Tales of Vince, Jen, Evin & Katelyn
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Bringing on the New Year

Posted by Jen in Our Holidays | Tales of Evin | Videos - (1 Comments)

This was a really fun New Year’s Eve. However, explaining the whole idea of bringing on a New Year to a 3 year old isn’t really the easiest thing to do. He still gets confused about yesterday and tomorrow. So, the whole “new year” thing really doesn’t make much sense. Yet, in true Evin fashion, he claimed he knew what was going on and was in the mood for a celebration! Especially since we took him to his favorite restaurant–Hong Kong Gourmet Buffet. He LOVES this place. He loves it because he can eat all kinds of crazy stuff. On a typical visit he’ll eat octopus, squid, clams, oysters, crawdads, frog legs, snails, etc. We’ve been telling people about it for a while, but this time I took pictures!

We were also able to get some fireworks this year. Arizona just recently changed the law, allowing us to light some off. So we went and did a little shopping. Naturally, Evin picked out the frog firework. We lit it off as the grand finale and it was AWESOME. I wish I had known it was going to be so cool or I would have recorded a video. Oh, well. I think next year we’ll be picking more of those out!

After fireworks, we watched the live coverage of the ball dropping in NYC. Evin got to watch too and when it hit midnight (in NYC) we “clinked” our glasses and sipped our bubbly (apple juice for someone).

Katelyn enjoyed watching us all enjoy dinner, napped through the fireworks and joined us later for the NYC ball dropping festivities. She also stayed up a little later with us, but finally went to bed around 11p or so.

It was a fun New Year’s Eve celebration! Here’s a video and pics from the whole thing.

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Christmas is over

Posted by Jen in Our Holidays - (3 Comments)

And just like that, Christmas is over. Our tree is gone, the decorations are down and the music has stopped. I’m ready.

See you next year, St. Nick!

San Diego Christmas: Day 4

Posted by Jen in Crees Family | Our Adventures | Our Holidays | Tales of Evin | Tales of Jen | Tales of Katelyn | Tales of Vince - (0 Comments)

Our trips to San Diego have become an annual tradition. We love going there and we love being there this time of year. The weather is amazing and the crowds are smaller because it’s their off-season. (Not to mention, the rental prices are cheaper too!) Part of this tradition is visiting the Birch Aquarium before we head back home. It’s a small aquarium, which means that it’s inexpensive and we get through it rather quickly. It’s a nice way to end the trip. So, this trip was no different. We packed up our stuff, made sure all was right with the condo (have to follow their rules!) and headed out to the aquarium. This time it was a little busier. We think it’s because of the holiday week. Typically, we’re in San Diego for New Year’s and it’s even less busy then. Being right after Christmas, a lot of people are off work.

Katelyn and Evin both enjoyed themselves. Evin blew through, looking at one sea animal for a brief second and then moving on to the next. He had a very “been there, done that” attitude. :o) Katelyn seemed to enjoy looking at all of the sea life as well.

After the aquarium, Gma Peggy wanted to see the seals. So, we took a small detour South to go watch them lay on the beach. I guess they were having their pups, so this time of year a bunch of them gather and lay around all lazy. Actually, do seals do anything else?

After the seals, it was time to head back to Arizona… Evin asked about every 30 minutes if were back in Arizona yet. As soon as we crossed the Arizona border he stopped asking (thankfully!)

Here are the pics from the day. No sea creatures were collected, but Evin did manage to buy a little bag of turtles and frogs that he already has. Out of a whole entire store of sea animal toys, this is what he wanted. We couldn’t change his mind. Not even with a really cool horseshoe crab toy!

(click an image below to open the gallery)

San Diego Christmas: Day 3: The Bay

Posted by Jen in Crees Family | Our Adventures | Our Holidays | Tales of Evin | Tales of Katelyn - (0 Comments)

This post is out of order because it actually happened before our beach time on day 3. In between bay and beach we had a nap and lunch. :o) I was just excited about the beach pics and so those came first. Sorry!

