It's the holiday season

A couple of weeks ago we were lucky enough to have Grandma Chris come and visit. Before she left we thought we would start off the holiday season with a trip to Swanson's gardens where we saw a camel, a donkey, and 4 of Santa's reindeer. Santa himself was also there visiting, but the kids weren't ready to say hello just yet.
This past week we once again joined the Boudreau's for a vegetarian thanksgiving feast which was amazing. Thanks again for hosting us orphans.
Yesterday I enjoyed my 3rd Black Friday at Anthropologie where I nearly sent myself to the emergency room from an incident with a cheese knife. After all the craziness I couldn't wait another second for our Christmas tree. We loaded up the kids today in search of the most perfect tree (which we found), and the 4 of us will be having a tree trimming party tonight complete with Jayson's famous pizza. Stay tuned for the results.


I know we all look a little crazy in this photo, but its the only one we took of our beauty before plucking her out of the ground.



I fully anticipate having one of these photos of Jayson every year.



We miss everyone and hope a small miracle might bring us home for the holidays. No not a "Christmas Miracle" in case you were wondering Trudy!

We ended the summer with a camping trip to Fort Warden with some friends. We had so much fun hanging out around the campfire,eating the first and last tin foil dinners of the season, running around the old navy barracks, and laying on the beach soaking up some of the last vitamin D we will be receiving until next July. Once October rolled around we couldn't have been more welcoming of the hot cocoa, fires in our fire place (love!) and anything pumpkin. Of course we had to set out to find the perfect Mr. Jack-o-lantern. We picked the perfect weekend and actually went back to back...double the fun...why not. The weather was beautiful and the kids had a ball watching the pumpkin cannon, doing the maze, slides, and munching on fresh picked apples. We also experienced our first apple cider slushie. This will be a must in the years to follow.






As we said good bye to Mr. Sunshine and the leaves on the trees we also said good bye to Gibson's locks. Kicking and screaming I must add. Once again, Gibson took it upon himself to make sure he could see...go figure. Ellie was fortunate to dodge the bullet this go around (for the most part). Thank goodness because Mommy couldn't have handled another she-mullet.

For Halloween we got to hang out with Boudreaus again this year. We took the kids to the "Junction" in West Seattle where you walk 8 blocks collecting candy from all the merchants. The kids had the trick-or-treating thing down, but about halfway through had to stop for a rest and a "snack". Later that night the dads took the kids on more adventures while the moms chilled out at home eating pizza, handing out candy, and watching Halloween worthy television.



P.S. Here's a photo of Gib's new do for your viewing pleasure. It's growing on us.