Family Trip 2014: Day 2

Day 2

We woke up and hit the road by 8:15 am... our goal today was Daytona Beach.  It was a fun uneventful drive where we went through South Carolina and Georgia.  We stopped at a rest stop in Savannah, Georgia where I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and Nick ran around with the kids.  Then we continued on to Jacksonville, Florida where they had a huge bridge that we drove over with tons of freight ships and docks on the sides.  Then we made it into Daytona about 3 pm and headed to the beach.  On the way to the beach we drove past the Daytona International Speedway, and it was HUGE!    

When we got to the beach, we thought that we would just wade in the water and that we didn't need to change the kids into swim suits (because it was November, but the weather and the water were nice).  We were wrong, they got soaked!  The beach was beautiful and the kids loved jumping in the waves and playing in the sand.  

 Ellie thought it was so funny when the waves would wash up over her feet and go back out...she would laugh and laugh and lose her balance and fall down. Then she would hop back up so she could do it again.  

Watching for the waves to come in. 

 Jumping over the waves!

Playing in the sand.  

After we got done with the water and the sand we got the kids changed into dry clothes and headed to the pier to walk out on it...only problem is that it closed at 5 pm and we got there at 5:05 so we just took a picture at the beginning of it.  

After that we went to Joe's Crab Shack Restaurant that was right on the pier.  We were all starving and ready to eat.  

 After dinner we headed back to the hotel to go to bed.  We all had our tye-dyed shirts on so we had to take a picture.  

 Trevor and Jacob had to share a bed and this is how we found them when we headed to bed!  It was hilarious!

Family Trip 2014: Day 1

In November, we went on a family trip to Disney World!  We were gone for 9 days and had such a great time and created so many fun memories.

Day 1

Nick took a half day and we picked Trevor up from school at 3:45 and hit the road.  Our goal was to go 5 hours and stay in a hotel so that we could go to Daytona beach the next day for a couple hours.

Everything went as planned except the traffic!  It took us 2 hours to go 30 miles on I-95 to Fredricksburg.  Once we got past Fredricksburg it was freeway speeds to the hotel.  We got to Fayetteville, North Carolina at about 10:45 pm.

  Nick and I thought it would be fun to get the kids Disney World goodie bags to open on the way down there.  They had Disney sticker books, Disney t-shirts, snacks, and a couple toys.  

Jacob with his bag.  

 Trevor with a toy from his.

 Ellie's bag.  

Trevor and Jacob got these Mr. Potato heads in their bags and they were such a hit.  The kids LOVED them and and played with them for hours in the car.  Every time we got in the car Jacob would say "where is my Captain America man."

Halloween 2014: Adventure is out there!

For the last few years we have done family costumes...

2013

2012

2011

2010

 And this year was no different.  (I realize the day will come and my kids will decide they don't want to do a group themed costume, but I love it and will do it as long as they love it too!)

We talked about what we wanted to be for a few weeks and one night Ellie took a blanket off her head and her hair was so crazy it reminded me of Ellie from the Disney movie Up and since we had been on our own adventure as a family, moving across the country, we thought it was perfect!  

We had a ward trunk or treat the Saturday before Halloween.  Here is our trunk...

Nick built this house out of cardboard, tape and hot glue: I was very impressed!  

And here we are!  

 Here are pictures of the kids on Halloween day!    

Russell

Ellie

Mr. Fredrickson

The kids had a great time trick or treating!  We went with some neighbors to townhouses in our neighborhood... it was perfect, the kids got plenty of candy and we were done in about an hour. 

 All of the townhouses have lots of stairs so we got a really good workout.  I had to carry Ellie up and down each flight and Jacob needed to rest every now and then.  The weather was perfect, just a light jacket and some gloves.          

 All the candy dumped out when we got back!

Trevor LOVED dying his hair white!

Oh, what will we be next year...

Sharing skittles...

Tonight Jacob shared some of his Skittles with Ellie and she had them in a bowl.  While she was eating them I took one from her bowl and she said "No" and turned the bowl away...she did not want to share.  Then a few minutes later Jacob went and took a skittle from Ellie's bowl and she said "No" and turned her bowl away and went and sat by Nick.  Then a couple minutes went past and Nick took a skittle from Ellie's bowl and she said "No" and grabbed the rest of her Skittles in her bowl and stuffed them all in her mouth.  It was so funny and we all had a good laugh! 

Lights at the Visitor Center...

On Saturday, December 13th we wanted to go to the mall to take pictures with Santa and then eat chicken nuggets to celebrate Ellie's Bday.  Well, we got in line to wait for Santa and the wait was at least 2.5 hours long so we decided to skip that and just go eat.  Chick-fil-a was right next to Panda Express so Trevor, Nick and I got that instead.  

(I did take the kids back the following Wednesday to see Santa and the funny thing is we ended up waiting about 2.5 hours anyways.  The kids were great and they loved seeing Santa and getting a picture with a stuffed Olaf and playing in the snow in the ice castle (they had a Frozen theme this year) so it worked out just fine.  Next year though we will be visiting Santa in November!)

That evening we went to the Washington D.C. Visitor center to see the Christmas lights.  We had a good time seeing all the lights and in the visitor center they had displays of nativities from around the world.  Trevor loved reading the signs to see what country they were from!   

Nick and the kids right outside the visitor center doors.    

They had a big nativity set up outside in the corner of the visitor parking lot.  

We then walked around to get a picture in front of the temple.  This temple is so beautiful all lit up at night and not just at Christmas...the first time we drove west around the 495 at night and I saw the temple all lit up it was stunning! 

A kind person saw us trying to take pictures and offered to take a group photo of us...well, lets just say Jacob wanted nothing to do with it.

The kids.

Jacob loved this tree, he kept saying "Mom look at that huge Christmas tree!"

It was a fun night seeing lights.  I did mention a number of times to Nick that there were so many people there, but I just need to come to terms with the fact that there are just a lot of people here.  

Look Whose 2...

Ellie turned two this month!  Her birthday was on a Sunday this year and I thought the kids looked cute all dressed up for church so I tried to get a picture of them altogether:

This was the first one...

 then Jacob wouldn't sit still

which lead him to step on Ellie's hand

and then the pictures were over.  

Ellie LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and her favorite character is Minnie Mouse. So thanks to Walmart the night before Ellie got a Minnie Mouse party!

 Ellie couldn't decide if she wanted a cake or cookies for her birthday so I put the two together and made a cookie cake (which just means I decorated a cookie).  It was a hit!  All evening she went around saying "cookie cake, cookie cake!"  It was adorable!  

 Here are pictures of Ellie with her "cookie cake!"

Opening presents...she loved this part! (Side story: She was so funny opening the gifts, she had to pick off the white dots I had taped on to the packages before she would open them.  We laughed). 

Mom and Ellie:  Look at all those smarties Grandma Cyndi gave her, she was in heaven!

Ellie is starting to get into the princess phase and for the last couple of weeks she would find my one pair of high heels and wear them around the house, so for her birthday we got Ellie a princess dress up set, with her own pair of high heels.  

 Here is our princess all dressed up!  

I can't believe Ellie is two!  She is so much fun to have around the house.  She is getting such a fun personality.  She loves drinking milk, loves having her binkie for bedtime and naptime, but no longer takes naps(which makes me sad) but goes to bed so much better. She takes after her mom and loves candy and gum.  She is so cute and says "bum" for gum.  She gets a kick out of jumping in her crib and if a room is dark she will get a scared look on her face a say "dark, dark"...it makes me laugh!

Happy Birthday Ellie!