Trimming the Tree

After we came back from our Thanksgiving trip, Kenny was actually in the mood to set up the tree (which is a miracle in and of itself!) so we did!!  We even got to turn on Christmas music and the girls got to climb the ladder and help up higher this year too.  What a night!!

 Ashley got impatient and started without us :-)

 The girls were so excited that they got to be on the ladder

 Kenny adding some more garland

 Tyler was just happy to be by mommy and daddy.  He sure loves his feet!

and he's flexible :-)

Coming home and my birthday

We had such a wonderful trip to my dad's for Thanksgiving, but it's always nice to come home.  We arrived home just in time on Sunday to go over to Kenny's parents house for Thanksgiving #2.  It was super yummy too.  Then it was back to school and the next day was my birthday.  My students spoiled me with kindness and a gifts and then that night Kenny and I went out to dinner at my new favorite restaurant: Texas Roadhouse.  Yum!!!

 These two pictures are from on our way down, but I had to include them.  Ashley thought it was so funny that her two french fries made her look like she had fangs so then Em had to get in on the action.  I love her vampire face.  It was some much needed relief on our loooooong trip down!!

 We were smart on our way back and broke up the trip.  We stayed one night in our condo in Vegas and loved the pools and hot tubs.  Tyler LOVES the water already!

 This is one of my favorite pictures and it happened right after we got home.  Emily got out her baggy book to read one more time and she just started reading to Ashley.  It was such a spontaneous precious moment.  LOVED it!! :-)

 Going out to eat just the two of us for my birthday

My present from Emily: a picture of Santa and a homemade snowman

Thanksgiving Day

We had finally come to day that we went to California for:  Thanksgiving!  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with my dad fixing a yummy yummy traditional Thanksgiving meal for us.  What was fun is while the turkey was cooking we went to the beach--which isn't our normal Thanksgiving activity.  It was so fun!

 Tyler's happy to be at the beach

Emily missed her Thanksgiving feast at school because of our trip, but Emily's teacher was so nice and let her take a Pilgrim AND an Indian outfit with her so each girl could be one.  Thanks, Miss Hull!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Sea World Day 2

Ashley is super close to 42" that allows her to go on the water rides at Sea World so on our second day there we put her in her tall boots and she got to go on the "big" rides.  :-)  Once again we had a blast and just relaxed and enjoyed ourselves.

 Ashley riding Atlantis

 Once again, Tyler was being his normal happy self, happy to be there!

 All of us in Christmas land

 Mommy and Ty waiting for the Shamu show

 Riding Shipwreck rapids--We're in red and I'm sure glad we had ponchos on.  We got soaked!!

 We got smart this time and got a refillable popcorn bucket.  We went through 3 buckets that day!

 Outside there was a cool Shamu VW bug.  The girls HAD to get their picture with it.  **Notice Ashley still has her hand in the popcorn container. =)

The front of the car

Legoland

Since we weren't going to Disney this trip we decided to try Legoland.  We'd never been there before and didn't know what to expect.  My dad got us a killer deal for two days there and we were sure grateful.  We had a blast.  It was so much fun.  Our girls were definitely the right age.  They were able to go on everything and thought it was great!  So much fun!

 They have this really cool idea where they have a play zone connected to lines so the kids can play while the parents wait in line.

 The coolest part for me was the mini-land where all these national and world landmarks are made all out of legos on a miniature scale.  Very cool!!

 They had a Star Wars section too that Kenny could have stayed in all day.  It was SO cool!  They had scenes from each of the 6 movies.  Very well done and the legos moved and made sounds too!!

 Riding a jousting horse

 Legoland's version of the teacups

 The "Wild Mouse" ride

 Mummy laser ride

 Lego Christmas tree

 Sleeping man and Em

 Posing in the lego car

 One of my favorite rides of the girls--lego cars that they could drive that WEREN'T on a track.  Way cool!

 Entering our 2nd day at Lego land

 Feeding the reindeer

 Santa was there too :-)

 A fun fireman race

 Tyler was happy to be there too

 This was a super fun ride even though we ended up pretty soaked!

 The girls being pretty happy that they are inside of a shark

 A cool boat ride that you could drive all yourself too.  Cool!  I love Ashley's expression :-)

 These were robot arms that went all around in circles based on how old you were.  Ashley's ride was very tame, while Em and Kenny's was more exciting.  Fun!

 Spending some time in the stocks

 The Dragon ride

 Tyler was still very happy to be there :-)

 Safari ride

 By far the coolest thing was all the Lego statues.  So awesome!!

 Riding the mummy laser ride again

 A fun little pedal ride

My wonderful family!!