This is Part One of my Christmas post about our AWESOME Christmas in Spokane Washington. We haven't gotten together with the Smith family for Christmas for 15 years! It was time. My sister, Kelly, and her family live in Spokane, so we bought tickets back in October to go for Christmas. My parents came and my brother and his daughter came too. It was so great!
We went sledding the last day we were in Spokane after all the other family had gone home. It snowed the night before so it was a perfect day for sledding!
It took a few hours for all of us to find clothes for playin' in the snow...
we thought we had come prepared! But no. We ended up borrowing some essentials from Kelly's friend (thank you Lexie!)
This was Sophie's third time playing in snow, and again, I found her eating it up. We had to remind her about the yellow stuff.
Even Crew came in his car seat. (Crew, can I have your eyelashes??)
Matt probably made the most runs...even if it meant pulling cousins uphill afterwards.
This is Matt after he and I hit some powder and inhaled and swallowed all kinds of snow.
Matt and Uncle Jordan had a bit of a snow fight at the end of our sledding...I remember snow wash days at recess. YUCK.
But they liked it so its all good.
I am NOT a camper so this was a crash course in roughing it for me! We went to the Hoover Dam, dropped in our canoes and began an overnight 12 mile canoe trip...and it was awesome! Matt (above) jumped off a 40 foot (just a guess) cliff - thankfully I didn't watch - I just get to enjoy the image. TOO SCARY!
I got a great arm/back workout - WOW I am sore. Loved it!
Alex and Steve paddled with Sophie in the middle - Sophie got a bit overheated during the last 3 miles and required wet towel blankets and lots of water. It was 95 degrees day one and 100 the next day. HOT.
We stopped along the way and hiked up to see hot springs and caves. It was really great.
Here are the cliff jumpers...
Matt tried this one before his 40 foot drop.
Brad took Sophie for her first cliff jumping experience.
Alex was a little nervous, but she did it! This was definitely a learning experience for me. I want to do it all over again so I can pack right this time (more water - less clothing) Live and learn!
I am still catching up from summer vacation on here and today I am home from church not feeling that great, so I thought I would do a catch up summer post. This summer, my neice, Sydney, and my parents came so Syd could go to girl's camp with Alex. When the family comes in town, and if we pick up in LA, we usually stop over here so the kids can play around looking at the hand/feet prints.
Michael Jackson's star wasn't hard to find.
I like coming here because we go to Dee Dee Rees after - bring on the ice cream!
While we were in Spokane, the kids wanted to make some money. Bring on the lemonade stand! They didn't get many takers, but it was worth setting up just to see the kids beckon the drivers to come by lemonade. So cute.
