Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Washington DC.

After the snow had mostly melted Kenny and Jenny took us to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. We drove the scenic route and took the Jamestown Ferry to get to Williamsburg. It was a fun surprise for us. We had no idea we were going to be riding on a ferry that day. Adam and the kids got out and explored while we were on the water. It was really fun. The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever.

On the Jamestown Ferry.

The kids loved it!

The kids at Busch Gardens. Busch Gardens has a special Christmas Lights theme during the winter. It was fun for the kids to ride the rides and see so many cool lights and decorations. They even had little huts everywhere that included picnic tables with heated seats!! Pretty cool for cold Moms, Dads and Grandmas.

That's Breeley flying by!

Cute kids

Happiness!

Addison and Breeley had fun riding on the rides.

Breeley, Adam and I rode on the sky ride to see all the Christmas Lights! We waited until dark to get the full effect. When we got to the line it was 40 cold

minutes long. That was way too long to stand in the cold. So I pulled the handicap card and rode my scooter to the exit to see if we could get on there. Yup! They put us right on. No waiting. At least I was good for something on the trip. :)

A blurry picture of a few of the lights.

It really was fun to see so many lights throughout the park.

The day after Busch Gardens, we drove to Washington DC.

We spent two days touring the many museums and monuments and memorials.

Pentagon next exit!

Even though the kids look a little rough from a long car ride, this is a really cool picture.

Hagen being funny with the capitol.

Here we are in front of the capitol.

Closer to the capitol.

Kenny and Breeley were having too much fun!

Breeley with Dorothy's Ruby Slippers. At the Smithsonian of American History.

Pretty stinkin' neat.

Abraham Lincoln's pocket watch. A funny story about this watch. They just discovered in 2009 that there are engravings on the inside by the people who fixed it for him. He had no idea the repairmen had engraved inside it.

Abell at the Washington Monument.

Hagen

Addison

and Breeley.

The White House is behind them.

This is the World War II monument. I believe Adam told me that each of these gold stars represents 10 soldier that died during the war. It was amazing.

At the Lincoln Monument!!!

Addison standing next to his Birthday Buddy. Addison loves Abraham Lincoln! It was super neat to be able to take him here. Addison was so happy!

Part of the Vietnam War Memorial. This was special to us because Papa served in Vietnam. We are so thankful his name is not on the wall.

The sunset that welcomed us back to Norfolk.

We had an amazing two days in Washington DC.

and an amazing day in Williamsburg.

We are so thankful that we were able to take the kids on this trip. It was so much fun to be with Kenny and Jenny for Christmas. But to be able to take the kids to see so many things on the east coast was just amazing.

Kentucky (State #1)

North Carolina (State #2)

South Carolina (State #3)

Georgia (State #4)
Virginia (State #5)

Maryland (State #6)

Washington DC (#7)

We are so blessed!

Thanks Kenny and Jenny for letting us crash your Christmas and keeping us so entertained. It was the best ever and we miss you guys so much!

Christmas in Virginia

After leaving Charleston we drove up to Norfolk Virgina (State #4). It was about a six hour drive but we had a lot of fun. The kids were good to keep themselves entertained with everything they had packed in their backpacks. We were all really excited to get to Norfolk!
Our Christmas gift to the kids was the trip. Which they were all very happy with. But we assured them that santa would find them in Virginia. Since we had spent the week in a hotel with no Christmas tree and while we were doing things in warm South Carolina we didn't really see many Christmas decorations. It was kinda hard to feel like it was Christmas time. It felt so much like a vacation. While we were driving to Virginia, we were talking about we were going to do when we got there and Addison said... "Santa is coming tonight? Like we get there and will go to sleep and santa will come tonight?" It was really funny that he didn't realize it was Christmas Eve.
Kenny and Jenny had a fun Christmas eve planned. There was the Perkins family there, an elderly sister from their ward and the missionaries to spend time with. Jenny had a ton of fun food to eat. Then we watched a video the missionaries brought and Kenny read a neat story Jenny had found.
The kids opened their traditional Christmas eve gifts of pajama's and were tucked into bed.

