Maggie's Christmas Ballet Recital

Maggie had her in-class Christmas recital for her little ballet class this week.  She was so cute and has greatly improved over the past year.  

Plies in 2nd position

Battements across the floor

November Wrap-up

Evelyn was so excited to play in the snow on the day of the first real snowfall

Jared had a snake on his face from a Cub Scout Carnival.  

Jared has been working soooo hard on the piano lately.  He just finished level 2 and has begun level 3 in the Bastien books.  Here he is playing a simplified form of The Entertainer, several days before I passed it off.  

This picture was taken on the last Sunday in November.  Grandma Stout bought the girls cute new Christmas dresses, and Jared reluctantly agreed to wear his suit jacket.  I see he is not wearing the tie, however.

Maggie is a superb reader now and isn't too bad with her phonetic spelling, either:

Alan and I went to an adult masquerade ball in November for a birthday party for Alan's friend Jeremy.  We had fun dressing up (I wore my old choir dress from high school.) Darth Vader came as a special guest.  He was so tall, and the voice-changer in his mask was extremely realistic!

 A couple of days after Thanksgiving we met up for dinner with two of Alan's best friends from high school and their wives, Ammon and Jes, and Matt and Kat.  It was super fun to catch up with them again.

Vacation to Washington

Wow, 2015 has definitely been the year of vacations for us!  We took one last trip this year.  We drove the 12 1/2 hours to go visit Alan's other dad and step-mom in Washington for Thanksgiving break. Jared and Maggie both missed two additional days of school so we could make the trip a bit longer.  It was definitely worth it.  Well, we had never driven farther than Yellowstone with our kids before, so this certainly was an adventure.  We spent a night in a hotel in Boise on both the way there and the way back, so that made the drive a bit more manageable.  (We also got to go swimming in the hotel's toasty indoor swimming pool--bonus!)

One day we drove to Seattle and then took the ferry to Bainbridge Island to meet up with Alan's cousin and best friend Ben and his family.  I was excited to meet their newest baby, Henry!

On the ferry to Bainbridge Island.  It was super cold, but Evelyn especially loved being on the boat!!

 We enjoyed crepes at a yummy restaurant with Ben and Jamie and then did some window shopping at the cute stores.

 One boutique we went to had a pet bunny hopping around.  Maggie and Evy loved petting it.

Alan and Dr. Benny Boy.  We miss them now that they live in Washington.  

I tried to get a good picture of the night lights while we were on the ferry back to Seattle.  Blurry.

Our new Christmas ornament--the Bainbridge Island ferry!  Thanks, Ben!

The next day we took the walking tour of the Seattle underground.  As a quick background, Seattle burned to the ground in the late 1880's, and when they rebuilt the city, they made "street level" up one floor from where it had previously been (to fix flooding issues and plumbing issues).  But the current sidewalks are hollow underneath, and now you can walk below and see remains of old hotels and other things.  It was extremely interesting for adults, but very boring for Maggie and Evelyn.  I thought I took several pictures, but it looks like there is just two.  Ha ha.

In front of an old store-front

This is an old sink and toilet.  Jared was attempting a photo-bomb.

 Kent and Janice have Wall-E and Eva robots that interact with each other.  The kids loved playing with them.

Silly pictures Alan must have taken on his phone???

Alan's bro. Paul and Court joined us for Thanksgiving day, as well as Kent and Janice's son Brett and his fiancee.  We had a delicious turkey dinner.  Yum! I was sad I didn't get any leftovers, because we left the day after Thanksgiving to come back home.

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We mostly had a great time visiting with Kent and Janice.  We miss them already and can't wait to see them again!

Silly faces

4. Out of the Mouths of Babes

• We spent the night in a Best Western hotel on the way to Washington for Thanksgiving. When we had breakfast in the hotel the next morning, Maggie tasted some 2% milk--we usually just do skim--Maggie exclaimed, "It tastes so white!"
• During the same breakfast mentioned above, Maggie requested poison berry syrup for her waffle. "No Maggie, it's boysenberry, not poison berry."
• On a related note, Jenny and I had to laugh when Evelyn requested buckleberry ice cream at the local sweets shop in Snoqualmie. "No, Evy, it's huckleberry, not buckleberry."
• While staying at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house the week of Thanksgiving, our kids watched far more movies than they ought to have done. But whatever. Evelyn especially enjoyed watching the American classic film "The Lizard of Oz."
• Jared can say a few select words and phrases in various languages and, as a result, is convinced that he is fluent in all of them: Spanish, English, Portuguese, German, Snakelish, and Snakese. Presumably those last two languages are spoken by snakes, including his stuffed animals, who are named Slither (rather appropriately named) and Bob (rather randomly named). 
• Maggie, not to be outdone by Jared's linguistic abilities, informed us that she can speak Spanish, Portuguese, and Nice Witch Language. I'm not sure what Nice Witch Language sounds like, but that is the language commonly spoken by... nice witches. By the way, she was "born a nice witch."

