California Christmas - Part One

 ...And it was off to California for a much-needed break, help while I recovered, and lots of fun! We stopped in Las Vegas for one night on the way and liked our hotel with swans in the lobby, and a great breakfast included.

 

Wade got to sleep in a big bed with lots pillows around him!

 

 

 

 

First In-n-Out stop!

 Ahhh...so nice to be home in good ol' Whittier, at the old homeplace with Mom and Dad, and even Gretchen, Chris and the boys next door! This year Wade and Lars really interacted and enjoyed playing together.

 

Cute Ollie was getting around everywhere either crawling or with a cute beginner walk.

 

Anders came out and hugged the boys and they immediately started playing. Checking out the mailbox...

 

Playing in Grandma & Grandpa's backyard.

 

Doing fishy faces with Grandpa was fun!

 

Wade drinks his ice cream "soup." :)

 

Wyatt had fun putting this package together for me and even wrote some words on it (some of his first!)

 

I think it says, "Our Mom." :)

 

Here he drew a silly picture.

 

We checked out the best beach weather day - the day after we got there and got right down to Mother's Beach. It was nice to be in calm waters with the boys, and Jim did a lot of digging while I relaxed and read The Blue Sapphire.

 

There were some nice kids who came up and politely asked if they could join us, and we had fun with them. Afterward, talking to their mom, we found out they were also from Colorado, just as happy as us to be missing the snow storm!

 

Family picture time while we were all gussied up for Christmas Eve.

 

 

So fun to be at Grammy & Poppa's for Christmas Eve! We got the kids dressed up and they recited a few lines for a little Christmas play.

 

Little Rose was a cute baby Jesus. :)

 

Aunt Gretchen got a Happy Birthday Jesus cake for the kids - so fun!

 

Uncle Kirk holds Wade...

 

The boys have picked up on my Dad's "naughty" tradition of creating wrapping paper balls and throwing them at people... ;-)