It was perfect!

Santa did find us!

Look at all those stockings!
Hagen received Fifa 11. Can you tell he was excited?

Addison received a new DSi.

He was kinda happy!

Addison and Breeley received new hoodie jackets.

They were so happy, they danced!

Addison received Super Scribblenauts. He was pretty excited!

Hagen received new Strikers Warm-ups and new goalie gloves.

He was really surprised and happy!

Addison received a new encyclopedia.

It's an encyclopedia of science.

Breeley opened her biggest present first...

She danced!

She ran around in circles!

and then did it all again!

When she recieved her new American Girl doll.

She loved her.

Abell was surprised when he opened his present.
.

He recieved a guitar.

Breeley loves "Sophie"!

She is figuring out her earings.

Abell loved playing his guitar all day!

Oh look, she is holding the doll.

Adam and Abell had a great day spending time together.

Addison loved hanging out all day too!

And this my dear friends, is the last time she held the doll.

We spent the day hanging out playing with the new toys and spending time with Kenny, Jenny, Kenyon and Beckam. Later that night Kathy flew in. We were all really excited for her to get there. It was a great day.

Christmas night it started to snow.

(It doesn't snow in Norfolk Virginia)

It snowed almost all day the next day.

It was crazy.

They canceled church!

The entire city shut down.

It was crazy.

We spent the next couple days relaxing and just spending time together.

It was super fun!

The week before Christmas

This year for Christmas we went on a big trip. We left on December 19th and were gone until January 2 of 2011! We flew into Charlotte, North Carolina (State #1) and then drove to South Carolina (State #2). Adam spends a lot of time working in South Carolina and we have contemplated moving there so we thought it would be a good idea to take the kids there so they can see it and feel it. Adam needed to work during the first week so we were kinda just tagging along. Adam needed to work in Augusta Georgia (State #3) on Monday so we went along. We were able to go into his center and meet all the people that Adam works with there and then we left Adam at work and we went on an adventure! We drove around Augusta seeing the sights! There are not a lot of sights to see in Augusta. We saw the headquarters of Solo Plastic cups. They have a huge cup in the front of the building. We also saw some other neat things. Once we were done exploring, we went to the mall and waited for Adam to be done working.
The next few days Adam worked in Columbia South Carolina and the kids and I hung out at the hotel. The kids swam, played in the gym, watched tv, played their DS, and we went on walks. Well actually the kids walked and I scootered! No fun! No fun going on a two week trip and having to pack a scooter due to a broken ankle. :( When Adam was done working each night he took us to his favorite restaurants, and showed us the sights of Columbia.
Once Adam was done working on Thursday we drove the kids to Charleston. Adam and I are in love with Charleston. It is such an amazing place. The views are incredible and the atmosphere is too. We got in too late to sight see on Thursday which was disappointing. But we did get up and get going early on Friday (Christmas Eve!) so we could show the kids all the things we love about Charleston. Once we were done we got on the road and headed for the real vacation!!!

Spending Christmas with Kenny, Jenny, Kenyon and Beckam!!

The next day...

• The next day, I slipped on ice in my driveway and broke my ankle.
• I had a Harry Potter foot.
• A trip to the emergency room determined I had broken my ankle, dislocated my ankle and tore the ligament.
• I had surgery that day.
• The doctor put a plate and seven screws in my ankle. OUCH!
• I stayed in the hospital over night.
• Luckily Adam was able to cancel his work trip and work from home all month long.
• He took over for me.
• Ran car pools, cooked meals, ran kids to soccer, basketball, dance, and tumbling. Went grocery shopping, helped me with everything. I mean everything!
• I went to the doctor two and a half weeks later and things look good.
• Still have to go another four weeks with no weight on it.
• All in all he said it will be 12 weeks of casts/walking boots and such.
• But I got a cool little scooter thing to use instead of the darn crutches.
• AND
• a handicap parking tag!
• It's the little things that make me happy! :)
• It hasn't been hurting much.
• Nothing a Tylonel PM can't make feel better. :)
• It's not been fun.
• Sitting around the entire month of December.
• But through it all, every single need has been met.
• Adam has taken such good care of me.
• We had ELEVEN meals brought in from friends and family.
• Everything that needed to be done was done by someone.
• I have been blessed.
• I have definitely been blessed.
• Just counting down the days until March gets here!
• About 64 days to go.....

