Great Wolf Lodge

We treated ourselves this Christmas vacation with a trip to Great Wolf Lodge. We stayed with the Paul and Stephenson families two-days, one-night in some very nice accomodations. As soon as we got there, we put on our swimsuits and headed to the swim park. Mommy put Jillian's hair into a high ponytail which helped her get the extra inch in height so she could wear a green wrist band, meaning she could go on all the slides. Turns out, that worked out great, because Jillian was an adrenaline-junkie and couldn't get enough of the biggest, scariest slides, especially the Howling Tornado. Daddy rode that once and that was enough, so she had to continuously coax Mckenna, Lindsey, Mommy, Dany or Cindy into taking her. Jillian's first day ended a little early as she had an allergic reaction, broke out in a rash, hurled, then spent the rest of the evening in bed. Bridget and Tor, meanwhile, spent the bulk of their time in the little kid wading pool, either playing on the pretend-jet skis or going down the short slide. They made the occasional trip to the wave pool, but preferred the shallow water. Tor ended up nodding off and going to bed at 7:00 pm, so Mommy and Daddy took the girls to the ice cream shop and arcade for some late night fun.

We all slept in late the next day, not getting back in the pool until 10:00 am. Jillian was right back to the big slides with whoever would go with her, while Bridget and Tor played in the kid swim park. We had a short lunch, then went back for some more water fun before leaving at about 3:00 pm. All of the kids fell asleep on the way home.

Christmas Day

Busy, busy day! We woke up the kids at 7:30 am, which was tough because they were worn out from the night before. Tor was still running  fever so he was a bump on a log all morning. The girls were excited to see that the cookies and carrots had been eaten and the chocolate milk had been slurped, and also that the stockings had been filled. The big moment was when they opened their Santa presents to find the Legos that they had always wanted (somehow, Santa knew what they wanted ;) ...) Then, we we went to Scott and Cindy's house to have breakfast and open presents with Jason, Dany, McKenna and Lindsey. Tor was beginning to perk up a bit, especially after opening the dump truck full of jumbo Legos. After lots of present opening, we took off for Grannie and Papa's house where the Johnson and Uhlenkott clans were waiting. Jillian and Bridget distributed the gifts, and then joined Tor in opening their huge mountain of presents. There were lots of cool toys and such, which kept the kids busy for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Christmas Eve

Once it got to 5:00 pm, the excitement level went off the charts. Cousins Adam, Meagan, Andy and Karlie showed up, and except for a brief timeout to eat dinner, it was off to the races. The kids ran around while Papa Ken, Bev, Aunties Greta and Sheryl and Cousin Lee relaxed. At 7:00 pm, everyone headed to the Christmas Eve service at Grace. The kids did pretty good, and they enjoyed the candle lighting. Afterwords, we went back and it was time for present opening. In between wrapping paper flying everywhere, we managed to catch a glimpse of what the kids opened. It didn't take too long, and once all the presents were opened, those exhausted kids played for just a bit longer before heading to bedtime.

Crafty Girls

Jillian was looking in the craft closet so I asked her what she was doing.  She said she wanted to make and design her own craft (not one I thought of) on her own.  I told her to tell me what she needed and she proceeded to build this manger scene, including the shepherds, animals and baby Jesus.  Bridget wanted to do one too, so Tierney helped her make a smaller one like Jillian's scene.  They both worked very hard on their projects and they turned out very nice.

Nutcracker Ballet

We made our annual trip to Portland to watch the Nutcracker Ballet. Jillian and Bridget got to go, while Tor stayed with Papa Ken and Bev. The girls did very well throughout the show, though both got pretty tired towards the end and wanted to sit on our laps. Here's a photo of both of them posing in front of the orchestra.

Swanson's Nursery

We made our annual trip to Seattle to visit Heather's friends from college. We met at Nikki and John's house to eat dinner with Laura and Elizabeth. The kids had a great time playing with the dogs Fender and Sadie, and then playing on John's drumset downstairs. It was a late night, and we headed for Auntie Sheryl's house to stay the night. The girls were so excited to sleep in cousin Karlee's room.

In the morning, we headed to Swanson's Nursery with Laura to see the reindeer and camel. We were even able to get some family photos taken for our Christmas card this year. Tor loved watching the camel and wasn't afraid of it at all.

The Polar Express

 Everyone was dressed warmly for the trip to the North Pole.  The kids were looking forward to the trip for a long time.

 They were excited to get on the old-fashioned steam train.

 Once on the train,
the girls checked out their tickets and Tor was all smiles.  After the train blew it's whistle, they were served hot chocolate and cookies.  Tor was glued to the window watching until it got dark.  All the children gathered together for the reading of The Polar Express. The train reached the North Pole where the elves were working and Santa boarded the train.  Then Santa came through the rail cars and gave each child a bell engraved with The Polar Express 2014.  That was pretty special.  Everyone sang Christmas carols on the way back to the station with some tired kids.

 

On the train Tor wasn't at all afraid of Santa and gave Santa a high-five.  At the station we decided on a picture with Santa and Tor was okay until he was put on Santa's lap and he wasn't quite sure about that but didn't cry and got very serious.