Christmas blessings

This is the second year we have had the privelege of going to my parents for Christmas and neither were planned..Last year we came down because Dad was in the hospital with blood clots and this year Mom was recovering from pneumonia. I think they plan it that way...We love going down though cause we get spoiled with love and really good food... 

This year has been a hard one for us as a family with Peter going in and out of jobs and then nothing..And even though it has been hard, we have never been as blessed..We have great friends and family who have shown their love to us in multiple ways especially at Christmas Time..We just want to say Thanks..



Christmas Tree time

 Yep...the tree is always in the same spot..Must be the only spot that works..We headed to our favorite Christmas Tree Farm..Home Depot...With the help of all the family the decorating took about 5 minutes..

This is how Alex and Anna-Maria felt about the whole experience...

Pick your favorite Christmas Pose....

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 I couldn't decide which photo to use for this year's Christmas Card...Please help by picking your favorite...


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A day Downtown Seattle

 Since the kids had a couple of days off for Parent/Teacher conferences we got to spend the day as a family...Off to Seattle we go..I have never done the Christmas displays downtown because of work but I really enjoyed them this  year..First was the Sheraton for their annual Gingerbread houses...

 so yummy looking..just want to rip off a piece..They won't notice..

 Next we headed to the Fairmont Hotel for the Teddybear Suite..So many bears in one small place..even the bathroom had them on the floor, in the sink, etc..

 Pike's Market is always an adventure..always crowded and fun...

Santa delivers everything on the list right?

2nd grade muscial...

Anna-Maria had a great musical Tueday night..She sang loud and clear and played the clave like a professional...

New eyes

Yep..Alex finally needed glasses.....After enough squinting we broke down and had his eyes checked at Costco...A couple of days later the nurse called him in to recheck his eyes from the last test she did..Alex told her that we had a prescription for the new glasses but we were going to wait till his dad had a job..One phone call later from the nurse and Alex got free glasses from a local optometrist. Now he can see the signs on the buildings and words written from afar...He is excited...and handsome...

pumpkin time

Yep..it's Pumpking Carving time...
The kids love the gutts, the parents hate the mess.

Grim Reaper and Scary Face

Mine..an owl...Love Halloween!

Anna-Maria's apartment

Every year the second grade classes on Anna-Maria's school make a high rise for their individual class..Each child decorates a shoe box and writes a story to cordinate and then they are built upon each other..Here is her story..

Once there were two sisters living in an apartment. On Halloween the sisters heard a whooing sound. They opened the door. It was a ghost, but it was our neighbor. " That was not funny."said a sister," but a good costume." "Thanks, nice halloween decorations." said the neighbor. " Best of all nice spiderweb." " That's not a halloween decoration!" screamed Daphne one of the sistes. " Shoo shoo aaah!" "What is it?" " It's a black widow!" "EEE , it's ok." said the neighbor Puck, but Daphne was too scared. "It's ok" said sister Sabrina. "You're right, come on let's go to the store." So they did go to buy more halloween decorations. Then they went home ate dinner. Then went to have fun trick or treating. The end.

Scout hike Ratttlesnake ridge

Alex's first Boy Scout Hike..Be prepared wasn't in his vocabulary..no water,snacks and dressed as warmly as possible for 70 degree weather...Still loved it...

He got out of doing errands with Mom and Dad instead..yahooooo...

School must go on...

Yep, it's that time of the year again..The kids worst nightmare...Back to School. Alex got to wear his cast for the first day..Then it was off to the doctor to take it off...
Anna-Maria looks thrilled..She hates it when I take photos the first day..She asked if I was going to take photos of her first day when she is 40 and in high school. I said "No way, you won't be living at home at 40 if your still in high school."

Mr. Safey Patrol...as you can see he loves having his photo taken too...

row,row, row your boat

We were treated to a day at the Lake of the Woods near Nana and Papa's. It's a beautiful lake, cool on a hot day...
I'm surprised but Papa convinced the two chickens to use a paddle boat..They loved it...

Oh what do you do? She wore this chair everywhere..Doesn't make a great backpack though...Homeward bound after this trip...Too bad..The kids wanted to stay at Nana and Papa's forever..There's room right?!

Cavemen

Oregon caves here we come...While it is 90 degrees outside, inside it's 42..Glad we brought coats...
What an adventures cave...there are 520 steps, sometimes you have to go sideways, duck to 45 inches, and watch you head at all times..The only wildlife we saw in the cave was a bat....It was a cool experience...

Thanks Papa for taking us....

End of First part of trip

My goal for the last day of our trip was to reminisce..on my hometown of Vacaville, and then onto Napa and Sonoma..It didn't go as planned..Alex and Anna-Maria could have cared less about my hometown except for making Moooing sounds for the "Cowtown". They loved the Jelly Belly factory of course and the cheese factory in Sonoma but their attitude was "Let's just get back to Nana and Papa's." Next time I'm going down with someone else who will enjoy shopping and touristing....

Left my heart in San Franscico..

San Franscico here we come..I had it mapped out of course..We started in Union Square..hitting the Westin St Francis hotel first..The back bank of elevators is an amusement ride on it's own..You start out looking out at another building and then bam you are in the sky overlooking all of San Franscico at a high speed..Scared Anna-maria to death...Off to China town next...love the little trinkets they sell at rockbottom prices..

Then it was onto Little Italy...We drooled over the smells of foccacia,pizza, and pasta..yum...

Peir 39 was next..Those seals have been there forever..That was always my attraction while growing up in the area...

Can you guess where we had lunch? Yep..have to say the food wasn't the reason we went..

After waiting an hour in line we hopped on the cable car for the up and down ride...Who can go to San Franscico and not ride the Cable Car?!

One more stop of the day before dropping Peter off at the airport..The Oakland Temple..It's my favorite of course...