Sea Lion Caves

We received some free passes for Sea Lion Caves so we took a little adventure.  I'm not sure if this was Dave's favorite activity since he worked there for 4 years and spent a lot of his summers down in the smelly caves.  It was one of Milan's favorite activities....she was totally absorbed with watching the sea lions.  Eden, however, just thought it was stinky and wanted to go home. 

Eden was much happier when we were back outside :)

The beach

This year we had beautiful weather for most of our visit in Oregon so we were able to enjoy the beach a lot of different days!  We had fun walking in the sand, collecting sea shells, drawing with sticks, and of course throwing rocks!

Milan and Grandpa Bob.  They enjoyed lots of special dates while were in Oregon.

Eden and Aunt Marie.  There's definitely a family resemblance.

 Milan collecting seashells.  Milan loved every sea shell piece that she found!

 Daddy showed Milan Cattails, then her new hobby was spreading them around everywhere.

 Throwing rocks with daddy.

I took the girls to the beach on our last day while Dave was loading everything up.  We had a great time exploring, then we said bye-bye to the beach.

Christmas + Family

I didn't take any pictures on Christmas morning because I was so caught up in watching the girls revel in the magic of Santa and Christmas.  From Santa, they received bead sets and stockings full of craft stuff (including glitter glue!), Cuties, and treats.  I loved watched the girl's excitement when they saw their gifts and emptied their stockings.  Milan got super excited, explained everything to Eden, then Eden was really excited too.   

We opened gifts Christmas morning and they were very enthusiastic, but thorough little girls.  Their first gifts were baby dolls so after they opened them, we took time to take them out of the package and rock them for a while before moving on to the next gift.  

In the afternoon, we also got to see Uncle Chip, Aunt Andrea, Grandpa Bob, and Grandma RuthAnne.  We enjoyed a yummy Christmas dinner and had fun hanging out together.  

 On the 26th, we got to visit with my entire family plus my brothers' fiances family.  Everyone came out to the house and we enjoyed meeting Jessica's family, visiting, and sharing more Christmas gifts.  We had dinner together and played some fun games. 

 Some of my family rented a beach house in Florence, so we met up there the next for more hanging out.  The girls stayed up until 10:30 playing with everyone and loved every minute of it.

After we said good-bye to our visitors, the girls still got to play with Grandpa Bob for the rest of our trip.  One of their favorite games was playing with their pretend money and cash register from Christmas.

 Eden concentrated intently on playing air hockey with Grandpa Bob.

We also got to spend more time with Brynn on the way home.

Elf Clause

This year, we had a special visitor at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  An elf from the North Pole decided to watch us (from some very clever spots) and report our behavior to Santa Clause.  Milan named her Elf Clause and it was very exciting to see her new hiding spot every morning.

Newport Aquarium

Last year, Grandma and Grandpa Scott bought an annual pass to the Newport Aquarium so we were excited to visit again this year!  Inside, we got to see jelly fish, frogs, sea horses, snakes, and obviously lots of fish.

Milan REALLY wanted to see an octopus so we headed outside.  It was perfect timing because the octopus came out from behind the rock so that we could see him for a couple of minutes.  The girls also got to do a hands-on area....they were pretty timid at first, then got excited to touch Sea Stars and all the squishy stuff. We also got to see some excited seals,  get close to a sea lion, and watch the Puffins play and dive through the water.....it was seriously perfect timing!

 The whole gang!

Horsies

Eden made friends with the horsies next door to grandma and grandpa's house.  Turns out, they like carrots! 

I think the girls may have enjoyed their own personal horsie even more though!  Grandpa sure was a good sport!

Nutcracker

Milan and grandma went on a special date to the Nutcracker.  Milan got to wear a fancy dress and stay up until ten o'clock; I think she felt pretty special!  After watching the ballet, she has begun doing interpretive dance performances in the dark for all of us.  Eden, of course, copies her sister and we are very lucky to watch such cute little dancers!