New Years and Home

 Claire

When we woke up on Saturday and told her we were leaving she said she didn't want to leave nana because she would be lonely and it was sweet. She has had so much fun with our vacation and got to be close to her cousins again which I love seeing. I'm slightly glad we had to stay longer because of the weather because we were able to have one more party with the cousins that live in Idaho. The two girls helped me make the fruit pizza by spreading the cream cheese frosting and the fruit all over the big cookie. If we lived closer she would probably have a best friend in her cousin that is close to her age, she doesn't often play with people her age. I love that she has enough understanding to listen to me even though she will ask why and try to change my mind by giving me other "newdeas" (ideas).

Shay

She has eaten a lot of the candy off their gingerbread houses and then started biting the house to get more. There has been a lot of times she has played by herself during this trip and made her own entertainment and I don't know why! Even when we go over to the cousin's house she was playing on her own in one room while everyone else was in other places. Maybe it comes from always being with her sister and wanting some alone time? There is also more of a case of the terrible twos when she tantrums and just yells and screams with no calming down. I've learned that as long as she is far enough into her tantrum if I can get her to come close to me I can calm her down with hugs and cuddles. The first few times were in the car as we were leaving places and it is hard to have her screaming in such a small area and there was no consoling her. I hope she grows out of it soon!

Lava

We went to the Lava Hot Springs indoor pool with the girls as our end-of-the-year celebration and they were very excited. First, we went to eat and they could not stop asking to go swimming and trying to run away as we were talking to friends and eating. Once we got there they were very good at listening, and even though it was packed, they had a lot of fun. Shay found this ball that we kept trying to figure out who originally owned it, but no one claimed it so she kept it the entire time there, and now it is her souvenir. Chris and I got to be in the hot tub part a few times, but since the girls wanted to come too we couldn't stay in very long or it would have been bad for them. Claire surprised us by going all the way in up to her neck and not being bothered by how warm it was!

6 Years

Chris and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary this week on Friday and got to go shooting while the weather was sunny and clear. We went through a whole box of clay pigeons and a lot of shotgun bullets! The snow cushioned the fall of some of the clays that misfired or we missed and was able to reuse a good number of them. Our shotgun holds 6 rounds and I was able to do 5 out of the 6 one time which was very satisfying! He was way better than me but I feel like I was getting at least half of my shots once I got the hang of the sight and my shoulder doesn't even hurt. I also celebrated our new year by starting to read our old e-mail conversation from when we first started talking, but I didn't get far into it and will have to keep going when we are back home and I have more free time. We packed up a lot of our stuff to prepare for travel on the 1st and tried to watch Black Beauty with everyone but the kids were too noisy to get all the conversations.