Merry Christmas 2019

We went to Bonners Ferry for Christmas again this year.  Archie was so happy to have us back.  Look how big he got!

Marcus got to open some birthday presents on Christmas Eve.

Thanks everyone for the birthday presents!

Grami got the kids matching PJs again.  They love these!

Charlie's Angels?  

The traditional cousin photo!

Cousin pile up!

Olivia and Elle got cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer.

The next morning the kids woke up early to see what they got.  Olivia got a soft warm blanket.

Marcus got a pillow for traveling.  That will come in handy for the next trip!

Grami snuggled with Olivia in her new blanket.

Emma got an instax camara...Olivia got one too.

We also got Archie some new toys!

We checked out the skating rink this year!

The kids had a ton of fun!

Skating hand in hand.

They all did really well!

Grami and Poppi with all the grandkids!

Merry Christmas Everyone!  What a great year!

Stop in Phoenix

We woke up at 3am to catch our flight in Orlando and flew to Phoenix.  We tried to get on an earlier flight but couldn't get all 5 of us on so we ended up with our original flight which was 12 hours later!  We decided to take the train to downtown Phoenix and ended up at Chase Stadium.

We ate lunch at TGI Fridays which overlooked the field.  Normally this is a baseball field where the Diamondbacks play but it was set up for the Cheez-It Bowl game...Washington State University vs. Air Force...what are the odds?  We felt right at home when we saw Washington State painted on the field.

The stadium was really cool.

It was a nice break from the airport.

We finally got on the plane and traveled home.  We were literally up 24 straight hours on our travel day but we had so much fun on our trip it was all worth it.  Now back to reality...well after Christmas of course.

Orlando and Universal

After FBU we drove to Orlando.  We were amazed by the panther crossing signs...way different from our deer crossing signs.  We even saw some alligators on the side of the road!  We are not in Spokane anymore!

When we arrived in Orlando we saw lots of Disney stuff around.  Olivia had to take lots of pictures.

We decided to spend a day at Universal Studios.

A dream come true!

It was nicely decorated for the holidays.

Our first ride was the Minions ride.  Emma thought it was fun.

Mommy Emma selfie!

Marcus, Marc and I went on this ride!  Olivia and Emma stayed behind to take pictures.

We even got to see the Fast and Furious cars!  That was a highlight for us!

Our main goal was to see Harry Potter land and it did not disappoint! 

We started off by getting Butter Beer...it was delicious!

We arrived at the right time...there really wasn't a big crowd yet.

We took advantage of it and took some family photos.

We went on the bank ride and it was amazing.

We also ran into one of Marcus's FBU teammates and family.

The kids loved this place!  Harry Potter world was a bit crowded at lunch time so we headed to other parts of the park.

Jaws!  Yikes!

We ate some lunch, did the Mummy ride and then headed to the train station for a ride to Hogwarts.

The train looked exactly like the movie!  It was amazing!

We arrived at Hogsmeade.  I felt like I was in the movie! 

We saw Hogwarts too!  So amazing!

We even toured Hogwarts and did the amazing journey ride...so fun!

The Wizarding World is highly recommended!  We were very impressed!

We went over to Jurasic Park area and saw some big dinosaurs.

The kids got really wet on a water ride in Toon Town.

Marcus went on the hulk ride with his FBU friend...the rest of us said no way...it was a scary looking roller coaster.  Marcus actually went on it twice!

Overall we had an amazing time...that was the end of our trip in Florida...we hope to come back again someday; it was so much fun!