{Y Guides} Earning a Badge

Camden and Scott are in their 1st year of Y Guides (like Boy Scouts).  To earn a badge, one of their projects is to cook a meal for their mom/wife.  This includes shopping for the food, cooking it, and cleaning up afterwards!  If anyone know Scott well, I was treated like a queen!

Menu + Camden's special smiley salad for me!

Scott coaching Camden on cooking!

 

{New Years Day} Hike

We never really do anything for New Years Eve/New Years Day.  This year we decided to start a family tradition on New Years Eve of taking the kids to a movie and then to dinner!  The kids loved it...well so did Scott and I!  On New Years Day we went to Jordan Lake for a hike and a picnic!

Trail #1 started out really fun, then we ran into a bit of a problem...flooded trail!

Luckily, we were only about 1/2 mile into it so we turned around, found a good spot for a picnic lunch and relaxed!

Next, we found trail #2!

 

Found the perfect spot to take a snack/dessert break!

And everyone finished our New Years Day Hike with a smile!  What a great way to start 2014!!! 

 

{Our Little} Year in Review

Normally for New Years we make a list of our Top 10 moments of that year.  This year, I thought we'd do it a little differently and make a video of ALL of our moments!  (Sorry in advance for it being blurry ~ it won't post the higher quality version...boo!)

 

 

{Great Wolf Lodge} at Christmas

Here are some pics from our stay at Great Wolf Lodge!

Our Room

 

MagiQuest - Camden's Fav

Story time ~ Bexley's fav.  Camden skipped this and continued MagiQuest!

At the end of story time they made it snow!  Bexley stayed like this until it was done snowing!

{We're going to} Great Wolf Lodge!

Scott and I must really, really, really love our children because our Christmas gift to them was a night at Great Wolf  Lodge.  Scott and I really do not love anything about this place, but our kids talk about it all the time since their 1st visit back in May!  We wrapped up their MagiQwest wands - another thing about GWL that we love (insert sarcasm here!) and a certificate saying "Merry Christmas!  Pack your bags because tomorrow we are going to Great Wolf Lodge!"  They loved it so much and once you see the video you will understand why we are "taking one for the team" to bring them back there!

{Elfie's Last Day} 2013

Elfie's last day with us was extra special!!!  He did something he has never done before.  He left an extra special note...you'll have to read it for yourself, but the kids couldn't believe what he did in the last paragraph of it!  We just love our little elf!

{Merry Christmas!}

We had a great Christmas this year!  The kids were super happy to get their bikes from Santa, but I think they were more excited with the gift from us...a night at Great Wolf Lodge the day after Christmas!!!  (Video coming soon!)  We had a great day of relaxing and playing with our new things!  At bedtime, Bexley asked if Elfie was coming the next day ~ guess she misses him already!

Christmas morning...1st look!

Great Wolf Lodge present ~ hugs, jumping up and down, and almost tears of joy!

Riding our new bikes!

Shooting our new BB Gun, but only after an hour long "safety session with Daddy"

 

Christmas Dinner Menu ~ nothing new or fancy about the food, but I actually wrote out (in chalk) the menu.  Normally, I would head down to the local Office Depot and get it printed out.  I'm pretty proud of myself for how it turned out!

 

{Merry Christmas} Eve!

We had a lot of fun today.  1st we were able to Skype with Grandma Sherry and Grandpa Al to open presents they had sent us!  This is a Hurst tradition of opening gifts on Christmas Eve (Such a good tradition for a impatient girl like me!)

Then we got our Reindeer Feed spread on the front yard!

Then we opened 1 present from Scott & I.  Christmas pj's, hot cocoa and popcorn for our movie tonight!

Then we set out our set out our cookies and milk for Santa!

{Elfie} Week 3

 

{Cole Christmas} Celebration!

We always love getting together with Scott's parents and this year for Christmas we were able to make everyone's schedule work by doing it before Christmas!  (A bonus for the kids as they were able to open a gift and not have to wait for Christmas!)  The kids spent the night the day before we celebrated and a special little elf made a visit there too!!!