Earlier in the month we spent time over in Chelan celebrating my Grandpa Brown’s life. I have so many wonderful memories of time together with him there, especially during this time of year when we spent spring breaks there. After time with extended family, my mom and I (and the girls) spent the rest of the week there doing the things he loved best…bike riding, going for drives, exploring the parks, getting ice cream, etc. It was the perfect way to celebrate and remember what an amazing, involved Grandpa he was.

Finley and Adalaide are taking a dance class together, and as you can imagine it is the cutest thing to watch. They had their first class this morning, and this is the only time the parents are allowed in the room until the recital. Of course I had to snap lots of photos…

We took all the girl cousins to see the nutcracker after Christmas (next year lyla girl, I promise). This was quite the special outing, with yummy ballerina cupcakes at intermission, a new keepsake ornament for our tree, and a backstage tour from a family friend who dances in the ballet. I’ve been able to go backstage before I had kids, and I was so amazed by all the costumes, the set, etc. You can only imagine how much fun it was to do it with the girls and see everything through their eyes. They were in heaven!! We got Finley and Adalaide ballet lessons for their Christmas gifts, so now they are extra excited about starting that up next week.

Every year we spend the day after thanksgiving decorating gingerbread houses. This is also when we give the girls their new Christmas jammies. I was especially fond of this year’s jammies with their little old fashioned butt flaps

Well, this is long overdue, but I don’t want to forget the fun outing we went on. My mom and I took the girls on the Halloween train to Northbend. We got off the train to have a yummy lunch and visit our favorite bakery for treats. It was such a fun day!

I took these photos in September as a ‘back up’ incase December came I didn’t have anything else that was Christmas card worthy. I love these, because what you can’t see are the stains on Finley’s tights from when she tripped, Lyla’s bloody lip from she summersaulted backwards out of the wagon (we broke a wheel), or Adalaide crying over the spider webs. I vowed not to turn into the mean picture taker that I often do, and we had one of the best afternoons, laughing and slowly dragging our gimpy wagon back to the car.

also, nothing beats September at discovery park.

chelan vacation 2013 (web) from meghan neuenschwander on Vimeo.

this is my happy place. i cherish this footage from our summer in Chelan.