Aquarium of the Pacific

Ryan had a REALLY good time at the aquarium last week (sarcasm), haha. I actually did think it was pretty cool though. Gwen hasn't yet disclosed her thoughts on the trip, we may have to wait a while for those.

New Art

Our one productive endeavor over break.

Merry Christmassssss

So far, Christmas has been pretty awesome. The highlight was this:

Ryan and I set a budget for each other for gifts this year. How does a Wii fit into a pretty small budget? We WON it at Ryan's work Christmas party apparently (we left early so we weren't around for the drawing of the prize winners). Ryan found out at the office the following Monday and decided to keep the secret for Christmas. What a lucky surprise - especially since pretty much everyone at the party put their names into the drawing for it.

The Dress

The story is that Liz Block mailed this dress to Gwen for Christmas. I showed it to Ryan but we had yet to put it on her. I dressed her for church this morning while Ryan was still asleep and then got in the shower with her in her crib for a short nap. While I was getting dressed I heard Ryan get her and exclaim in a high, squeaky voice "oooohhh, you look just like a princess!" haha. Then he proceeded to tell me that this is his favorite outfit and that Liz has the BEST taste. Honest.
I had to put up a bunch of photos because Gwen does the cheesiest smiles for the camera, and I think that they are hilarious.

Partaaaay

We don't get many dates lately, so I actually looked forward to Ryan's work party. It happened to be the same night as the ward Christmas dinner so our friends ended up taking Gwen to that without us. The next day in church we got some comments on how Gwen seems to be the communal baby for couples under 30 - totally fine with us. (Side note: the lighting in our apartment is kind of funny and night photos always seem/are blurry - don't know what to do about that.)

Christmas Parade

A couple of weekends ago was the Seal Beach Christmas Parade. I've never been to a night parade and we weren't disappointed. The kids running into the street to grab candy, "almost famous kazoo marching band" and billion girl scouts made the night especially memorable. We didn't think that Seal Beach could put together a full length parade, but it was waaaay longer than expected and so our friends with kids who could actually appreciate Santa at the end had to leave before he made his appearance. I would definitely recommend this to anyone next year. Good times, good times.

Stuff Doin' in KS

Gwen and I spent last week in Kansas with the Christensens (Ryan came in on Tues night). Ryan's mom kept me pretty busy with Body Pump and tennis lesson two-a-days. By the end of the week I could barely walk I was so sore - probably a good thing with all the eating that happened. Here are some pictures from the week - and please note the final photo (that was the best shot at the target and just happened to be MINE, and it was ALL SKILL of course). Oh, and if anyone wants to see a tear-jerker, go to Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Saddest movie ever, but very good so I would recommend it anyway.