New Years Eve

New Years Eve was on a Sunday this year and we started the day by attending church with one of the Wards in Lincoln City. Kefford and I along with Kenedy and Ryker stayed through Sunday School with Bob. Avynlea and Rylee left after sacrament meeting with Alison. We went home after Sunday school to rest, relax and enjoy more family time.

Charlotte got super cuddly with me at one point and wanted our picture taken together. We got quite a few and I even let her play with my phone for a bit and take her own pictures. Most of them were deleted but I kept a few that were cute. Charlotte spent the entire week with her long hair down and hanging in her face so I took the opportunity while she was content on my lap to put some braids in her hair. She is such a cute girl and it was fun to spend some one on one time with her.

The best part of our week in Oregon was all of the family time we had. Rylee loved having so much time to spend with Brielle and Qiana. They had wanted to sleep in the same room which was fine with all of us  adults but for a couple of nights Rylee realized she needed a break and some time to herself so she slept in the room with Kefford and I. 

Kinsleys belly cracked me up, I wish I could look as cute as she is with that belly!

Ryker had a lot of the littles wanting to be with him this week. he is such  good older cousin. And of course more pictures with Avy and her little friends. She also enjoyed spending time with Trevor, she thinks he is funny and enjoys hanging out with him.

I did not see much of Ryker this trip. He was usually downstairs with Bailey playing video games and I love that these older boys are so kind to let Asher hang out with them. He really loves his older boy cousins and they love him.

I brought up CodeNames and Exploding Kittens to play with the family and they were a hit! A lot of time was spent playing these games and it was a fun way to pass the time and bond with our family. 

Some of the family who hadn't been to the tide pools yet took the time Sunday evening to go explore them. Kefford and Ryker were going so Kenedy, Avynlea and I went along as well. 

The colors of the sunset this night were pinks, purples and blues and it was just as beautiful as the last night we were at the tide pools! The only strange thing about this beach was it lacked the salty smell and feel in the air that I am used to having at California Beaches. I wonder if all of the rainfall is the reason for that but it was really strange not to have those sensations that I am used to and that I love.

When we got back the grandkids 11 and under got to play the Saran Wrap game. Rylee got a couple of dollars along with some other random little trinkets and she had fun and enjoyed watching and helping.

I was impressed with her wanting to help the little ones so that they could get as much stuff as they could before the die hit their number to stop. I was sitting on the bed behind Sadie while they were playing and when I saw that Sadie was struggling with getting anything I leaned down and gave her a hand by pulling on the Saran Wrap for her. She was able to get some fun things but was really thrilled with the pack of bracelets she received. It was fun watching these kids play and to see how excited they were with all that they got. 

Later everyone 12 and up got to play our own Saran Wrap game and our family really lucked out. Kefford got two gift cards, Ryker got 3, I got 1 and Kenedy got the 20 dollar bill. We also got some fun random stuff mixed in with all of that and all of it is useful things we will use. Fun and lucky times and definitely the highlight of this day!

Madi got a mud mask packet and really wanted to put it on that night. With Whitney's permission I put it on her and then once other kids saw what was happening Madi was sweet enough to let me use her packet to put the mask on all the kids who wanted it. They were all so excited and it was cute to see these little green faced kids running around.

We stayed up playing more rounds of codenames and Exploding Kittens but by about 11:00 I was ready to call it a night. Staying up till Midnight is not thrilling to me anymore and I would rather be in bed sleeping. 

Happy New Year!

Fishing

On Friday we found out Uncle Mark and Uncle Larry were involved in an accident while driving around the sand dunes. Mark was fine but Larry had to go to the hospital and I think he had a broken rib and something happened to his neck, nothing too major though. They were only a couple of hours away so Bob took Kefford, Ryker and Steve with him to go check on him but also to have Mark take them fishing. They had a good time and Ryker enjoyed being able to spend more time with his Dad, Uncle Mark and Grandpa.

Beach time and Tidepools

Saturday the rain disappeared, the Sun came out and it was a beautiful day! I walked down to the beach with Avynlea where we got to play and visit with Aunts and Cousins! Avynlea had so much fun this trip being with her little cousins. I think it was rare that I saw her without one of the littles with her, she had fun being Sadie's little buddy for a little bit on the beach.

She also was good to Caleb and carried/followed him wherever he wanted to go. She is such a sweet older Cousin. 

Later that evening Avy, Rylee, Kenedy and I went to go explore the tide pools with some of the family. Jeremy and Gwen had taken Kenedy and Mikayla the day before to try to see the tide pools but all that they saw was rain. Kenedy said it was pouring down rain the entire time they were looking and she was cold, wet and miserable and did not have a good time.  I am glad that she was willing to try it again with us, it was definitely better weather!

We saw starfish and so many anemones, from teeny tiny to ones the size of my hand. I was loving climbing the rocks and exploring and finding all the sea life. 

