Where to begin? The beginning of December was filled with Eva on stage. She had her ballet recital, which is the first we have seen since we have been here in Mexico. She looked like a little angel. They did their own rendition of the nutcracker, that was nothing like the nutcracker, but the little girls were angels. They had the entire ballet classes from the university perform and every time the little girls hit the stage everyone was ahhing and oohing at them. They were priceless. The performance started at 7pm on a school night, and since our kids are in bed by 8, by the time the performance was over our angel turned into a little monster. No fun, but she managed to humor me and smile for the camera.
At school, they had their Christmas program. Their theme was an Arabian Christmas story. Everyone was quite confused when the costume list came out what they were going to be doing, but made sense once we watched it all. It was pretty cute. And like always we are impressed by Eva's little dancing skills. She doesn't like to share with us what she is going to be doing until the actual performance, which can be annoying, but it is a pleasant surprise when we see the real thing. Elijah was also a nice surprise. He sat through two, two hour performances two days in a row and he was GREAT.
Then on the 10th of December we made it to Oregon. It is always nice to be home. The iPad, made the flight a good experience. Okay, well not just the iPad, but it did help. My kids are getting really good at flying now. And since they are getting older, the tantrums seem minimal. In order to make the most of what we spent, we were there for a whole month. Even though we were literally, back and forth between Sisters and Hillsboro, it was nice. We were able to spend quality time with family and friends and get things we can't get here. I laughed when I saw that Matthew's carry on was filled with chocolate chips, chowmein noodles, and taco seasoning when it was time for him to go home.
So, here is a rundown of some events...
Our kids love "pap." Everytime my dad would come home from work, Elijah would run up to him and give him a huge hug. My mom would try to get the same affection from Elijah and he just wouldn't give it the same most of the time. Elijah would get up in the morning and always ask, "uhnta pap?" Meaning, where's pap. Too cute.
Okay, so when we got to Oregon, Matthew and I were having some serious contact issues. We had had eye infections and couldn't wear contacts. I think we spent the first half of our vacation in glasses. Man, seeing this picture with my mom makes me realize I am a spitting image of her. When did that happen? This series of pictures is when we dragged my mom, brother Ricky and Keri to the Grotto in Portland. When I was in high school I used to sing with the choir in the church that is there. And literally, as I am typing this, a friend of mine posted this on facebook. What are the odds.
It was cool to go and relive those moments. They had lights, music, a puppet show (that the kids really liked), and a petting zoo.
We made a trip, (two trips actually) to the Portland's Children Museum. The first time was with Matthew and the kids and the second was with my brother, Erik, after Matthew left for school. We took the Max and enjoyed hours of fun.
Elijah played with this contraption for a long time. He would stick the rubber ducky in the slots and make it move with the water.
This is the coolest thing I have seen. It is a rubber dirt pit. We loved the thing. Eva made a face. Do you see it?
I was a patient in the ambulance.
Eva's dressup with the lego exhibit. That dragon is made of legos. Pretty cool.
We were also lucky enough to use our new brother in laws' parents club house to have fun. It's called Brasada and the place was great. The kids had access to a nice kiddie pool. I would have hung out there more if I had the chance. We went a couple times, even when we didn't have John with us. In fact, the first time we went I ran into a glass wall. Who does that? So the second time we went, the guy who works there was like, " Hey, were you the one who ran into the wall?" I told him I was but was super embarrassed. Who wants to be known as that person?
Christmas came and went. We spent Christmas eve with my parents and Christmas day with Matthew's parents. This year Eva really wanted a minnie mouse. She went and visited Santa at the mall, and she told him she wanted that too. My parents got the kids a minnie and mickey on Christmas eve and Eva's face was priceless. I had to include this picture of Elijah because we couldn't get that hoodie through his huge noggin'.
Then, one of the main reasons why we came to Oregon, was Matthew's baby sister's Cathryn's wedding. Woah, that's a lot of contractions. Don't judge if I didn't get them right. They were married at the end of December. It was nice to have all of the family together. The kids have a blast with all of their cousins.
Elijah had a rough night. He had a major blow out. We literally had to hang out in the bathroom in socks only while Matthew went home to get me a new shirt for the kid. Then right when we were getting ready to leave, he decided to drink out of the SUPER hot, hot chocolate, burning his mouth and spilling it on his shirt. But, when he managed to be dressed he looked pretty good.
When we first got to Oregon we took a trip to Cannon Beach and spent a couple days there. At the end of the trip, after Matthew left, my parents and I went back to Cannon beach and in January saw this...
It was beautiful and warm. We were there for only a day and a half, but we were able to play at the beach and roast marshmallows. The kids discovered this time around sliding down the hill. We really didn't want to leave. It was actually warmer at the beach than at my parent's house.
Which brings another topic. The weather. It is amazing how quickly you forget what it is like to be cold when you are constantly in warm weather. I couldn't believe what a wimp I was. I had to go out and by me a sweatshirt because I couldn't handle being cold. I even had to make a hat for Elijah. For the first time ever he was telling me he was cold and wanted a jacket. Coming from a kid who is always sweating, it was kind of funny. Surprisingly, we didn't see much snow this time that we were there. It snowed one day in Sisters, but barely. It was somewhat disappointing because Eva was really looking forward to snow. Oh well.
Then of course. It was time to go home. The kids were great on the plane. We originally had a less than one hour layover in Arizona, which then turned into two. But it didn't even phase the kids. On the last flight, it was a small plane. Originally, I thought the kids could sit together on one half of the plane, while I was across the aisle, but about 30 minutes into the flight I realized it was a horrible idea. I talked Eva into sitting next to an old Mexican grandpa that was sitting next to me and then Elijah proceeded to cry and whine and eventually he took a nap. It was wonderful. He slept a little over an hour and even while the plane was landing the kid was totally asleep! I couldn't believe it. We got off the plane, met Matthew and now we are able to get back to our schedule. It is always awesome to be in Oregon, but there's nothing like sleeping in your own bed. And there you have it. In a nutshell, that was December to January.
