Las Vegas Christmas and San Diego

After the first real snow of the season and some cold weather, we were more than ready to head west and hit Las Vegas for Christmas with my family.  We stopped in St. George, so Wade could do radio for William Penn's b-ball team and then went on to Vegas.  Whitney was such a trooper over two days of driving close to 1400 miles.  We saw lots of snowy mountains through Colorado, but were very lucky in not hitting any bad weather!

 We were able to spend a week full of fun and enjoying family in Las Vegas. We went to Hoover Dam, walked the strip, went to the Las Vegas Bowl and ate lots of yummy food!!! We saw a Knight Show, ate at the Hard Rock for Christmas.

 

And of course...we were able to celebrate Whitney's First Birthday.  She enjoyed the cupcakes a bit more than her first birthday party, but she still isn't one to just jump in and get all dirty (which I appreciate very much!!!).  We also had the chance to celebrate her first Christmas (not in the hospital) and enjoyed being super lazy with eating dinner at the Hard Rock (which she slept through the whole time!!!)

 

We headed to Idaho for a week (however...I didn't take a lot of pictures) but we did go skiing and will have to put some pictures up of Wade skiing.  It was sad to leave Idaho, but we headed back after celebrating New Year's with my parents, Jerie, and 20 of her friends.  The trip was long back, but we knew we would only have two weeks of cold before we headed for San Diego.  We were very excited about this as it had been cool in Las Vegas with lots of rain.  

In San Diego, we went to the beach, whale watching, and of course the San Diego Zoo.  With Whale Watching, we had just gotten off the plane and wanted to get right to seeing stuff.  The whales were all over the place and had a good time watching different whales on our boat.  It was amazing how big the whales really are. The next day we went to the beach.  Whitney enjoyed the sand for the first few minutes and then wanted nothing to do with getting dirty.  She did enjoy playing in the "COLD" Pacific Ocean in the waves with us!! (We really just held her as the waves hit us with her not getting wet a whole lot...but she did have a few splashes!!!)

 

The day before my parents left, we were able to go to the San Diego Zoo.  It was lots of fun seeing all the animals and watching Whitney actually see the animals and make noises and faces at them.  It was a TON of fun!!!

 

 The resort we stayed out was nice and we enjoyed the pool, playing tennis and of course spending time with my parents. It was nice to get out of the cold and snow and enjoy some 70's and 80's with lots of Sunshine!!! 

We are back in the cold winter of Iowa, but looking forward to the next few months of snow!!! Spring and Grinnell soccer season will be here soon and life will once again become crazy.  For now, we will enjoy our nights of staying cozy in our little apartment and watching Whitney grow each and every day!

Christmas and Whitney's Birthday (Steinlage Side)

Wow...it is crazy how fast time can fly and I think I am going to be really good about staying on top of this and I am not!!! :)  Thanksgiving came and went with lots of yummy food.  We spent the weekend before Thanksgiving with Wade's family, so we were home  in Oskaloosa for Turkey Day.  We were able to enjoy the day with our good friends the Leaks (Whitney's adopted Grandma George and Grandpa Heffy- his name is Jeff...but we call him Heffy!!!).  It was lots of fun with too much food, good movies and lots of being lazy!!! We couldn't go the day without Whitney trying to sneak a piece of pie...she thought she was so cute!!!

Next came getting ready for the Christmas. Since we were going to be out West for Christmas, we had Christmas and Whitney's 1st Birthday Party with Wade's family early in December. It was a lot of fun to spend a few days with them especially celebrating Whitney's "First" Christmas (really it is her second, but we were still in the hospital and she was only 2 days old...so we are going to go with this being her first!!! :)  She was spoiled way too

much with lots of gifts and toys...it filled her room to the max!!!

In between the different Christmas celebrations, we were able to use Grandpa Ron's shop and have Whitney's First Birthday Party.  Everyone braved snowy roads to join in celebrating Whitney turning 1!!! We had lots of yummy food and cake (Whitney didn't like getting all messy with her cake, so she ate it very delicately)! We have to thank Uncle Chad for helping decorate one of the cakes and taking it very serious!  Whitney again received lots of neat toys and cute clothes! She doesn't need any new toys for the rest of the year!!!

 

 Oh and we couldn't forget the crazy insane storm we had that weekend that almost had us snowed in at Ralph and Cathy's.  I love the snow and actually enjoyed digging out all the cars and driveway, but Ralph and Chad would say that I am CRAZY for that!!