Hesse Christmas

Since we were all sick over Christmas, we ended up celebrating with Ben's family a few days late.  The kids didn't seem to mind and it was fun opening presents with their cousins, Grandparents and even Great Papa.

They got farm toys and animal toys which of course went over well.  Thanks to everyone for a fun time!

Spokane Trip

When we all got to feeling better we headed to Spokane to celebrate Christmas with my family. It was also the night of my Uncle's retirement party. We got to have dinner with everyone at Luigi's (yum!) and then the party was at the Carousel downtown. The kids had so much fun riding the carousel. I don't think Nicholas missed a trip around the entire hour!
Eli did ok on it, but he preferred to wander around and explore the building.

 Nicholas on one of his many horses!

I think Ben even had a great time riding the horses.  Of course it was all about getting the rings and trying to throw them in the hole for Ben! 

I even was able to snap a few pictures of my parents!

Thanks to my Aunt and Uncle for a fun evening and a big congrats to my Uncle on his retirement!!

For some reason I don't seem to have any pictures of the kids opening presents at Grams and Papa Don's house.  Not sure what happend there!

Christmas Morning

Here is the scene from Christmas morning at our house.

Since we don't have a chimney, Santa chose to hang the stockings on the kitchen he brought the boys this year.

They were having a great time playing with it.  It was a good thing they cooked breakfast for Christmas because I sure didn't feel up to it!

After a little playing we decided to give them our presents.  Nicholas had been asking for a grain cart.  I think me meant one to pull behind on of his tractors but Daddy had a better idea.  So, Ben built him a grain cart to pull behind the pedal tractor.  Eli got the combine to go with the tractor/grain cart.  Well, Nicholas already had the tractor.

Here they are tearing the sheet off them!

Here is Nicholas inspecting the grain cart and the combine auger.

 I think they went over well!

 Nicholas had to have the tractor inside the house so he could try it out.

 The rest of Christmas looked pretty much like this:

The boys took turns on the equipment and made some nice marks on the walls.  The gifts were a hit with both of them.  And of course, Ben and I got quite the kick out of watching them!

Agricultural Christmas Parade

I apparently forgot to post this story before I continued on with the trip posts...so, since we are talking Christmas I will sneak it in here. 
The night before we left for California Moses Lake had its annual Agricultural parade. With two little boys who had never been to this, we decided it was time! They also had Santa downtown for pictures and marshmallow roasting on the road. It turned out to be quite the fun time!

Eli didn't care to be on Santa's lap, although you can see Nicholas was quite happy to be there!

 

Eli was happy to give Santa five, but didn't want to be on his lap.

 This is about as close as we got!

They had tractors that pulled hay rides through town.  

 Here we are on the ride!  Nicholas was pretty excited to do this!

Next up came the parade.  The idea is that farmers are supposed to decorate their equipment and then put it in the parade.  Unfortunately there wasn't much real equipment in the parade.  The boys did like the chopper, however.

Ben decided we may have to participate in the future!  Here they are enjoying the show (and their cookies!).

It was a fun night before taking off for our trip.