Monday we loaded up the car and headed to Alex's parents.  Washington here we come!

Hazen's such a good traveling baby!  Messy but very cute.  This is my favorite face he makes.

We spent a couple days with Alex's parents and couple of his siblings families.  A very crowded but so much fun visit. 

Love this!

We spent one day at the Olympia Children's museum with cousins.  It was very full but the kids had a blast.

 We celebrated New Years Eve together with his family and had a blast playing games all night.

 Another year with this guy!

 It was such a great and easy night.  Lots of food and fun.  We were having so much fun and the kids were doing so well that we let Clifton and McKay stay up till midnight for the first time.

The next day was a big day!  McKay's baptism.

 We are so excited and happy for her.  She is such a sweet girl who is very in touch with the spirit.
The baptism room was full of so many loved ones that it made the day even more special.  It felt so good to be surrounded by our loved ones again.

 After the baptism everyone stayed around to eat and play games.  Man do I miss these people so much.
We stayed with the Whites for a couple days and felt like family.

We sure love them!
Thursday morning Randi put together flag football!

I just love these people, always up to have fun and get dirty.  glad we could squeeze in football!

That night we handed the kids out to friends and we headed to the temple to be with our niece who was taking out her endowments.

A wonderful night with the Peterson clan.

Friday we got to squeeze in soccer while the kids played at the church.  It was so fun to be back with all the people I love and sweet.
We brought cupcakes cause it was Stanley's birthday and he had a great day playing with his friends.

5 years old!

We spent more time with the White's before we needed to head to Seattle.  We went to see Frozen again and loved it even more.

 Then explored their beautiful property.

 We cannot thank them enough for letting us stay with them and making us feel like family.

That night we headed to Pullalyp for a wedding dinner.

The beautiful bride to be!

Saturday was the big day and the main reason we came.

Such a cute couple and a beautiful bride.

Such a fun day celebrating.  The wedding was beautiful and the reception was fun.  So glad we were able to come back to be here for it.

Ended the day with the best part about a hotel, swimming!

Love these crazies and they have seemed to have had a blast on this trip.

Sunday we headed to the airport, got through security and about to load when the flight was delayed a few hours.  We weren't happy but headed over to the play area to let the kids wiggle.  An hour or so later our flight got delayed till 9:30 pm!  After hours of trying to figure out what we can do cause 9:30-3:17 am is just not going to work.  The airlines finally got us a hotel room and food vouchers.

 It has been an insanely long day but we are trying to make the most of it.  We let the kids pick whatever they wanted with the food vouchers.  Pizza, Gatorade, and candy for the win.

The kids were pretty happy yo be spending another night in Washington.  Except maybe Stanley he has a horrible cough that started Thursday and has escalated to coughing fits that leads to throwing up.  He was very week and hasn't eaten much the whole day.  We were happy the airlines were taking good care of us but were anxious to get Stanley home and to the doctors.  I was afraid it was his asthma (and I didn't bring his inhaler cause he hasn't had issues in a ling time) or bad virus.

Randi found out we were stuck her another day and got a group of ladies together to come visit us at the hotel.  We stayed up and played games and chatted.  Man I have the best of friends!

Christmas 2019

Updates on Clifton -
Working very hard on his new spelling bee list, 4,000 hard words!  I have to look a lot of words up on how to pronounce.

Updates on McKay -
She's 8!  Where have the years gone.  She is such a joy, funny, caring, sassy, and best girl we could ask for.

Updates on Stanley -
Has a new habit of spitting and boy oh boy do I hate it.  Soap has come out as a threat to put in his mouth a couple times.

Updates on Hazen -
Finally acting like the Hazen we know.  Its been a good week of no sickness for him and finally sleeping through the night!

Monday Alex and I had the tummy bug and spent the day on the couch letting the kids fend for themselves.  Thankfully it's a quick bug.

Christmas Eve we spent the morning handing out food and clothes to the homeless.

It was a crazy but really good experience.  I have been sad that we had to cut some traditions but this makes me so happy to find new amazing people and new traditions.  A wonderful way to spend Christmas Eve.

Then we went home and acted out the nativity story.

A loved tradition.

Later we had Christmas Eve pajamas and movie night.

Probably my favorite pajamas yet!  So much truth.

Christmas Day!  It was a wonderful low key day together.  We opened present and then played with them all day.

 A nice Christmas dinner.
Then to celebrate McKay's day a little.  She wanted to make a barbie cake.  I didn't really have what it took to make it but we made it work.

Not the prettiest but she was happy and it tasted great.  We love our Christmas baby.

The day after Christmas we needed to get out.  Alex had to put some work in so just the kids and I headed out to some hiking trials.

We found water!  It's not the beauty we are use to but the kids loved exploring the new terrain.

Saturday we headed to Portland.  Hazen LOVES planes, trains, and cars.  He greatly enjoyed watching all the airport business.

 We found my favorite donut at the airport!  So donuts for lunch it is.  Great start to our trip.

 Here we go.

The kids did great on the plane but needed to run it out while we waited for our luggage.

Saturday and Sunday we spent with my family.  We had our Christmas celebration and played games together with my parents.

And cheered on the Seahawks together.  Russel might need to get tips from Hazen.

Busy week of fun here we come!

Stanleys already pooped on by day 2.  Church was a lot more quiet when Stanley naps during it!

Updates on Clifton, McKay, Stanley, and Hazen -
I fell behind again.  It's been a busy week of Christmas parties, birthday parties, and holiday fun.  The kids are still doing great in school!  We did have the tummy bug again this week because apparently we like getting sick.


Continuing our Light the World count down...

Ding Dong Ditch a gift to a neighbor.

Donuts for the garbage person.

 Handing out Christmas treats to kids at the store.

Making cards and gifts for the kids teachers.

 Dinner for the firefighters.

Cheer on friends.  I am so happy McKay has made some good friends already and that we had an opportunity to go watch them preform.

 Made cookies for homeless packets we plan to hand out.

And decorating bags to put lunches in for the homeless.

A week full of Christmas parties...

I am so happy I was able to go to each one of theirs.

Stanley's party was a little bit more entertaining than the others.  He put on a concert and well was the Stan the Man I know.  Crazy, wiggly, loud and silly.  This boys keeps life fun!

He tires us but we sure do love him!

McKay wanted to invite a few friends over to celebrate her birthday.  She wanted a pizza and movie night.

Christmas is a tough time to have a birthday party but McKay didn't mind she was happy to have any amount of friends over.

Christmas Sunday best...

I love this little crazy family and I love matching!

We ended the week with a lovely visit with friends that moved out to Texas a few years ago and we are excited to be a little closer to them.

Such a wonderful family.