Christmas Week!

One of our very favorite Christmas traditions is heading to San Diego for the week after Christmas. It is always filled with sunshine and awesome time to reconnect with some of our favorite people.

We always stop in St. George on the way down. Last year, we were planning on stopping for food, but found that EVERYTHING was closed, so we grabbed some pizza from Walgreen's for our Christmas dinner. I had planned on doing something different and being more prepared, but my kids begged for Walgreen's pizza again. Who needs fancy memories when you have good ones, right? 

Parker got an awesome art kit from my mom for Christmas and spent hours in the car and after perfecting these cartoon characters. Love his focus on the things he loves. 

Everyone wanted to watch sports, but I wanted to play games. James came to my rescue and we played Scrabble all night. Love my little game player!

Our drive to Cali is usually very uneventful, but this huge dust storm changed that. Luckily, Mike saw slowing on the freeway and checked google maps which led us around the closed portion of the freeway. We took side roads for miles, but it was still super scary. We were grateful to be following an ambulance with bright lights. At the worst point, I snapped a photo...literally no visibility. So grateful to be safe.

When we arrived these little buddies were so excited to see each other. They are the cutest!

We were all so happy meet little Maggie for the first time!! She is such a doll. Mike was especially smitten.

Our first night there was the adult play at Coronado. We were sad to be missing Bryce and Lora because of a sick little Tagg, but it was still great to be out together.

 

We were happy to have Chris and Tamara there with us for a few days. It was great fun to celebrate their new baby with a Romney baby shower!!

We also celebrated Christmas together! It was such a great afternoon of gift giving and receiving. So grateful for such kind and generous people in our lives...thank you Mimi and Papa!

Biggest surprise of the day was these boys getting an XBOX. Unexpected and a total shock!! So fun.

This boy LOVES dinosaurs!

Same gift every year and same, loving reaction. Makes it all worth it!

On our "Christmas Night" the kids of all ages LOVED decorating their own gingerbread men. Such a good idea...everyone gets their own and they are so easy and fun to decorate!

 

Most of the kids came with something prepared for the Romney Talent show. Jace took it very seriously and made programs, seating assignments, and tickets for it all. He did a great job!

Olivia and Mimi's Winter Wonderland was hilarious!

For the first time in quite awhile we had a Romney Family Photo shoot. Overall, it was a great success...here are a few camera phone shots...more clear ones to come. 

We LOVE heading to Sea World when we are in San Diego. It has quickly become one thing everyone looks most forward to. We chose to go on a day with iffy weather. We ended up having a great time all morning and afternoon, but then the rain started to pour around 3. The little ones and most of the adults took off, but Mike and I stayed with the big kids until we were all completely drenched and freezing...so worth it though. Sea World is magical and all the cousins get along so well there.

Jed, showing his Asian side. 

Mimi may have been just a little exhausted. 

Mike tried out a really awesome Latino Gangster look and kept it up for way too long. He is hilarious. Love that mine of mine!

 

The Torrey Pines hike has always been one of our favorites, but this time it threw us a curve ball since we decided to go at high tide. Yikes! The waves were crashing along the rocks and we were doing some serious running and acrobatics to keep ourselves minimally wet and the little ones safe. We will probably check the tide next time!

 

The kids all love their hot tub time!!!

We took a girl's day and went shopping and to lunch. Lots of fun!! Look how cute Lora looks.

These boys loved playing on the driveway and throwing some type of "bombs" at each other. Everything is fun in the sunshine!

Another tradition they all love is going to the trampoline place. With some renovations, it was even more fun this year!

We tried out Moonlight Beach but it was under construction and had a whipping wind. We were all freezing and called it quits after about an hour of play time :(

These three had a lot of tubby time. They are just such great little friends!

We had a super fun New Year's Eve night party with great games for all ages, minute to win it, puzzles, the works! Love these little people I get to ring in the New Year with!!

Our last day was our very favorite! We headed to Coronado Island on New Year's Day and it could not have been more perfect. The weather was amazing, it wasn't too crowded and the kids were so happy to finally have a great beach day. One of those days where you are just so grateful to all be sharing this little journey with each other. 

 

A delicious stop at the Candy Shop was a super sweet way to end the day!

The big boys finally got their wish and Uncle Bryce took them out to a late movie: Creed. They loved it! awesome uncle right there. And just like that, the week was over all too quickly, but we made some awesome memories along the way!