the day after Christmas

 The day after Christmas, Gregor wanted to take Joy to the Santa Monica Pier.

 We walked all around the pier and to all the lookout points.

 Then we took the kids to the park on the beach to play.

When it was time to go, we didn't want to get stuck in traffic on the 405, so instead we took the coast home and went through Camarillo.  Way longer, but no traffic.  Since we were going to be in Camarillo anyway, Gregor wanted us to eat at one of his favorite hole-in-the-wall places (Gregor knows a lot of hole-in-the-wall places).  It was a drive-up-diner type place with no seating that served Chinese food and hamburgers.  Weird, but it was really good.  I got a chicken bowl and 3 kids meals for the kids and drinks and it only cost $12.  So, I guess it was worth the detour :)

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was so busy and so fun!

Nate flew into town late the night before so he was there with us.

The kids were so excited that Santa came!

Dalton got a Big Wheel:

Saxon got a new bike:

And Bridger got a giant blow up bear-target and the movie BRAVE to got with it :)

Dalton gave each of his brothers a funny t-shirt.

Saxon's says "A Wookiee ate my homework"

and Bridger's says "This is my mad face."

Appropriate since Bridger likes to pull out his mad face a lot.

Dalton got Pete's Dragon from Mike (his favorite movie ever!)

and you can see by the look on his face that he was a little confused by the Tinkerbell that Mike got him LOL.

Mike also got Dalton an ant farm and Ryan thought that was really cool too :)

Saxon got Star Wars Legos:

And the boys got a Star Wars X-Box!

They were so excited!!!

Words can't even describe how excited they were!

A video game was the only thing that Saxon wanted for Christmas.

(Bridger wanted "Alien Guts.")

After we opened presents, my mom made a big Christmas breakfast for everyone.

Yum!

Then we got dressed and headed to my Grandma Beth's house for a Christmas lunch.

After her house, we went straight over to Gp Roy and Jenna's for his big Birthday Party/Christmas Party.

I've been a little sad for a few years that my kids have never gotten to experience Christmas in CA.  In Utah we just hang out as a family, which is nice in it's own way.  But in CA, Christmas is a huge party where we see all of our cousins.  My Grandpa Roy always gives a beautiful Christmas message and we exchange gifts and have snacks and the kids get to do a big Christmas pinata to celebrate Grandpa's b-day.  Then Jenna makes hot fudge sundae's with homemade hot fudge.  We all wear our new Christmas clothes and run around and explore Gp. and Jenna's huge house.  It's a huge 3 day party with a family home evening with Grandpa and Jenna, and then Christmas Eve with my Dad and then a formal dinner with Grandma Beth and a Christmas program, and then Christmas morning, lunch with Grandma and exchanging gifts, and then a party with Grandpa Roy for the rest of the day.

My kids got to play with all of their cousins that they never get to see and with the always favorite Aunt BB.  They also loved getting attention from Uncle Kasen and Aunt Brookie.  And of course Grammie.  Their new Gp. Bob won them over right away too.  Every time he would walk into a room Dalton would point and shout "BOB!"

One of my favorite parts of Christmas Day was Joy and Saxon at the piano.  Saxon learned the song "The Shepherd's Song" in primary and he loves it.  He talked Aunt Joy into playing for him and together they sat at the piano playing and singing.  We were the last ones to leave because it was so much fun to stand by the piano and watch.  My Grandpa Roy video taped it.  Joy plays beautifully (esp. since she had never even heard of the song before) and Saxon has a darling little voice!  Even Bridger joined in once and Dalton sat in the other room playing with toys and singing along too.

My boys with their Great-Grandpa-Roy.

Saxon is holding the new duck hunt toy that we all got Grandpa for Christmas.

Grandpa and Jenna and the great-grandkids:

(at least those of them that were there this year)

Grandpa and Jenna and the Grandkids and spouses:

We had such an amazing Christmas!

