We made our annual trip to Arizona for the Holidays. On our first day there, we ventured out to Rawhide with the whole family. Here is everyone at lunch in the restaurant.
We took the little train to nowhere (Jake quote). Sam was very excited about the train. He even left the candy store when I said "let's go ride the train"
We took up the whole train.
Jake and Olivia by the tree at Nana and Pa's house. He was (and still is) very enamored with her.
Here are all my handsome guys (and Olivia) on Christmas Eve at Nana's house. All the cousins and extended family came over for our traditional get together. We played team trivia (Max and I were on the winning team!) and then had catered Macaroni Grill and lots of drinks. We finished with a white elephant gift exchange. The boys got a kick out of this. Cousin Jill got Sam's gift of a toy hammock for the tub...they are still bringing this up daily. We stuffed down some pie, and then everyone departed. We all went to bed early so Santa could come! Which may be why the Jake and Max woke up at 5:45 am!
Poor Olivia! I forced her to pose on the big pile of presents.
Jake and Max were bright eyed and bushy tail on Christmas morning. Nana knocked on our door at 6:05 to say they were up and finished perusing their stockings. Jason said, tell them to wait until 6:30 or 7:00. (Who was he kidding!?) They were ready!!! We let Sam sleep in as he had a little cold.
Jake really loves the show The Amazing Race. In fact he starts asking around noon on Sundays if he can stay up and watch it. It doesn't come on until 8 pm in L.A., so usually the answer is "no, you have school tomorrow". So Jason made a series of clues for "Jake and Max's Amazing Race" They had to put pictures together and go all around the house to find their big present.
Here they are outside finding a clue in the bbq grill. Okay, it was forty degrees and raining, they had no shoes on, and were in their pajamas...What were their parents thinking???
Several clues later...They found new bikes in the garage. They were very excited, but it was too rainy to ride them on Christmas.
Sam got up after the boys were long done with their presents. George Lucas made a little more money off us this year. Sam is totally into all things Star Wars. See the light saber above? Everyone in the family has been whacked with it! It disappeared for a few days, and we didn't bother looking for it until it was time to leave Nana and Pa's. He loves it, and usually takes it to bed with him.
Sam was being super cute with his new Darth Vader shirt. He kept caressing it and saying "dart va va" This is Sam speak for Darth Vader. He had to wear it for two days straight, and cried a river because I took it off to wash it (in fact he is wearing it today!). He had a great Christmas, and it was fun to see him get excited over his new things. We had so much fun visiting with all our Arizona family members, and it is always sad to leave.
The big boys participated in the Pinewood Derby with their Cub Scout Pack. I was not very familiar with what this was exactly when we first heard about it. The get a "kit" with a block of wood and some wheels and have to turn it into a car to race. We took the kits with us to Arizona over Christmas because we know an excellent woodworking Guru there...Pa! So Jason and Ed helped the boys pick out their designs, and Ed cut them out with his super cool tools. He then showed Jake and Max how to sand them (and we all know how he likes to sand!).
The above picture are the cars from Max's den of Tiger Cubs. His is the blue truck with the snake on the hood. The back has pennies and nickles in it, so he named it Max's Bank Truck. The cars need to be max five ounces. So, if you want to win...they need to be five ounces on the nose. We had to take the cars in to be weighed and impounded a few days before the race. We kept putting coins in the back of Max's truck until we hit the five ounces mark and then we superglued them down.
Jake's den is in this box. His is the green formula one. We are so proud of what a great job they did painting them. Jake's was really lightweight because of the design he chose. I went to the sporting goods store and bought fishing weights to glue on the back to get it up to weight. So now you know why I had super glue residue on my fingers for two days!
Jake's car "Jake's STP Champion" is getting ready for his first heat.
We love the look on his face. You can totally see that he won and is trying to play it cool. He even had a couple of groupies cheering him on.
Max's Bank Truck is at the top of the track. It was very exciting. We went into the evening feeling like novices (some of these parents were expert racers and hardcore about it!). I was prepping the boys beforehand. "Hey guys, you had a lot of fun building the cars with Pa and Daddy. It was fun painting them...this is our first time, so it's okay if we don't win...we still had fun, yada, yada, yada." Then...
Jake took SECOND place in his Den!!! He got a medal and was so excited. It was a really close race too. They had tied, and then his friend Timmy won the tie breaker (with his really cool Shamu car) . We were so excited for Jake!
Then Max's Den was the last to go. And he took FIRST place!!! He had to race off with the other Tiger Den champion, and he won! Now he will race in the Divisional Championships in April. We have the car safely tucked on the very top shelf of the bookcase, lest it be tampered with before the race. So we survived our first Pinewood Derby, and kicked its butt!
