We spent two weeks in Washington state with both of our families and had a great time! The flight out involved three flights, that's two layovers and took all day. One of our flights left late and we literally ran (I mean we ran fast!) through the airport to make our connection. They held it for us, but told us they wouldn't. I was NOT going to spend the night in the Cinncinati airport with four kids. The kids were all SO good. They were well behaved and listened and were good sports most of the time. Calvin lost my hand while we were running and fell, he did get pretty upset, but other then that, there was no crying from the big kids. We had several people tell us how great the kids did. It was fun to be met at the airport by my mom, two of my sisters and one niece, and Mike's mom as well.
We went out to the car to be met by REALLY cold weather - it got down to the single digits and stayed that cold for most of our visit.
We had a few days at my mom's house with just us and occassionally Nancy and then on Saturday everyone showed up. It was so much fun to be at home with all 7 kids and spouses and cousins. 23 people makes for a large crowd, but it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. My kids had so much fun playing with cousins, playing with Tate, my sisters puppy, tubing and snowmobiling, making ginger bread houses, eating, and everything else. Calvin and his cousin parker are only 5 months apart and were great friends! Like my sister-in-law Jana said, I only saw the kids at meal times! They just entertained each other.
On Christmas Eve we followed the usual Allen tradition of having our appetizer dinner and acting out the nativity. It was fun to have all the cousins participate. Anna Elise got to be Mary and after Calvin changed his mind three times he was Joseph. Madeline didn't want to particpate until she saw Joseph and Mary enter and Mary's donkey was her daddy! She yelled "I ride horsey" over and over until she got to ride the horsey. Lilah even participated as the baby!
Christmas morning was a lot of fun with lots of kids opening presents. We had some fun adult presents too!
After a great breakfast we packed everything off and borrowed my parents suburban and set off for Kennewick. Once there we had Christmas all over again. It was so good to see Mike's family, we hadn't seen Jenny or Dan & Raeleen and their kids for over two years. It had been too long! Matt and Sarah were also there and the kids LOVED aunt Sarah! I tried to tell Anna Elise that aunt Sarah is having a baby, but because Sarah is still so skinny she didn't believe me! We enjoyed slightly warmer weather so we went sledding, ice skating with their ward, we went to the movie, played lots of dress up and dancing, ate more really good food, did a little bit of shopping, and stayed up way too late talking. The girls got reaquanted really quickly and had a great time. Calvin had fun too, he is used to playing with girls! My niece, Faith, has cystic fibrosis and for her treatments has to wear a vibrating vest for 20 minutes twice a day. Aunt Raeleen let my kids all take turns trying her vest - Anna Elise actually liked wearing it and I think she had a turn everyday! They all tried to sneak in on Faith's TV time when she wore her vest. The last day before the cousins left the weather warmed up enough to play outside and the kids all had a great time in Pop's backyard.
I don't think we took enough pictures, especially at the Russell's house, but here is a sample of what I did take.
Nativity
Anna Elise tubing
Calvin riding our neighbor's little snow mobile - Thanks Kent for helping all those little boys have a turn!
Anna Elise making a ginerbread house with her cousin Talia's help
Madeline playing outside - she was looking for the dog!
Calvin went down with Aunt Jenny and they slide right off of their sled!
Mike took several rides down with both kids
Niether of the kids liked the powdery snow blowing in their faces - here is a sad and cold Anna
Here is her solution to a cold face!
Anna Elise skaing with her aunts, they were really good about helping her skate while I took pictures and avoided anything slippery.
2 comments:
I LOVE the picture of Madeline on the trampoline looking for the dog. That is HILARIOUS!!! It was fun to see you guys over christmas. I'm glad you made it home safely.
Very cute pictures. It was so fun to see you at Christmas and I am so glad that I kids had the opportunity to play together for a couple of days. Your kids are very cute and well behaved.
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