Christmas 2003

Mom, Dave, Nanny, Aaron and Sera all came to Texas to spend Christmas with us in 2003. Jacob was so excited to give his gifts to everyone. His school had a little 'store' where he purchased gifts for all of his loved ones. He couldn't wait until it was time to give them away.

Abbi ended up very sick the week of Christmas...stuffy, coughing, fever, you name it. She was miserable. I love the above picture. Sera is obviously having victory against Simon while Abbi snuggles her new kangaroo puppet that Nanny gave her.

Above - puppet fight with Uncle Aaron

Below - Sera reads "No, Michael" to Caleb. We all eventually had this book memorized since we read it so much. I remember thinking it could've been a book about Abbi.

Someone gave Jacob this ridiculously hard puzzle. We all worked at it for several hours. I think it was Sera who eventually solved it...I promptly took a picture for future reference.

Caleb and his cool alligator puppet from Nanny

Candyland, anyone?

Abbi was on the mend by the time everyone went home.

But Aaron and Sera went home very sick.

The Great Northwest - Part 1

So, a few weeks ago, we flew out to the Great Northwest to visit my family for 2 weeks. What a great time we had with everyone! We started the trip in Gresham, Oregon and spent a few days with my brother and his wife, Sera. One of the first things Jacob couldn't wait to do was play chess with Uncle Aaron. Aaron has the Star Wars chess set from Episode 2. They played 3 games...they each won one game and the 3rd was a stalemate.

On Thursday we drove to Seaside with Sera's sister-in-law, Becca and her three kids ages 5 and under. It was a gorgeous day...we couldn't have asked for better beach weather!

This was the kids first time to play in the Pacific Ocean.

Abbi decided she wanted to get buried in the sand...
The boys had no trouble obliging her.
All covered up with sand!
The aftermath
Isn't Seaside beautiful? I hadn't been there since childhood and it really brought back a lot of memories. It was strange being there with my own kids.
My three with Becca's 2 boys, Seandor and Zolie.

After the beach, we headed to Becca's house where she prepared an AWESOME dinner for all of us. What a terrific day! On Friday, we spent the afternoon at a park in Sandy.

The kids (bigs ones included) had a great time. Abbi got a bit too dizzy on the tire swing and then found a nice place to lay down for awhile.

She couldn't even eat her lunch.
That night Sera's parents and one of her brothers came over for a big burrito dinner. The boys played a nail-biting game of Star Wars Monopoly. My brother and Jacob have so many loves in common...Legos and Star Wars!