It was So. Much. Fun!!!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we got up and drove straight to my Dad's house.

They took us to the airport cafe for breakfast.

It was so amazing!

We sat outside on the terrace, under the heaters, and watched all of the small planes taking off and landing.  When they told us that we were going to the Airport Cafe I thought it was going to be a cute place decorated like airplanes.  I didn't realize that we were actually eating at the airport.  I was so much fun and my kids loved it!  

Then we went to Thousand Oaks to go ice skating.

They have an ice rink set up outside.  It was probably 60 degrees out and sunny, and we were ice skating :)  My boys had never been before and it was quite an adventure :)

Holding on to slippery little boys while they flailed their feet around on the ice was tricky.  I almost fell a few times.

Saxon started off with Uncle Gregor and Aunt Joy but pretty soon wanted to be left alone because he was getting the hang of it.

Bridger never quite got the hang of it and ended up getting too tired.

Gregor had to give Nathan a hard time because he wanted to wear shorts :)

But he teased him into wearing pants.

The kids love Uncle Nathan because he plays with them.

After a while Gregor and Joy took Bridger and Dalton to the park nearby and the rest of us skated until our hour was up.

After skating we went back to my Dad's house to open presents.

We had to leave that evening to go pick Nate up from the airport and then go back to Westlake to my Grandma Beth's house.  We had a wonderful dinner at Grandma's and the kids got to play with Aunt BB.  They've missed her lately.  Then, back to Grammie's to go to bed and wait for Santa to come...

December 23rd.

We drove to CA on Sunday the 23rd.  We left at 4 a.m. and we made amazing time!  Gregor got us there in only 9 hours.  The kids slept most of the way and we brought bagels and cream cheese so we didn't need to stop for food.  We only stopped for gas and a couple of bathroom breaks.

We got to my Mom's new house and we were exhausted!   We just hung and rested for a while because my Grandpa and Jenna were planning to come over that evening for dinner and a Christmas program.

It was so fun when they got there.  We ordered pizza, and Kenny and Lisa came and brought vegan pizza.  Then Brooke made chow mein the way she learned how in China and Ryan made shrimp fresh rolls with peanut sauce.  Kenny brought a buttermilk crumb cake that a neighbor gave him for putting out a fire in their house.  We ate so much!  All we had eaten all day was bagels so we were starving and we wanted to try everything.  The kids were so excited to see cousins and Gp. and Jenna and Aunt Brookie and Uncle Kasen.

We opened presents and then Saxon gave them the CD that the boys made in the recording studio and we played it for them.  Jenna and Brookie told a story about a little star that became the star over the manger in Bethlehem.  When my mom got home from work, she had all of the kids open the new jammies that she got them. 

It was such a fun night and such a great start to our Christmas trip!

Dalton loved his Santa jammies so much that he wouldn't go to bed at night unless he was wearing them.  I had to wash them quickly during the day to make sure that they were ready again for the night :)

Before Christmas...

Before Christmas, we were so insanely busy that I hardly had time to breathe.

It was really fun and went by really fast.

We had a baking day with Gregor and Joy and Meg and the girls.

We made a ton of treats to give out to neighbors and friends! 

The night before we left for CA, we finally got around to taking some pictures in front of the Christmas tree.  I let the boys decorate it all by themselves.  Then, periodically, they would take some ornaments down and rearrange.  It was always changing :)

Saxon had a big event happen in his life...can you see it in the picture?

He lost his first tooth!!!

We also made a thousand trips to the airport :)

We took Mike one day, but his flight was cancelled because of weather, so we took him again the next day.  Then the day after that, Brittany called because her ride cancelled and she needed a ride to the airport.  Luckily we had nice weather every time.  When Nate went to the airport, it took him over 2 hours because of the storm.

The night before we left, Gregor and Joy came over and Gregor and Nate stayed up til midnight trying to pack everything in the car.  We left at 4 a.m. on Sunday for CA and the next part of our Christmas adventure...