La Playa

We made the effort to frequent the beach during our visit with Abbie, Chris, and Alethea. They lucked out with quite a few days that were warm enough to swim in the ocean (by Alaska standards anyway). They even lured me in and it was quite refreshing! There was lots of digging, swimming, sun-bathing, kite-flying, fishing, carrying, playing, building, eating (of sand), walking, sleeping, and non-stop fun. If you can't have mountains, the beach is a nice substitute!

Awww my little sweetie bumpkin :)

Trying to identify the catch - gotta make sure it's legal to keep.

Turns out to be Atlantic Whiting - Chris provided dinner for us that night.

I finally found something that Sawyer is cautious about - the ocean! He won't go near the waves without an adult...much to mama's relief!

Abbie showing Sawyer how to dig up clams.

The good life - during the winter.

Nancy in SC

Abbie & Chris arrived at midnight on Dec. 26th. Their alaskan bodies couldn't wait for the warmth and sunshine! We let them enjoy it for a few hours, and then stuffed them in the van for a blitz trip up to South Carolina to visit our step grandma, Nancy. We aimed to take off at 2 a.m. on the 27th and were on the road by 3 a.m. George and Chris manned the front seats while the rest of us snoozed.

This was our noteworthy 'poocan' pit stop. 

We found some pecan trees and spent a good hour picking pecans and cracking their shells. They were beautiful 'blonde' looking nuts and tasted delicious. As we were getting in to the van I stepped in some dog doo-doo, and since Chris is our nut-hater (at least walnuts and pecans) he called it our poocan pit stop. Haha, good one.

On our trip north we made a detour in Georgia so George could pick up the pressure washer he'd won on an auction website. This will be his new endeavor to earn a little cash on the side. This meant hauling the trailer with the minivan...added a little complication to the trip and four extra hours, but turned out fine.

We arrived at Nancy's around 6 p.m. and she had an amazing southern spread with baked ham, collards, sweet potatoes, and bread. The next day we talked her into letting us do a little yard work for her. It was a fun visit, and great to see Nancy. George had never met her so that was nice to finally introduce him. This time she pulled out a lot of large photos that my grandpa had taken and developed himself. My favorite were all the family Christmas photo cards he made while my mom and her siblings were young.

 "Oh WOW!" Sawyer exclaims, as he's showing off his stomp rocket to Great Grandma Nancy.

Chris & Alethea - synchronized sleepers.

Poor Chris and Abbie didn't get to sleep through the night for 4 nights in a row because of their flight to FL, drive to/from SC, and while in SC they got rained out when trying to sleep under the stars.

The blue bath tub was a hit!

 The picture before we hit the road again.

We were back on the road the 28th right around 7 p.m. in hopes the boys would sleep through the night while we drove (we as in Abbie and Chris who ended up driving the whole way back thanks to a ton of gas station junk food.) The boys did fantastic both ways. Nancy is always so nice to welcome us on such short notice. Maybe next time we'll plan ahead a little better and stay a little longer!

Keeping things real by doing a little car seat switch up on the way home - this was probably around 1 a.m. That is one thing Sawyer and Jack are great at - whenever I have to wake them up (which I try to almost never do) they always seem to be extra happy and chipper. Now we just need to get them to be happy about going to bed!

Christmas was Merry & Bright

I'm dreadfully behind on blogging since the holidays and having so much fun with company in town. In an effort to catch up, I'm trying to post a bunch, but not in any particular order.

Christmas day was wonderful. It's so fun having children, especially during the holidays. George's brother, David and his wife Colleen, sent Sawyer and Jack a kid-friendly nativity scene the beginning of December. This was perfect because it gave us a whole month to play with it and teach Sawyer the story of why we celebrate Christmas. He definitely knows who baby Jesus is now.

Our tree had to be up on a table this year due to some little person's interest in the pretty lights and ornaments...Jack Jack!

I heard something early on Christmas morning (5 a.m.) and came out to the living room to see Sawyer riding his scooter around. You could say he was pretty thrilled with Christmas morning :)

Everyone got out of bed shortly thereafter and we had lots of oohs and ahhhs as everyone opened their presents. Santa was very generous this year, and so far almost all of the toys the boys received have been played with often - in my book that is a win.

I found a huge lot of hotwheels/matchbox cars on craigslist and then George built this track for the boys out of scrap wood. He painted it with chalkboard paint. A feature I love is the storage box underneath. The boys love it!

After the present party we ate banana waffles with sauces/syrups/toppings galore and fresh squeezed orange juice of course. After we had cleaned up breakfast I looked at the clock and it wasn't even 8 a.m., sheesh! That left a lot of time for us to be merry all day - much of which was spent outside in the sunshine. I'm sorry I didn't get around to mailing out cards this year, or even an email, but from our family to yours we hope you had a very Merry Christmas!