2010 in Review

Ahhhh, 2010.  It was a good year!  This year brought our family many wonderful things; most notably, a smiley, happy go-lucky little boy who truly completes us.  It also saw us through a big move to Walla Walla, our first 'real' family home & my first time living in a place with four real seasons!  A hot hot summer spent dipping in the pool, a crispy clear fall spent stomping through the leaves, and our first big snow dump on Thanksgiving and then Christmas (and a first sledding experience for Hadley).   If I could use one word to sum up 2010, it would be 'home'. 

Heading into 2011 what I want most is just a simple little year for our family of four.  No new babies, no new houses, no moving, no new anything!  Just enjoying the various kiddo stages and getting settled into our new Walla life!

Happy New Year, friends!

Which way's the beach?

Our four minutes on the beach.  It was...how do I put this...Absolutely, fricken freezing.

We spent the past few days in windy, rainy, torrential downpouring Pacific City, Oregon.  So, in this case it was more like "which way's the house?" :)  All kidding aside, Pacific City was truly lovely.  We were invited by the Johnstons and the Harringtons to join them for 3 nights at a wonderful 5 bedroom (plus spacious laundry room which served as Jameson's bedroom -- kid slept better in that laundry room than he does in his room at home!) right on the beach.  

A cruel joke from nature, this picture was taken by Ange after we had already left for home!

When we set out for this trip, we figured the seven hour car ride was going to be our biggest hurdle.  So imagine our surprise when (armed with a portable DVD strapped securely to the head rest in front of Hadley and playing 'Madagascar 2' on repeat) the entire seven hour trip to the coast was a smashing success.  We figured we were golden!  Alas, the double whammy of our poor little munchkin coming down with an ear infection and the tsunami that was apparently taking place outside on the beach, we didn't get to do as much digging in the sand and splashing in the waves as we might've hoped...in fact, we figure we spent a combined total of four minutes actually on the beach.

Although the splendor of the Oregon Coast was lost on us this trip, we did manage some awesome dinners in with good friends, a trip through the Tillamook cheese factory, a couple of intense games of Trivial Pursuit and Hadley had a roaring good time with her buddy Deven:

My little Dev monster!

They did a lot of this.  And by the way, how dang cute are they?

Sadly, these 4 Blocks had to call it quits early.  While we are never ones to miss a good time, Hadley just needed to be home and judging by the numerous meltdowns we had today, I know it was the right choice.  Poor girl :(  It's no fun being sick.  Breaks my heart. 

While I can't say that the trip home was as flawless as the trip there, we did make a 2 hour stop at the Portland Children's Museum which was downright awesome!

Photo above taken out of our rapidly moving vehicle as we high tailed it for home...



We've decided to give the Coast another go next summer.  Stay tuned.

A Very Block Christmas

From left to right: Ryan, Jo, Jameson, Wyatt, Roslyn, Larry, Andy, Hadley

BLOCK

I love this picture!  We celebrated Christmas this afternoon with Andy & Ryan's dad, Larry & Jo, they were so sweet and brought the kids personalized t-shirts from Disneyland.  We had such a great time and can't wait for the next Block gathering. 

Merry Christmas!

O, Holy Night

Sitting down for the big Christmas post with peppermint (schnapps) mocha in hand, Christmas tree(s) glowing, snow on the ground outside, fondue bubbling on the stove...Christmas music blaring through the speakers...

The festivities started on Christmas Eve Eve at Vicki's house for lasagna and presents.  As usual I completely stunk at taking pictures and only got a few blurry iPhone ones :(  What we lacked in pictures, the kids made up for in presents!  We've got zooming cars, talking books, and comfy jammies coming out our ears over here.  We could stop now and I'd call this Christmas a success!

Christmas Eve morning we met up with Hadley's BFF's (Sofia & Junie) to exchange gifts.  Sofia, the fashionista, got the girls matching pink high tops (fur lined, adorable) while Hadley opted for matching pink cell phones so they can call each other any time they want.  Junie, the artsy one, of course out did us all and gave the girls homemade dolls fashioned after the 3 of them...how precious are they?!

Christmas eve our little family of four took a mini holiday hiatus to gear up for Christmas tomorrow.  We had each kid open one present and played until bedtime, Here's Hads opening her one present (picture her holding up 1 finger and saying "Just one." :)  

And, tada! It's her very own stroller!  She had 'Junie & Sofia' strapped in there in no time.