Hagen's Soccer Tournament

We went to St. George for Thanksgiving this year. Hagen's soccer team "The Strikers" signed up to play in a tournament on Friday and Saturday. We thought that since the kids were out of school on Wednesday we would make a bigger trip of it and spend a few extra days playing in nice sunny St. George. We had been planning this trip for several months and right off had decided to take our trailer with us so we could use it one more time this year, cook our own breakfasts and lunches easier, and most of all, take LulaKate. It just seemed like a great idea!
The "Great Blizzard" arrived on Tuesday and really wasn't so great, so it didn't really change our plans except give us colder weather to deal with. It made parents and grandparents really worried though!
Long story short we had a great drive down to St. George. We stayed at a really nice campsite area right in the middle of town. Spent some great time together just hanging out as a family. Went to a Dinosaur Museam, went shopping at the outlets, played Set (a new math game the boys have been playing at school). Adam and I even walked to a movie theater that was right next to our campground area and saw Harry Potter.
The soccer tournament started on Friday and Hagen's team did great. Hagen was able to play goalie for the entire time so he was very excited to practice and prove his goalie skills. They played two games on Friday and won both of them. Hagen only let in one goal in each game! Since posting pictures on blogger is way time consuming and it still wont work sometimes, I can only get one pic to post of him as goalie.

The first of potentially three games on Saturday turned out different. In the first 10 minutes there was a play that Hagen bravely jumped into to stop the ball and he got kicked in his hand. I happened to be standing right there very near when it happened (taking pictures). Hagen grabbed his hand and started rolling around on the ground like it was hurt pretty bad. I took off his glove (which is very nice and has lots of added protection built in) and his hand was hurting pretty bad. He went and sat on the side lines and Adam and I tried to not coddle and baby him so he would mabe toughin it up and go back out there to play. Hagen was the only goalie for the team. He did put his gloves back on and Adam threw a couple of balls to him and the second one was too painful. It was clear, he was done for the game. It was a fierce game against a team from Logan (that we have played before) and it ended tied at 0 to 0.

We took him to an instacare after the game and x rays were taken to prove the worst. He had broken two bones in his hand. My pictures are out of order, but I took a picture of the x ray with my phone. See below! A hard/soft cast was put on his arm and ordered to be done with soccer for the rest of the tournament. His hand was hurting pretty bad, so Hagen was kinda ok with that. We did go and watch the next game though! We had to support the team!!!

The fourth game was crazy. We were both tied for first place. And as long as this game did not end up a shut out (someone with no points), we were to play them again for the final.There was a lot of bad sportsmanship from the other team. So bad in fact the refs made the entire fan section of the other team go to their cars. Long story short on this. The other team was kicked out of the tournament. And are not ever welcome back.

Our team took first place in the tournament!

Hagen was the first to recieve a gold medal since he had sacrificed the most!

His Hand!

Go Strikers!!!

Hagen and his best soccer buddy Matthew!!!

After the awards were given out, the entire team went to In & Out for dinner! It was crazy busy but all the kids had a ton of fun! Since there was another storm coming due to hit the freeway at 3 am. Most of the team decided to leave early. Like right after dinner. Instead of going home on Sunday morning. We had our trailer we were pulling (the only ones), and we thought we had better leave early too. The thought of sleeping in late on our own beds sounded so dreamy. So we went back to the campsite. Adam hooked up the trailer. I secured everything in the trailer. And we left at 8:30 pm. The drive went pretty smooth. Except when Breeley coughed so hard she threw up all over herself, and her blanket. We pulled in at about 2 am. Backed the trailer onto the driveway, off the road. Walked into the house and all went to bed.

Story to be continued tomorrow...