Christmas 2016

Christmas 2016

Las Vegas

The kids and I took advantage of the homeschooling schedule and flew out to Las Vegas for 2 whole weeks to be with Mimi and PopPop.  We weren't there an hour before Mimi had organized an opportunity for us to bring gifts and food to a family in her ward.  I'm so glad we have her great example!  It was a memorable and heart touching experience.  

The next night we spent a little time on the strip, touring the Luxor and the Shark Aquarium.

Two days after we arrived Jake and his family came back from Las Vegas.  We kicked off the cousin mania just right with a rip roaring game of laser tag and 3D mini golf.

Mimi also organized a few families for us to bring Christmas gifts to.  We enjoyed shopping for them and were really excited to be able to deliver them in person on Christmas Eve.  The family had lost a baby a year before and it had really set them all back in work and financially.  I think all the kids enjoyed seeing the kids faces light up when they saw all those gifts waiting at the door for them.    Thanks again Mimi for always finding ways to enlarge our hearts!

Christmas Eve was spent on Fremont St.  

Half dressed women, drunk people and all.  Merry Christmas!

We finished the "eve" at a Las Vegas buffet and then hustled home to prepare for Santa Claus.

Christmas Morning faces:

On Christmas Day the kids put on the Nativity play for us.  

My favorite part of Christmas was when the cousins gave their gifts to each other.  They had drawn names and everyone was more excited to give than to receive.

Isaac bought Kate a stuffed puppy and painted her a picture.  

Juliet bought Cooper a Harry Potter wand and Luke bought her coloring supply central!

Georgie made Jade an adorable apron and bought her a tea set.

Cooper bought Georgie some awesome Harry Potter socks and a very cool coloring book. 

These kids headed right upstairs to play with their loot!

We spent a most delightful night in Mimis' room being entertained by Kate.  She was hilarious and had every one of us laughing and adoring her.   It was one of those nights we want to remember.

The day after Christmas we headed up the mountain for...THE SWIMMING POOL!

Look at that posse of cute cousin faces!

The "J" club!  

(This trip cemented a Juliet obsession with Aunt Jennie.  They both have names that start with J and are both born in the month of July so, of course, they started "the J club!")

Juliet lost her two front teeth after Christmas.  

She was really proud of how cute we all thought she was.  

Aunt Jennie and Uncle Jake played some really fun pool games with the kids.  

Here Cooper and Ty are rescuing Juliet with great bravery!

Here we are, hitting the slopes of Brian Head!  It was so much fun skiing with our cousins.  We skied, basically, the same run for three days straight.  And everyone loved every minute of it.

Juliet was the only one who was my constant buddy the whole time so I have only pictures of her.  Georgie and Isaac were off with their cousins, with an Uncle or all by themselves most of the time. 

Goof Balls:

We were able to take Pop Pops 4 wheelers and the Razor (oh the razor!) out on the dry lake bed and we had such a good time!

I pulled a real Ashley move and drove Joey and I right through a fairly deep puddle.  The water washed OVER OUR HEADS!  And I being at the front, was absolutely drenched.  And cold.  Did I mention that it was cold?  

The man that made it happen:   

This guy (Pop Pop) is by fare the wildest, craziest driver in the family.   Riding with him feels like he just might be trying to kill you.  

A few out takes from the trip:

Merry 2016!  

xoxo 

Ash

Fall 2016

When you've had a green light to brag because you travel to exotic locations and then suddenly you feel like there's nothing to brag about anymore because your travel destinations (or lack thereof) aren't Greece anymore, it's hard to get motivated to blog.  Of course I'm talking about Joey here who started and ended doing all the blogging back in Europe.  But I, the self righteous and lesser writer of the two will stick with this!  Even if we're not in Amsterdam our memories are important!! 

 Here's a catch all of all that I missed while I waited patiently, thinking Joey would eventually get back to the computer.  Bare with me while he's in mourning...maybe he actually will come back.

