Christmas morning always begins with breakfast with Grammy and Uncle Caleb. Then we read the Christmas story and open presents as a family. It's a rush of excitement and questions and who's turn is it? Everyone is excited to give and to receive and to open and to see all the things they've been patiently and anxiously awaiting. I especially love the excitement of the littles and have been soaking in these last years with toddlers.
By 11:00 presents are opened and I'm enjoying my 2nd cup of coffee before we divide and conquer all the toys that need to be set up/assembled. I always seem to forget how time consuming this can be.
3:30 and Maddie is ready to roll to Grammy's house.
Daddy and Baby Ellie Jo
The Christmas Story with Grammy
Mr. Mason
Now that's a Cousin Crew!
Mason, Adelina, Sadie, Ellie Jo, Payton, Wyatt, Cooper
Andy, Ollie, Carter, Hazel, Autumn, Lillie, Evie
Harper, Hadley, Aubrey, Maddie, and Tommy
And in case your wondering this is what it looks like to get everyone to take a photo. :)
The Moss Squad just keeps growing!
This day is always one of the fullest, craziest, most fun filled, and exhausting days of the year!
We wouldn't trade it for the world but we're also very ready to find our beds.
We worked hard this summer on the house and so when we started looking for places to go for our anniversary I had idea to take the kids somewhere over Christmas break and Brandon said to go for it. Brandon actually took 3 weeks off for Christmas this year and we started it all off with this trip to the coast. We left on Sunday after church which was not our best choice, but aside from the craziness of getting everyone fed after church and then packed up and out the door it was a great trip. So good to be away from our normal routine and the pressures of work and the house and school to just have a few days to play together. It really was great!
DAY 1
Hazel is the lucky duck who gets to ride in the front between Mommy and Daddy
We sent May to the kennel down the road but we let Sadie take Cori with us. Silly Girl! Silly Bird!
The house we stayed in was named Wave Haven and it was great. We could see the ocean which I loved and it had plenty of space to spread out, not to mention lots and lots of games and a hot tub.
Upstairs Family Room
Master Bedroom
Aubrey and Maddie's Room
Downstairs Family Room
Bunk Room - Sadie, Wyatt, Cooper, Hazel, and Evie
Garage Game Room
Evie got right to work on a puzzle
So did Sadie while the boys went right to Buck Hunt
Dinner Night #1
DAY 2
Breakfast: Sugar with French Toast :)
Tide Pools: We came down here 2 summers ago and the kids enjoyed checking out the tide pools. There wasn't much to see this time of year but we still gave it a shot.
Daddy and Maddie
Sadie, Me, and Aubrey
Evie and Hazel
Hot Tub: The kids always love the hot tub. Maddie was very unsure about it all. More and more she's turning out to be the more cautious of the two girls. She wanted so badly to go in, definitely didn't want to miss out, but she just wasn't quite sure about the temperature of the water or the bubbles. The others tried and tried to coax her in and by the end she was in her bathing suit but she just couldn't quite do it. I feel for her. I think she's a lot like me in this way.
So we snuggled and stayed warm while they played. Maybe next time.
Aubrey on the other hand is wild!!!
Sadie finished her 1st puzzle.
Arcade games are a hit.
The rolling unicorn is Maddie's FAVORITE part of this vacation.
DAY 3
I bought these little knock of Lego things as stocking stuffers and had no idea how tiny or difficult to build they would be. About 5 minutes in I was thinking it was a total loss. Everyone was a little frustrated and I didn't think we were going get any of them built. I was ready to tell everyone to throw them away but they stuck with it and they turned out pretty cute. Wyatt built them for both Maddie and Aubrey which was sweet.
We finished another puzzle
We had a little foosball/air hockey tournament.
In the afternoon we went to the park at Devil's Lake. This is the point at which the trip started to fall apart. We parked and the kids hopped out and before we could even make it up to the park Sadie was running back towards us saying Wyatt had fallen hard. He was swinging between two bars, lost his balance and hit his chin and throat against the bar. He was done, ended up sitting in the car the rest of the time and we stopped for an ice pack on our way home as he was already bruising pretty good. I was getting kind of worried as he would barely even speak until we pulled into the driveway and they started arguing about the name of the house and he couldn't resist joining in. Really thankful he was okay.
There was a rock snake in front of the house that I wanted to check out so we went out to look at it after we got home. There were some really beautiful rocks and a little sign asking guests to add their own rocks so although were not that artistic we ran up to Joanne's for some brushes and gave it a shot.
These are some of the rocks other guests painted.
Cooper is such a good big brother playing with his little sisters.
We got in the hot tub with the kids on the last night.
The night ended with Maddie falling down the stairs on the ride on unicorn. We'd been watching them race by the stairs for days and this time they weren't even running, Maddie just kept backing up and Aubrey would laugh and then she backed right down that long flight of stairs. We about lost our minds. Thankfully she scuffed up her shin but that was the extent of her injuries. She was scared but mostly just afraid of loosing her unicorn. Crazy kids. I swear they will be the end of us. So so so thankful she was okay.
DAY 4
Time to head home. It was a fun trip! We definitely needed this time away together.