I found a little black creature, not sure what it was, and when I went to touch it it moved and made me scream and jump. I was really curious about it so I picked it up with some sand and tried to get a closer look. Sill couldn't figure it out because I was afraid to get too close so I had Brit take some pictures and then I put it back and moved on.

  I didn't see much of Rylee while at the tide pools since she and Brielle were off exploring on the other side. But I know Rylee and Brielle had fun climbing on the rocks and exploring as well. I am glad Brit managed to snap this picture of them.

Avynlea found a lot of Hermit crabs and wanted to take them all home. I told her she could hold them for a little bit but that she had to leave them at the beach. I know she was hoping some of the shells were empty but we quickly figured out they were not. 

Before leaving Brit and I had the kids who were with us gather together for a picture. They are a cute bunch of kids!

Asher, Qiana, Xander, Kennedy, Tayvia, Brooke, Jenna, Avynlea, Brielle, Hazel, Rylee and James

At one point Brooke had to go to the bathroom but Mikell had her hands full with the other kids and couldn't help her. I could see she had to go really bad so I told her I would help her and I took her to a hidden spot and held her hands while she went pee. Pretty sure we bonded during that moment :)

 Because we went to the tide pools in the evening wee able to see a beautiful sunset. Oh the colors were breathtaking and it was so neat to walk on the beach watching the sky fill with color as the sun went down. Definitely seeing the tidepools was the highlight of this day for me. It was exciting and fun to explore what they had to offer. I loved every minute of it!

Aquarium and Glass Blowing

On Wednesday we drove to the Oregon Coast to spend a week in Lincoln City with Kefford's family. 

On Thursday I walked with Rylee down to the beach and it was pretty cold, I am not afraid to say that we didn't last long down there that day. It was cold, windy, rainy and the sun was hidden behind some clouds, definitely not ideal beach weather. On our way down the path to get to the sand Rylee slipped  and fell in some mud and had to go back to change. Brit came down with Brielle, Qiana and Isabelle and those girls collected shells while I waited for Rylee to get back. She was not in the shell collecting mood when she got back but we hung around for a little bit before finally calling it done and heading back to the warm house.

On Friday we went to the Aquarium. When we arrived we saw that they were getting ready to feed the Seals and Sea Lions so we hurried outside to be able to watch. 

 After the feeding we went over to watch the puffins swimming around their sanctuary. We watched one of them climb up the rock and with a lot of encouragement from us he jumped into the water! They were really cute and fun to watch.

 It was a rainy day and since I was the only one who brought an umbrella I ended up with many friends crowding in with me. I didn't mind, I was just glad that I had some protection from the rain. It wasn't too bad at the start of being outside but by the time we were done seeing the puffins it was really starting to come down hard so we all hurried inside to see the rest of the sea life.

We had fun touching the starfish, sea urchins and anemones in the touching pool. The water was freezing cold which made it a little uncomfortable but it was pretty cool none the less.

Brit took some pictures of Avynlea looking at some fish with her Dad, Kelsey and Hazel.

 We tried to get all the grandkids gathered by a replica of a ship wreck for a picture but that was, of course, pretty difficult.  

I saw Kenedy holding Sadie and Sadie was looking pretty pleasant so I told them to look at the camera for a picture and she must not have liked that because the pleasant look disappeared. She is still cute though. There was a bubble the kids could go up in to look closer at the fish and Sadie was being really hesitant about it so Avynlea went in to show her it was fun. She finally went in also and they both enjoyed the view.

 And I got a picture of Rylee with this big Starfish.

As we were leaving I had the kids pose for a picture inside the shark mouth. I liked Ryker's expression in the second picture as he watched his Dad put a stuffed bird into the picture.

It was nice to get back to the house and relax a bit, it rained all day so beach time without getting soaked for most of us was out of the question. Avynlea did go down with Mikayla at some point and stopped long enough for a picture.

Later in the day Kefford and I took Avynlea, Ryker and Kenedy along with Jeremy, Gwen, and their kids to the glass blowing shop. They didn't have tours but we could go and watch them do the glass blowing. People can sign up and pay money to do their own glass blowing with a lot of assisted help of course. It looked so cool and I would have loved to have done it but it was really expensive. Maybe some day we can do that but for now it was really cool just to watch the process. 

One of the guys sat on the side and told us what was going on as they were doing it which was nice. Another guy put some hot glass on the end of his tube and blew it like a bubble until it fell off and broke just to show us how thin they can blow the glass. I really enjoyed being a the Aquarium but watching the glass blowing was the highlight of that day!

