Christmas 2013

In typical fashion this is a little late, but I wanted to share a few highlights from the holidays before January is completely over. We spent Christmas at my parents' house in Portland, but before we left, we celebrated with an early faux-Christmas morning at our house. Our big gift to Nicholas was a train table, which we spent almost four hours assembling the night before we celebrated our Christmas morning. I foresee lots of future Christmas Eves spent this way. . . 

Jason, admiring his masterpiece. It would not stay this neat for long.

The next morning, when Nicholas woke up, we brought him out into the living room to see what Santa brought . . .

As hoped, it was a big hit!

Then we opened the remainder of our gifts to each other and the gifts Jason's parents had left with us at Thanksgiving. Nicholas really got the hang of unwrapping gifts this year and decided pretty quickly that he is a big fan of presents.

The next day we boarded a plane to Portland to visit my family for a week. After our less than stellar plane flight to Seattle last summer, we were nervous about the nearly eight hour trip (including a layover) to Portland, but Nicholas surprised us and did great.

Once we arrived, we spent five days relaxing and catching up with family. We admired my mom's gorgeous Christmas tree . . .

We met our new nephew and Nicholas' first cousin in the family (he was very interested in all things baby, but didn't love it when I held baby Braylon) . . .

We enjoyed our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of Swiss fondue . . .

We read The Night Before Christmas and Nicholas impressed us all by saying "Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!" at the end of the story . . .

The next day we opened gifts (somebody was spoiled by his grandparents, aunts, and uncles) and feasted on a delicious Christmas dinner with the family . . .

Jason and I also enjoyed a date night with dinner at Navarre and we watched a bunch of movies, including at trip to the movie theater with my sister and brother-in-law to see Anchorman 2. Eh, maybe not the best choice, but it's always fun to get out and see a movie.

Despite Nicholas' expression above, we all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas week!

Vacation Part 2: Seattle and Portland

After we returned from our relaxing getaway to Orcas Island, we spent two more days in Seattle. On Monday, Jason's parents treated us to a trip to the Seattle Aquarium. It's a huge aquarium with all kinds of sea life, and Nicholas did well on his inaugural visit. He loved the touch tank and some of the large sea creatures, including the sea otters. I'm sure he'll love to go back as he gets older.

Since he was too little to reach into the touch tank himself, they took out a sea cucumber and a starfish for him to touch.

Later that evening, we met up with some of Jason's family friends at a Korean restaurant for a delicious meal of Korean barbecue-- but not before a stop at a nearby park in Bellevue to burn off some energy and take some family photos.

It may not look like it in this photo, but Nicholas was fascinated by the soccer field and goal. There was also a team of adult men practicing, and he kept trying to run onto the field and get in the game!

On Tuesday, we enjoyed a low key day at home, followed by a quick visit to Green Lake to see my sister and brother-in-law (we planned to spend more time with them down in Portland later in the week.) We ended the Seattle portion of our trip with a barbecue over at Jason's sister's beautiful new house in West Seattle. We had so much fun that I forgot to take an photos, but we loved checking out their new digs, ate our fill of gourmet burgers, and spent some quality time with Jason's family and our best man and his wife who also joined us.

On Wednesday, we scrapped our plans to take the train down to Portland and ended up with a last minute car rental (more on that in another post-- ahem, traveling with a toddler.) After an uneventful ride, we made it to my parents' house. All three of us enjoyed long naps, followed by a low key dinner with my parents. 

On Thursday morning, we made the short trek over to Luscher Farm to check out the community gardens (impressive!) and chickens. Nicholas picked up an apple beneath and apple tree, and proceeded to carry and throw his "ball" all around the gardens. 

Big fan of the chickens!

On Friday, my parents hosted a big family dinner at our house. My aunt and uncle (on my mom's side) from New Hampshire were in town, so it was a great opportunity to get everyone together-- including my brother Geoff and his wife Brooke, my sister Laura and her husband Mike, and my uncle and his girlfriend. We enjoyed an awesome meal of barbecued Chinook salmon in my parents' gorgeous yard. 

Siblings! (And G&B's baby K, due in October)

On Saturday, we headed over to my parents' country club to enjoy some pool time, followed by another big family gathering-- this time with my dad's side of the family. He has four siblings, all of whom have several kids, and we had almost everyone in attendance, including my grandparents, my aunt and uncle who live in the Bay Area, and most of my cousins. It was a fun evening!

Muggin' with Uncle Geoff's shades

We flew home the following morning, August 4th. All in all, it was a fabulous summer vacation. Fortunately the plane trip back went a little more smoothly than the way out, but it's always tough to leave, especially when we don't have another trip on the horizon just yet. But, I know we'll be back soon, and we already have a Thanksgiving visit from Jason's parents to look forward to!