Watching the Super Moon

First on the docket this fall was a trip to Gatlinburg, TN.  We had a blast.  

The trip started with a car catastrophe.  Our Airbnb cabin in the deep woods between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge had a driveway that would make Filbert Street in San Fran look like Houston, TX.  

Car-ee, our minivan, got stuck about halfway up the drive and practically perched on the edge of a precipice.  Joey spent the better part of a midnight hour turning the wheels bald trying to get enough traction to at least move away from the edge so he could finish reversing down the driveway but it only glided our back end closer to the deep ravine and a large fencepost that prevented him from reversing at all.  

The mood was TENSE that first night.  We saw another few thousand dollars out the window in trying to get us out of this pickle.  I called USAA {24 hour service!!  yassss!!!} and was told towing was a free service...someone would be there in the morning!  Well, goodness me, the tow truck guy arrived on the scene at 6:30 am with a huge truck whos parking break happened to be no longer in service...it couldn't come up the hill either!  Ha!!  The guy vowed to get us out by driving the car.  We sat watching, sweating bullets, again, balding the tires further for half an hour.  He and Joey finally decided that together they could remove the fence post and try backing down the hill.   Millimeter by millimeter (honestly) he twisted and tweaked the steering wheel until...PHEW!!  The car came down the hill.  $0 (until we got home to replace our tires), no ravine, happy vacation, and (3-4 years down the road), funny story!!

Go Cart Driving

We ate fried chicken, chicken fried steak, donuts, biscuits and gravy, heard southern gospel country music, rode go carts twice, played laser tag, hiked, collected leaves, saw two bears and biked the Cades Cove Loop, 13 miles of gorgeous, amber hued Tennessee wilderness.  It was a really fun trip of which I have many more pictures but am having a hard time getting them from my phone.  

Playing in the leaves was a favorite past time this Fall.  The leaves here were all that you'd expect from New England.

 This is our tragic little foster puppy, Drew.  

 It is to be noted that we loved her immensely.  From Drew we came to learn that not all dogs are created equally and that 3 months is long enough to come to deeply, deeply love a living thing.  Drew was the perfect puppy...much because she was terminally ill which made her calm, sweet and incredibly snuggly.  Drew always struggled with eating, didn't grow much at all, began to be extremely lethargic at 5 months ish and refused to eat.  We brought her back to 4 Paws for a check up and they decided to keep her for a week to watch over her.  She was diagnosed with kidney failure and put to sleep on the spot.  The kids, 3 months later, still cry over her.  We all really connected with sweet little Drew.  We've had two foster puppies since Drew and while we love them, we miss her immensely!



I had the privilege of working with these two cool people on the Hillary Clinton campaign for a few months until the dreaded November day.  It ended in absolute and utter tragedy but I'm so glad to look back and know that I did as much as I possibly could do.  I learned that I need to be involved to feel good about what I'm doing in my life.

Halloween:

 Luna Lovegood, Padme Amidala, Ray and BB-8

After the trick or treating we had a candy swap.   We stole the idea from a neighbor down the street.  I hope there's not another Halloween without one because the kids loved it and got rid of a lot of their candy (except Juliet who walked away with 2X as much)!

 For Thanksgiving Gaga and Papa came up!  And the fall color held on so that we could share that with them.  Here they are at Carillon Park.

ANd here we are attempting to get a Christmas card photo.

Mom and I took Georgie to see Phantom of the Opera, a dream come true for G (and for me to share it with her).  I'm so glad Mom got to be there as well.

For Papa, we took him out for local Ohio fare at Skyline Chili

A bit about what the kids have been doing:

Georgie took two theatre workshops at The Human Race Theatre group.  Here she is with her second group.  She loved it and learned a lot about voice, diction, emotion and theatre groupies!

Isaac joined a robotics team and won first place for the project portion of their work.  They were pretty proud and happy!

Isaac is interested in keeping the robotics thing up!  He enjoyed working with and programming robots.