ice skating and train rides

We had a few fun adventures our selves while we visited the "snow" house (aka. the Sunriver house)... my favorite day was when we went ice skating followed by a train ride!  I was super excited to go ice skating but got a little bit nervous when I got there.  It took me a bit but I was brave and decided to give it a whirl... turns out it's fun!!!  

We kept seeing this cute little train circling the ice rink while we were iceskating so we could resist going for a little spin on it ourselves.  Choo-choo!

Christmas 2012

So, Caitlyn and I got to have Christmas at our house this year... which was pretty exciting. It started out just being me and Caitlyn (and mom and dad of course :).  Then Granny came to see us, then Megan and Cam (and Aunt Terri and Uncle Neil), then.. Yiayia and Papou came AND uncle John and Aunt Jennifer.. by the time Christmas was over - we had a full house!!    We were just a little excited to come down Christmas morning and find the tree loaded with gifts!!    ... and Santa was pretty awesome - he brought us exactly what we asked for AND he ate our cookies too :)  Santa ROCKS.

check out these awesome reindeer antlers... (shortly after this pic was taken, we couldn't find them... you guessed it - Bruno ate them... and no, you don't want to know how we know that)

Caits and I had some fun "music" lessons from dad along with our friends Bailey and Parker... you should hear us rock out "Jingle Bells"!!

This was one of our favorite things to do leading up to Christmas - each day we took turns picking and "ornament" and putting it on the tree until it was all decorated with the final star going on the top on Christmas eve.

Making the perfect cookies for Santa!!  (he loved them of course :)

no coal in these stockings - we must of have been girls this year :)

of all the gifts, the magic wand was definitely one of our favorites, Caits put spells on just about everything in the house!!

LIttle kickers....

Caits and I get to take our first class together... it's called "Little Kickers" - and it's pretty fun :)  Since I'm older, I get to show her the ropes and what to do (it didn't take long for her to figure things out!!)

Supposedly it's a soccer class but really we just run around, play games and kick some soccer balls in the air occasionally :)

Merry Christmas from PDX

O Christmas Tree...

Well, it's become a bit of an annual tradition to cut down our Christmas day, so this year we braved the weather (yes, it's been cold and wet for about a month straight) to go to our favorite tree farm in search of the perfect tree... after a quick train ride and not so quick wander through the trees we landed on the perfect tree :)  It was so perfect that Caits was upset that we cut it down... apparently she's a bit of a tree hugger at heart haha!  I had to explain to her that it's our CHRISTMAS tree!

Dad did the hard work of sawing it down and carrying to the road where it could be picked up brought to our car...  we contributed by drinking hot chocolate and picking out the perfect wreath!!

Thanksgiving 2012

Well, the day finally arrived - Thanksgiving!   My mom was explaining to me how we should think about what were thankful for on Thanksgiving - so here's my list:  Playing Candyland, making crowns, and going to Papou's house (well, it's a start!)

Granny took us to the park before dinner to help burn some energy before we all sat down for dinner but I'm not sure that it worked (see video below)... none the less it was fun!  We even got to climb a tree - check me out!

And somehow we managed to get everyone together for a family pic with Great Granpa holding down the middle of the photo at 96 years old!

Sunny Arizona - take 3

So we ventured up to the highest point in Tucson today, Mt Lemmon (at 8,000 ft it's higher then Mt Hood!)....   After driving up miles and miles of windy roads (it took a while :) we pulled off to check out a spot called "Windy Pt" - it was full of fun boulders to run around and climb on - and the views were pretty awesome too!!   And to top it off we saw rock climbers (that's what mommy and daddy like to do)

After then we headed to the top... to a little town called Summer Haven - at first when we were lower on the mountain, it was full of cool rock formations and cactus - then as we got to the top, it was almost like we were in Portland again... full of tall pine trees and cool air.  Even thought it was "cold" according to Granny, we talked her into a hike through the trees (she later admitted it was fun).

I loved running on all the rocks but climbing them was my favorite!

Sunny Arizona - take 2

We decided today was a perfect day to hit up the pool!  We have one in our backyard - pretty cool huh?

The water is a bit chilly but that doesn't stop us...  

Sunny Arizona - take 1

So for Thanksgiving this year, we decided to come see my dad's grandpa (who's 96!)  He lives is sunny Tucson, AZ so it was a good reason to escape the rain in Portland!   The part I was most excited about though was staying in a house with my cousins Megan and Cam.   We all got the house around the same time and I think within about 10 mins or so we were all in princess dresses (Caits included) and walking around in high heels (well, not Cam :).    Let's just say it took us a while to go to bed that night because Megan and I got to share a room! (ie trouble).

We kicked things off in true Tucson fashion at the Old Tucson Studios...  It's an old movie set town where they've filmed all sorts of cowboy movies (according to the tour guide John Wayne was in some of them I think).  We had fun on the carousel and old time cars and then checked out some "shows".. let's see there were the flamenco dancers at the Grand Palace Saloon, then there was the shoot out in front of the courthouse (it scared me and Caits so we didn't watch much!)    We topped it off with an old fashion stage coach ride and an ice cream cone... and one more ride on the carousel of course!