Kendall's first ocean day

it was frigid ... notice the cousins in swim wear!!!

pondering which stone to pick up and throw 

having a great time!

"See dis shell?"

loving the ocean!

Lego Land

After our Sea World adventure Keith and Alex sent Kelli and I out on a shopping spree as our Christmas gift. We hit up the (outdoor) outlet mall and scored some pretty great finds while it poured rain. Thanks boys, for the gift of shopping :) Bernie and Alli came along on our day to help us make some decisions and what was supposed to be a few hours literally turned into ALL DAY! Alli was a trooper, and even bought herself a few things. Oh and due to my growing belly I had to have Kelli model a few items that I wanted to buy. Thanks Kel!

Our next two days in San Diego were spent here at Legoland. It's amazing what has been created using legos and we enjoyed learning a bit about the history of legos. The older kids thought this was the highlight of the whole trip and were tall enough to do some fun roller coasters. Prego here and the little kids spent some extra time at the Duplo lego wall, checking out princess lego sets at the giftshops, and going to the Sealife exhibit a little early. 

lego wall

building and testing lego cars

going on rides

watching a 4D lego movie, we also got to see a little play called "Let it Snow" which Kendall really enjoyed.

Washington D.C. in Legos!

Super helpful cousins---Kendall is so blessed! 

San Francisco in Legos!

Catching a nap when she can (took some convincing to get her in the stroller though--we knew she's be out the second we started moving!). We were on our way to eat a late lunch out in the cars. It sure gets expensive to buy food in these parks so we got smart.

A lego elephant!

Fairytale brook

Duplo Village play area

More sharks at Sea Life

Viewing windows inside the fish tanks

Day 2 at the lego wall

Pretty cool play structure (mostly for bigger kids) but Kendall enjoyed the tunnels and even managed to get poop on her face! GROSS!!!!! Thank goodness for wet wipes and plenty of bathrooms everywhere you turn. In fact, one of Kendall's favorite parts of Legoland was that each bathroom had a mini sink that she could reach and wash her own hands in---sometimes she washed her hands about 3 times in one bathroom trip. It's the little things :)

Plenty of lego tables all over the park for sparking your imagination.

Somersaulting cats and swimming with dolphins

We had the opportunity to go on a trip to San Diego with Keith's family right after Christmas. Our first full day there we went to Sea World. I'd never been before, but I had high hopes because my MIL said that she remembered (from her childhood) Sea World being better that Disneyland! We weren't disappointed (although I can't claim it's better than Disney). We LOVED the warm sunshine best of all. 

Oooing and ahhhhing at the dolphin show! Which she later recounted having swam with (vivid imagination!).

It was quite impressive with all the jumping and carrying trainers across the water!

Re-enacting the dolphin show for us in the kiddy "tide pool" (she still demonstrates dolphin jumps for us in the living room).

Yikes! Sharks!

Loved the Polar Experience

Beluga Whales

polar bears

more polar bears

penguins

more penguins

The "pet show" was another big hit with Kendall. They really were incredibly talented, obedient, animals! Kendall's favorite part was the "somersaulting cats" but we apparently missed that part of the show! The cats did climb and jump and run on command and to us that is amazing---we can't  get our 2 cats to do anything we want, so we have a lot of work to do before they can join this team of pets.

I guess we hit SD during an unseasonably cold  week.
When the sun set it got COLD! Like, felt like Spokane cold (meanwhile, Spokane was in the 20's so I guess it wasn't too bad!).

Mimi and her grand kids

she crashed while zipped up in Daddy's sweatshirt.

The Star of the park: Shamu! They've had to really tone down what they expect of the whales, and the trainers no longer get in the water so it was mostly a lot of swimming around to Christmas music and a few cool spins up on the stage :) But it's still so impressive what large and graceful animals they are! It was a great way to end our fun day.

12 days of Christmas

We started Christmas festivities a bit early this year because we would be out of town for our entire Christmas break traveling to be with our families! Luckily Kendall has no concept of time so she didn't question Santa coming on Dec. 21st. We started the morning with our little family of 3. Kendall woke up before Keith was home from playing basketball so she discovered Santa had come before either of us got to see her reaction to the Minnie Mouse Vacuum he brought for her. She LOVES helping us vacuum even more now---they need to make toy vacuums that actually work, now that would be super helpful!

her stocking was full of books and  a few candy canes (her other big Christmas wish!).

Looks so much like her Daddy here!

From us she received a play tunnel and tent that has become her daycare center for all her babies.

And we also got her her first dress up dress---which she puts on daily and using a magic wand "zaps" spells on us. Usually we become cats.

Then we cruised on down to the Rettele's for an early Christmas brunch and gift exchange.  Marissa made the most delicious "healthy" cinnamon rolls!!!

Out of all her gifts this day the Dora sippy cup won the top prize! It's the little things in life.

Later that day I met up with Bernie, Joanna, Kelli, and Alli to get pedicures before we headed to Bernie's for an early Christmas dinner and gift exchange. 

The next morning we hopped on a plane to see Grandma and Papa Williams. 

Once there we exchanged gifts yet again---Kendall started to get really good at opening presents and going around thanking everyone. 

Best gift of the day was this super hero cape Grandma sewed. 

After running a few laps to test it out she was sulking on the steps. We asked what was the matter and in the saddest little voice she says "it not working, when it going to fly?" I had not expected this to be her reaction, and I almost started to cry for her! I didn't realize she'd made that connection from watching Super Why that when you put your cape on you fly into a book. Poor thing! But we got to talk about pretending and imagination. She was satisfied, and hardly took the cape off.  

Loves for Papa John

Keith working on his new Rubics cube, Kendall enjoying her nightly hot cocoa , watching  Gold Rush with Papa.

Candy cane cookies

Christmas Eve at my Dad's church

Cheese!

On Christmas Day we hopped on our next plane to Oakland to visit Great Grandpa Dave.

She preferred to push than ride the stroller! Hopefully by the time she's 16 her driving skills will improve! This flight was the only one Kendall has a hard time on. Her ears plugged up (but we don't think in a painful way, just felt weird to her) and she was yelling, and later crying "I can't hear you! I can't hear you!!!" It was pathetically adorable.

Giving her handprint snowman ornament to Great Grandpa and explaining to him how she made it.

"Oh, more presents you say? I got this thing down!"

She even began helping others open their gifts!

She is a little flirt with Great Grandpa! We figured out this is the 9th time these two have spent time together! I feel pretty blessed that she's been able to get to know her 99 year old Great Grandpa!

4 generations

One last flight heading further from home...San Diego! For a timeshare trip with Keith's family (which will need it's own post!). 12 days of fun holiday adventures!