Holiday Flashback

It’s already February and here I am, finally sharing some pictures from the holidays. Better late than never, right? I was very excited to have a white Christmas in Minnesota filled with loads of family time. Before we took off for Minnesota we went to the Santa Fly In on base. As expected, Will was not fazed by the guy in the red suit but Sophia was not a fan. Fortunately, she turned that frown upside down when she saw the helicopters and had fun exploring.

Our trip to Minnesota was Will’s first flight. I should have remembered from Sophia’s first flight that trying to take a picture at 6am after waking up at 3:30am never works out well, but we had to document his maiden voyage. The kids were great on the plane and Susan was a huge help. Sophia even dozed off for the last 30 minutes of the flight and didn’t flinch when we landed.

Our first stop in Minnesota was Rochester. In addition to spending time with Grandpa and Lainey, William got to meet his Great Aunt Anne and the rest of the Wiktor/Case clan. A lot of the time there was spent getting ready for THE party (which I love) and the party itself. Sophia passed out before the fun even started, hence the sleeping blonde babe in the family photo. The holidays are always filled with lots of family and fun but it was a whole new dynamic this year with three kiddos. More people, more presents and more merry!

Next we headed to Minneapolis to spend a week with Grandma and Papa D. Sophia even figured out how to say Papa during our stay; it was pretty cute. We’re still working on Grandma. Don’t worry Grandma, she’ll get there! Grandma and Papa D had lots of ideas for fun things to entertain Sophia despite the freezing cold temperatures. We went to a small indoor play area at the mall one day which Sophia loved. Another day we went to their neighborhood coffee shop which has a huge toy room. Coffee for me and toys for the kids, sounds like a win win to me. I wish we had something like that here! We celebrated a late Christmas on NYE when John and Lauren returned from Texas. As was a theme throughout our entire trip, Sophia continued to be entertained by iPhones and her cool aunt and uncle. Will wasn’t quite as impressed with the wifis.

January brought us back to California. It was sad to leave behind all our wonderful family members but I gladly welcomed the coming of 2013 and all the good things it has in store!