fee FEY foe fum: Christmas 2010 in Lynden, WA

After 3 years of spending Christmas with Darin's family, we finally spent Christmas 2010 in Lynden with the Van Schepen's. Don't get me wrong, I wish we could be two places at once, because we missed being in Edgerton, but we sure had a lot of fun with my family!

On Friday, December 17, we headed for Chicago to stay at a hotel. Early the next morning, Darin took the kids and I to the airport and our adventure began. My Uncle Herm and his wife Libby picked us up at the Sea/Tac airport a little before 11 Saturday morning and we were in Lynden before 2 that afternoon, happy to be back with Papa and Gram. Tyson and Jori were eager to run around and I was glad to have some extra hands to help me with the kids!

The kids and I were the only ones at my folks until Thursday. We hung out that weekend with my parents and the Korean students that are staying at their house this year. My mom and I did some shopping and my dad entertained the kids at home and took them to his church so he could try and get some work done on his sermons. That was not going to happen! The kids just wanted to keep seeing what Papa was doing. Papa and the kids also went to a farm that a family from their church owns. They saw cows, donkeys and more. I think my dad took his camera along, so I might be able to add some pictures of their time there later.

On Wednesday (or was it Tuesday??) we drove to Canada to go to the indoor pool. We took James, one of the Koreans, along as he did not get to go home for Christmas this year. It was wonderful having so many adults to look after the kids as they didn't want to wear floaties. We were all happy that Tyson AND Jori were both able to go on the water slide. When we were in Canada this summer, only Tyson could go on the slide and he had to have a floatie on. They must have changed their rules, because as long as an adult went down first, both kids could slide down on their own. They also took turns jumping off the diving board. Jori even jumped off the 3 meter board (10 feet) but got hurt after landing in a belly flop. That ruined any chance of getting Tyson to go off the high board. We all liked being in the hot tub and the kiddie pool.

You'd think I'd remember more of what we did, but the older I get, the harder time I have adjusting to the three hour time change! I tried to sleep in a lot and went to bed early for the first few days. I am sure my parents were thrilled to have me around : )

On Thursday, Laurie and her kids got in around dinner time. Tyson and Jori were so excited to have some kids to play with and I finally took out my camera and started taking pictures. Auntie Kristi got in about an hour later, but her boys didn't come up til Sunday. Friday afternoon, which was Christmas Eve Day, Darin and Uncle Josh came up along with Pebble/Pebbles, our favorite dog!

Here are some pictures from the first couple days that everyone was around.