The dynamic doctoring duo.
As an only boy with a domineering and older sister, Sam gets roped into lots of activities that Kate isn't old enough for. It reminds me of how I created boy barbies out of girls by chopping their hair and dressing them in ugly clothes because my parents wouldn't let me have a Ken. Since Morgan doesn't have a girl close in age, she creates one.
They are particularly fond of makeovers.
Fall on its last legs.
Our gorgeous view.
Kate and her side-show attraction hair. It's well past her shoulders now when straight.
Getting much more confident on her feet.
To celebrate 40 years of marriage, Erik's parents took the whole crew on a trip to Florida. And as is our experience with TSA, they chose to examine the person who would be most inconvenienced. Poor Larry got to hold himself up while they did a very thorough pat down - and because Larry technically could do it on his own they wouldn't let anyone help him stand. He was good natured as always but we were pretty irritated.
All the cousins in their matching Christmas outfits. We must have taken a million pictures and this is the best I got. It's so sweet that they are such good friends when they only see each other once or twice a year.
On one of our first days there we all went to Disneyland and lived to regret it. Turns out it's not such a happy place when the park is so crowded you can't even turn around and the line for the BATHROOM is 20 minutes. Don't get me started on lines for actual rides. Morgan and I endured 2 hours in line just to meet Anna and Elsa.
The next day we stayed at home to recuperate and the kids had a far better time playing in the pool all day.
Happy birthday to me.
We decided to risk SeaWorld even after our bad theme park experience, and it was lovely. Minimal lines and better for our wide variety in ages. Here we are passing time in our longest line by playing Go Fish. I was so prepared.
Before we left, we hit Cape Canaveral and the beach. We had to drag the kids out of the surf. Lesson learned - skip expensive entertainments and just let the kids play together.
We returned from sunny Florida to snow everywhere. The kids were so thrilled - one week swimming, next week shoveling. And we've been shoveling ever since.
