Christmas 2016

We were lucky to celebrate two Christmases this year. My parents came out on the 19th for a five day visit. They took the kids all over town, to the museums and parks, we spent a decent amount of time at La Jolla Tap and opened lots of presents before they left. In the past month my parents have traveled to Branson, India and San Diego to see all three of us. Thanks for coming out mom and dad. Love you xoxox

A sunset at Windansea

The girls!

Superhero and his saltines

We've been homebound for neary four months and it was time for another trip! We road tripped up to San Francisco on the 23rd to see Noah's grandma and family. We stopped in Santa Barbara on the way up for a night, and Morro Bay on the way back - pretty much the same trip we did three years ago. Kids were awesome in the car (thanks to the iPad) and it was a really fun trip. Grandma is now 98 and still going strong. We stayed with her for two nights and I think she was about done with us by the time we left :) 

All packed up - let's do this!

We got to Santa Barbara around 3pm. We checked into our hotel which was two blocks from Alameda Park. We headed over there to let the kids run -- awesome playground, gorgeous park, pond, walking paths. I can't believe we'd never visited here on our previous trips.  

The kids were hungry so we headed to IHOP for a super classy dinner. They were in heaven!

After dinner we walked to downtown Santa Barbara. Our hotel was only about 3 blocks from downtown but I walked all of us about 10 blocks in the WRONG direction. Everyone was super happy about it. The bright side was we got to see some Christmas lights!

Downtown SB. Everything was lit up, it was so cute and festive. We stopped for a drink and ice cream. 

Day 2. Back on the road...headed to Grandmas!

We got there Friday afternoon and just hung out. Saturday morning she made french toast for the kids. 98 and still cooking. I even caught her lugging around an ironing board one day!

Stef and Jeff  happened to be in SF too so we met up at a great kids museum/zoo in Palo Alto. The kids had a great time together (notice Sophia's arm around Jack after knowing each other a solid 2 hours) and Brady was really into taking this picture :) 

Of course, it was a very superhero themed Christmas for Soph and Emmett!

 Cousin Erik was a big hit! He spoiled them, wrestled them and pretty much did whatever they asked. 

The kiddos and grandma. 

They picked oranges from Papa Mando's tree and made some orange juice.

96 year spread in there!

We spent Christmas Eve at Uncle Gary's. Had a yummy dinner, drank some wine, caught up with Noah's extended family and watched The Grinch. 

Finn's note for Santa...

Santa came!

The aftermath... 

We didn't need any more wrapping paper so Erik wrapped them up good!

On Christmas afternoon we drove about 3 hours south and stayed the night in Morro Bay. 

We cruised around the beach area in the morning, doing some sightseeing and shopping. Morro Bay is an adorable, sleepy beach town - I love it! Finn learned all about this rescue submarine. We saw the seals, the boats and got cinnamon rolls. 

And of course, toured the skateboard museum once again. 

And took our family picture in front of the Morro Bay rock. Finn calls it Meatball Rock. We had a very Merry Christmas and it was great to see so much family. Hard to believe what this past year has brought us - living in 3 cities, visiting 8 countries, new schools, new job and of course lots of chaos. Here's to 2017 and more adventure!