Christmas Vacation

Traveling to Washington for Christmas....holy moly what a lot of work!  We go every other year, because after we go to Washington one year, I'm all "I will NEVER do that again!"  And so the next year we stay home and after I do that for one year, I'm all, "Well that was lonely, we are so go to Washington next year."  It's a vicious cycle.  And this year was a "We are SO going to Washington year"

We decided to try flying out of Kansas City this year, since there was a direct flight.  But the day was pretty much themed with Hurry Up and Wait.
Waiting in the parking lot for a shuttle to come pick us up.  You can't travel to Washington without a fishing pole.

And apparently the UnaBomber???  Full on crazy beard and camo-clothes for hunting.  :)

Thankfully there were heaters inside the bus stop shelter.  Willow kept pretending to call for help.

I wasn't sure there could be a smaller more ridiculous airport than Wichita's, but turns out Kansas City's is about as small and ridiculous. We got to the airport 2.5 hrs before our flight, expecting crazy holiday travelers.  I guess that doesn't happen at the Kansas City airport?  We arrived 45minutes before Alaska Airlines even had people at the desk to check our bags in - I guess the whole printing off my boarding passes AND my baggage tags was unnecessary for saving time.  So, we waited....

We finally got our bags checked in and we headed over to go through security.  Well, we were early for that too.  We were there an hour before anybody from security was there to run the scanners.  Ooooooookay.  Guess we'll wait some more.

We read books, played Simon Says, walked up and down the airport like 50 times.  I always wait until we get through security to buy a bottle of water to share, but I was parched and couldn't wait anymore, so I went and grabbed a bottle.  The person who sold it to me was all, "You know you can't take that through security."  I said, "Oh I know.  I'll finish it before then."  She says, "The security gate opens in 30mins."  Obviously this woman doesn't know me.  Challenge.....Accepted.  The gate actually opened 15 minutes early and I ended up having to pound the water so I could take the bottle through and refill it.  Totally nailed it.  I may have had to use the bathroom 3 times before I got on the plane, but I'm not sure that is the point...

The flight was fast and uneventful and I must admit even for as silly as the Kansas City airport was it was so nice to not have to change planes!

We had a lot crammed into our 2 weeks of Washington time.  The next day we were heading up to Seattle to watch the Pacific Northwest Ballet's version of the Nutcracker.  This was probably what I was looking forward to the most.  The was the last year that PNB was doing this version - it's what I grew up watching and I was so excited for the kids to get to see it in person too.  We had watched it on Netflix so many times, I knew they were going to love it!  Well, I got food poisoning the night we arrived and spent the whole night between my bed and the bathroom.  So, after crying in my bed all morning and watching my family get ready, everybody loaded up in the cars and left without me.  It.  Sucked.  Bigtime.  I layed in bed sipping water, taking cat naps, and watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix and my family texted me pictures.

Jayden was pretty tired from the excitement of packing, traveling, and getting to the cousin's house.

Obviously, everyone was wiped out from our arrival!

This was my consolation prize.  I totally love it, but would of much rather watched one more performance of my most favorite Nutcracker of all times.

The next day, while I was feeling a bit weak, I was much better and we rallied the troops, packed some bags and headed to Long Beach to do some clam digging.  Clam digging is one of Royal's all time favorite things to do.  He's extremely intense and really fast so I knew if the weather was terrible we'd get a bunch of limits really fast and then we could head back to the cabin.  But the weather turned out to be perfect!  It was warm and there was no rain and absolutely no wind.  It was awesome and we managed to get limits for everybody, and the 3 big boys learned how to dig their own clams! That meant 144 clams to clean once the dig was over....totally worth it for fresh clams for Christmas Clam Chowder and a clam bake later that week....says the girl who can't stomach harvesting the clams out of their shells and always volunteers to clean up, feed, and entertain the kids.  :)

It was a night tide, so that meant head lamps and glow sticks for everybody.  You dig right on the edge of the surf, so you really want to know where your kids are at all times in case a wave comes crashing in that they don't see.

Christmas Eve!  We got ready at Kaylee's house!

Everybody gathered at Jojee's house for appetizers!

Then we went to church, then headed back to Kaylee's house for clam chowder and games!

Musical chairs for gifts!

Christmas duets!

Then Kay-kay and I showed them how it was done.  :)

Christmas morning was awesome.  Presents everywhere and people everywhere.  It was crowded and fun and exhausting and just how every Christmas morning should be.  And the rest of the days we spent with my side of the family were full of playing with all the new toys and me trying to keep track of all of our stuff and figuring out how in the world I was going to get it all back home!

We then traveled down to Kelso to spend some time with Royal's family.  It was full of hunting (no dice this year) and fishing (not much luck there either) and shopping at the Columbia store (extremely successful if you ask me!) and spending time with friends, and haircuts!
Willow chopped her hair all off again....

And then it was time to head back to Kansas and get back to real life.  Until next time Washington!!!