A few days after Christmas, we rented a car in Boise and drove the few hours to spend the next two weeks of our break with the Killian's in Washington. I hadn't seen my brothers or littlest sister since we moved here 18 months ago, so I was DYING to be home. I couldn't stop looking out the windows the entire drive, because of all the wide open SPACE. it's beautiful to me and I miss it when I'm in Maine.
We stopped first at Drew and Lara's beautiful home in Richland and spent a night there. The rest of the family met us the next day for a Tri-Cities day of Chuck E. Cheese and watching the movie Frozen in the theater.
I was so happy to be with my sibs, parents, nieces, nephews, etc that I totally slacked on taking any pictures. I just enjoyed myself and didn't worry about lugging around a camera, so all I have to show for our time is a few terrible phone pics.
The cousins got along great and played for hours. About 5 days into our stay, I realized I hadn't even seen Hinder during the day since our arrival, he just played and played with Archer, Olivia, and Pierce. Fun times! Vyla loved being the with older girls, Olivia and Dakota.
The first days of our stay were gloriously leisure, lots of eating, game playing, naps, and sitting around talking and laughing. We exchanged belated Christmas gifts, and this fire pit was our combine gift to my dad. We tried it out for a few nights, but it was very cold! Hopefully it will get some good use this summer.
Natalie and I had fun making party foods for New Years and Dakota helped us out with this fruit pizza. New years eve we same and played games at the local inn and then stayed up late with many rounds of Spoono, and of course, the Times Square madness playing in the background. We all made resolutions and predictions for the new year and hid them in a Christmas decoration to find next year. At midnight, we lit sparklers and drank sparkling cider. Dakota enjoyed that most of all ;)
We spent some good time getting to know two new babies, Grace and Axel. Both are so darling and full of personalities. I hate missing out on new babies being so far away. Since we've been away, one of my brothers started his graduate school program in Athletic Training at the University of Idaho and he showcased a couple of his skills on his massage table for us. Vyla thought that table was pretty neat and relaxed on it for a while. Maybe we should consider getting one for her to sleep on permanently?!
Dallas, my youngest brother, got a model rocket for Christmas, and we decided to assemble it together that day. Little did I know what I was getting in to when we started, but it turned out to be a fun project. There were so many tiny, intricate pieces...it makes my eye twitch thinking about it! But seven hours later...we finished it!
Other highlights of the trip included: going to dinner with just married kids and our parents, and then heading to the mall for my dad's surprise shopping game (he gives each person $50 and a half hour to shop for your spouse, the closest to spending exactly $50 without going over wins. Riley only had .19 left after he bought me a necklace and running shoes. so much fun!), going to lunch with my mom, watching Dalyn and Dallas play basketball, seeing both sets of my grandparents, listening to Riley speak in the Ritzville branch, and having my brothers, father, and Grandfather Killian there to bless Ledger! What a special day!
Although we missed D'laney's family and Devon, our missionary sister serving in Houston, we thoroughly enjoyed being with everyone else. With nine brothers and sisters, being all together is a rare treasure!
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