Trip in Review

Considering i started with over 650 pictures, i tried to narrow it down to our favorite highlights! These are in order of the trip: Oregon Coast, Vegas, Grand Canyon, Arizona, Palm Desert, Studio City, Mount Vernon, Washington, Home.

This was one of our favorite days......a secluded beach along the Oregon Coast. We played and laughed together there for hours.

The sunset after the beach...we all watched it go down

me and my road warrior....

Vegas...not as crazy as they all say since we had kids, but we had fun here...there was tons and tons to see!

Chris and Isaac......

This is Elliot out of his car seat - miserable no matter what we would do. He can't talk yet, so he was consistently angry and frustrated......we keep trying to smile......sighbut we had the calmest times when he was like this:

we all still love him......
But he still had fun on some occasions...

One of my favorite 'moments' here at the Bellagio...they had an amazing water show. Elliot had finally fallen asleep in his stroller while we were walking the strip.

The Bellagio Christmas decorations were pretty mind blowing!

In Vegas they had this really great childrens discovery museum where the kids could finally just run free. We stayed all afternoon.....

Red Rock Canyon....mini-version of the Grand Canyon....so beautiful - we saw a real tarantula on our path!

This is a random petting zoo in the middle of nowhere that we checked out after leaving Red Rock canyon. They had WOLVES there!!!!

Random pit stop along the way......the boys are sitting inside a carved out tree. They posed just after we drove the van through another hollowed out tree.....ah, tourist traps!!

Hoover Dam

The hotel just before leaving for the Grand Canyon--yup, you see snow!!

Ta DA!!!! Grand Canyon!

Honestly a little stressful with toddlers as you try to keep them both away from the edge!!

Another random stop - proof we are in Arizona!!

We all picked rocks for our Rock Jar at home.....both boys filled their pockets!!

Another 'moment' that i caught on film when they didn't know anyone was watching: Isaac sweetly washing his brother.

Our favorite spot in Palm Desert - the lazy river!! We would go round and round........til we were prunes.

Highlight for Isaac for sure!!! DISNEYLAND!!! (and mom and dads individual attention all day long!!)

We had a shot like this from 10 years ago when Chris and i visited the Inch's on our honeymoon. We thought it would be fun to do a "10 years later re-shoot!!". They were so fun!

Another highlight for me was being taken to see "Twilight" with Jackie---no kids and lots of popcorn!! Hanging out that morning with her was pretty great.

Below: The only road drama we experienced in the crazy weather we had to do through in Oregan! Chris can change a tire in record speed! Especially when there were semi's whipping by....scary.

Where we start and end our road adventures: The Winslows.....sigh--its so nice there.

The end.....we are home now ...back to life....

Pre-Holiday Visit with Nona

Before we left on our annual family adventure this december, Nona (my mom) came to visit for a few short but wonderful days! We laughed lots, especially at Isaac:

This is Isaac, getting the camera ready, pushing the timer and running to get in front of the camera......

CHEESE!! One of Elliots favorite past times.....

Another one of the highlights for the boys was making gingerbread cookies with Nona.....

I wish we lived closer....we weren't able to get out there for Christmas this year because of the sketchy road conditions......so that part of the holidays sucked--not being able to be with my family....but we talk almost every day, so its partly ok.

Nona and Granddad with their grandboys!!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Boogie down with my girls!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Night

Though it wasn't planned, nobody from Chris's side of the family was really supposed to join up this Christmas - we were going to be in kelowna, jenny and trent were supposed to be up island, and mike was supposed to be working......but due to snow...we all ended up together at the Burdges last night. It was a nice night, the kids got WAY too spoiled....but we were all together. The night went by way too fast because there were so many gifts for everyone..especially the kids.

But i wanted to show everyone what my creative, amazing sister made for my mom:

Auntie Laura bought all the kids matching sleepers--aren't they sweet?

Christmas Morning......

The stockings were hung on their doorknob with care.....isaacs room.....Elliots room.....Its been such a nice morning, we woke up a nice way...with a giddy phone call from new mom Carrie!! The boys dragged their stockings onto our bed to open them....isaac rips through everything while elliot takes his time and plays with what he has just opened for a few minutes (drives isaac nuts!!) This is an R2D2 laptop that the boys were both very excited about! It was one of the many nice star wars gifts from the Inch's--THANK YOU!!! Below: Isaac hanging our new Star Wars Christmas ornaments from the Inch's.Opening the toys and helping put them all together--one happy dad!Isaac chatting it up with Nona.....telling her about all the exciting things he got for Christmas!Elliots turn......he was excited to communicate, he did alot of pointing to things for Nona to "see"

Our Christmas shot at the Winslows on our last day of holiday last week!

Here is our house covered in the white stuff...we are going to go play in it now....its a beautiful day. We are feeling pretty blessed this Christmas...we are all healthy, our family is all well, we have so much to be thankful for.....Merry Christmas!

Snow Fun!!

Don't you love when the snow falls initially before anyone walks on it and you are the first one to stomp through all the fluffy stuff!? Tonight that was Amanda and I.....the property hasn't been treaded on (unless you count my reckless husband on his quad bombing around yesturday)---but we haven't been able to walk due to the treacherous conditions....so we snowshoed tonight!! We turned our headlamps off on the mainfield and the sky was amazing......sometimes we forget to look up, you know?

And then came back and giggled over Mama Mia.......