Happy Halloween!

The day before Halloween we went to the parade at Jared and Maggie's school.  Evelyn wanted to wear her costume, too.  

Waiting for the parade to start

Maggie was so excited to see us!

Cute Jared--he wasn't allowed to bring his light saber to school

This was one of the only pictures we got from our pumpkin party at my brother's house.  Maggie decorated her pumpkin with stickers.

 These two pictures were taken right before trick or treating with Daddy.

Jared was Luke Skywalker

Maggie was Tinkerbell--she was a little sad I made her wear a long-sleeved shirt on underneath her dress.

Evelyn was a tiger

We had a fun Halloween.  We took our kids to see the movie Inside Out during the day.  It was such a treat to take them to the theater, since we hardly ever go there.  We also went trick-or-treating at Alan's work the day before.  It was fun to have Evy be big enough this year to enjoy everything.

3. Out of the Mouths of Babes

• After Evelyn tooted, she covered her diaper with her hands and said, "I'm plugging mine bum."
• Before Evelyn's nap the other day, she and I walked around the house for about 10 minutes looking for her favorite blanket. She started to cry a little and said, "We're NEVER going to find it!"
• Maggie is pretty good at reading and also likes to try spelling words: "elfnt, grraff, frzen."  However, she almost got "windoo" correct, and she always gets 3-letter words right.
• We told Jared that we bought tickets in advance to go see what Jared calls "Star Wars...Episode VII...The Force Awakens" (with pauses) next month. He asked, "Now which of the three levels of theaters are we going to? The top level like the Cinemark, the middle level like the Water Gardens, or the bottom level like the 'sticky shoe?'" He and Alan joked that it was like the Celestial Kingdom, Terrestrial Kingdom, and Telestial Kingdom.  Actually, the sticky shoe is more like outer darkness.  :) Don't worry, we got tickets to the Celestial Kingdom Theater.  
• Alan was trying to have Maggie explain to our home teachers about our method of having the kids listen to General Conference--we provide a list of churchy words that they are to listen for, and if they hear one they can pick a treat.  Well, Maggie knows just the right things to say--she told the Home Teachers that she listened to ALL the General Conference words, not just the special words.  And when Alan asked her what happened after she heard a special word, Maggie said "I felt the Holy Ghost" (rather than saying, "I get to pick a treat.")
• Here is a note from Maggie that she wrote here at home after a primary lesson on service: "Der Mom an dad I am gwwee to srv yw by meken duzrt." Translation: "Dear Mom and Dad, I am going to serve you by making dessert." 
• Jared recently wrote a report on snails for school that started, "The answers to snail mysteries lie here." 
• Jared wrote a report on at the end of 2nd grade on octopuses. Here are a couple of word-for-word snippets with grammatical and punctuation preserved from the original manuscript: "Octopuses have multiple defenses. It can camouflage itself by changing color or texture. It can also sting and give you a poison bite that can kill a baby. However, its most used and well-known defense is its pitch-black ink spray. This defense confuses its predators for a brief amount of time so the octopus can make a clean getaway." Also, "Their largest and most dangerous predator is the whale. A whale has a big mouth, but an octopus has its defenses. So, a whale tries to eat the octopus, but, the octopus stings and the whale howls in pain this is why people say 'don't mess with an octopus.' "
• Today, for the first time, Maggie stuffed her chest (as all little girls will do at some point). However, she used a yo-yo and only stuffed one side.  She kept saying to me, "Mommy, did you know I grew a breast?" Yup, just one.  

Mexico Trip

In October, we took an amazing trip to the Yucatan Peninsula with most of Alan's family.  Alan's parents were so generous to pay for accommodations, so we just had to get new passports and pay for airfare and personal expenses.  Even though we had already maxed out on our vacation budget this year, it was just a deal we couldn't pass up!  We loved hanging out with the Stouts (even Alan's sister flew out from NY to meet us all there!) and doing so many fun things.

Alan's parents convinced us to bring Jared along since he is getting to be such a grown-up, big kid.  He really enjoyed seeing all the Mayan ruins, swimming, and playing games with his aunts and uncles.  Alan's sister Rachel and her new husband Justin definitely get the Aunt and Uncle of the Year Award for staying at our home and taking care of Maggie and Evelyn for EIGHT DAYS.  Whew.   I am actually surprised how well the girls did while we were gone.  I had so much anxiety about leaving them and lost tons of sleep in the few weeks leading up to our trip, but we got to Skype with them a lot of days and talk with them on the phone.  Evelyn hasn't even been clingy since we got back, like I assumed she would be.  And Rachel and Justin were so cute with the girls, took them out to eat a couple times, and planned fun activities with them ALL WHILE MANAGING THEIR COLLEGE CLASSES AND HOMEWORK.  Wow.  Talk about an amazing couple!  We are so grateful for them.  

