Kyle's family frequently comes to California for Christmas, but this year we headed out to them. We left on Christmas Eve and flew to the Twin Cities.
All ready to go and waiting for our plane.
We spent the first few days in Twin Cities area at Kyle's sister Kristina's (and brother-in-law Nick) house. We woke up to freezing rain on Christmas morning, so we didn't make it to church, but after the rain stopped, the kids enjoyed some sledding on the hill in the backyard.
Stockings on Christmas morning. Thank you, Grandma!
Brooklyn & Grandpa (all smiles)!
Madison was not a big fan of the sledding, but she liked being in the snow.
Grandpa & Katelyn!
Trying to make snow angels (it was too icy).
On Monday night (26th), Nick's family had tickets to the Timberwolves game, so Kyle & I went with Nick & Kristina. We had two very close tickets and switched off each quarter with the tickets that were a little higher up. It was my first NBA game and was pretty fun (even if it wasn't the Lakers).
The girls were given tickets to the Crayola Experience for Christmas, so we headed to the Mall of America on Tuesday. Kyle and I enjoyed some time without the kids while they had fun with Grandpa & Grandma & Uncle Nick & Aunt Kristina.
After the Mall, we drove down to Kyle's hometown and stayed with his parents for the rest of the trip. Highlights included Kyle's grandparents visiting from Iowa, a wagon ride in the snow to the Christmas lights and of course lots games.
Baking Christmas cookies with Grandma.
Decorating the cookies.
All bundled up for the wagon ride.
The girls with Great Grandpa & Great Grandma De Graaf.
As I am sitting here at the end of the summer watching the Olympic opening exercises, I am looking back on one of highlights of the summer. We spent 3 nights camping near a lake in Santa Barbara county with another family. It was a great time getting to spend a lot of time with our friends and getting to know their kids better and watching our kids play together.
Someone got ahold of a phone and snapped a few selfies.
The lake level was SUPER low, but we still took the kids fishing for their first time. Brooklyn really enjoyed and went a couple of times, but Katelyn was done after about 5 minutes. They did not catch anything.
The weather ranged from very cool at night to very hot in the afternoon. One afternoon Kyle took the big girls to the public pool in the county park where we were camping while Madison took a nap in the tent.
The mornings were pleasant and we went for some bike rides and a short hike.
Snack in the back of the car after our walk.
On our way home, we stopped at Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara. We walked around briefly and let the girls put their feet in the ocean.
Brooklyn always needs a crazy picture.
When we got home, we had just a little bit of laundry. This is most of it waiting to be folded.
I also had to go get groceries to restock the fridge. The girls always pick their dresses to wear the day after they are cleaned in the laundry. The decided Sam's Club was the perfect place to practice their twirling.
We got a book from the library on drawing people, so Katelyn has been practicing.
Madison enjoys dancing along to her tv shows. Her is a video of her dancing (at least the beginning).
I can't believe how quickly the summer has gone. Our summer was a little shorter this year because the girls are going back to school in mid-August for the first time. Less than 2 weeks left
*If you want to read about this trip in order, read this post first.
For the second part of our trip, we stayed at the Dreams Las Mareas on the west coast of Costa Rica. This was an all-inclusive, family friendly resort that was only opened about 1 1/2 years ago. It was the only resort on a small bay very close to the Nicaraguan border. Once stayed at the resort for 5 nights and pretty much just relaxed by the pool for most of that time. My goal was just to relax and read (both things I don't get to do much at home).
Our room - we had a swim out with a small shared pool outside the door. There was also a couch outside, where Kyle spent a lot of time relaxing, while I hid from the misquitos inside the room. The misquitos were only bad around dusk, so it wasn't really a huge issue, but I had a few bites - Kyle never gets any.
Kyle checking out the water. It was the perfect temperature - refreshing, but not too cold.
About to go exploring.
The bay looking out into the ocean.
Another view of the bay.
The forest around the resort was full of cactus.
This guy was always on the path to the adult pool. He liked to eat the flowers that had fallen on the ground.
There were tons of butterflies in the bushes. I have never seen so many in my life.
We did participate in a couple of activities at the resort, including archery (Kyle did much better than me) and a nature hike. We were told if we had come a month or two earlier, we would have seen a ton of monkeys, but they move out of that area during the rainy season. We also rented a sea-doo for half an hour one day in the bay. It was a lot of fun and it was cool go down the coast line a little ways and see the area from the water. In the last minute of the rental, Kyle turned the sea-doo so fast that we both went flying and I lost my sunglasses in the water, but we still had a great time.
Heading to dinner
The resort at night.
The view from the restaurant area of the entire resort and bay. There were 2 big pool areas. Our building is the one you can see on the left.
We took a few videos of some of the wild life at the resort for our kids. On our way to the airport, we also saw a few white-faced monkeys and spider monkeys, but I didn't really have a chance for good pictures or videos.
Crabs - there were tons of them on the beach to the right of the resort. The had holes all over that they would go into.
Iguana - there were quite a few lizards and a couple of iguanas that we saw.
Butterflies - as I mentioned above, there were tons of butterflies.
Heading home to see our kids.
Our kids were sleeping when we got home after midnight, but it was fun to see this sign.