So, earlier in our day 3 Gma P took Evin to the Bay to spend some time in the water. I wandered out later to see what was going on. At that time, Evin and I got to spend some time in the squishy sand, collecting shells and making jokes. Funny guy this Evin is.

Here are some pics from earlier in our Day 3…

(click an image below to open the gallery)

San Diego Christmas: Day 3: The Beach

Posted by Jen in Crees Family | Our Adventures | Our Holidays | Tales of Evin | Tales of Jen | Tales of Katelyn | Tales of Vince - (0 Comments)

On our third day we decided to relax, hang out in the condo and spend time at the bay and beach. Evin had a good time getting to play in the water for almost the whole day. Crazy kid! It was pretty cold this time, but he stuck it out and had a lot of fun walking in the waves, digging in the sand, finding shells and looking for sea creatures. On this day they brought home Strawberry Sea Anemones. They were pretty cute.

Here are pics from the afternoon…

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Hangin' out on the beach
Signature Katelyn move
Hangin out for a little while (got too cold)

Katelyn’s first beach experience

Posted by Jen in Just Good Stuff | Our Adventures | Tales of Katelyn - (0 Comments)

While in San Diego Katelyn got to experience the beach for the first time. She’s much younger than Evin was on his first trip to the beach, so it was much different. We touched her feet to the sand, she cried, we touched her feet to the sand, she cried, and then we snuggled her back up in her car seat where she napped and enjoyed the fresh sea air. She really wasn’t a big fan of the cold, wet sand.

Maybe next year…

San Diego Christmas: Day 2

Posted by Jen in Crees Family | Just Good Stuff | Our Adventures | Our Holidays | Videos - (0 Comments)

For Christmas, Evin and I made some festive cookies for Santa and left out carrots for his reindeer. We had to be inventive when cooking them because there wasn’t a cookie sheet in the condo. So, they weren’t the prettiest cookies in the world, but they were pretty delicious!

Evin woke up pretty late… a long while after everyone else was awake. I’m not sure how he felt about the whole Santa thing this year. I’d like to think he “got it” but I’m not sure he believed us. He was excited that Santa did come though. He brought him frogs, a spade foot toad, snakes (rattle and cobra), a couple books and a stocking full of unnecessary things. :o)

After breakfast and some play time we headed out to Sea World for a day of fun. I think Evin was more excited about that than Santa coming! He had a blast and I think Katelyn enjoyed herself too. She just watched and watched all of the animals. She’s so observant, this little one.

Here are pics from the fun day… the video of Evin finding what Santa left him is below.

(click an image below to open the gallery)

Katelyn and green beans

Posted by Jen in Tales of Katelyn | Videos - (2 Comments)

Katelyn tried green beans while we were in San Diego…

They weren't a big hit.

San Diego Christmas: Day 1

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Day 1 of San Diego we went and explored the bay side and then we walked to enjoy some delicious breakfast burritos. That’s about it. It was Evin’s first time seeing the beach on this trip, so there are quite a few pics of that. I thought the bay was great because Evin could go into the water without worrying about the waves. On this day, they brought home hermit crabs and sea snails top play with.

The rest of the day was spent collecting the tree and decorating–those pics were posted earlier.

(click an image below to open the gallery)

Xmas Eve (Eve) and such

Posted by Jen in Crees Family | Our Adventures | Our Holidays - (0 Comments)

For those that don’t know, we planned a trip to San Diego with Gma Peggy for Christmas this year. We typically take an annual trip to San Diego after Christmas, so this year we decided to go a little early, skip the cold Montana weather, and head West instead.

Gma Peggy arrived on Sunday (the 18th) and helped watch the kiddos on Monday and Tuesday while Vince and I headed to work. On Thursday night, we opened the presents under our tree and got ready to head out to San Diego on Friday. We arrived in San Diego on Friday evening. Our condo rental was really cute and nice–just walking distance to both the Mission Bay and Mission Beach side. I really enjoyed staying there and wouldn’t mind going back! The only thing lacking would have been the ocean or bay right outside our door. :o)

Here are some pics of the present opening on Thursday and decorating our tree and cooking dinner on Christmas Eve in San Diego. More pics to come!

(click an image below to open the gallery)