Christmas Break: Washington

After our fun visit in Arizona we headed up to Washington.  This is the third year in a row we've seen both families over Christmas break....I kind of hope it stays that way forever because I LOVE being with Merrills and I LOVE being with Burrups.  I'm just praying that Steve's family will move to Richland or my parents will move to Mesa or maybe they can all move to Virginia.  Haha, wouldn't that be nice?

Anyways, our time in Washington was packed with fun action.  The day after we arrived, we met up with the Seattle group (Mike, Kirsten, and the boys, and Jon and Nicole who flew in to Seattle) at Great Wolf Lodge.  That place was awesome.  It decorated all Christmas-y and had an indoor water park.  Sadly, Nate wasn't feeling so hot so he didn't enjoy it as much as he would have, but the rest of us loved it!  We went on some rockin' water slides and enjoyed hotel.  

Oh, and just a side note...The first half of our trip doesn't have any pictures because I was taking the first picture of the trip and backed into a chair that made me fall on my bottom in front of a lot of people and smashed my camera.  Talk about embarrassing?  A pregnant lady in a swimming suit running into a chair and falling onto her camera.  If I only had that video....

We spent a day or so in Seattle afterwards, which was fun.  We did the underground tour that I've always wanted to do.  Did you know Seattle is built on top of another Seattle?  Yup!  We also went to the Seattle Science Center which brought me back to my childhood.  I used to think that place was the coolest place on earth...and I still think it's pretty cool.  Nate loved the mirrors, dinosaurs, and other exploration things.  

We then made it back to Richland to enjoy Christmas in our lovely home.  Can I just say I LOVE MY HOUSE.  I get all giddy inside every time I come home just by being there.  

Christmas day was full of opening presents, playing with presents, Tingey family breakfast, and skyping with Laurel. It was so wonderful :)

Nate LOVED opening presents and Santa brought him some pretty cool toys.

Here we are skyping with Laurel. We all squeezed on the couch and loved every moment of it.

Nate LOVED being with everyone.  He followed Tanner and Austin around and loved the attention from Uncle Chischin (that what the kids call him).

He loved playing with Aunt Nicole too.  She could get him to laugh so hard!  He's playing peek a boo with her here :)

I love this picture...Nicole is a natural with kids :) I think she's the favorite Aunt of all 3 kids. What a cute Mommy she's going to be!  

The boys playing with their new toys

There was no snow and I was praying for some!  Lo and behold...a White Christmas!  It snowed around noon on Christmas day and the next day we played in the backyard.  Nate liked it way more than I thought he would.  He thought it was so fun to wear gloves and eat snow.

I'm not sure what they were doing...some kind of mass wrestling match in the snow.  Boys.

I love this picture because you know Christian is up to something ....

Cute, right?! Made for each other.

These boys are the stars of the Burrup Christmas story, they kept us laughing the entire time.

We all had waldo outfits for our Christmas pj's this year and Nate LOVED the hat and glasses.  We did a picture scavenger hunt in the mall and actually got stopped by security because we were all wearing waldo outfits.  It was super fun and people shopping at the mall thought it was fun to see a family of waldos.

We also got to witness Christian's Eagle Court of Honor.  What a good kid he is.  We are proud of him.  I swear the whole room was trying to photo bomb every picture I tried to take...so sorry I don't have any good pictures.

The trip was also full of game playing (not as much as Jon wanted, but we did manage to play a few :)).  And I have to report that I won a game of Settler's of Catan, which is a Christmas miracle in itself.  The boys watched a lot of the cartoon Avatar: the Last Airbender.  Why?  None of us women know.  We went to the club and exercised/swam/played racquetball several times.  The boys had a snowboarding trip and Steve learned quickly!  It was his first time and he loved it.  We played games at the church a couple of times with both Burrup and Tingey cousins. We made gingerbread houses, ate sushi, ate WAY too much junk food, watched a cheesy Christmas movie on netflix, and had so much fun.  For New Year's Eve we had our annual Bunko/white elephant party.  It turned out great and was another first for Steve.  I love Bunko.  Steve and I went away with a Doo-rag, sparkly star sunglasses and a party hat.  We had a blast. 

Overall, our Christmas break was a success :)  We had tons of fun and most of all enjoyed just being together with family.  We are so blessed to have such incredible families!  

I'm already excited for Christmas break 2013 :)