Pillow Case

Kefford really wanted Avynlea to have a pillow case for her body pillow because it is an all while pillow and he knew it would get dirty quick. I was busy getting bills done on the computer and entering receipts and did not have time to help her plan out a pillow case so Kefford stepped up and said he would. I was skeptical but let him go for it. Avynlea picked out some material I had from my stash and Kefford measured and designed a pillow case and showed her where to cut and how to cut. I was pretty impressed with what he did. He couldn't help her with the sewing and since she has experience with using my machine I just showed her where to pin and all she had to do was sew some straight lines, easy peasy and it turned out really cute!

Meanwhile, we have noticed Ryker getting a little scraggly on his chin, not too crazy but enough that we wanted him to do something about it before it got really gross. Kefford got out his old Razor and gave it to Ryker so he could join the shaving club. Ryker did a good job and his face looks nice ad smooth again.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning I woke up around 6:30ish and after marveling at how quiet it still was went into the kitchen to put together a breakfast casserole for our Christmas Breakfast. We had decided the night before that when the kids woke up they could come downstairs to our room with their stockings. It is tradition for their stockings to be left on their beds and then they bring them into our room for the opening. Last year we didn't know how to avoid the kids looking at the tree with all their gifts before it was time, another fun tradition, so we opened stockings together upstairs. The kids did not like that and wanted to go back to our bedroom tradition so they decided they would not look at the tree on their way down to our room. At about 7:00 the kids started to appear and we all went into my room for the stockings opening.

After the stockings were opened the kids had to brush their hair, put on makeup if need be, tidy themselves up but they could stay in their pajamas before coming out to look at the tree. It was pretty humorous watching them go back upstairs while trying to avoid looking at the tree.

Ryker and Rylee were the only reactions I was able to get of the first look at the presents and even their reactions were pretty staged for the camera. 

Ryker got a present from his friend Ady Klemme and she wrapped it in a lot of layers of paper and tape. She wrote a note that said he had to open it with only his hands and without getting frustrated or angry and I thought that was funny, she knows Ryker really well. He struggled with the gift for about 10 minutes before giving up and moving on to his other presents. He came back to it much later and was finally able to open it to find a box of fruit snacks which was an inside joke between the two of them.

We all had fun opening our gifts and the kids are always great at being grateful for what they receive even if its not exactly what they were hoping for. Kenedy got a Northface jacket, VS underwear, movies and a battery phone charger. Ryker got a game for his DS, a drone, a hat and a phone case. Avynlea got two pairs of converse, a body pillow, a hat and dress and a portable DVD player. Rylee got a dress and slippers, a 2DS and a game for her DS.

Kefford got an automatic screwdriver from Kenedy, a two pound bag of Pez candy from Avy, a new shirt from Rylee and a ladder from Ryker. 

I got new boots from Avy, a plaid shirt from Rylee, a cast-iron pan from Ryker and two new winter shirts from Kenedy. Kefford also surprised me with a gift card to Bed, Bath and Beyond so that I could buy the new bedding I have been wanting!

The family also got a couple of new movies and a new game "Codenames". We played it this summer at the beach and also over thanksgiving at Emily and loved it so I bought one for us to have.

We did secret person gifts from my family after we opened all of the presents from "Santa". Ryker got a lock picking kit and gaming dice from Amos. Kenedy got a Slytherin Locket and a Marauders Map Umbrella from Jaylynn, Avynlea got a Harry Potter Hat and shirt along with a South Carlsbad Beach patch from Uncle Jeremy and Kefford got a really cool Nike Jacket from Mallory. She also let him know that her sister works at Nike now and can get them 40% off anything. He was super excited about his gift and the 40% off. Rylee and I didn't get to open our SP presents on Christmas Day because they hadn't arrived yet. They came the day after which was a fun extension of gift opening and Rylee got colored pencils and a pad of Art paper from Alyssa while I got a pretty purple necklace and a Marshmallow fireside scented candle from Bath and Body Works from Dillon. We all loved our gifts and love this Secret Person gift giving tradition that has been taking place in our family since I was a little kid. 

I called my Mom a little while later and she hadn't opened my gift to her yet so I had her open it while we were on the phone. She got two new tablecloths from me, one with a winter theme and the other had bright colored flowers on it. She claimed to have loved them and I told her she had to use the Winter one for Christmas dinner and to send me a picture of it. She also sent a picture of Alec with his SP gift from Kefford, a cozy blanket and JayLynns SP gift from Ryker, a new outfit :). Avy had Amos and gave him two fleece onesie outfits, Rylee had Dillon and gave him a Yoda shirt. I had Big Jeremy and I gave him cedar grilling planks and Kenedy had Ben and she gave him a nerf gun with an extra pack of darts.

After the gift opening we headed out to Nyssa to spend time with Keffords family. Not everyone was their since we were all going to be together at the coast in a few days but it was fun visiting with the ones who were around. I made Alison a book of pictures from our Summer trip to the Redwoods and she was surprised and really liked it.