A Spokane Christmas

As usual we had a great time in Spokane for our Christmas break. The only downside would be that the kids were expecting snow for Christmas, being Spokane and all...but Santa did not deliver. Luckily our trip was filled with so many other fun things, that we really didn't notice the lack of snow.
I have no pics of Christmas morning, but just imagine it being AWESOME! We only took video this year. Jacob got a lego set, Malia got a koaroke machine, Cole got some Legos after we took "santa's" gift back to costco. (Jacob asked me why I had the receipt if santa gave it to Cole...oops) and Claire got a radio flyer bike. She can't reach the pedals yet, but hopefully by summer. :) It was a great day just relaxing and playing with cousins.
The day after Christmas was Brent's 35th! During the day we went bowling, which was
CU-RAZY with 21 children and a smattering of adults. Luckily that night we got a few babysitters and headed out on the town, adults only. And we needed it after that bowling trip. We went to a little place called "scratch" in downtown Spokane. It was great, we pretty much had the place to ourselves and we all ordered yummy desserts. These are the times that I look forward to the most on our trips.

On the 28th, Malia and I celebrated our birthdays, and where else but the happiest place on earth, none other than Chuck-e-Cheese. Somehow I managed to escape this trip without one of those sensory overload headaches that I usually get at this place. It really wasn't too bad. The most important thing is that Malia had a great time. Here she is sporting her new snow white pillow from Grannie, check Claire out in the picture. She's pretty sure that pillow was really for her, and she thought that for quite awhile!

Claire...right where she belongs. She is princess after all.

and what other things did we do to entertain ourselves?
We had a how long can you hold a handstand contest. I opted to sit this one out. (Brent won!)

The kids had so much fun with their cousins. Claire and her cousin Jane were so cute together

We played "make-up artist" with Grannie. She was a great sport.

We had a few minutes of quiet time amongst many minutes of loud, craziness.

Many games of rook, went to see Sherlock Holmes and ate at Chili's, Brent went to see Avatar with his brother, went after Christmas shopping and scored some deals at downeast basics,
and had many great conversations with family I love. Thanks guys, we had a great time.