December Part I Great Wolf Lodge

For those who are receiving emails of our blog, I'm terribly sorry for all the blog posts that you are receiving from me today.  I've written a few before our vacation to Universal studios and just haven't published them.  Now with us just chillin' around the house and relaxing (ahhh), I have some help with Ronin and this is my chance.

The first part of December we got lucky again and got my other sister to visit us.  All we had to do was being cute and she wanted to visit us.  I guess we just cause feelings in people that they didn't know they had.  I got a call from my sister around Thanksgiving saying she had just booked a flight to visit us.  Her husband couldn't take any more days off but she could.  She works as a Physician Assistant just twice a week and her schedule is very flexible.  She wanted the boys to play together since they are close in age so she booked her flight for a whole week.  I was stoked!

Ronin and Zachary started out nice and friendly.  They played together well and we were very happy.  We did a few local things and mostly just hung out until the kids got tired of each other. Ronin started getting a little fiesty about sharing his toys.

Thao loved baking and the girls made cookies with her

The tackles began

A few days went by and it was time to drive to Centralia Washington for some fun.  We drove an hour and a half to a place called GREAT WOLF LODGE.  It is an indoor water park and it was so much fun.

My best friend came also.  She and her whole family stayed one night just like us.  They have been here before and know about all the fun things to do throughout the water park.  Great Wolf Lodge is a family place so there were a tons of games for the kids to do.  They had wands and magical places for them to use the wands.  We had a great night and day here.

Pictures really don't do the justice for this place.  They decorated this so pretty.  The kids loved snow land and all the snowflakes.

Guess who showed up again?  Thuyen!!  She missed the kids and booked another flight to Seattle again.  We love her. She went out of her way to come see the kids.  It made them so happy

I had the time of my life!  Can't believe how much I love water parks

We took Thuyen to Snoflake lane to see the Christmas lights

We also took her to Festival of the Nativities that our church put on every year and like every year, it was phenomenal

At the end of Thao and Thuyen's visit, my brother came, and then my sister Thanh and her husband Alex came for Christmas.  After a few days rest we went to San Francisco and then drove all the way down to L,A where we went to Universal Studios. Our next post will include that adventure.  I convinced Dan that it would be fun to drive to Vegas to see his parents and that is where we are now. See you on the next blog!

November

November felt like it was a long time ago.  So much has happened since November 1st.  If it wasn't for my phone storing all the pictures I snapped throughout the month, I would have a really hard time jotting my memory.  Ronin is now a pro walker by this point.  He is thinning out.  Too much running around the house.

 The first part of our November was taking the family into Seattle for some Philly Cheese Steaks at Tat's.  According to Dan who has eaten here a few times, Tats is the closest comparison to Philly Cheese Steaks from philly.

 I bought a membership with the Argosy cruise ship line a while back and we finally got around to aboarding the Argosy cruise line with the family.  The membership is for a year.  We will be taking a few family members on this ship when they visit

 We found a place that has such yummy gelato.  Who cares that it's cold outside.  PCC has the best gelato around.

 Stevens in Walla Walla
   Relationships are a two way ordeal.  The Frasers have visited us numerous of times and it was our turn to visit them.   Walla Walla is a very small town that consists of a college and many many vineyards.  If you don't drink wine or attend college, there is nothing there for you.  But lucky us our besties are there.  We love visiting them.  They make us feel so welcome and we are very much ourselves there.  My friend JoLynn knows how much her husband loves Pho, a Vietnamese noodle soup.  But her attempt to make them was not very successful due to not having the ingredients available in her little town.  So when I came I brought with me the ingredients and then bought some fresh meat there and got to work.  We had a wonderful time eating Pho and walking around their neighborhood for some incredibly beautiful scenery.  We loved our weekend with the Frasers and our kids loved their time with friends as well. 

 November is a time to reflect on the things we are grateful for.  We had some cold days and some of our plants died so it was time to trim the plants and re mulch.  I attempted a few times but with a baby it made it hard to get everything all done in 1-2 days.  I decided it was best if we hire someone to finish the yard.  I felt very grateful for his hard work while my girls and I were inside crafting in our nice comfy pj's

 

 I started missing theaters a lot so I decided to start volunteering again.

 Thanksgiving
  Thanksgiving this year was at Dan's cousins Dave's house.  Everyone brought some food and the kids had a blast.  We all sat in the living room and cheered on the Seahawks for making it to the playoffs again.  Go HAWKS!

I converted another friend to liking Pho.  Now she is addicted!

 

I got Christmas cards sent out early this year!  That felt so good.  Onto Christmas shopping on Amazon for the rest of November