Christmas 2013 in Spokane

I've really been off the blogger bandwagon lately... 

But, I'm going through photos in preparation for our 2013 Year in Review book, so I may have a few things to share coming up!  In the meantime, a recap post about our Christmas in Spokane!  (This is less of a blog post and more of a photos-with-captions post.)

The journey to the airport was quite long.  Not pictured was our 3am alarm, 3:30am taxi and then at the end a layover in Seattle before the second flight to Spokane.

T did surprisingly well on this journey.  

The Whitehead Christmas Pinata was a favorite.  T and Scott both got really into it :)

We also did candy sleigh races!  There are two categories, speed and beauty.  Two years ago I won for speed, and this year I got third for beauty, and Scott placed first for his sleigh named "Mele Kalikimaka" for our Hawaiian judge.  :)

The little cutie.  She was such a fun age for Christmas this year.  Still thrilled with the opening process, but definitely excited about the actual gifts now too!

My best photo bomb :)

These girls are no longer "frienemies!"  They actually had a lot of fun together and we rarely had to break up fights.  I think these two will be best cousin friends after all!

We had the Hawaiian neighbors for Christmas dinner, and they brought with them about 7 extra ukuleles!  Lucky us!  We all learned the chords for Mele Kalikimaka, and we already knew the lyrics, so we were jamming in no time!  

And we played minute to win it.  Noelle is SERIOUS.  She plays to win!

 T has always loved dogs.  I was sure Cosmo would be too big and intimidating, but if he ever got in her face too much, she would just put her had straight out at him and say "no no no no no!"  shaking her hand in his face all the while.  She let Cosmo lick her face (yuck!) and followed him around.

 And... the nativity.  Presenting the "Shepherd in distress"  Although she was THRILLED at the idea of TWO lambies!!

 Anything Elmo was the bees knees this year.  Im actually quite excited about the sandwich holder Santa brought for all our days we pack a lunch into the city!

 Christmas morning was pretty incredible... no snow, but would you look at that ice?!?

 Walks around the neighborhood with Grampy.  We didn't take that neighborhood for granted.  Our neighborhood isn't quite so... family friendly :)

 Spokane is a really great city with lots of cool things to offer!  This day out to Riverbank Park (Is that the name Heather??) was one of our highlights!

The girl is always thrilled to see a "DUCK!"

 Even though T was with her cousins in July, I feel like she really got to know them over this trip.  She is more interactive and I think the other kids responded to that.  She started talking more and is better at interacting since the trip.  Yay!

 The eagles in Coeur D'Alene!  We only saw a handful because we went in the afternoon, but it was still worth the visit!

 And then we sent our child out to walk on a frozen lake :)  ha.  People were playing broom hockey out there and we had fun sliding around and pretending to skate!

For Noelle's Chocolate themed birthday party we did pudding paintings of famous artwork.  Anybody know (From left to right) The Scream, The Wave, or The Girl with the Pearl Earring?

The walnut game was a huge hit!  Someone must have taught our child how to use a hammer because she needed no help.  She smashed them open her first try, with a firm grip and hard whack.  Such a natural :)

 Another Spokane attraction:

 And finally, we totally scored with a neighbor (That same Hawaiian neighbor) leaving out of town and bringing us all her produce so it wouldn't go bad.  That "produce" consisted of all these delectable fruits.  I'd say we put it to good use!

Thanks a million to Rick and Heather for taking us on and planning party after party to make our time so fun.  I'd say we all aspire to be as cool as you!