Winter Break!

Woo to the hoo winter break could not come soon enough! We were so excited to have three whole weeks of relaxation and fun!

Starting with baking with the neighbors. 

And pickle ball with the neighbors. 

I had to save this memory of when the kids found a vintage elf ornament on the tree and then wrote a letter to their elf Michael asking if this little elf could also receive magic and hide along side him each day... Ladies and Gents, welcome Tommy to the elf gig. 

Quite possibly the most anticipated event of the holiday season: Neighborhood Secret Santa Party!

First, a potluck dinner devoured by all. 

Then the gifts!

The kids had been SO good about keeping their secret for the whole month. Then the second they walked in the door for the party they couldn't help but blurt out who they had for their secret person. The gift exchange was the cutest thing ever. We started with the oldest which was Win. Taylor was thrilled to give Win his gift of baseball cards, silly socks, and candy. 

Next up, Donovan has Kinley. He bought her bracelets and candy. 

Jordan has Donovan. She surprised him with silly socks and Oreo cookies. 

Emmerson had Brynnlee. She gifted her with stuffed animals and some candies. 

Eddie had Emmerson. He spoiled her with art supplies, horse stickers, socks, and candy. 

And Kinley had Taylor. She gifted her a huge unicorn stuffed animal and a ton of lollipops. 

Afterwards, the kids enjoyed hot cocoa, sugar cookies and an outdoor movie. 

Next up, Grammie's arrival! We'd been counting down the days. 

When Grammie is here that means Taylor tries to have as many sleepovers as she can with Gram downstairs. I decided to have a sleepover with Em on this very rainy night. It was so cozy. 

Also vacation mode means finally moving my body again. It has felt so good to jog again... not at first. At first, I felt like I was going to explode after my first half mile. But now, we're cruising. I jog and my boys bike beside me. It's kind of the best! 

And so is vacation. One week left and we are soaking it up!

 

Lake Tahoe

Every summer, the Dease Family sets out on a vacation that we look forward to all year long. This year our destination was Lake Tahoe. 

The second we all pulled up to the cabin and opened the car doors, we were flooded with the fresh scent of pine that only the mountains can offer. 

The cabin was in a rural area, just a short drive from Kings Beach. We took lots of walks. 

And hikes around the neighborhood. 

The cabin was a perfect spot for us. Just look at this room! The cousins were so excited to sleep in these bunks. They stayed up way too late spying on the grownups and sneaking candy from the kitchen.

The cabin was so comfortable and made us all feel right at home.

One of the best parts was this huge deck in the back of the cabin that looked out to the lake. We watched the star filled sky at night here and spent much of our afternoon soaking up the sun and mountain breezes. 

One of the things the cousins looked forward to the most was horseback riding. (A very special treat from their Oma and Grampie)

Each of the bigs got their own horse, and went on an hour long trail ride. 

Taylor was too small for the trail ride, but she still got to ride a sweet horse named Little around the grounds. 

These two were SO happy! Emmerson couldn't stop talkng about their trail lead, Ashley and how that was exactly the job she wanted to do when she got older. 

Then of course, there were the days at the lake. The weather was perfect!

One of our favorite parts about the cabin that we stayed in, is that it came equipped with kayaks! We all took turns taking the two kayaks out on the lake. It was so relaxing and peaceful! This was one of my favorite parts of our trip.

There were tons of laughs and great memories shared. Thank you so much Mom and Dad for such an incredible vacation!

 

Vacation

The day after school got out, we were out the door and on our way up North. Equal parts exhausted from finishing up the school year, cleaning the house and packing so quickly, and excited to have an entire summer ahead of us. 

Rather than do our usual shoot straight up to Grammie's in Sacramento, we opted to break the trip up a bit. Our first stop on the drive was the Santa Barbara Mission where we tagged along with Oma and Grampie and met them in the garden for a little picnic lunch. 

We jumped back in the car and drove up the scenic coast... (it is so gorgeous and we need to do more of that in the future) and then made our way to Solvang. Solvang is a small, Danish village famous for its bakeries and fun, little shops. The kids were so excited to choose what they wanted from the bakery for an afternoon treat.

After our bakery stop, we got back in the car one last time for the day and made it to San Louis Obispo. Oma and Grampie are frequent visitors there, so we took our cues from them and enjoyed some local sites and scenes. 

We spent the evening walking around the downtown farmers market. 

We had a quick dinner and then headed back to the Apple Farm Inn.

Our kids are so deprived, ha! They were beside themselves to be staying in an actual hotel!

They took these few pictures themselves. We enjoyed a glass of wine and a few episodes of Beat Bobby Flay before falling asleep after our long day of travel. 

The next morning we enjoyed breakfast together and then had another pretty substantial day of driving to get to Grammie's house. We were so happy to be back and couldn't wait to jump into Uncle Dave's pool!

The next day, our cousins arrived! We had another fun pool day and an amazing BBQ dinner in Gram's beautiful backyard. 

Next up, the Dease Family vacation to Lake Tahoe!