The Final Day

For the last day of Izzy's trip we had our final busy day that was planned from beginning to end. The rain moved in but we didn't let that slow us down. We started the day with doughnuts and a ferry ride. We explored Kingston (in the rain) and got a little taste of their Christmas light display. It was great that Izzy got to experience the typical Pacific Northwest weather. She handled it like a pro!

After we got home and got all of their stuff packed up and ready to go we went out to eat before the final suprise. To celebrate both Cameron and Isabelle's birthday we headed to Flying Circus. An indoor trampoline park/ninja warrier/obstacle course. It had it all. We did climbing walls, trampoline basketball, tightropes, zip lines, tumbling mats- it was stimulation overload. Everyone tried something new and everyone fell... a lot. We got a taste for just how hard it is to really be an American Ninja Warrior. When everyone was exhausted and sweaty, we headed to the airport and said our goodbyes! It was an epic trip and we can't wait for them to come back again.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y

Day 2 of the visit kicked off with some sugar- literally! For breakfast, I made beignets (Addy's new favorite) covered in powdered sugar- yum! We played with some of the new toys and games and then headed to downtown Edmonds. After lunch we rode the holiday trolley through town and of course made our annual stop at revelations for some frozen yogurt.

We took a little afternoon rest (everyone but Brian, Addy and Izzy) and then had another surprise in store for Saturday night. Kathy was the only one who guessed where we were headed and that was to the zoo to see the Wild Lights. We had never been before but it was amazing. They had over 700,000 lights (my dad checked) and the displays were amazing. From monkeys to butterflies to elephants, they had it all and around every corner we saw something more unbelievable than the last. It was as Addy says "extraordinary, fanstatic, wonderful, amazing!" And it was suprise #4 for the trip. Needless to say everyone was exhausted by the end of the day so we had a fairly early S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night.

Crab-tastic!

We had our traditional crab dinner and Izzy loved it! Even though she hadn't done it before she became a pro in no time. We also celebrated christmas early and the kids opened their gifts. It was a super fun night and everyone was exhausted by the end of the day.

Seattle Surprises

My Dad and Kathy and Isabelle landed around 9 am on Friday and the weather could not have been more perfect. It was a cold clear day with amazing views of the mountains. Since it was Izzy's first time to Seattle I decided to throw in a few surprises. First we went to the gingerbread house display. This year's theme was Whoville and Dr. Seuess and the houses were amazing! The level of detail was incredible.
Then we went on the Great Wheel which is the huge ferris wheel in Seattle. It was a perfect day for it and except for Kathy being scared about the rocking seats, everyone loved it! You could perfectly see the city and the mountains and being right over the water was amazing.
Then we made a quick stop at the Fremont Troll and Theo Chocolate to get in our sweet tooth fix and headed to pick the kids up from school.

We Won the Weekend!

We just had a whirlwind weekend, but it was just the best! My dad, Kathy and my niece Isabelle came out for a pretty quick weekend trip but we definitely made the most of it and had an amazing time. We celebrated Christmas, Cam's birthday, Izzy's birthday and fit in surprises for everyone. More to come once I catch up on getting the pictures together, but it was an awesome time and the cousins had the best time hanging out together. 

Holiday Decorating Elves

The only thing that makes me happier than getting ready for Christmas, is seeing how excited my kids are about getting ready for Christmas. They love it as much as I do which of course makes me a very proud parent. So naturally, when discussions at my work started to come up about how we wanted to decorate our office for the holidays, I volunteered to participate. And of course, when my kids heard about decorating, they wanted to participate (If you give a Mouse a cookie....).

All of this led to the 3 of us, plus a handful of my coworkers, spending a few hours on Sunday at the office getting it all decked out. The kids were truly a huge help and made the whole event a lot of fun. Addy took on the role of art director for the snowflake wall and Cameron played the role of the "hired labor" but definitely needed a wide variety of roles to keep him entertained. Luckily there was plenty to choose from and the kids helped with all of the following: spreading out the Christmas tree branches on the white tree, getting the tree skirt just right, punching out the colored snowballs, assembling the stars, decorating the whiteboards, assembling strands of paper snowballs, making 3-D ornaments and decorating the tree. It was a ton of fun and our office looks incredible and I smile each time I see the beautiful wall that they decorated.