Coastside

The day after Christmas we headed out to Oceanside, CA to visit Troy and Becca. We stayed in a timeshare and enjoyed the short visit. This met our goal of going to the beach, though it was too cold to do any wading:) But we saw some interesting animal life, including a seal and huge pelican.

Here we are on the boardwalk.

Cade enjoying the ride! His facial expression is worth noting.

Christmas Eve & Christmas Morning

Christmas Eve was an exciting one. We were all eagerly anticipating Shane's return! He actually walked in the door several hours before we expected him- so it was a great surprising reunion. Oh, we were so glad to see him. As you can see from the picture below, Cade was in the tub when he walked in, thus the towel:) It was a wonderful Christmas Eve.
Of course we had to do the traditional Nativity reenactment. Brinly HAD to be Mary, and enjoyed playing the part. Cade was Joseph- for a minute or two- but he looked really cute:) Lynds and Kate helped as well. They were great sports to do this with the kids.

Look at that cute couple!

Christmas Snow

Well, if you haven't heard, Las Vegas got snow- like 5 inches of solid sticking snow mid-December...quite the novelty here (30 years since it last snowed like this in LV). We were grateful to be here to enjoy it b/c we miss true winter! It so happened that just two days prior I had gone to Good Will looking for snow gear for the kids b/c we were traveling up to northern Utah a week later, and found snow suits! So, they were set, and played for a good couple of hours in the beautiful white wonderland. It made for a great memory- the only missing component was SHANE! But he was getting plenty of snow in Denver:)

Please ignore the snot on my son's face-- this was the only picture I could get of all of us.

Brinly making snow angels- she loved it! I think it spawned a few Virginia memories. She would have stayed out longer if I would have let her:)

Cade truly enjoyed the snow- except for the few times his mittens fell off and his hands were touching bare snow. He is warm blooded you know- he has lived in the heat most of his life. We was really cute...he's pick up snow and show it to me and say "See, see!" in a super high-pitched excited voice.

The snow kept falling all evening and into the night. By morning, about a third of it had melted and by the end of the day it was all gone except for in a few shadows. Loved it!

Christmas Festival

We tried to keep really busy while Shane was gone just to keep me from going too crazy. One weekend we went to the Henderson Christmas Festival. It was fun, but so windy that we didn't get to do as much as we had liked, but it was still fun for us.


Brinly and Cade both enjoyed the petting zoo IMMENSELY. Cade kept calling everything a doggy. Fun.

They also had a snow pit. Even though we were seriously lacking in proper snow gear, the kids enjoyed the ice mess:) I did get nailed in the face by a lovely strange child once.

Brinly enjoying the snow- she still remembers Virginia winters.

This was so humorous. Cade's first experience sitting on Santa's lap. I knew it would be rough b/c he was having serious stranger anxiety ever since Shane left, but it was shear horror for him. Brinly looks cute as usual. She was very excited to have the experience. This was at the Ethal M. Chocolate Factory, and they passed out free chocolates to all the kids after their photo.

We have enjoyed decorating a gingerbread house every Christmas. This year I wasn't up to making my own, even if that usually consists of graham crackers...so we went the Walmart route:) It turned out better than any of our previous houses...though it didn't quite taste as good. The kids definitely had a good time...mostly sneaking licks and candies.