To Grandmother's House We Went!

To grandmother's house we went last week for our now annual New Year's trip with my sister and her kids. Grandma & Granddad live in the mountains - with nature - which is a lovely change for my "suburbia" children! 

Katie's job every morning is to feed the birds; they have a love/hate relationship with her..the love how much she gives them, and are scared to death of her enthusiasm as she heads towards the feeders! 

 There is a great trail behind the house with lovely views  

 4 of the 6 cousins - the other two include one who won't stand still...and the boy cousin who you will find is conspicuously absent from all the girl fun! 

 These two are thick as thieves - and have been out of their skin excited for this vacation! 

We also use this time together to celebrate Christmas - and it works out really well to extend the celebrations and gift giving a week or two longer. As the littlest cousin - she gets to go first (but notice the big cousins are standing close by to "help"!) 

 My sister is a "stitcher" too like my mom & Cami - so Cami always really appreciates the gift from her! 

I got really brave Saturday morning and took all 5 girls to Heritage Park Zoo - by myself. With all the animals and other activities - the spiderweb is their favorite part! 

 The pretty girls.....

 SHortly after I took this - I had to explain to her that the railing was to keep her away from the tiger..because as the tiger came over to see her, she was heading over the rail to see him! 

 We also took our cousins to see "Frozen"...for Cami's 4th time! I have to say, I Was reluctant to let my girls see this because the parents die (I really wish Disney would figure another way to have kids be on an adventure without either dead parents or being disobedient to their parents - but that's a post for another time!). 

Dying parents can be a trigger for kids from trauma and things have been good - no need to rock the boat! BUT - Cami really wanted to see it, so Doug took her - and it was fine. The others then went - and they were ok..so we went again, and then again, and then once more! 

A little more outdoor time - we were fortunate that while it can get cold there, it wasn't so the kids were able to be outside and enjoy all the nature comfortably (my little southern China & southern California delicate flowers!) 

To grandmother's house we went...and had a wonderful time!