Mexico 2015

We went to Mexico for Will's mom's birthday. We rented a house on the beach with a small pool with Will's brothers and sisters. It was a fabulous trip! We mostly just hung out at the house, beach and pool and ate yummy food. Catherine seemed to like the ocean and since there were hardly any waves it was fine for her to sit in it. She also liked playing in the sand and pool. Elsie LOVED the pool! And kayaking and playing in the sand. We went on a tour one day to see some Mayan ruins. We went to Chichen Itza and Ek Balam where we got to climb to the top of a temple pyramid. It was cool. After the ruins we went to a cenote or underground pool and some from our group swam there. Will enjoyed trying to solve the Rubix Cube his brother brought and getting up before the sun rose every morning. We all got up early (except Elsie) and mostly went to bed earlier too. I enjoyed kayaking and watching the girls and walks on the beach. Will took me snorkeling once and we saw two sea turtles and a huge sting ray. That was the only swimming I did in the ocean and is was sort of terrifying breathing through a little tube! Will and Elsie got buried in the sand and Elsie got out twice before Will could free himself. The whole family all worked on a giant mermaid sand sculpture too. 

It was a great trip we ate vats of guacamole and lots of fish which was really yummy. We enjoyed the sun but used plenty of sunblock. Both plane rides went well and we came home to some cooler weather but we were thankful to have great weather in Mexico! Will is talking about where we will go next year already!

January 2015

January was a good month. Elsie and Catherine have been playing and having fun all the time. Big sissy just started to give little sis piggy back rides and they love to have dance parties too. Here are some cute photos from January. Not much happened this month just the usual school, work and hanging out. Accept at the end of the month we went to Mexico with Wills mom and siblings! That was fun but will have to be in another post.

The last few days of 2014

We had a fun few days during the rest of our vacation. Catherine learned how to climb on the rocking chair and then onto the changing table. That was fun. I finally sewed my memory quilt! I am so excited to get it back from my friend who is quilting it. Elsie used the fort kit she got from Christmas to make a fort which was also really fun! Then we played in the the snow. It has snowed on Christmas and a few days later when Elsie was feeing better we went out to play in it. Catherine loved it and Elsie had a good time sliding on the trash can lid (her old sled had broken last year and we had not gotten the new one yet). 

Over all I think 2014 was a good year! Will got a new job and loves it. We had a fun trip to Vermont, Boston and New York. And we grew together. The girls are amazing and as smart and beautiful as ever and Will and I are happy and healthy. Life is good.

Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma's house 2014

We did the usual thing after eating  breakfast and looking over our gifts. We packed up and headed out to see Will's dad and Mary. All of Will's siblings who were around came out too and we had a lovely dinner then sat down and opened presents. 

One thing that was fun was before getting up from dinner we all went around telling the best thing we ever gave for Christmas and the best thing we ever got for Christmas. I could not think of either for a little while. But then I realized the best thing I got was my fit bit from Elsie, Will and Catherine, which I got this year! Lots of people shared things from their childhood but I could not think of anything. The best thing I gave was making Elsie a tool box out of some 1/4 plywood wood to match the one Will's Granddad made for him as a kid. I have made lots of gifts with my art work and things I make for nieces and nephews but this one was great! 

Will's gift was the gift he gave this year to his dad. It was an old Montgomery Ward Catalog from 1931 (I think). It was old and it was the one Will's Granddad has a touching story about. As a boy Granddad found a silver dollar on the road home one night. He decided to buy all of his siblings a present from the catalog with the silver dollar. I believe they had been orphaned by then so they just took care of each other with one or two older siblings in charge. So you can imagine they had very little money and very few things. Will's dad liked the catalog a lot but Granddad could not put it down. He looked in it for an hour or more. He would exclaim every once in a while these are the first shorts we bought or the toy truck I wanted. He remembered all the things he gave to each sibling and found most of them. Later I told Will he should have given it to Granddad! 

It was a good Christmas despite Elsie feeling yucky still!

Christmas morning 2014

We had a good Christmas morning. Elsie was still sick and so we had to wake her up and carry her to the living room but she was pretty happy for feeling so yucky. We got lots of great stuff for each other. Flora came and then eventually Uncle Lucky (Levi) came, then Aunt Julia came after that. It was fun! One of the fun things we got where head lamps for our emergency kits and Will wanted our family photo to include them. We had a lovely breakfast then off we went to see Will's dad.