To Washington--State, that is!

I always love to tend the grand kids when asked because it gives me the opportunity to spend more time with them since they all live so far away from us.  Kent and Natalie planned a trip to Hawaii for six days, so I flew to Washington to stay with Ethan and Ella.  George came up three days later.  I didn't take a lot of pictures, but wanted to record some of the special memories I'll have there:

I love staying in Cannon's room.  Although he never was able to sleep in here because his little bed was always beside his parents, this bedroom has everything that reminds us of Cannon.

 Natalie has done such a great job of placing the many items that touch your heart with memories of Cannon.  I especially love the tiny hand print in the little brown square above the "I love you to the moon and back" sign.  Cannon always had the softest little skin and we all loved to cuddle with him.

 So many special remembrances have been given from wonderful, loving family members and friends.

For two entire days, George and I were able to watch Ethan in the Martin Luther King Tournament held in Yakima.  We were in heaven.  It reminded us of the many hours we watched our five boys at their athletic events.  We loved it!

George was in his heyday as Ethan would always come up to George after a game and ask, "Now, what do I need to work on Grandpa?"  George coached our sons for so many years, and if truth be known, I know he would love to get back into coaching truly motivated kids like this again!

One of the games was on Sunday, but we were so proud of Ethan.  He chose to attend church instead, but fortunately his team won, so we continued to be undefeated when day three was played which was the semi-finals and finals on Monday.

And after three hard-fought days, Ethan's team, "The Rebels," came away with FIRST PLACE!!!

I don't think I've seen a group of young players play more as a team than this team did.   They are such good sports and work to get it off to the one in the best situation to score at that time.  No one tries to "showboat," because they work so well together!  That makes winners!

Yes, Grandpa and I were pretty proud of our Ethan boy!

And Ella was such a great "helper" girl.  I really appreciated all she did to help me out at home.

 And I definitely saw this a lot as I dropped Ella off to her dance lessons which she takes three or four nights a week.  Wish I could have taken pictures of the dance class, but parents (and grandparents) can only sit on chairs in the lobby and watch on a tiny little TV.  When she would come home, we would work on skills that she needed a little extra help with such as cartwheels and back bends.  Although I can't do them myself, we worked on them from tutorials on the internet.  Thank goodness for those!  One night, Ethan decided to show Ella how easy cartwheels were.  Ella and I had a pretty good laugh about his attempts.  Yes, he may be able to hit three-pointers from anywhere, but he definitely needs more work on his cartwheels!  Hah!

As you can see, we had a great time in Washington with Kent and Natalie's kids.  We were able to spend about a day and a half with Kent and Natalie after they got back, then we headed for the airport nine days later, getting up at 4:00 a.m. to make the 6:00 a.m. flight home.     

Christmas 2014

The next day, I flew from Salt Lake City to Dallas and George flew from Jacksonville to Dallas.  We met at the airport, got a rental car, and we were off to Jeff and Amy's home.

Tuesday, December 23

Tonight was pizza night and decorating gingerbread houses at Jeff and Amy's.  The kids always love this--and they were very creative with their houses!

If only we had thought of hot glue when we were doing these houses when our kids were young!  Amy was usually the one whose house fell apart--and there were always tears!

Lola getting a little assistance from her mom.

And Mason loved having his mom help him, too.

Isaac had some help from his dad.

Sydney and Jaxon both worked on their darling gingerbread barn and had some help with the animals from Amy and Anne.  They stayed on this long after everyone else was done--and it turned out so adorable!

Isaac's was very simple, but we all loved it!

So, here are the proud kids with their houses:  Mason, Jaxon, Sydney, Isaac, Lola, Gavin, and Garrett

Such a fun activity that we've done since our kids were little--and now it carries on with the grand kids.

Wednesday, December 24 - Christmas Eve

We went to Craig and Cassie's for Christmas Eve.  Cassie had set the table so beautifully.

In the center of the sidebar was the olive-wood Nativity Set which we brought each of our seven children from Jerusalem when we went there in May of this year.

I thought this was very sweet with the message of Philippians 2:10-11 that "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. . ."

Craig and Cassie's beautiful tree.

