Ok so I promise this is the last post on Christmas, but it’s one of the best things we did over the break so I couldn’t leave it out.

Every year we have Christmas with our kids at our house. Love it. Love the traditions. Love concentrating on our kids and being together.

BUT, until this year we still packed up and headed out of town (up to Utah) on Christmas day or the day after. C’mon…all those days off school meant we had to go somewhere, right?

Well, this year we stayed put. And as much as I really did miss seeing and hanging with my family, we LOVED being here.

One of the best things we did was leave Lucy with a friend and head out on a great overnight adventure….just the four older kids and Dave and me.

Now, you may think this is mean to leave Lu out, but as much as we head-over-heels adore that girl she takes over the show most of the time (as you may have guessed). And we really wanted to focus on the other kids who could really “get” and appreciate a special outing.

We didn’t tell the kids what we were going to do, only that we were going to go on a little overnight adventure together. It was so fun to watch their eyes sparkle as they tried their darndest to figure out what we were doing but kept saying “don’t tell us!” By the time we left they were SO excited (and also had a pretty good idea of what we were doing).

This is what our get-away included:

The Suns GameThe little girls had never been to one before so it was fun to watch them take it all in.
*got there early and watched the crowds come in (from our nose-bleed, birds-eye view)*devoured the treats we snuck in
*Dave caught a t-shirt (why is that SO exciting?? I don’t know, but it is)
*we totally creamed the ClippersElle got a hold of our little point-and-shoot camera that we share (no big camera…sometimes that thing takes over as one of the kids and I wanted to give myself to them, not the camera) and she started taking all kinds of videos. By the time the game was over the batteries were dead. And we were all pretty darn sad about it because:

*they let the kids go on the court after the game and try to hit free throws. (I had NO camera to capture it, and…)
*Max swooshed it.
It was so awesome to see…not only the great shot but also his beaming smile as he walked off the court. He’s been practicing in the driveway and dreaming about being in the NBA ever since. Let’s just say the girls didn’t get quite that close…

Hotel
Why is it that kids are SO excited about hotels?
*stayed up super late and played board games
*ate a serious all-you-can-eat breakfast in the morning

Tennis
*Max and Dave beat me and Elle
*Elle and Dave beat me and Max
Can you guess who the weakest link is?? Oh my word it’s fun to really be able to PLAY together!

Swimming/lunch

Movie (Bedtime Stories)…popcorn, no baby to walk the aisles with…
Back home.

Man oh man, did we ever have fun.

And this post wouldn’t be complete without noting this:

One of the very kindest people I know is my great friend Claudia. She’s the one who took Lucy overnight so we could go do this. As much as we all adore Lucy, there aren’t a whole bunch of people who would jump at the chance to take that girl overnight. She’s feisty. But Claudia and Lucy have a good thing going. It’s called: Claudia LOVES Lucy, so Lucy LOVES her right back. Lucy clings to her for dear life every time she comes over. Claudia told me that she feels like it’s kind of her “calling” right now to help out with Lucy where she can. She’s the one who took her while we went camping a while ago too. She’s the one who takes her on a whim all the time. And there’s no way I could ever thank her enough for all the love she gives our little girl. Thanks a million Claudia!

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9 Comments

  1. Thanks so much Shawni for doing our pictures on Friday!! Brian mailed you a check…from USAA…so don’t throw anything away that looks like junk mail 🙂
    It should be there by Thurs. You are awesome, can’t wait to see the pictures of James in that cute red chair!! Love ya

  2. So sweet of your friend. I doubt that some people around us know how what they do impacts us. Sweet of you to mention her, and it reminds me to do more nice things for my friends.
    Although, it sounds like she’s nicer than most. 🙂

  3. I loved this post (I love all your posts, but this one really hit me for some reason). I’ve been feeling that we need to take our two oldest on an overnighter (without babies). The babies have taken over and Cam and Ellie sometimes get lost in the mayhem. Anyway, I love Claudia! Could you ask her if she could move to Chesapeake, VA? …please…

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