Winter Fun

Here is Katie singing with the kids at our ward's (church) Christmas party.

Waiting in line to see santa. Here's Katie and Katie.

Here's Katie sitting on santa's lap. Later she actually asked him if he was the real santa and pulled down his beard.

Here is Katie with her dance class for their parent recital. They danced to songs from the Nutcracker Ballet.


Katie with her dance teacher Miss Kelsey. The week before Christmas she brought her nutcracker and mouse king figurines to show her teacher.

MMMM! Gingerbread house. Thanks Aunt Michelle for letting me join the party with the kids and the Cubscouts.

Grandpas and Grandmas come over Christmas Eve to hand out presents.

Katie received a wonderful surprise from her birth mom, Whitney. Her doll house from when she was a child. Here are Nikki and Katie in front of it.

Nikki, Katie and Daddy playing.

Katie also received a pair of pajamas and a colored poster with a picture on it where you get to hunt for hidden letters. Even though the pajamas are too big, Katie loves to wear them. Her cousin Nikki has the exact same pajamas and since they are smaller we tried to see if she would trade Nikki. But she wouldn't have it because she didn't want to let go of the pajamas that her birth mother gave her.

Here are Katie and Nikki playing with a Play-doh machine Katie got for Christmas.
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We traveled to the Seattle area for Chris' sister's wedding. Here are our pics from our trip. The first day was travel. On our second day we traveled an additional 1 and half hour to Ocean Shores to see the coast. It was so cold, rainy, and windy, we only stayed outside for about 5 minutes and then headed back to the car. But it was so fun to see the coast.

We stopped at a gift shop where Katie got a little turtle figurine.

And I got a glass dolphin.

The next day we spent the day in Bellevue and Seattle. First we met Chris' sister Rachael and her fiance Daniel, and Chris' mom at the Seattle Temple (which is in Bellevue). We walked around the grounds and got some pictures.

I can't believe how green it is there, even in January.

It's a beautiful temple.

Then we drove into Seattle to go to the aquarium. Here we are crossing the bridge into Seattle.

And here's a pic as we are entering downtown Seattle.

Here we are at the Seattle Aquarium. Cold and windy!

The aquarium is right off the pier. Here's a picture of some of the boats in the harbor.

Petting the starfish.

Katie and I standing under floating jellyfish.

Tamara, Katie, and Grandma Mary.

Chris standing under actual fish from the harbor.

Rachael and Daniel in the underwater dome.

The harbor in the background.

Then we headed across the street to check out Pike Place Market.
Running up the stairs.

We tried to get in on some of the fish throwing action. We saw a few fish being thrown from a distance but they must have been having a slow day because as we got closer we didn't get to see them throw anymore fish.

We weren't interested in buying any fish but we did get some really huge and delicious donuts.

Rachael and Daniel with a huge cinnamon twist.

The next day was the wedding. Here we are getting a few pictures outside the temple after the sealing.

The bride's family

Chris' sister and mother

Chris and his sister

The groom's family

After the sealing we headed into Seattle again to check out the famous space needle.

That evening we went to the reception. We met up with Chris' uncle and aunt.

The wedding couple's first dance as husband and wife.

We had fun dancing and talking.

On our last day we went for a swim at the hotel before it was time to take off.

Katie absolutely loved the 3-legged kitty that Daniel's parents own. She had to say goodbye to it before we left.

Grandma Mary rode back home with us. Katie and Grandma having fun playing with Katie's McDonald play food set she got for Christmas.