Ice Skating

The past 2 or 3 years we have met up with my brother Charlie to take the boys ice skating sometime over Christmas break.  This year we met up the day after before meeting up with my side of the family.  The boys had a blast!  Zane fell quite a bit, but got right back up and kept on going...he definitely improved by the end.

The place we went to had either walkers or these riding seals you could rent for the younger kids...we opted for the seal.  So glad we did.  Landon loved it and it made it so easy for me to ice skate!!  I can do decent, but I'm pretty wobbly, so it was so nice to have this crutch and Landon loved getting pushed around!

 

Christmas

WOW - I cannot believe Christmas 2015 has come and gone!  As cliche as it sounds - it's always so amazing to me that so much time, energy and money is put into something that lasts about 2 hours!  I love every minute of it, but goodness, it goes so fast!

This year the boys requests from the big guy were:
Landon - the Hotwheels Ultimate Garage
Zane - his own computer

Zane could never tell us why he wanted his own computer.  We never entertained the idea of it anyway, but were curious as to his reasons.  We have a family computer that he NEVER uses and he has an ipad which is pretty much a computer, so it was funny to hear him request that.  I did tell him that he can always ask Santa for it, but he needed to remember that you don't always get what you ask for and that Santa does have a budget :)

This year the night before the boys bunked up together in Zane's room (per their request).  I gave them some rules...they could get up whenever they wanted in the morning, but they were not to go downstairs or wake us up until 7:30.  It worked perfectly!  No idea what time they woke up, but at 7:30 on the dot, they came in to get us; it was lovely!  I let each of the boys fill a small stocking the night before for each other and while they were sleeping that night, I laid them under the tree in Zane's room - they had fun opening up those by themselves in the morning while they waited for 7:30!

Landon got his request of the Hotwheel Ultimate Garage.  Zane did not get his computer.  He did get a Chelsea soccer jersey that he wanted and we also gifted him my dad's iphone (he doesn't know it was grandpa's; Santa brought it, duh).  The reason Zane got an iphone is because it pairs with his continuous glucose monitor and will send his numbers into the cloud and we can then get them on our phones.  He will not need this feature while he's at school, but it definitely opens up a lot of opportunity for him in regards to playdates, birthday parties, sporting events etc where one of us will not be with him.  He's VERY good at managing his D when we aren't around, but he's still 8 and it's still good that we are able to keep an eye on him while he's out of our care.

After our gifts were all open, we waited for Josh's parents to arrive and the fun continued!  It was a great day and we are so thankful and blessed and hope to never take that for granted.

Zane couldn't stop sending texts out, they were so adorable!

My MIL made matching aprons for the boys!

All Counted Down

{9} Days - December 16

Make cards for teachers & nurse.

{8} Days - December 17

Visit Santa.

{7} Days - December 18

Make/Deliver Neighbor Gifts.

{6} Days - December 19

Progressive Dinner Party w/Neighbors.

{5} Days - December 20

Merry Seahawks Party.

{4} Days - December 21

Gingerbread Houses.

{3} Days - December 22

Drive around and look at lights.

{2} Days - December 23

Watch Home Alone - the boys made it about 15 mins.

{1} Day - Christmas Eve

Decorate cookies for Santa.

Another year in the books!

Pumpkin Patch

After the train ride we headed over to the pumpkin patch...pretty sure the pictures speak for themselves so I won't bore ya'll with a description :)

Train

Landon has been asking since the beginning of last summer to go on a train ride.  Funny thing...before we lived in Snoqualmie we used to drive out here for the Thomas and Santa Train every year...now that we live here...we just drive by and wave!  Well, I wasn't about to shell out the money for Thomas or Santa again since we've been there, done that...but we could go on a ride and check out the new train shed!

The train only runs through October, so I was running out of time...finally booked it for October 18th!  Landon was elated once I told him we had tickets!  The day could not get here fast enough for the little guy!

The train shed is a special stop you have to reserve and pay more for at the beginning...but so worth it.  It's where they restore the old trains.  It's only about a 30 minute stay there to look around which isn't long enough...but it gives you a good idea of what beauties these old trains can be restored into. There were only about 10 of us who got off here - so it was a pretty private tour!

Family Camp (T1D)

October 9-11 we headed up to Warm Beach in Stanwood, WA for our annual Type 1 Family Camp! I'd like to say I had tons of pictures of the boys having a blast...but because they were having such a blast, I rarely saw them to take photos!  So trust me they were there and trust me that they had a great time!

It's wonderful for Zane to be around hundreds of kids who fight the same fight he fights everyday.  It is wonderful for Landon to be around other siblings who's brother or sister have Type 1 and they don't and how to handle that.  And of course it's wonderful for Josh and I to be with other parents dealing with what we deal with day in and day out - having someone who just "gets-it" is a wonderful thing!

Road Trip...More Ashes...

After spreading 1/2 of our dad's ashes in the Skagit we headed up the next day to Lake Chelan for the weekend to meet up with all of our cousins (on dad's side) and they all brought some of their dads' ashes as well.  We all grew up going to Lake Chelan camping every summer and knew that all three Hay guys loved it there and really wanted to put them back with each other in some sense.

My sisters and one of our cousins Nika headed to Leaveworth earlier in the day to hang out and shop and enjoy the Bavarian town!  I haven't been there since before I had kids and one of my sisters had never been there that she could remember, so it was a great excuse to go!  We had a blast!  I forgot how cute that town is and how much fun it is to just go from shop to shop!  We acted like total tourists and it was awesome!

After living up Leavworth, we headed for Chelan.  Our other two cousins Amy & Melissa arrived later that night and so did Shauna's boyfriend (who drove up from CA).  The next day our aunt/uncle rented a pontoon boat for us all and we headed out onto the lake.  The weather was perfect!  Little windy...but ironically as soon as we found a good spot to spread some ashes the wind completely died down - it was absolutely silent.  Not one other boat out there, not one gust of wind...nothing.  It was eery and awesome all at the same time.  We said goodbye to our dad's, cheers'd them (is that even right, haha) and tossed them overboard together again.

After a toast of champagne after and a little more boating we headed off to the winery to do some grape stomping!

It was absolutely the perfect weekend!  It was sad, but it was fun and great at the same time!