New Years Eve

We made a quick trip up to Idaho when we got back from California and went bowling, which the kids loved. Our trip was way too short but so much fun. We had an arm wrestling contest with everyone since it turned out to be a ton of fun when we did it in California. John beat all the brothers on both sides of the family, while I lost to all the sisters on both sides of the family! But I made up for it with my top bowling score;) (My dad did however beat John, but everyone was such a close match it was so funny to watch!) Im sad all of our family time is over, we need more soon.

summer reunions

This summer the kids and I went to me and John's families reunions. It was a ton of fun and so good to have some vacation. I didn't get any pictures at mine, but here are a few from John's. (Mae found her curly hair twin;)

Downtown

We headed to the National Mall a couple of weeks ago, when Joel was in town, with Emily and Tyler. We saw the Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial. We had a picnic and then went to the American History Museum. It was a fun time! The kids had fun running around and we got several looks and comments about how kids shouldn't be at Memorials, whatever.

I knew that statistically Vera had a bigger head, but this picture makes her look super top heavy! And you know how I like to compare pictures, so here is Mae at the same age, same place, which makes them look very different to me. (And makes my photography skills look bad too.)

Christmas 2010

Our favorites:

Gingerbread houses
Sledding
Skiing
Bowling
Yummy food
A Santa visit
Pedicures
Bingo
Christmas morning for the kids
Vera's blessing

Dance Party Bowling Style

We had such a fun Christmas. Lot of fun things happened but the bowling party was definitely a favorite. This is our first attempt at editing video from our camera, check it out.

Family Time

We spent last weekend in Idaho having fun with the Petersens. We had a fun picnic, went to the zoo and did a little shopping. Then they came down this weekend for conference, Wes had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa after such a long summer without them. (check out the Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head that John had growing up, they cracked me up.)

A much needed vacation

A few days after we drove home from DC we headed to LA to visit Joel and Natalie. The kids did great in the car again, I'm so proud.

We took a trip to the beach and saw the aquarium but mostly just hung out at home. I think we were still in need of some recovery after a long and hard summer. Joel and Natalie's new house is so cute and inviting and they are such great hosts, I think we could have stayed forever and let them cook and clean for us and just relax. Lauren is getting so big, she is such a little lady, and so sweet, it was fun watching her and Wes play together.

My favorite part of the trip was taking evening walks in their neighborhood in Pasadena and seeing all the cute houses. There is something about after dinner walks that are so relaxing and the kids had fun picking up sticks and leaves and flowers.