A Cold Trip to Seattle...December 2011

A group of friends from the ward planned a day trip to Seattle to visit some of the holiday festivities.  We went to the Gingerbread House display at the Sheraton Hotel.  The donations profit Juvenile diabetes.  We ate lunch at the mall and went on the holiday carousel.  This was CC's first trip to Seattle!

We went to the carousel first, but it was just opening, so the line was long.  So we went to the Sheraton and the line was long there too!  Funny situations in line.  Our little 3 year old friends Jack and Jayden were hanging out by the huge potted plants and before we know it, the security guy was right next to them letting them know that if they pulled that red thing on the wall...the sprinklers for the building would turn on and the alarms would sound.  Thinking as a three year old...I don't know if that would deter me from pulling the alarm.  Honestly, sprinklers inside sounds pretty cool!

Here we are in line:  Sarah, Rachel, Jayden Platterborze, Jack Nedry(backwards), Connor Black
2nd Row: Emily Nedry (only her right eye), CC and I, Kade, Leah and Logan Black.
Kate Nedry not pictured...those elusive Nedry folks :)

She fell asleep in line.



My favorite Gingerbread house of Misfit Toys



Snow Monster!

This is from the front

Yukon Cornelius

Sam the Snowman

Charlie-in-the-box

The Lion, King Moonracer

Rudolf and his buddies

Hermey the "wanna be dentist" elf

"A dolly for Sue" as she calls herself

All that waiting...I was WARM (hence the red cheeks)
But look at those lashes on the little bug!

The roof was all gum. Paul and I can't remember what characters were in the house.

It had a Canadian Theme

Down Under Gingerbread House

The reindeer were Kangaroos!

Our adventure at the carousel.



Our whole group minus Logan(back to work) and Sarah (photographer)



Lights at Warm Beach

On December 20th, we went with our friends the Nedry Family-- Emily, Bryan, Jack and Kate to Red Robin and then went to see the Lights of Christmas at Warm Beach in Stanwood.  We had an amazing time checking out the beautiful lights, meeting Frosty the Snowman, taking a train ride on the Polar Express, watching Jack ride a horse, enjoying Jack talk to the Christmas Tree named Bruce the Spruce (who said "Cedar Later" and "Have a tree-rific Christmas.)

CC was too little to really enjoy it but it was fun to watch the Nedry kiddos enjoy the lights and activities. We were prepared for a freezing good time with lots of layers and blankets. Be prepared is our motto. I thought I was overprepared (which I was), but we all teased Emily for going overboard on all the layers of clothing for Kate.





We enjoyed some cocoa and HAD to try the "famous" warm beach donuts.

Holiday Trip to Spokane December 2011

My sister Kristalyn and her family went to Spokane a few days before Paul, CC and I were able to arrive.  We were all together for about 12 hours on Ella's birthday. We made the most of our family togetherness time.  Thanks to Darrin and Holly for always being such generous hosts.

We had a fun evening altogether eating homemade soft tacos and yummy cake to celebrate Ella's 9th birthday!  We sat and chatted, laughed, and enjoyed spending time together.  The cousins had a blast together.

We spent a couple days with them and it was nice and relaxing. All three of Darrin's kids were in love with CC. They hadn't seen her as recently as Kristalyn's kids so it was "new" to them  Mallory the youngest was the most interested in Claudia Cate.  She loved holding her hands, giving her toys, talking to her and asking questions.  Olivia loved to hold her from time to time and talked to her a lot.  Owen enjoyed seeing her in the walker and playing with her.  Darrin brought up the johnny jump up and the walker for her to try out.  We don't have either of those at home so it was nice for her to get a chance to work out!

We also went to visit Kim and Dave Beckman.  Auntie Kim and mom were really good friends.  It was fun to chat with them, and while we were over there we also went to Texas Roadhouse (yum) and to the Coeur d'Alene Resort to see the Christmas Light Display on the docks.  It was a lot of fun.