see them on her blog here: http://songbirdportraits.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-barn-doors.html … I can’t wait to turn them into prints!  And last but not least… Of course on the day we HAD to leave the weather became a little more favorable - we stalled as long as we could and hit the beautiful pool.

This is what we came back too… a perfect reminder of how glad we were to escape for a bit (not to mention the fact that we LOVED seeing Mike, Song and the kiddos – it really had been far too long since our last visit). Can’t wait to say goodbye to these negative temperatures!

December Part II

Malia had a Christmas Concert – It was our first elementary school concert experience and was quite hilarious – they seemed to put in a little gangsta rap into every ‘Holiday’ song.

We got to play in some fun snow (before it hit negative temperatures). It was really neat to see Malia and Allie be able to sled all by themselves. Even poor Allie was ready to sled again after being taken out feet first on her way back up the hill. Even though the snow can get old, it is cool to drive 5min to a sledding hill rather than hours to the mountains!

We helped Allie’s class make gingerbread houses, (Malia was jealous and wanted to make some after getting home – so we used graham crackers and leftover Halloween candy). and then later that week we made more sugar cookies with the Young Women. I wasn’t paying close enough attention to my girls and they ended up DUMPING sprinkles onto each and every cookie. At least they look pretty right?

Christmas Dress pictures are my favorite!

Over Christmas we spent time with Nana and Zz... it was very relaxing. On Christmas Eve we went to the Nativity Exhibit in Kirtland, which was a perfect reminder of the true meaning of Christmas. Then we came back for some fun appetizers: sushi, spam musubi, boneless buffalo chicken pieces and spinach dip. Afterwards we let the girls open up their first present… always PJ’s. And of course after bedtime we got ready for Santa. Not only did he leave cookie crumbles but he trampled the play nativity on his way through the Chimney! (which the girls haven’t noticed is totally non-existent… we only have a faux fireplace)

Christmas day was spent playing with toys… well actually… this year the girls got more clothes and crafty stuff than toys, and A LOT of dress-up stuff, but that’s what makes them happy! We had fun building this dress-up chest for the girls out of some old bits and pieces of discarded desk furniture and shelving (it was technically from Papa), shopped for dress-up items in the lingerie department at Salvation Army – don’t worry, they are just flowy types of dresses, but still hilarious to know where they came from – and then I had fun doing the girls’ hair with their new curlers.