Big Bear 2011- Day 2

Friday was an exciting day in Big Bear. Everyone that hadn't arrived the day before, made their way up the mountain on this day.

It was so much fun to wake-up with our friends...



Olivia had the BEST bead-head EVERY morning!





All of our meals were community meals. Each meal had a team...and a team captain. I was team captain for Friday morning breakfast. It was nice to get our responsibility of prepping a meal done first thing. We were then free to enjoy the rest of our vacation, just eating everyone else's meals. :0)

I had made homemade cinnamon rolls...



And Sarah and Danielle made bacon and eggs...



It truly was a delicious feast!



Josh (brother to Danielle, and father to baby Eliana, and Olivia...and to Ava...but Ava hasn't been in these pictures yet) enjoying the eats!..



After breakfast, we played in the snow!









There were snowball fights...







There was building of snowmen...





And then there was sledding...



After the snow, some enjoyed hot chocolate (with peppermint marshmallows)...



And some (Me and Bea) enjoyed a NAP! This trip was a trip of LATE nights with adults, and EARLY mornings with children. Naps were essential!

Bea and I woke up to the smell of lunch brewing. Friday lunch was a Chili Cook-off...and then the Friday Lunch Team contributed the cornbread and other Chili "accessories".



The competitors were my sister Jenni, my mom, my Auntie Veronica, and my stepmom.



The competition was CLOSE, but Jenni came out on top! :0)



The kids weren't impressed with chili...PB&J's all the way for them! :0)



And even with all of the amazing meals, there was always more room for snacks! The kids had the goods!







When the kids weren't eating...or playing in the snow...they were playing pool...



A serious game of pool...



A VERY serious game of pool... ;0)



The ladies went shopping in the village (Me, Jenni, Kari, Michelle, Danielle & Barbara)...



"Look what I bought with my spending money Sam"...



Shopping buddies...



Back at the cabin, there was time to just chill with the ones you love.

Barbara with her son Josh, and daughter Danielle...



Cousin Luke and his beautiful daughter Sophia...



Cousin Rebecca and my cousin-in-law Sarah...



And there was time for silliness.

My adorable nephew Trevor...



And Wyatt gave grandpa (my dad) a "tail"...



The Friday Dinner Team were prepping to grill us up some grub!



Eating our dinner...



Last year in Big Bear, we had the privilege of celebrating Wyatt's birthday with all of our family. But this year, our Big Bear trip fell on someone else's birthday... Miss Kailey! I can remember just like it was yesterday when my cousin Brandon introduced us to his lovely daughter 12 years ago...I swaddled her TIGHTLY in a blanket, we nick-named her "Moses", and then I held her for HOURS! Happy Birthday Kailey!!!



After the kids were put to bed, we played games into the wee hours, and enjoyed a "Christmas Cocktail"...



Many more memories and laughter still ahead. :0)

Big Bear 2011- Day 1

In my younger years, my parents rarely could afford for us to go on vacations. However, there were enough scattered trips to Big Bear over the years, to make THAT feel like our family vacation spot. We always went with my mom's best friend Barbara, and her family...and I'm pretty sure we always went over the Thanksgiving Holiday.

In the last 2 years, our tradition has been re-born and our GROWING families have all gathered together in Big Bear...amongst 3 cabins...in the first weekend in December.

This year, our trip started on Thursday. And while things were sunny in our home city of San Diego, a blizzard was brewing in Big Bear!

After our snow cables were purchased, and our van was PACKED, we were headed up the mountain for 4 days!

All the while listening to Christmas Carols on our stereo, the last hour of our drive was through persistent snow fall. It was beautiful! Aaaand, a bit scary to drive in, lol.

But we finally arrived at our cabin!



The snow kept coming down all day and night...





With the storm going on outside, we mostly stayed inside.

Cuddling on the couch...



Doing old-fashioned fun...



And a more modern version of "fun"...



But when it comes to women, playing with "hair" is timeless fun!...



My mom made us many delicious espresso drinks (my fave was her egg nog latte!)...



Family kept creeping up the mountain all day/evening.

My cousin-in-law Sarah and I...



My brother Michael...



My Stepmom and I...



