California Christmas

I guess it's about time I post some pictures from our trip West. We've been back for about three weeks and I finally feel settled in and have some extra time to blog. We had a nice long visit with both of our families over the holidays. The boys and I were in California for two weeks and Brandon joined us the second week after he took his finals. We had a great Christmas with my family and also got to enjoy some warm weather, something I always look forward to in December :-)

I was pretty bummed to realize that my Disneyland pass expired the day before I got to California. But the boys were still free since they were under three so my Mom took them to Disneyland for the day by herself and they had lots of fun!

We cut their hair later in the week, but seeing these pictures makes me regret it! I love their long curly hair!

I picked them up around 7 pm and this is what I found waiting for me. They were pooped!

My Dad treated us to frozen yogurt a couple times, Jack and Cullen LOVED getting to pick out their own toppings. They liked the gummy bears (or "vitamins" as they called them), chocolate chips, M&M's and sprinkles.

Brandon and I got to go on a fun date in California. My Mom gave us a restaurant Groupon for Christmas and after dinner we went skating. I had planned on taking Brandon ice skating but when we got to the rink, we found out it was actually a roller skating rink, but we ended up having a blast! I think Brandon and I were the only newbies there, everybody else looked like they'd been skating for years and there were tons of roller derby girls there. Some of the people were literally dancing on the rink! Within a few minutes, Brandon got into his groove and was skating laps around me- I was by far the worst person there! But by the end of the night I was skating pretty quick and I never fell down, so I considered it a success. And we had so much fun! It was a great date!

Another highlight of our trip was getting to spend so much time with Violet. She is the funniest little girl and I just love playing with her! Here she is stuffing her face with popcorn. She took the bowl, ran across the room so she wouldn't have to share and sat down to eat it by herself!

Cousins in pajamas!

Cullen and I came down with a stomach bug a few days after we got there. I haven't been that sick in a long time, and poor Cullen threw up 9 times in one night. Thankfully we were at my Mom's and she and my sisters took care of us. We spent 48 hours just snuggling on the couch watching movies.

Another cute picture of Vi

Juli flew down for a day just before Christmas, it was great to see her! We all went for a walk on the beach and it was so windy it nearly blew Jack and Cullen over!

Baking

Climbing trees

Jack and Cullen helped make tamales this year. Jack's main contribution was to lick all of the olives before he placed them in the tamales.

We celebrated Christmas with my Dad on Christmas Eve, he got these Mexican wrestling costumes for the boys. Everybody thought they were hilarious!

After opening presents, we all went bowling. It was Jack and Cullen's first time and they loved it! When they saw these pictures they asked if we can go "rolling" again.

After his turn, Jack would get so excited he'd run back and start break dancing!

Another funny picture of Violet :-)

Jack trying on Violet's headband

For some reason, my Mom bought Jon some swim trunks... from the Big & Tall store... in size 2XL. We all laughed so hard we cried!

Then we went outside for some family photos. This is a beautiful Mommy/daughter shot

All of us with Grandma

Whew, I'm halfway done! Next up, our pictures from Idaho!