Christmas Break with the Cousins

Another tradition that has been around for decades is to spend Christmas break with cousins. As long as I can remember, we always do lots of fun activities between Christmas and New Years. We didn't do as many things this year with my cousins because several people were out of town. However, we were able to do a few of my favorites.

One of my favorite activities to do with the cousins is Ice Skating. It's a little different now that I'm a mom. I spend most of my time helping my kids around the rink rather than skating with the cousins. But, it's fun to see how my kids have improved. Tanner and Mickell even got to the point where they could skate on their own. Baylen and I skated a few times around the rink by ourselves. My cousin Michelle and her husband Alex came up and commented that we were having a 5 minute date like them. We laughed at how true that was. I guess you take what you can get. It was a really fun afternoon. The kids loved it!

Another cousin activity we do is sledding. We always go to Churchhill Junior High. It's funny how the hill seems smaller now that I am older. I remember the hill seeming so big when I was a little kid. However, I think it's the perfect size for hiking back up when you go down (especially when you are carrying a kid up). We had a really fun time there this year. Mickell loved going down the hill with the cousins on the "pain train."
Tanner spent most of his time on his new snowboard. He got so that he could make it all the way to the bottom without falling. I was really impressed. Baylen said he's ready for the slopes now. That makes me a little nervous.
Hailey was die hard all afternoon. She loved it. She went up and down all by herself. She did this over and over for a couple of hours.
Ashlyn loved it as well. She called it a slide.
We also had lots of fun hanging out with Tavi, Brian, and their girls. We went to two different movies (Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Bedtime Stories). We also went swimming. I had all four kids without Baylen so I didn't take my camera. But, it was a lot of fun. The kids LOVED swimming. We also went sledding. Hailey was having an off day but the rest of us had a great time. We did manage to snap a few pictures there.