Aunt Shannon's Visit!

We were so excited to have my family in town for Christmas.  Because Tyler was so little, we had no plans to travel to Santa Maria, and thought we would be spending Christmas alone.  Then, Aunt Shannon decided to come out with her kids, and we had a wonderful family Christmas!  We started the week with Charlie's baptism.  It was great to have everyone together to celebrate Charlie.

 We decided to take everyone to Keira's favorite place, The San Diego Zoo!  It was Tyler's first visit, so we dressed him appropriately- Hippo jammies and hat.  :)

It was a pretty cold day, so we all enjoyed hot chocolates and kept looking for animals.  Usually, when we visit the zoo, it is for a few hours, so Keira was loving that we spent the whole day there. 

Because it was only a week before Christmas, they had Christmas decorations up everywhere, complete with Keira's favorite, Christmas lights.  You may remember last year, Keira was less than thrilled about meeting Santa.  This year, she told me that she did NOT want to meet him.  She wanted me to call him and tell him what she wanted.  All she needed was a little encouragement from her cousins Madi and Russell and Lena, their German exchange student to approach the big guy- in sculpture form.

 We have been visiting the Zoo for years, and somehow have never seen the jumping show!  Keira loved watching the "elves" jump and do flips.  We'll definitely be back to watch this again!
 Keira loved having her cousins visit.  She's pretty sure they're all about the same age.  She had a great time playing bossing them around all week.  Keira decided what game they were going to play, and had so much fun playing with the big kids.  Madi and Lena became "my girls" and she LOVED them. 

 I would go check on them, and Keira would close the door in my face and say, "Mommy, leave us alone!"  It was actually kind of nice.  She was having a great time, and I had extra time to spend with Tyler.

After Shannon and company visited Santa Maria for a few days, they were back to celebrate Christmas.  We couldn't let them come to San Diego without a visit to the beach, so off we went to Belmont Park at Mission Beach.  We are frequent visitors to Mission Beach, but we have never taken Keira to Belmont Park.  I didn't realize they had rides that were appropriate for Keira.  I brought Tyler along, so I couldn't take her on all the rides, but it didn't take much to convince everyone to take her on the rides.  She went on the merry go round (several times) with Grandpa-

And got Russell to SQUEEZE into this child sized boat.  As you can see, he loved it.  :)

Madi and Lena tried some of the big girl rides.  (You could not have PAID me to get on).

Even Grandma took a ride on the boats! 

Finally, we realized that the boats was a ride she could do on her own, so she took a ride solo.  She was so proud of herself, ringing the bell and steering with a giant smile on her face. 

On Christmas Eve, Keira and her "girls" took a trip to Forever 21 to spend their Christmas gift certificates from us.  She loves these girls, and had fun walking around the mall pretending to be a big girl.

 

She even tried on a little of the fashion!

What a wonderful week!