Christmas in Missouri

We celebrated Christmas a little early this year. Chelsea, the kids, and I went to Missouri for a week to hang out with the fam and celebrate the holidays. My mom had lots of fun things planned to keep Karlee (and the rest of us) entertained. It was probably the busiest week we've ever had in Cape, and we had such a good time.

There's a new place in town, Discovery Playhouse. Not sure who had more fun...Karlee or my mom.

Karson is getting so big and smiley. I think these pictures are SO cute!

They had everything for a real store including the checkout. Pretty impressive.

Karlee and Ashley in the big firetruck

Bowling (see previous post)

Ashley and I took Karlee to the park. She didn't care that it was freezing out there.
Swimming at the gym. Karlee loved having the boys help her play basketball, and Karson was pretty content in the water.
Gingerbread house

Making sugar cookies
Opening presents. This extended through several days. The kids needed toys to play with so they opened theirs at the start of the trip. They had so many so we saved some for when the rest of us opened them later on. Those kids (and all of us really) are so spoiled but it's just so fun to buy them stuff.
Christmas clothes. They weren't super excited about the picture taking after church. They both look so cute and so grownup in these.

Karlee is kind of a stinker with pictures but does pretty well if you tell her to strike a pose. I just love her model shots.

Mickey party (more details to come later)

Karlee was really excited about the Mickey cake even though she doesn't really look like it

We had such a fun week at home. It's always nice to see the family and so sad to leave. I came back to 3 days of work and then a 2 week break. I love my job! I'll head down to Vegas to spend Christmas with Chelsea, Jeff, and the kids.

BOWLING

We're all in Missouri for an early Christmas. Today's fun activity was family bowling. Karlee went bowling in Vegas a while ago and loved it. Unfortunately Dad couldn't come, but the rest of us were there. Jake was the top scorer out of all of us, and I might have had the lowest score. Bowling probably isn't my sport, but it was a fun time with the fam.

Zach showing off his skills

Chelsea in action

this picture of my mom is so funny. she actually got a spare with this shot.

Karlee is definitely the cutest little bowler. She got so excited when it was her turn.

for some reason i think i need to throw the ball.

group shots

Holiday Fun

I love all the fun holiday activities.

Friday night some friends got together to make gingerbread houses. I showed up a little late so mostly just watched and enjoyed being with friends.

Anna and Patty had a little trouble with their house.

Saturday I finally made it to Festival of Trees. I want to go every year, but it never quite works out. Beth got a pretty big group of people together to go on Saturday night. The trees were amazing. I can't believe how much time, effort, and resources go into the whole event. It was really neat to see and a fun time with friends.

I fly home Tuesday for an early Christmas with the fam. I can't even wait!

Shutterfly

Remember when scrapbooking was an art?!? Ok so it still is, but sometimes there's just not enough time. I never thought I would go digital, but here I am 5 books later. I love Shutterfly for everything digital. Their photo books are great, and their cards are so cute...especially their holiday cards this year. Check out their photo christmas cards.  I ordered some cards last year and loved them so much. I've seen some really cute cards for other special occasions too (birthday cards) and  (invitations). I've tried a few other companies, and Shutterfly is my favorite. There are enough ideas so you don't have to think too much and enough options for a little creative freedom. The best part is Shutterfly is doing a promotion this year to get the word out about their holiday cards. Check it out HERE. The emails for addresses have already started, and I even have one hanging up (nice job Chelsea on getting them done early). I better get going or at least start collecting addresses. Now the questions...which card do i pick? what pictures do i use to highlight the year? so many things to think about.

Thanksgiving Weekend

I went down to St. George for Thanksgiving weekend. I managed to avoid the blizzard weather by going down Wednesday-Saturday. It was a pretty low key weekend spent at Grandma and Grandpa's house with Chelsea and family. We did a little shopping and played with the kids and just hung out. It was a great weekend.

Karlee loved playing outside even though she was freezing. Jeff raked the leaves and Karlee loved jumping in them.

Malea gave Karson his first haircut

Karlee got a new coat for winter and did a little modeling for me

Girls Night...Melting Pot

A couple weeks Melting Pot was doing ladies night out so Kristi got a group of us together to go. It was so much fun! There was a little misunderstanding with what was included in the night, but the manager was nice and thanks to Kristi we got dessert too. The food was so yummy and we had a great time! Thanks Kristi for always planning fun things for us.

26.2...NYC version

It seems like Generation Gap has been planning the NYC trip/marathon for almost a year. We all signed up this past March, and thanks to Sharon and her connections we all got in. Training for this marathon was weird because it was only 5 weeks after the St. George marathon. The longest run in between was 15 miles so I felt sort of unprepared even though I was prepared. I started freaking out a few days before.

I went to the race expo pretty much right when I got in town. As soon as I walked in the door of the expo. There were people everywhere, and it was huge. It made me nervous but also really excited too.

Race day started pretty early considering the late start time of the race. We left the apartments at 6:30 to take the subway to the Staten Island Ferry as our assigned time of 7:30. Even though that was 3 hours before our start time we didn't stand around nearly as much as I thought we would. It was so great having the whole group there. By the time the race started, the group had separated a little, but there were still several of us starting together. It made it that much more exciting.

The race was AMAZING! It started on Staten Island, ran through all the burroughs, and ended in Central Park. There were over 40,000 runners and so many spectators. The energy from the crowd was great. There was so much entertainment and so much to look at during the race. I didn't get bored at all the whole time. I pretty much ran the whole race by myself with some flip flopping with Sharon. I loved this marathon. It was such an amazing experience, and I feel so lucky I had the opportunity to do it.

cute sign Laurann made for me

race expo


part of Generation Gap in the apartment and subway station

Judy and Chad in the subway. we met up with Teresa and Brynn

om the Staten Island ferry

on Staten Island pre-race



mile 16. Judy saw Shawnie and JoAnn who came to cheer

ladies I run with along the course



after the marathon

the next day at the finish line

NYC

I LOVE New York! It seems like there is a reason to go nearly every fall. I never get tired of it. As usual the trip was packed with lots of fun. Laurann came out for the first few days of the trip. We flew in on the red eye and wasted no time having fun.
Day 1...We arrived in NYC around 6:00 and took the subway into Manhattan. We dropped our stuff off at the apartments the running group rented. We resisted the major desire to sleep and went over to the race expo to pick up my race packet. The pre race anxiety hit as soon as we walked in the door. After the expo we went shopping in China town. We spent a couple hours and bought plenty of scarves, purses, and wallets. After shopping we went to Grand Central Station for lunch. It was CRAZY! We did a little more shopping around the hotel before going back to rest. We saw Promises Promises that night. The production was amazing, but the storyline was a little off.

race expo

lunch at Grand Central Station

we were so worn out after the show this is the only picture we got

Day 2...After our busy/productive day we decided to sleep in a little. We finally got out of the apartment in the mid morning and went to Times Square. We had an early lunch, shopped a little, and walked around. In the afternoon we went to Central Park. With the marathon the next day, I didn't really want to walk all over the park. We took a bicycle taxi around the bottom half of the park.

Times Square

in Central Park

our bicycle taxi

Day 3...marathon (more to come)

mile 16 with Sharon
Day 4...shopped and shopped and shopped and shopped and walked a lot too with Brynn, Teresa, and Jenny
Day 5...I went to Ginny's (friend from freshman year of college) apartment to visit with her and meet her darling little daughter. I did a little more shopping before flying home that night.
Ginny and Xela