christmas break

We have one more week of break and I know it will go way too fast. Here are some highlights thus far. 

*I ended up going in to work a couple of days during break. I actually love working when school is not in session. It's quiet, I'm often alone in the office, and the slow pace is a welcome change. 

*My mom bought us another advent book this year. The kids always love these.

*Chris and I were able to get away for a few days with some friends to Vegas. We had an amazing time. Lots of great conversation, golf for the guys, massages for us girls, and yummy food. :)

*We celebrated Christmas a little early with Chris' side of the family. 

The weather was pretty dreary so a lot of indoor LOL play, Hallmark movies, and relaxing took place. 

*Christmas day found us back at home. We started out with a Christmas breakfast tradition, Land of Nod.

Later my parents came for lunch and presents. Here is Kendall reading the Christmas story.

 *Otherwise our break has been filled with LOTS of quad action. Kendall and the girls are typically occupied with LOL doll play for hours on end.

Cameron got a Nintendo Switch for Christmas and has been over the moon excited about it...so he and the boys have spent a lot of quality Super Smash Bros. time together. :)

gilmore girls

 *Flu shot time. Kendall had a really rough time (pretty anxious/nervous), but she was a champ and got through it. :)

*Had a really fun time up north for Thanksgiving. We were able to spend some time with some dear friends who moved a few years back. The kids LOVED being with their cousins. And lastly, the food spread was amazing as always.

*Kendall was a camel in our church Christmas play. This was the first year she had expressed interest in participating. Boy was it a time commitment with the number of practices it required! But we would do it again in a heartbeat considering Kendall said it was one of the highlights of her year. :)

*We realized we had not been on a hike in a very long time. My dad joined us a few weeks back and it was so nice to be back on the trails.

There were a couple of steep parts that about did me in. :)

*I helped out at the Christmas celebration at church a few nights back. I was the "photographer", which basically meant women gave me their phones and I took their pictures in front of the photo area. :)

*I started Gilmore Girls from the beginning and am loving it all over again.

christmas list

*A couple weeks ago Chris' brother had another conference out in the desert. He again offered his hotel pool to the kids for a swim. Apparently they had the pool practically to themselves and had a great time!

*Only our son would create his Christmas list in not only a list format, but also a graph! Ha!

*Perfect Saturday morning = coffee and finishing up our last movie in the Hunger Games series. 

*I've been prepping my work lunches over the weekend and it makes my mornings sooo much easier! I'm one that doesn't really care if my salads are soggy, so having them done a few days in advance isn't a big deal. :)

*Our Sundays have turned into quite the jam packed days with the rehearsals for the church Christmas play ramping up. Here we are killing time at Subway for lunch. 

no power

*Last week was a bummer of a week on the electricity front. Our power went out twice, once due to high winds and once due to a car accident. We lost a bunch of food in the fridge the first time. The second time I was able to take a load over to a friend's house. We tried to make it fun at night and had a little pizza picnic, however the novelty quickly wore off and we were ready for power! :)

*Luckily Halloween was sandwiched between our two power-less nights so all the fun decorations people had out were lit for trick-or-treating. 

*This last weekend I spent the night in Santa Barbara with some friends from college. The weather was beautiful and it was fun catching up on one another's lives.

On Sunday morning, the time change had me wide awake at 4:15am. Ugh. I stayed in bed for a while but then decided to go for a walk while I waited for the girls to wake. It turned out to be such a highlight as I found a cute little neighborhood to explore and my whole walk had ocean views. :)

christmas with the rat pack

*Six days...November 1...until I will allow Christmas music to infiltrate my earbuds during work. Woohoo!! "Christmas with the Rat Pack", here I come! :)

*Last year Chris' parents gave us a "Family Fun Card" (American Express giftcard). We had a little left and decided to do something fun with the kids yesterday. We started out with breakfast at Carolyn's Cafe. The kids adore the coffee cake. :)

We then headed to a Groupon find at Victoria Gardens. It was basically an interactive ride. The kids loved it! 

Here is the photo provided by the ride. Props were available in case you wanted to dress for the adventure. :)

We were then able to snag a couple of good deals at Old Navy in the form of pants for Cameron. These are SOO hard to find because pants are always too short on him.

*A couple weeks ago I came down with a 48-hour bug. Luckily I only had to miss a couple days of work. I also took a break from working out. The problem is that I'm still on a break from working out because my motivation has disappeared. Not sure when it will return... ;)

*Every year I am saddened that we don't have Hallmark and I'm unable to watch all the Christmas movies. Luckily I get a few in when we visit my in-laws since my MIL saves them all for me. Anyway, I saw this on another blog and thought it was so funny, and so true!

happy 40th

*My MIL bought us a super cool bun maker thing (not sure the name) that makes creating buns for Kendall so much easier and she looks so cute (and older😩).

*This past week has been full of celebrating Chris' 40th birthday. We started it out with dinner with some of our best friends. Chris requested a long time favorite restaurant  near where we went to college, Angelo and Vinci's.

His parents drove down to attend a cross country meet which made it so we could go out on his actual birthday.

*Several days later, the four of us celebrated at Gourmet Pizza. Brando. Yum.

Kind of cool to think that we've been together now almost half his life. Happy birthday to my sweet, unselfish, SUPER funny husband!!!

*Yesterday was a Costco trip. Kendall is NOT a fan of Costco. To sweeten the deal, I let her bring the quad girls along. :)

*Chris and I are watching the entire series of The Office for the third time. How timely that this podcast was just released and I LOVE it!!

recycle

*Cameron is deep into his cross country season. I will only be able to make one of his meets due to when they are and how far they are away, but luckily Chris gets to go to all of them and my parents cheered him on last week.

*I love Halloween and taking the kids out trick-or-treating is always such a highlight, but I'm the worst when it comes to creative costumes. Cam has been a hiker the past few years and this year he'll wear his cycling outfit (or "kit" as the pro's call it). Not very creative! A hat and some black/orange tights will complete Kendall's outfit this year. Not too hard;)

*Costco trip last week. The kids waited several minutes for some cinnamon buns. They reported it was well worth the wait. 

*Friday was an especially draining day at work. Fridays are "IEP days" in which we schedule all of our meetings. While they went really well, being "on" for most of the day is mentally draining and I was so ready to just relax and not have to talk. Several times the thought of my relaxing Saturday morning helped get me through. So while Chris took Cam to a practice, I was in heaven with Kendall drinking my coffee and watching our current TV series we are into, When Calls the Heart. 

When Cam got back, my dad arrived and they left for a bike ride. He stayed a little longer afterward and helped them sort their cans. They each made $16!

time share

 *My parents were able to rent one of their friend's time share condos in La Jolla for the week. Since we can't all six fit, the four of us stayed there this weekend and my parents will head down tomorrow. We just got back a couple hours ago and had such a fun stay!

Our complex was right across the street from some tide pools, which we walked to as soon as we got there.

Friday night we walked to a delicious taco place and ate outside.

Saturday morning we headed to the beach. It was a beautiful day!

That night we VERY briefly discussed a few restaurant options, but then obviously ended up at our favorite, The Cheesecake Factory. :)

Not pictured were some fun times down in the Jacuzzi. The kids had it all to themselves every time we went. My favorite was our last night, when we all took down our ice cream bowls and sat and talked. :)

Thanks, mom and dad, for sharing your place with us!!