Christmas Eve Day

We spent the day with Uncle Rob and Aunt Dee at their new house! The kids played with Daisy, played in the snow, Owen shot his new bow (and lost an arrow in the snow!), made snowballs with Aunt Dee, and played games with Aunt Dee while is other three adults might have been napping. 🙂

Margarita buddies!

Santa Daisy

She was a big cuddle bug.

A weekend with Uncle Rob and Miss Dee!

They came to visit us for the first time and to take the kids out for their Christmas presents—they had given them certificates for dinner and a movie!!

They also decided to take them bowling on base! The kids had a blast (they also got to play some video games and air hockey plus have lunch at McDonald’s).

On Saturday Katie monopolized Miss Dee doing puzzles and playing kitchen. That afternoon they went to a movie then to Unos for pizza!

Sunday we went out for breakfast and then it was time to say goodbye.

National Museum of American History

One museum down, 43 to go. 😆

Original Cookie Monster and Elmo!

It called to me.

Julia Child’s wall-o-cookware.

A model of the cruise ship we first cruised on—the Holland America Zuiderdam.

Three attempts at a family photo in front of the presidential hall.

Our little DJ.

Three hours and done!*

* I’m just not a huge museum fan (or history in general, which is why being in the DC area is pretty pointless for me). This was probably my first choice of all the museums and while I think some of the stuff is cool I just don’t care enough to read about all of it. I probably could have spent a bit more time in the First Lady and Presidential halls but most of the rest was easily done with a quick walk-through. I also very much dislike hoardes of people and being crowded and not able to see things easily so that’s a huge issue here. It wasn’t too bad when we were some of the first 500-1000 people in when they opened but after a few hours when the entrants have doubled? No thank you. The kids also weren’t very interested so they would have really been bored to tears if we took any longer.

Also, Uncle Rob was supposed to have been with us, but he wasn’t thinking and had a pocketknife with him…and since these are federal buildings everyone has to go through security and he could not bring it in with him. He tried to go back and put it in the car, but he would have had to go back through security to get to the car…so unless he wanted to toss it or hide it, he was out of luck (we entered through the parking garage so the car got a cursory check but we didn’t get personally checked and we didn’t have to exit through security so it passed—but to re-enter the building to get to the parking lot, you had to pass security). So he wandered the area seeing the sights and taking pictures.

Five member Pokémon gym!

We got Uncle Rob started/hooked on Pokémon so we went out on one of our typical drives/hunts…and the kids took their new plush Pokémon they got from Santa.

And their Pikachu rode with me.

And then we took over a gym on one of our walking trails. We didn’t actually walk the whole trail, though—we just cheated and ran down to the pond.

With Uncle Rob here we can put five Pokémon in at a time!! (Oh yeah, that’s right, Katie now has her own account because I wanted her to stop messing around with “our” account.)

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Katie’s 4th birthday party!

Katie’s party was on July 13, but I forgot to get the pictures off my big camera—whoops! I’ll move this post to the right date later.

Once again, we had a gathering/pizza party at the Ramada pool!

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I was kicking the ball back into the pool…and kicked my shoe right off! I watched it land on the side of the pool…and tumble right in. 🙂

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The cake design Katie picked out!

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And then back at Gramma Jean’s to open presents!

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And she had to put on one of her new dresses!

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I can’t remember the last time I had to wait in a line!

I guess that’s what happens when a small town theater gets a big movie on the opening day (Secret Life of Pets) and the weather is questionable (it was supposed to storm and it was getting dark and windy). As a sidenote, Owen completely freaked out about the weather and wanted to go home. We are not sure how or why he has become so freaked out about weather.

Unfortunately, we didn’t actually get to see the movie—there were so many people that by the time we made it in to look for seats there were none available (definitely not six together and pretty much only single seats here and there—people were even sitting in the aisles and on the steps). So we got our money back and decided to go another day.

