Red Robin...yummm!!

I love hanging out in Seattle, even if it's only for an afternoon.

We made plans to hang out with some Pullman friends that were in Seattle

for Christmas break.  I miss being in Pullman/Moscow, so any chance

to be with friends we do it!

 While waiting for our friends to arrive, we walked around 

and found a fountain with bubbles!!!

 Ok, so people who actually blow bubbles cutely - I'm totally
jealous!  It didn't turn out quite as planned.... the bubbles

kinda dropped off in clumps :( 

Someday I think I'll get a "normal" picture of Spencer,
and until then...odd pictures!

 We met up with Andrea and Jason just in time for lunch

Red Robin!!! ..... Yummm!!!

It was so much fun to see them and catch up.

"I <3 U" in soap bubbles!!!!

Side Note...we also saw Jacob and Jenn and their new cute baby!!!
Unfortunately, I forgot to grab the camera.

Welcome to the Zoo!

Spencer had some vacation use 'em or lose 'em 

so we added a few days to our New Years Weekend.
Thursday we spent the day in Portland, and I loved it!

Even though it rained almost the ENTIRE time!
Thank goodness for a cute bright orange umbrella.
Most of the day we just walked around, ate out of trucks, went to IKEA, etc.

My favorite part was going to the Portland Zoo for "Zoo lights"

Downside - some animals apparently hibernate, so there weren't tons of animals.

They also shut down parts of the zoo at night, so we got there earlier so that we 

could see more of the zoo.

 I love Christmas lights! The zoo had so many it was Awesome!
I especially loved the train ride.  The train took us around the zoo 

and we saw so many lights and animals!

My favorite (and Spencer's) exhibit were the elephants.
Two of them were inside (yes, that is the rear end of one in our picture, he

got camera shy and turned around).

There were also two outside.  One of them DID NOT like the rain.
He was hiding in an alcove and ever 30 seconds would take a few steps out,

swing his trunk around and feel for the rain, and then step back. 

It was hilarious!
Spencer also had to get a picture with the Cougars.... 

So I love cities, but hate parking with a passion!
This time we parked out by the airport and paid for 

the tram.  Best idea ever! It cost about the same as finding parking

inside Portland, but less stressful and we didn't have to walk as much!

Don't worry, we walked a lot still.

After the zoo, we went to a Sports Bar "Spirit of 77", Spencer

had heard about it.  Apparently they cater to cyclists and had great reviews.

The TV screen was pretty sweet, but that's about it.
The food was not the best bar food ever and kinda disgusting.

We ended our night going to Sheri's for Pie Shakes and 

apparently on Thursdays, it's buy one get one free!! Holler!

Not that we needed two...but why not?

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam!

Last year Spencer and I taught the 6-7 year-old in primary, and we had a blast!

I loved my class!
This year they assigned me to the sunbeams all by myself.
I figured it would be easy, I was in the primary presidency once and did

a sharing time for that age group once a month. 

How hard could it be?
The first week I wanted to throw kids out the window.
I had my 3 new sunbeams plus the class older.
It was sooo crazy!!!! I had kids crying, running out of the classroom,
you name it- it probably happened.
I was worried I was teaching them how to hate church,

so this last week I decided to attempt redemption.

After asking my mom and other heroic primary teachers,

they all suggested having a box full of small activities.
That's great!...if you've had years to gather and children to pick through 

old toys, but I have neither!

 So every night I worked on some little project that we could do as a class.

I made these little "Sunbeam" sticks that have each child's picture on the other side.

It worked really well. They held up their "sunbeam" when we sang a song and I said their name

and then sang "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam"

 The next inspiration I had was to go fishing.
That was the best idea ever!!! They loved it!!
On the back of the fish was part of the lesson.
(don't mind the bobbypins - I didn't have any paperclips!)

If I thought I could get away with it, I would 

go fishing every week!

One of the sunbeams brings a doll "baby" to class every week.

"Baby" sits in a chair during sharing time and in class,
and she was very adamant that Baby needed a turn fishing!

Personally, I thought it was a very sneaky way to get two turns!

So besides stopping at the library 3 different times, meeting with the
stake president, and missing half of sharing time,
and forgetting parts of some of the activities at home (hence the visits to the library),
the class was a success!! No one ran from the room, cried, no parents had to come in, etc.
Perfect!! Now, if they would do that every week that would be awesome!

If you have any ideas for Sunbeams, let me know!

Big Christmas!

Every year we switch between the McLain family and the Drolette family.
This year was Spencer's family's year.
It was really fun and awesome memories!

 Due to work schedules, we opened our stockings
at midnight on Christmas eve/Christmas.  It was such a blast!!
Please notice, due to my stocking being so small...I got two!!

 This year we really wanted to do ugly Christmas sweaters
for the family Christmas card.  What a goofy family!

On Christmas day, we went to church and afterwards

to Grandma D's house for lunch/brunch and open 

presents from Grandma D and Aunt Michelle and Uncle Brian.
Then we stopped at Grandpa Monson's so he could show off 

his new house and give him his Christmas stocking.
Once Kenzie got home from work, we opened Santa presents

and presents from Mom and Dad.
I received a piano lamp!!!! Super stoked!

That night the boys decided to pull an all nighter

and play video games.  I snapped this pic around 5 am (when I got up to turn off the lights)

pretty sure they saved the game and fell asleep right there.

All in all it was a blast of a weekend! I loved how we dragged out Christmas

all day!  It definitely wore us out though lol!

Little Christmas

I love Christmas!!!

And I love opening presents!!

Because we live away from family,

we have our own little Christmas a few days

before the big day, so we can open our stockings and presents from each other.

 Presenting our little tree!!!
Someday we will have a big one...sigh...

 Please note the difference in sizes between my stocking (the snowman on the floor) 

and Spencer's (the stocking on the bottom left)  His is HUGE!! and really

hard to fill...

Even on a small budget, Spencer got me some sweet stuff!
A black jacket (we bought it later), Audrey Hepburn Calendar, bathroom stuff.
We also opened presents from my family that we had received during Thanksgiving when we were home.
For Spencer's Christmas present we went to a Gavin Degraw concert.
I printed out some pictures from the concert and put them in a frame so he'd have
something to open.  And then filled his stocking with oranges (and other small items since he doesn't like sweet stuff)!!!

I love Christmas!!!

Best Room in the House!

Since we're cheap and I don't like to use heat, we spend a lot of time in rooms that can have closed doors.

I couldn't help but snap a picture of Spencer actually hanging out 

in my craft room with me!!!

(Pretty sure he's on the ESPN website, but baby steps right?)

I do love that husband of mine!!!