After a wonderful ham dinner with all the trimmings which everyone contributed dishes to, Cassie had baked Christmas cookies for the kids to decorate to set out for Santa tonight.

Syd is helping Presley with her cookie.  Her parents are great family Copeland friends and her dad works with Craig at his dental company.

I love how the kids were enjoying the decorating--plus the eating!

After cleaning up, Sydney had planned a little program with visual aides and songs.  It was so fun and the kids all participated.

Gavin was Rudolph.

After the kids presented their little program and we all sang Christmas carols, Cameron showed a video called:

A Gift to the World
(Click on the link above to watch this fantastic video of the Christmas story.)

After watching the Christmas story, I shared a time when it looked like we were not going to have a place to stay for Christmas when our van broke down in a small town as we were traveling across the country, but some wonderful people opened their hearts and home to us.  It was truly a Christmas we will never forget! 
 The entire evening was so wonderful!  Then all the kids went home to open Christmas pajamas and get a little sleep before waking early for Christmas morning!

Thursday, December 25 - Christmas Day!
 
We had stayed all night with Jeff and Amy, so we watched their family open their presents first.

Frisco wondered what all the excitement was about.  All he knew was there were lots of things to chew on if they weren't picked up pretty quickly!

Yes, I think the Barlow kids were pretty happy about their Christmas!

We next went to Cameron and Anne's home to watch them open their gifts from us. (Don't panic--they didn't get a dog.  Only dog sitting for some friends!)

This was hysterical!  We got Jaxon a gift card to Foot Locker that I had put inside a powdered drink box.  When he opened it up, I thought he was crying! 

But he was only laughing so hard--because he thought that's what we were giving him--energy drink.  Believe me, I don't think he needs any more energy!  Hah!

Sydney got a gift card to a music store nearby.  She had received a guitar for Christmas--now she can get new music books.  Her dad is a great guitar player and was already teaching her the first steps in playing the guitar.  Before we left, she already knew a couple of songs.  Amazing!  She is so musical!  Again, some pretty happy grand kids!

Final home was Craig and Cassie's to watch them open their gifts from us.

Santa brought Riley drums--wow!  I wonder if these will be put in a closet before long!  Hah!

He asked for a another musical instrument, too, so that's what we got him.  I guess when there's that much noise, a little more doesn't matter!

And Kennedy is definitely liking Riley's new drums herself.  
 
 
 And this girl can really get into it!
With a new baby coming, there's going to be lots of sounds in this Copeland household!

That evening, we had a fantastic dinner had Cameron and Anne's.  Does it feel like that's all we did was eat? 

Anne made all the darling Christmas trees for her Ward Christmas dinner and used them for our dinner, too.  She had worked so hard on them, I hope she can use them for years!

This picture says a thousand words--Princess Elsa entered with her beautiful ball gown, doll, and travel suitcase.  She truly was a little princess and she knew it!

She even had a little train behind her attached to her dress.  Absolutely adorable!

After dinner, the cousins exchanged gifts.

Now Riley and Gavin can play a duet!

Here is Sydney playing her two songs for us after only learning them in less than a day!

A wonderful Christmas Day together as a family.  You can't get better than that for George and me.

The next six days

We filled the next few days with activities with the families.  We went to a couple of movies, looked for fabric for a project that each of the mom's wanted me to help them with, etc.

I will say that it was "freezing" the entire time we were in Dallas.  I seem to bring the cold every time I am there.  Cameron had turned on the hot tub and thought the kids would enjoy that which they certainly did.  Some of Jaxon's friends came over.   I don't know how they even got out of the hot tub because it was just so cold, but they would even jump into the freezing pool and then go to the hot tub.  Crazy!

On Sunday, everyone went to Jeff and Amy's ward to listen to Garrett give his first talk in Sacrament Meeting.  He did such a great job!

One last activity that I took pictures of was when we went to the bowling alley.  The kids always love this!

So many cute reactions!

George and I left for home on New Year's Eve.  We had such a great Christmas holiday and want to thank all three families for all their love and kindness they showed to Grandpa George and me while we were there.  It was a fantastic Christmas for us!