Christmas break

Love having these kiddos home from school and the adventures we go on together, but also love the quieter days at home, too. The rest of Christmas break was filled with a little bit of both but really just great time together.

We made our annual trip downtown for the Holiday Bowl Parade which never disappoints, especially since Laura gets us grandstand seats which is a treat!  This year following the parade Nani and Poppa treated us to Filippis in Little Italy which was great!  It was so fun being downtown with so many people out and about and the food was delicious, too. 

Love these sweet girls and their bond with one another.

Hanging with Daddy on the walk after dinner.

Ella received curlers for her birthday and is loving them.  They work really well and it has been fun to see her hair so curly in the mornings.  

Look at the curls even upside down!

Julia won the Old Navy gift card in Nani's gift card game so we hit up the mall one day on the way to Nani's.  She scored with a pretty dress, a shirt and matching shirts for her and Ella, too.  

She's looking mighty old to me recently.  Bittersweet.

Hanging at the park one afternoon with Daddy.

For Poppa's birthday we did our favorite...Torrey Pines.  Always a beautiful hike and a wonderful way to spend the day!

Now if we could only get a normal picture of all of the kids...

Back to Nani and Poppa's after the hike for dinner and birthday cake!

We had a visit from Abby and Zack one afternoon which is always so wonderful!  So fun to catch up and see these kiddos together.  

We hit up the bike park one afternoon which the kids love and snuck in a selfie with Beanie.

Look at her go!

We hiked to the waterfall one day-the weather was so great over break. 

Love that this is in our neighborhood!

Joseph completed the massive Minecraft Lego set that he received on Christmas-he worked really hard at it and it's huge!

Lots of time hanging in the backyard, too.  

Lots of time at Nani and Poppa's hanging with the cousins!  So thankful for this time together with all of them.

On New Year's Day we hiked Battle Mountain which we can see from our house.  There is a cross at the top of the mountain that we can see from our bathroom and bedroom window which I just love and I've been wantting to hike to the top since we moved in.  It is a short hike but pretty steep but everyone did great.  We had quite the group as we hiked with Nani, Poppa, the Zicklers, Ozecks and the Laugesens and it was great!

Nani took the girls to see Frozen 2 and then out to lunch at Panera one day-what a special treat for them!  Poppa had the boys fishing at the same time and I don't even remember what I did for the few hours alone but I'm sure it was lovely!  

Uncle Bruce is in town!  Yay!  He came up for dinner the night before the Ozecks left to go home and it was so fun having him back in town and to get together.  We are looking forward to seeing him over the next two months.  

Incredible sunset on January 2nd to start the new year off!