We got all snuggled in Christmas jammies and waited for the big guy to arrive....

...At which point mom & dad cooked up a big old fondue dinner (our Swiss tradition that I hope will never, ever die) -- potatoes, french bread, cornichons, apples and the like all dipped in steaming hot Swiss cheese; and watched Bad Santa.  A Christmas tradition that I always question during the first 10 minutes of the movie, but then can't seem to stop as year after year it has us in stitches. 

Christmas morning arrived and sausage, hash browns, eggs, mimosas & cinnamon rolls (sorry, Ange, not the homemade kind - I'll leave those to you) were on the menu.  We opened the first present at 7:30am and once Hadley had gone through the first few she declared herself 'all done' and it took until after noon to get through the remainder!  I think we could say her stocking stuffer (a 10 pack of lip smackers) had her just about satisfied:

Jameson was happy with just his stocking:

Once we were done with our mini Christmas, we all took naps (God, I love it when both kids nap at the same time) and woke up to head over to Vicki's for prime rib...I finally got pictures!  Hallelujah!

Andy, Hadley, Wyatt, Ryan & Michelle playing Hungry Hippo:

My adorable niece Roslyn (9.5 months):

Ros & her daddy

Great Grandpa Boldman (Vicki's Dad) with Jameson & Andy

Great Grandpa B with Jame

Poppa Bruce with Jameson

And that's all folks!  I know next year is going to be extra special since I think both kids will be closer to 'getting it', and while I don't want this year to fly by by any means, I am really looking forward to next Christmas season!

Happy Holidays, all!

Santa

It's tough work being Santa...but I think it's going to be worth it!

Hadley's Tree

Andy made Hadley her very own tree in our back yard this year.
And we're officially dreaming of a white Christmas!

Splish Splash

Hads & Junie

Things started to get wild...

Splashin'

Crazy girls!

Such a fun, impromtu pizza night with the Lewis family.  Love them.

Holiday Barrel

They may have been our last visitors of the 2010 season, but they were the first on the calendar when we moved to Walla back in June. We knew if any of our friends would enjoy Holiday Barrel weekend, it would be the Griszs! Kyle and Tarra rolled in just in time to maximize the wine weekend starting Friday night. Maddi (my favorite babysitter) was on the books Saturday from 12-5p and we made the most of it! We started at Amavi, then Saviah, Waters, Northstar and finished it out at Vintage Cellars. We were not messing around!
Saturday evening, in an attempt to soak up all that wine, we grilled some enormous Porterhouse steaks and even made Andy try a brussel sprout (Kyle, T & I all share a love for brussel sprouts.  Andy, not so much).

Grandma Vicki & Poppa Bruce even swooped in to watch the kids for a couple hours on Sunday so we could catch brunch (coupled with enormous bloody marys) before Kyle & T had to head back to Seattle.

So much fun guys, thanks for coming!!! Save the date for Spring Release weekend!

Baby Food

Beyond that adorable little face and sparkling blue eyes...there are peas everywhere. EVERYwhere. The bib got ripped off, the spoon got commandeered, his entire outfit - covered in PEAS head to toe - including my face & Hadley's hair...peas.
Is the baby food stage over yet?
Can you tell it's not my favorite?

Tannenbaum

Step One...


Step Two...

Step Three!

Pretty sure I have a future in professional Christmas tree decorating...just sayin'...

Oh Christmas Tree!

Saturday after Thanksgiving we decided it was the perfect day to pull a Clark Griswald and go pick out our first REAL Christmas tree.  What a difference from years past in Zurich putting up our fake little Charlie Brown tree...not this year, this year we are rocking an 8 foot tall Noble Fir front and center in our living room!

Klickers (same place we got our pumpkins for Halloween) does trees right, you can even snow mobile out into the field and chop a tree down if you want.  We opted for one of the already cut trees...and what a beauty!  Pictures of the finished product to come, it's on the agenda for this evening.

 

 

Turkey Trot

On Thanksgiving morning my mom and I being the crazy people that we are, layered up and threw on our running shoes to run the 2nd annual Walla Walla Turkey Trot.  It seemed a lot longer than 5K running in 16 degree snow and ice conditions, but surprisingly we weren't the only ones there, in fact there were over 300 people slipping and sliding through the streets of Walla Walla.  Hadley didn't run with us, but give her a couple years and I'm fairly confident she'll be kicking both mom & Grandma's butts in no time.

What a fun time, we'll definitely be doing this again next year!