Christmas Vacation

We had a nice vacation Christmas vacation down south the past week and a half. We ended up getting an earlier start than expected because of the serious snow storm up north. The drive usually takes 6 hours, it took us over 10. Ari was a trooper and slept most of the way. We were grateful to arrive safely at Grandma and Grandpas.

Grandpa set up a train under the tree for the girls to play with. Ari was not really that fond of it. Every time it came around the tree, she started to whine.








We had a great time with Ari's cousins Jana and Kara. Here is Kara and Arianna with Grandpa.


A cute face while sitting on Grandpa's lap

And showing off for the family. She can already balance a basketball on her head.


We had a wonderful vacation spending quality time with the family. Highlights included: basketball and football viewing, air mattress sledding, cookie making and frosting, geo challenge, scene it, guillotine playing, movie watching, and lots and lots of laughs.

Biggest Snowstorm Ever in the History of the World

We have been slacking on our picture taking and haven't taken many pictures of Ari recently, but this morning we did snap some pictures of the insane amount of snow that has fallen. We got, as the weather lady said, between 24 inches and 2 feet of snow at our house. The whole city was pretty much shut down. My shoveling piles are already as big as they were last year and we've only had one storm. Not a good sign.

Las Vegas

Over the weekend, we went to Las Vegas to celebrate Auntie Corrina's 21st Birthday. What a weekend it was. We started out at Margaritaville for dinner on Friday night. The whole crew was there, including our cousins from Phoenix. It was really fun to be with them. Here is Corrina, with her sweet birthday balloon hat, and Serena.



Sheana, Serena, and Corrina enjoying the Birthday Sudae
Ah, sisters. (We don't have enough of these pictures) We were ready for a night on the town.


I'll spare us the humiliation of pictures from later that night from being broadcast to the world. Let's just say we made it to breakfast the next morning. Albeit, a very late breakfast:




And of course, we made time for the Civil War all clad in OSU gear.
It was a really quick, but fun trip. On the way home Aunt Terry taught Ari how to play slots.

And we got home, we had to try on the boots Ari's cousins got her. She was so cute, I thought she was going to walk away in them.

Thanksgiving

We had a fun Thanksgiving at my parent's house. Ari had her first taste of baby food turkey, and she kind of liked it. We were off to Vegas the next day, so it was pretty low key. We didn't get a whole lot of pictures of Ari, but we managed to snap a few:

She's been making funny faces when we pull out the camera because of the flash. The funny thing is that even if it doesn't flash, she makes the bitter beer face in anticipation.

we got a few cute ones too:)

Clappy Clapper

Fun Pics

One night last week Ari refused to go to bed. She was exhausted, but wouldn't let her eyes close. Eventually the eyes decided they were going to close shop for the night and she fell asleep in a really funny position on Mommy.



She also had a tiny mohawk after a a bath. We took a million pictures because she has no hair and this is the best we could come up with.

West Side Visit

A week ago we made a trip to the West Side to visit Aunt K and a large portion of the E side of the family. We went to Mommy's favorite restaurant. It's a little Italian restaurant called Machiavelli. We met Aunt K an C for a nice dinner. Ari loved playing with the spoons at the restaurant and looking out the big windows at all the people walking by the restaurant. Machiavelli doesn't have any high chairs so we all took turn sitting Ari on their lap while the other people ate.

Aunt K and C in front of Machiavelli



After dinner we headed down to Gramps and G's house for the remainder of the weekend. The whole family was able to meet there and it was awesome to see everyone and the cousins had a great time with each other.

Grandpa and Gramps getting some time with Ari



Aunt M and Aunt J getting up close and personal with Ari



I always think it's hilarious how young kids will just stare at each other. Kara and Ari did a fair amount of staring while they were playing. Ari and Kara had a lot of fun watching Jana entertain everyone. Here they are on the floor sharing some toys.



At one point we managed to gather the cousins together for a group photo.



Cousin Max also visited and he joined the girls with Aunt L for a photo op.



Grandma and Ari.



And of course we can't forget that we all cheered on the Oregon State Beavers to victory on Saturday. Didn't get a picture of that one, but we were all focused.