This year we spent Christmas in California with my family. It was an amazing break, one of the reasons being the weather was honestly perfect. High 60s all week. We seriously couldn't have asked for better weather, and it was especially nice knowing Utah was being graced with snow while we wore short sleeves and flip flops. This Christmas was the first year my whole family has been together in three years and it was a dream come true. The kids stayed up late every nice just talking and watching movies and there was a whole lot of eating. I gained 6 pounds in two weeks. I know, it's embarrassing. We ate some GOOD food, though.
The ride to CA was actually pretty dang easy. We were worried about how the babes was going to do since she's never done a road trip this long before, but holy cow she was an angel!
Please excuse how obnoxious I am in this video. It's for the children!
The break started out with something I'd been looking forward to for months...a visit with Santa! I'll admit, there was a tiny part of me that hoped Emma would hate it and we would end up with those pictures you see all the time with a smiling Santa and livid baby. I think those pictures are SO funny! Horrible mother point to me, I know. However, Emma was on her best behavior because she was handed a candy cane right as she was put on the big man's lap. It wouldn't have mattered if the boogey man himself were holding her then, she was as happy as could be!
Hey, who the heck are you?
My siblings are I are terrible people and decided to play a little prank on my innocent, sleeping father. Madison grabbed a can of whipping cream and sprayed him while he slept. He actually took it pretty well, though I'm fairly certain the lack of response was his way to hold in the rage ;) Poor, poor dad.
Don't you love how Maddy says, 'Oh sorry!' at the end like the whole thing was an accident?
A few randoms...
Emma loves her Aunt Maddy!
Happy to spend some 'quality' time with these two ;)
She LOVED staring out this window
Christmas Eve rolled around and we had our traditional PJ present opening (does anyone NOT do that?), which I love.
Sibling love!
And then all of a sudden, Christmas morning was here! I only snagged a few pics before opening presents which I'm sad about because Emma was LOVING all the wrapping paper. She sure got spoiled this year.
Horrific angle but it's all I've got
Dalin had to get back to Provo right after Christmas for work and was flying out of San Francisco so we decided to make a trip out of it and spent the night there before he had to fly out. I LOVE San Francisco and I honestly could have spent a week there.
Yummy crepe place on pier 39
Seriously though, how lucky are we?!?
Sure do love these two
There were a bunch of Hawaiian pearl stands where you pick an oyster tap those tongs Daniel is holding below (for luck?) and then they open it. The hubs really wanted to do this for me which I thought was just the most tender thing. He got to tap the oyster but I think I'm the one who came out on top because I got a beautiful pearl out of it! One day I'd like to make it into a ring but for now...I just stare at it from time to time, haha.
Horrible picture, but I just had to show the view from our room! Gorgeous!
View from the parental's room of Union Square!
Poor Daniel. The ride back was exhausting ;) I might be murdered for posting this...
We had dinner at Olive Garden on our way home from Muir Woods (see that post here) where our sweet, innocent Emma found herself a boyfriend. They were honestly smiling and flirting with each other the WHOLE time we were there. It was the cutest thing!
Shameless!
I know, without her bow Emma looks like a little boy :(
New Year's 'festivities'
My parents were kind enough to watch the babes while Daniel's parents treated us to a trip to Six Flags Animal Kingdom (We seriously have the best parents. Be jealous.)!!! It was so fun to have a day to ourselves doing something we both love which is riding rollercoasters!
Front row, baby!
Yeah I definitely didn't touch that guy...
Can you tell Daniel was SUPER excited for the swing ride?
'Blackfish' makers would be so ashamed of us right now
My dad took us shopping for a bigger carseat for Miss Emma because she is so dang tall. 99th percentile in height! She totally loved it on the ride back to Utah as you can tell.
Sweet girl!
Sunset on our drive home to Utah
We missed the Keslers this Christmas, but were lucky enough to have had such an amazing trip with my family. So relaxing and fun to just be with everyone. We got to stay a solid two weeks which was just absolute heaven. We are so blessed to have such great families that we both enjoy.
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