Last year at this time, nobody knew it, but baby Eliana was in Big Bear with us...in her mama's belly! And this year, at 3 months old, many of us got to meet her for the first time! Beatrice was especially captivated by her...







My brother's girlfriend with Eliana...



We had many laughs on this trip...and the first night was no exception. Our friend Danielle was on my team...Friday Morning Breakfast Team...and she was in charge of cooking the bacon for our breakfast the next morning...



The funny thing is, is that Danielle is a long-time vegetarian, and she has never EVER made bacon before...how is that even possible!? We told her how to lay the bacon on the pan...



And then without our direction, she began to layer more bacon on top of THAT bacon going in the opposite direction, HAHAHAHAHA!!! A rookie bacon-ator indeed!

Some of us huddled around a table for hours, ending our night...and well, starting our next morning working on a puzzle...



And after feeding in to our OCD, and riding out this puzzle until the bitter end, we finished the project at 2:30am...only to find that we were missing a single piece, UGH!!!!



A little less than half of us arrived on day 1. The following days would promise even more fun...more adventure...and more NOISE! :0)

Winter has Arrived

In school, in home, and in fun, we focused so much of our attention this week on the season of "Winter."

The kids made snowmen at our dining room table, using marshmallows and edible ink pens...











AND we got to make a snowman in ACTUAL snow!!!





But more about THAT later! :0)

The kids worked hard at making bird feeders for our feathered friends. And since Beatrice was learning about the letter "P" this week, we HAD to start off the project going old-school with Peanut Butter Pinecone Bird Feeders. :0)





And then, in an attempt to use some of the used products I have been hoarding for craft projects, we continued to go old-school and bust out some milk carton bird feeders as well!









If I don't watch out, our Home Owners Association is going to report us for hanging too much "trash" on our balcony, LOL!



Wyatt spent a lot of his free time reading our stash of Christmas books. I'm guessing that this one was his favorite for the week...



I found Wyatt reading that collection of Christmas Peanuts Comic Strips and chuckling to himself on many occasions! I even discovered him SLEEPING with the book when the tooth fairy arrived last night!

Which brings me to our next exciting event this week! On one day, Wyatt had all of his teeth on the bottom of his mouth...



And then, a few days later, he didn't...



Wyatt currently had 4 loose teeth, some obviously more loose than the others, and when he was in the bath last night, he was using his teeth to yank an accessory off one of his GI Joes, and out popped one of the less loose teeth! I was shocked...I'm glad I'm not a betting mama...that was the tooth I was expecting to come out LAST of the 4 loose teeth.

This was Wyatt's 5th tooth that he has lost so far, and this adventure of being the tooth fairy never gets old...especially when you have a funny son like mine, who continues to leave notes under his pillow for the Tooth Fairy...I love fun mail! ;0)



The Tooth Fairy promptly responded with an email to Wyatt. (Who knew the Tooth Fairy was so technilogically savvy!?)



We were busy in other ways this week.

The boys sorted toys (I think they have been "sorting" toys together for almost 7 years!)...



We played basketball together...







Wyatt continues to work on perfecting some Christmas Carols for his Christmas Eve "performance" with our family...



Ugh, I LOVE this smile!!!...



I caught Bea actually resting during quiet time this week (another smile I can't get enough of!)...



And finally, we started a new tradition. I have always wanted to do an advent calendar with the kids. But the affordable advent calendars look slightly boring to me...and the over-the-top-super-cool-creative advent calendars, are well, out of my price range. I've been telling myself to make my own over-priced advent calendar for the last 3 years...but I never do it. However, this year...I still didn't make one...but I DID find a really cool advent BOOK at our MOPS garage sale a couple of months ago! I have been so looking forward to diving in to this baby! We started reading the book on December 1st, and on each night following, there is a new story for us to read. Each of the stories focus on an aspect of Christmas...it gives GREAT DETAIL on the birth of Christ, Santa Clause, Christmas Carols, Christmas trees, Christmas Stockings, etc. It gives background on when those traditions originally started, and how those traditions have evolved over the years. VERY interesting stuff! We are all loving it!



So that's it for this week. Well, that's not it...but 4 of our 7 days were spent in Big Bear, and well, I'm gonna put those in a separate post(s). So, that's it for now. ;0)