San Diego Zoo

It's tradition for us to go somewhere on vacation for a few days after Christmas with my parents. That seems to have been scaled back the last few years but we did manage to get to the San Diego Zoo just after the New Year. It was a cool day but we didn't get any rain so we were satisfied.
The girls love going places with their grandparents because the usual "no" that they hear following the question "can we have (insert your favorite junk food here)?" is replaced by "Sure you can!" They loved their cotton candy.

We did see the pandas. One was too busy eating to give us a good picture, but this one seemed to be lounging for the benefit of the photographers.

The children's zoo was a lot of fun too. The girls got to pet some goats and see some smaller animals close up. Here are my little hams - the happy spider and the scared fly.

Princess Hops-a-Lot

AKA Princess Poops-a-lot! For a few days it looked like we had a new pet rabbit. The neighbor girls came over one morning and asked if we had seen this rabbit before. Nope, not us. But we did have a small pet cage (for Emily's future guinnea pig) so we put up signs and waited for an anxious owner to show up. It took almost a week, but Princess was finally reunited with her owner. In the meantime, the girls and the neighbors had a great time playing with, holding and spoiling (with many, many carrot snacks) a very friendly rabbit.

Merry Christmas!

No Christmas season would be complete without a trip to see the big man himself. Emily asked for an MP3 player and Claire wanted a toy box with her name on it.

We spent Christmas Eve in Thousand Oaks with Jenn's side of the family. The girls got new PJs and lots of time with Grandma Holly and their cousin.
We drove home late Christmas Eve so we could be home for Christmas morning. For once, Emily was up bright and early and Claire slept in. We waited and waited for Claire (there didn't seem to be a good reason to make a grumpy Claire later in the day) but finally around 8:30 Sleeping Beauty woke up. Around 8:31 this picture was taken:

And by 9:00 this one:

The girls had a blast tearing into everything. We spent the rest of the day checking everything out. Daddy used his birthday present and deep fried a turkey for our dinner.

Ice Skating

At a mall near Grandma Holly and Papa Rich's house, they make a (very) small skating rink. We've made it a tradition for the last few years to get over there during the holidays. Claire is a little unsteady on her feet still but she loves holding hands and giving it her all. Emily is good at staying on her feet all by herself, but she just loves to have company and hold hands anyway.

Christmas came early this year!

Christmas came a little early for the girls this year. Mommy and Daddy decided to upgrade the backyard swing set. We found a really nice one on eBay and won the auction! Thanks to both sets of grandparents for actually buying it!!! Daddy and Papa John took an entire day dismantling it from its former home. Papa John spent a week sanding and painting it until it looked new again. Today they reassembled it in our back yard! It didn't take long for the girls and their friend next door to move in to the clubhouse. I see lots of picnics under the clubhouse this spring!

Thanks Grandma and Papa!

Happy Birthday John!

John celebrated a big birthday this year. Let's just say it rhymes with "shorty". =P We had a nice party with family. He got a turkey frier and an 18 year old bottle of wiskey. Sounds like a dangerous combination!

Happy Thanksgiving

Claire had fun getting ready for Thanksgiving at pre-school. First they learned about the Indians and had a pow-wow where they dressed up, ate Indian food and danced.
Then they learned about the Pilgrims and had a Thanksgiving feast. Claire did a prayer for our family where she was thankful for "houses, horses and family". Later we learned that we cut her off before she could give thanks for pigs.

That turkey sure takes a long time to cook! The girls and their cousin passed the time playing and watching a DVD on the smallest screen in the house.

But the wait was worth it! Gotta love those turkey legs!

Being turkeys with Aunt Kim: