Christmas 2013--part VI

The boys' annual Christmas picture in front of the tree with their ornaments.

Our final Christmas celebration actually happened in 2014 with the Leonard family. Jill and Mark and the girls came up for a long weekend, and we had a blast catching up with each other and opening presents.

We are blessed beyond belief to have wonderful families full of people with whom we love to spend time!  Although it is spring break, a belated Merry Christmas and New Year's blessings to each of you who read this blog!

Thanks, Mark Leonard Imaging, for capturing our family's picture this fall!

Spring Break 2014

Dad and Vicki visited the second half of our spring break. In our annual tradition we spent a couple days in Palm Springs with them and spent time with the cousins by the pool and exploring around the hotel.

Enjoying ice cream from the Rite Aid across the street

Bubbles!

Kenzie chose a mask as her special treat

Easter Egg Hunt 2014 (I know it is a bit early since Easter is a couple weeks away yet, but we do this every year so tradition holds!):

Ready to go

Even though it was a little bit "chilly" this year, we had a fantastic and relaxing time!

Christmas 2013--part V

We ended our travels back at Paul's house for a day before we headed to the airport. We spent time visiting with Grandma Walker and added a few more games to our list of Christmas activities.

Being silly in the background

The boys took in a little more outdoor playing and even got to ride on the sled which was pulled by the Gator (another first for them).

I forgot to post these pictures from viewing Christmas lights during the first part of our visit.

We are so thankful that we got to spend Christmas with much of our family and to experience a cold and very white Christmas.

We are also thankful that the storms held for the days that we had to travel so we could get from place to place as planned.

DS time on the plane

Thanks to everyone for a wonderful visit!  We love you all!

Christmas 2013--part IV

Our next stop was at Mom's place where we also stayed with Brian and Gina.

The weather cooled down again (not talking CA cold but negative temperatures...) so we pretty much stuck to indoor activities.  Besides opening gifts, we played in the game room and fixed some puzzles: 

Played games and won tickets at Chuck E. Cheese's:

Rang in the New Year--the boys' first time seeing midnight and actually toasting the start of 2014 thanks to their cousins' enlightening them on what is supposed to happen on New Year's Eve. :-)

Late-night Scrabble

We managed to pack a lot in during our three days' visit!

Christmas 2013--part III

Fortunately, we had decent (albeit COLD) weather on most of the days we traveled so we were able to keep to the schedule we had planned.  From Paul's house, we headed up north to Dad and Vicki's house. 

Even though the cold weather did not prevent the boys from playing outside at all on this trip, it was finally decent temperature-wise when we were there so even I got out and did some sledding.  (Unfortunately, my camera has no proof of this event. ;-)  Paul did a little more ice fishing and had more luck.

The boys saw and rode their first snowmobile.

We played some games:

Ate delicious food:

Raced around to find gifts:

Laughed a lot with each other:

And enjoyed the new bunny that Dad brought home one of the days we were there:

Our second Midwest Christmas celebration was a joy.