::january california road trip::

We usually try to take a family trip (usually we're hoping for a relaxing vacation, but that doesn't always happen so that's why I say trip) in the early part of the year, after the craziness of the office during Christmas break and the other holidays.

Anyway, a couple of years ago we went on a Disney cruise.  That was fun.  Last year we didn't really take a longer trip, just a few small ones over Jan & Feb.

This year we went to California for a few different things.

We drove.  It's always fun with littles.

We left on Wednesday night after work--late as always.  We drove to a town an hour outside of Phoenix.  We had a rough night.  We got in pretty late and we were hoping the kids would just go to sleep.  But Max and Sandy decided to have a big fight in the lovely hotel sized double bed they were sharing.  There was some fake snoring by Sandy, covers stealing by Max.  All the good stuff. Lots of crying.

Both boys ended up sleeping the whole night on the floor and of course Lucy got waked up.  It was a long night, not much rest.

In the morning we headed into Phoenix to the car dealership where we got our new car so we could get an additional key made in case we ever get locked out.  We thought it would take a few minutes but it ended up taking almost 3 hrs.

So we had to drive around Phoenix in a loaner car with all the kids stuffed in the back making up errands.

Sandy lost it at some point.



Bah!!! BAH!! BOOO HOOO!!!!
That's what happens when you fight all night instead of sleeping little kid!



So anyway, after we got the car back we made it to our place in California after dark.  Phew.

::little girl in a big dress::

This is Lucy's Christmas dress.  I loved this cute little dress so much when we found it at Target that I ended up building everybody's Christmas church outfits around it.



And when she finally wore it she looked SO cute.  And the skirt was so big and fluffy, and her little feet stuck out from under.



I just couldn't stop taking pictures of the cute little thing.







She's such a good sport and she has such adorable little fat legs.

::the girls dec 2014::

And just for fun we got a few photos of just us girls--with our coordinated outfits.  I worked hard to find something dark blue and gold so I could look at cute as Lucy.

We're good buddies, I love this little stinker.

::all of us dec 2014::

And here are even more people added to the mix.  Even less of a chance of getting everybody looking cute/appropriate/awake/etc.

But it so doesn't matter.  It's real and it's us.  And though us drives us nuts sometimes, us is great.

::the kiddos dec 2014::

Here are the kiddos in their Christmas church outfits. Since we were gone to Tuba Christmas the sunday before the actual holiday, we had to get all fancy for the Sunday after.

The best way I can sum up this series of photos is this:

Poor Lucy

Silly me for thinking it would be possible to get everybody looking cute/normal/acceptable/in focus/well-behaved at the same time.

Looks like the best was last.  Aren't these kids cute?  Goofy sure, but also dang cute.

::luke skywalker::

After church Sandy got dressed in his PJs and then he needed to turn into Luke Skywalker.  He really wanted Kris to find the skiing ninja hood, but I guess all Kris could find was the helmet and goggles.  So then Sandy was Luke with the blast shield down.



He felt awesome and wore the helmet for hours while humming his Star Wars theme music.  And wearing his super Sandy cape of course.

Yes, he's hilarious.

::skiing::

Kris finally succeeded in dragging me up the mountain for my first lesson.

But first I told him all my complaints and concerns from the one other time I went and he addressed all of them.  I wasn't cold, hungry or pushed beyond my comfort zone at any time.  And my feet didn't hurt.  So that was nice!

Here I am going up the "magic carpet" to the top of the bunny hill.


I was pretty scared to get started, and all the time that we spent learning to clip in and out of the skiis and duck walking up tiny slopes only made me more apprehensive.  When I got on the little hill suddenly I felt like the skis were something I could control and it was fun!

I did a good enough job that the teacher left the class and took me and another girl up the lift onto the real ski run.  It was a little scary, but I figured out the turns and I was good to go.  I didn't fall down getting on or off the lift, which was amazing because really last time I went skiing it seemed like all I did was fall down.  All the time.

So all in all it was a positive experience for me.





That's the teacher.  He wanted to pose for a photo-op.

While I was learning, Kris took the kids on a snowy adventure.



Lucy is SO adorable in that hat.  She was very patient.



"Dad I found a snowball!!"



Sandy loves to make snow angels, he sometimes even makes them on the kitchen floor, so this was extra fun.



Max came up to me after my lesson and I couldn't even recognize him in that getup.



So there you go, and to give myself some credit I wasn't too prideful to admit I had a good time.  We'll see how I do next time.  I was pretty proud of myself.

::cute babies are just cute::

That's all there is to it. Cute babies are just cute and nobody can say any different.

On Friday I had to go into work because we were missing a few people.  Lucy was pretty good, though when she's there she does not want to waste time sleeping.  There are too many fun people to play with and too many interesting new places to explore.

She was very pleased to be sitting with Dad for a while.

Later, or was it another day? She helped me get the tree put away. She thought the pictures of all of us were pretty fun and got really serious about trying to get some of them down to look at (look at is code for eat of course.)

 

She was having more fun than her face says. She's just a serious girl.



And so so cute of course!

::new years::

Happy New Year!!

First of all, Kris got his hair cut.  I think it looks really cute but we're still trying to figure out how to style it right.  The guy who cut his hair made it look so easy--it's not so easy in real life!





On New Year's we took it pretty easy.  We did some exercise (Kris hike/ski, Ginna treadmill), some household tasks and a little relaxing.  I'm trying to get our bedroom and closet all cleaned out and organized better, so I worked on that for a while.  Not a quick process though.  Sandy had a bath in the big tub which is one of his very most favorite things to do.

We went out for burgers in the late afternoon and it was a pretty pleasant meal. I think we had only one spilled drink and a little bit of crying.  Sandy actually ate a bunch of his burger too. I couldn't get the boys to really look at me, but that's normal.



It's always nice when Kris has a day off and the office is closed so nobody can get any work done.  We like to hang out together.

Glad we get to do it a lot in 2015.