Throwback Thursday—Brothers

I started to clean out the file cabinet and had to stop and post this awesome picture. It’s circa 1997 shortly after Tom and I met.

I showed the picture to Katie and asked who they were. She didn’t recognize either of them. When I told her, she said: “No, those are different guys.” 🙂

Kidisms 22

Owen was working on Legos at the table. I heard a piece hit the floor.
Me: Something just hit the floor.
Owen: Not something. Someone. [Smartass grin]

Tom was tickling Owen before bedtime.
Owen: Stop, you’re making me wild!

Uncle Rob: Owen, watch your Legos.
Owen: Why, are they going to run away?

Katie and Owen were playing catch with her new baseball mitt.
Katie: Owen caught my ball into my mitten!

Tom and Rob were speaking with an English accent.
Owen: Stop speaking Harry Potter!

Daddy’s Day Off, Part 2

I completely spaced on it being school break time (duh, that’s why Owen was able to go!) and the aquarium was a nightmare. I have never seen that many people there…and we skipped about 70% of the stuff because we didn’t want to wait or push through the hordes to get to the displays. Ugh. We’ve been super spoiled the past few times we’ve gone and it was (for all purposes) empty.

On the escalator to another level.

Another escalator!

The frog displays were very busy. I didn’t get many pics.

Trying for a desktop wallpaper. 

And one my favorites…jellyfish!

More attempts at computer wallpaper!

We had planned on having lunch beforehand at our favorite, Capital Grille, except we were there too early and they weren’t open…so we planned to do it after. But…as we were walking through the last part of the aquarium, we looked out across the water and saw Family Meal, a Bryan Voltaggio (Top Chef contestant) restaurant. I actually remembered I had a coupon for there, so we decided to try it.

We started with chicken pot pie fritters (delish!), Tom ordered biscuits and gravy (I might have been tempted except it came with over easy eggs on it which didn’t sound good to me), Rob got meatloaf, and I ordered fried chicken and this is the dish it came in. 🙂 It was yummy but a little expensive for what it was…but I’m glad we went.

And then this happened on the way home.

Christmas Eve!

Getting ready to bake cookies for Santa!

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Fresh-baked cookies and a Christmas shooter (vanilla egg nog) for Santa!

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Owen wanted to put his new Lego creation out for Santa.

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Christmas jammies and Santa hats…

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Along with lots of outtakes!

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One good family picture out of about 15 attempts!

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Uncle Grob!

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And then a ticklefest ensued.

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Morning Program Poetry Helper

Every week, 10 students help read a poem during Morning Program. This week was finally Owen’s turn! Daddy didn’t think he was going to be able to make it…but he did! And Uncle Rob was there, too!

  
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We couldn’t hear him, of course, but his lips were moving and he wasn’t crying or hiding so it was all good!

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Halloween in Grayling

The kids were super excited about treak-or-treating at Gramma’s house…and we were, too…until the Michigan weather happened. Yeah, it was 38° and rainy. Egads. If you look closely enough you can see Katie’s polka-dot long johns under her white tights (and she also had on pink tights!).

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On the front porch where my Halloween picture was taken every year…

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Everyone (including Uncle Rob) ready to head out!

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There weren’t many houses lit up but the ones that were were handing out TONS of candy! You see how full their bags look? We had only hit maybe six houses at this point!

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After about 15 minutes they gave up on the umbrellas and just ran from house to house while we waited at the road. Soon enough we were back at Gramma’s door!!

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Home after an hour of being out in the rain—they were soaked but happy!!

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Tom gave the kids a hot shower and put them in PJs while I made them hot cocoa!

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Eating Mallow cups from daddy and Uncle Rob—they were Grandma Marsha’s favorite treat and someone brought a bag of them for the boys.

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LOOKS AT THEIR HAUL!! The weather sure stunk but it was great for quick candy accumulation. They got 9# of candy from less than 20 houses!

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