I need to get pictures of the whole group together from one of Alan's sister, but I haven't gotten them yet.  But here is a pretty good idea of how big our group was.  We were eating at a yummy restaurant near Tulum:

Here are some of the highlights from the trip, in no particular order:

• We got to see three Mayan ruin sites--Chichen Itza, Coba, and Tulum
• We went swimming in a pool called a cenote that was inside a cave (complete with bats flying above our heads!)  It was named Xkeken--pronounced shke-ken.  I forgot to take pictures, but here is a picture I found on the internet of it.  It was beautiful, and we had the whole cenote to ourselves!

• We got to see brand new baby sea turtles and release them into the ocean that was right behind our hotel.  I was kind of freaked out to pick one up, but now I wish I had.  :) They were so tiny, about the side of a deck of cards!
• We went to sacrament meeting in a Spanish ward.  The members were so nice to us and many came up to us to shake our hands.  I really loved it, even though I don't know any Spanish.
• We stayed in a fabulous resort called the Grand Mayan.  We, of course, had to try out all the different swimming pools.  I especially loved playing volleyball with the family in the pool.  (Everyone is bad playing volleyball in the water so I didn't feel so bad about my lack of skills.) It rained every single day of our trip except for the last day we were there.  That day was BEAUTIFUL.  I am so glad that the weather cleared up for that last day.  :)
• I loved trying lots of authentic Mexican food.  Alan was in heaven, of course.
• One of Alan's highlights was going scuba diving near Cozumel Island with some of his siblings.  He hadn't been since he was 17, but he said everything came back so easily and now he is itching to go again soon.  
• I loved seeing the beach.  There were rules that we couldn't swim in the water, but it was fun to wade in it a bit.  Jared loved building small sand castles and watching them be washed away by the waves.  This was his very first time being to a beach in his life (that he can remember--I guess he had been to one when he was 9 months old.)
• (And, as a little cherry on top, it was pretty cool to get a glimpse of Bill Nye the Science Guy in the Houston airport on our way home.  Alan's siblings totally had to convince me that it was him, and I still wasn't convinced until I saw someone go up to him to take a selfie with him.  Even Jared knows who Bill Nye is because he has seen episodes at school!)

Well, here are all my pictures.  I will see if I can organize them a bit.

These first few were taken at our hotel in Cancun, the first night we were there:  

View from the beach to the back of our hotel

View from the balcony of our room

Alan and Jared walk along the beach

Jared's first time on the beach!

So pretty.  I think Jared took this picture.

Pretty sun breaking through the clouds

Turtle egg shells!  We saw the baby turtles late the night before.

These next pictures are all from Chichen Itza, which was the most famous ruin site we went to.  

El Castillo, the most famous landmark.  It has 91 steps on each side.  

Side view of El Castillo

Jared loved the feathered serpents on the temples

There were also lots of carvings of jaguars

Jared and Uncle Mason

Another building at Chichen Itza

Detail of carvings on a pillar

The Observatory at Chichen Itza, where the Maya people would look at the movements of the stars

Another cool structure

Jared found this carving that looks like a tic-tac-toe game!

A cool tunnel

This is the Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza.  The people threw sacrifices and precious jewels in the cenote.  

Yes, we were here together!

 These next ones are from a ruin called Coba.  I forgot my camera, so these are all phone pictures.  I really liked Coba because the jungle hadn't been cleared away.  We had to rent bicycles to get around.  We also got to climb to the top of one of the temples and look out over the tops of the trees.

In front of the temple we got to climb up

The view from the top!

Most of us rented bikes, but this was how Grandpa Stout and Jared got around:  someone biked them around in this cart

This was part of the sports arena

Cool tunnel

These last ruin pictures are from Tulum, which was right on the coast.  It had a pretty beach behind it.  

We have our swim clothes on underneath because we were hoping to swim at the beach. Alas, it rained on us.  :)

Jared in front of an iguana.  We saw lots of these guys.

Jared and Grandma in front of the beach at Tulum

A selfie attempt

 I helped Jared write a report for school on these three ruin sites, so we did learn some interesting facts about them.  I won't share them with you here.  :)

These last pictures were taken at the resort.

Jared and Aunt Marilyn and Grandma

Jared and I under a cabana by the beach

Jared building small sand castles

Whew!  What a fun trip!