A Trip to Yakima

The Monday after Christmas we headed down to Yakima for a few days. All of Peter's siblings and their families were in town visiting. There was a lot of things planned during our stay: Cliff's 60th birthday, our niece Joci's 9th birthday, our nephew Eldon's baptism, family pictures, a white elephant party, and a big surprise was revealed! We had a great visit, considering there were 12 adults, 15 kids, and 4 dogs! :)

Packed and ready for the drive down

Chewie making himself comfortable in his favorite spot in the car

We arrived at the house. Sheeba was very excited to be out of the car to stretch her legs, and to be loved by all the kids in the house!

Boys opening a gift from Mama and Papa (binoculars and flashlight!)

I got spoiled with a new Donald Duck figurine!!!!!

Alice loved being Kristjan's buddy

Poor Chewie, he was constantly getting snow balls stuck to him. He looks diseased LOL

That blurry blob in the pic is Alice. She LOVED being tossed around by her Uncle Peter, as you can clearly hear at the end of the video her saying "again".

Tad didn't want to be left out in the fun 

There were plenty of laughs when playing Pie in the Face and Beanboozled

 Clifford and Howard spent time together playing football out in the snow (burrr!!!)

 Here's Alice again using Uncle Peter as a jungle gym

 Tuesday morning Eric and Jessica with their kids arrived. Peter and Eric showed off their beards 

 And then the two went straight into talking about the new Star Wars movie. That lasted quite awhile.

 Kristjan and Emma helping Dee make a sign to take to the airport with them when they pick up Marie and Scott ("Welcome Back Uncle Scott with your mail-order bride"....gotta love the teasing LOL)

 Boys enjoying dinner with one another

 Rebecca also took a liking to Uncle Peter. She was his buddy as well during our visit

Wishing Papa a Happy Birthday!

 Wednesday morning...family picture day! These are my pics I took. Can't wait to see the professional copies!

(the kids were well behaved during the entire photo shoot. the adults on the other hand.....LOL)

Taking a break from frosting cupcakes to snap a pic with Emma!

 Eldon's Baptism!

Papa received some (funny) gifts from friends

Wearing off the sugar from the cupcakes with a game of basketball

 Tad ALSO loved hanging out with Uncle Peter

Kristjan loves being around all the little babies

 Peter introducing Holden and Alice to Star Wars. He explained every scene to them when they had questions. (cute side story here: when Rebecca tried getting up on Peter's lap, Alice was not happy in the beginning that she had share her Uncle Peter)

Happy Birthday Joci!

Here's Rebecca working on falling asleep on Peter's shoulders

 White Elephant time! We did one game for the kids, and one for the adults. Both were a lot of fun, but it was really entertaining watching the kids play. Some of the younger kids had a few disappointed looks on their faces, but no tears and all were good sports. There were lots of laughs during the adult one too. I ended up with two gifts, thanks to Peter getting stuck with a purse!

 This was the highlight. We actually brought the gift. We knew when buying it that it would generate a fun reaction.

Dee got this for Travis. I'm totally getting one for Clifford :)

 Tad hamming it up for the camera

 Uncle Steve having story time with the kids

Peter and I left for home on New Years Eve. Both boys and Sheeba stayed down in Yakima a little longer. Sheeba was such a good girl with the little kids that were left visiting (the second pic is Sheeba with Alice napping under the blanket)

And lastly.....I mentioned there was a big surprise revealed while we visited. Actually, Peter and I were one of the few in the "know". We've known since the beginning of December. Cliff had called and talked to Peter while he was at work about this, then Cliff ended up calling me as well to tell me. I couldn't believe it!!! I had to remind myself while on the phone to not scream in excitement over the receiver. I mean, I've dreamed of doing this since I was a little girl. At the end of the day when Peter came home from work, I think I barely lasted 3 minutes of him coming into the house before I excitedly started jumping up & down in the kitchen, squealing that I knew too!! However, we had to keep the secret to ourselves, so Mama and Papa could surprise the boys (and everyone else). So we watched what we said to one another in front of the boys. And I even made secret boards on Pinterest so I could start planning.

Fast forward to the day we arrived in Yakima. We had the boys sit together and they read the little piece of paper explaining the gift, which was.........

A TRIP TO DISNEYLAND AND/OR LEGO LAND!!!!!!

Once they fully comprehended what it was, they were all smiles. [I took video of the boys' reactions, but, unfortunately, the video is too large to upload on here. I'll try putting a copy up on my Facebook.] 

 As each family arrived at the house, they were given the same envelope with the same piece of paper. I believe Marie was the only other person who knew about this like us, and Roxcy & Dee's families found out on Xmas. So that left Eric and Jessica, who were the last to arrive. I LOVE the expression on Jessica's face.