Christmas: at the Beach House

Christmas this year involved 30 people, all under one roof. There were 2 Crapo parents, 8 Crapo siblings (I'm number 6), 7 spouses, 12 Grandkids (4 were babies under 1 year old) and 1 awesome uncle. Since my parent's house can not accommodate that many people, they rented a larger house near the beach for the week so we could all stay together.

We were some of the first people to arrive, so we got first pick on bedrooms. (hehe)

Things got a little crazy at times having so many people together, but it was sooo much fun. I think we made a pretty magical Christmas for the kids.

My sister Julie created a lot of that magic. She collected Christmas bedtime stories, one to be unwrapped and read each night to all the kids.

She made ginger bread houses and men for the kids.

Her husband Christian helped the kids decorate.

The kids loved being able to hang out together all day, playing games...

...and playing light sabers with uncle Mark.

There was a piano in the house and my little brother Joseph brought his guitar. 

We sat around the fireplace many nights singing Christmas carols while I played and Joseph strummed.

Connor was often found walking around in the kitchen begging for food.

He was very moody and clingy the entire trip. Then I noticed the day after Christmas that he had a molar coming in! I was expecting several more teeth to show up before seeing a molar. And then in the next 7 days, molars 2, 3 and 4 popped up. Four molars in one week! No wonder he was grumpy. (But if you ask my mom, she'll still say he was a perfect, sweet angel the whole time.)

He sure was:

Christmas Eve was spent at my Uncle and Aunt's house. They always throw a big Christmas Eve shindig with lots of food, followed by singing and chimes.

That's me in the yellow shirt in the back of the picture, playing the piano.

 The singing goes pretty late into the night, so our boys were worn out and ready for bed.

 On Christmas morning, we woke up to find stockings for all the grandkids.

 All the kids explored their stockings, and then it was present time!

We got lots of great things, just what we wanted, and the kids got plenty of toys.

Connor was surrounded by toys and boxes, but all he wanted was some Rice Chex.

Here is our whole group on Christmas day.

 It was so fun to see all of our family again. Being in Indiana, we don't get to see very much of them, so we had a blast being together again.

And we had a wonderful Christmas.

Next up is our trip to Denver!

Christmas in California: Aquarium and Alcatraz

We went to California for Christmas this year to be with my parents and siblings. We had some presents to each other to open before we left, but we weren't quite sure when to open them, so we started pretty early in December. Our thought process went something like this "Open them the day before we leave? That'll be a busy day with packing. How 'bout the weekend before? We could... there's nothing special about December 15th though. Any day we open them won't be Christmas, so we might as well pick any day. And we need the UPC code for the mail-in rebate on that already wrapped box... so December 3rd it is!"

 We only opened one on the 3rd. It was a new TV (the one with the mail-in rebate).

We made it part of our Family Home Evening lesson. We talked about the Christmas story and the wise men bringing gifts and why we give gifts to each other. And we saved another present for the next weeks FHE lesson. Some nights, we used opening a present as a bribe to get Dallin to eat his dinner. That child has never swallowed whole chunks of food so willingly.

We used their eagerness to open presents to our advantage. On the airplane ride to California, we wrapped some cheap dollar store toys for them to open on the plane.

When they we getting squirmy and didn't want to sit quietly any longer, we broke out a present and that bought us a little more time.

As has become a tradition when visiting my parents, we went to Monterey Bay.

We ate lunch at the Fish Hopper and Dallin enjoyed making Grandma color his menu

Connor had pizza.

We went to the aquarium next. Dallin's favorite part is definitely the splash tank.

We visited the beach a few times on our trip (In the few hours that it wasn't raining).

Connor found a stick and was using it to scoop sand into his mouth. Yummy.

Mckay and I got to go to Alcatraz with a few other family members while the kids stayed at home with Grandma.

Here we are on the boat heading for the island.

It was a pretty cool tour and I'm glad we went. They had pretty strict rules for the prisoners there. This was my favorite one:

"You are entitled to food, clothing, shelter and medical attention. Anything else you get is a privilege."

I am so hanging this up in my kids' room someday.

More on our trip coming up...

The Park and the Beach

We went to San Francisco on Saturday and stopped by the Golden Gate Park. There was an awesome slide there and Dallin went down many times. First with aunt Katie.

 And finally with me.

Mckay successfully climbed to the top of the structure!

 Mckay and Dallin in a spinning seat.

Dallin wanted to bury Connor in the sand.

 I don't think Connor would have appreciated it.

While we were in San Francisco, we also went to Ghirardelli Square for some huge ice cream sundaes, and then down Lombard street directly afterwards. Maybe not the best combination.

(photo source: wikipedia)

On Tuesday we joined my uncles Mark and Brian for lunch at Togo's.

 Dallin loves Mark.

Then we went to the beach near my where we parents lived 25 years ago. We drove by the first house I lived in. At the beach, we were jealous of this sweet ride.

Connor was scared of the waves.

Every time they came towards him, he grabbed onto grandma very tightly and looked away.

Dallin stood cautiously by the waves.

 I don't think he was scared, just not a huge fan of the cold water.

 He preferred playing in the sand.

He buried our feet in the sand.

Connor was much happier once he was safely on dry ground.

 You may be wondering where Joseph was this whole time. He was building this:

I think a big wave washed it away 5 minutes later.

The Mission and Aquarium

On Monday we visited the Mission San Juan Bautista.

 Mckay and Joseph forgot to consult each other on wardrobe that day and they both wore orange shirts with khaki shorts.

I couldn't keep them apart all day.

It was really neat looking around the mission, seeing the gardens, architecture, and the giant pot where they cooked the children.

 Totally kidding. I'm actually not sure what the pot was for (possibly candle making?), but Dallin liked being inside it.

The chapel was really old and cool looking. Of course, no building named after John the Baptist would be complete without a painting of the baptism, a water basin, and a dove suspended over head on a chain and pulleys.

From there, we went to Monterey and got lunch at Louie Linguini's. The fried artichoke hearts were amazing.

 Even Mckay ate them. He said, "You can make anything delicious by deep frying it and serving it with a chipotle ranch sauce."

Dallin would pick off the fried batter and eat the artichokes straight. He definitely has some California blood in him.

Then we moved on to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

 Dallin was mesmerized by all the tanks of sea creatures.

Connor had a pretty good time sitting the stroller and eating his shoes.

 Mom and Joseph dueling with dolphin flippers.

 There is a room with a domed clear glass wall and ceiling. A huge amount of water is dumped on it and you watch it fall down the sides.

Dallin had to be holding onto someone every time the water came crashing down. He was fascinated by it, but also just a little scared of it. 

Getting ready for the splash.

We admired the giant octopus. I'm sure it could have eaten all of us.

There was a pool where you could touch the sea life.

We chatted with the aquarium worker by the touch pool for a minute while Dallin continued playing in the water. After a minute we noticed that Dallin had collected all the nearby abalone shells and nested them inside each other, from biggest to smallest.

 

I don't know if I've mentioned before, but he LOVES anything that nests, stacks or fits inside another thing.

 He is so smart. And tidy.