DC

We spent Christmas with Mark's parents who are serving a mission in DC. One of the neat things on Christmas Day that we got to do was attend a missionary program for all the missionaries in the DC South mission (I think that's the mission!).

We spent one day in DC. We had planned on spending two, but Kendra got sick, and then Mark, and then Megan and I. We were glad we were well enough to at least see most of the sights.

The archive building where Mark's parents serve. This is also the building that houses the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. I couldn't believe the long line to get in - seriously it was freezing and people waited out in the cold for probably hours just for a few moments with the Constitution. Luckily Mark's parents were able to get us in (because they "work" there) and we didn't have to wait in line at all.

The White House and National Tree. Look just above the white suburban - that's the National Tree. It is the ugliest tree - seriously, I don't know who decorated it but in my opinion the National Tree should be the most beautiful.

Vietnam Memorial. The wall was much larger than I thought. This memorial has special meaning to me because my dad served in the Vietnam War. It is amazing that he survived. I am proud of my dad's service to his country and am grateful for all those who are willing to serve.

Vietnam Memorial.

The Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial. See the reflection pool? Yes, it's frozen. It was FREEZING!!! I'd like to be there when it's warm.

Lincoln Memorial.

Union Station - the station we stopped at from the Metro to get on our tour bus. See the tree in the background? So much prettier than the National Tree.

Hershey

I have always wanted to visit Hershey, PA. Why? In Elementary School I saw a picture of a street light in the shape of a hershey kiss. I grew up in Oregon and had never gone further east than Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, so I knew I would never ever go to Pennsylvania.

Fast forward twenty years...Mark's parents are serving a mission in DC. They live two hours south of Hershey. So when we went to visit them for the Christmas holiday I just had to travel to Hershey. AND they were kind enough to indulge me in my silly childhood fantasy.

The entrance to Hershey's Chocolate World.

There is a ride you can go on for free that explains how the chocolate is made. It's way fun and you get a treat at the end!

A gingerbread house made the hershey way. Can you spot the chocolate bars, kit kats, peanut butter cups, bliss, kisses, and hershey-etts?

Kendra became a hershey factory worker.


She took a gear and loaded it with hershey kisses.


Then the kids do a dance and put it on the belt to the packaging center. Then they come out on another belt where you can purchase them for $13.95 or dump them in a bin...Mark made us dump it in the bin. :(

It was a glorious trip well worth the two hour drive. I would like to go back when it's warm and we can go to Hershey Park (amusement park) and Echo Caverns.

Christmas Letter

A Look Back at 2009

JANUARY
Kendra began pre-school
Mark replaced our kitchen faucet
Mark went skit and trap shooting for the first time

FEBRUARY
Celebrated 7 years of marriage
Grandma and Grandpa Winkel came to visit
With the help of Ken, Mark opened up the cubby space in our garage

MARCH
In the past month Kristi gained 10 pounds in her pregnancy (a little high!)
Mark bought a shotgun

APRIL
Kendra enrolled at the Little Gym for gymnastics
Aunt Shoni came to visit
Kendra began to attend story time at the local library

MAY
Mark turned 30!!
Kendra gave up the pacifier

JUNE
Kendra turned 3
Megan was born

JULY
For the first time EVER Kendra didn’t cry at her well-child check-up
Kristi is put on dairy-free diet

AUGUST
Kristi is now on a dairy-free, gluten-free, wheat-free pretty much everything free diet

SEPTEMBER
Grandma and Grandpa Winkel and Aunt Shoni came to visit
Megan’s blessing
Megan’s first and only shots
Kristi had H1N1

OCTOBER
Disneyland trip
Kendra wore a Tinkerbell costume and Megan a bunny for Halloween
Kendra and Megan got H1N1
Kristi slowly adding things back into her diet

NOVEMBER
Kristi turned 30!
Kristi was the only healthy one for Thanksgiving
Kristi can eat again!!

DECEMBER
After 3 months we finally replaced our microwave!


Reflecting on the year, we feel very blessed for the situation in which we find ourselves. I think it’s fair to say that our family has not only grown larger this year, but we’ve grown closer together. We feel gratitude when thinking back to the joy and peace that has accompanied 2009. One source of joy came in recognizing the terrific family, extended family, and friends that we’ve been privileged to have. The courses of our lives have been greatly shaped by loving, thoughtful, and exemplar friends and family. We are truely grateful for you. Many influences have helped us both to find the source of our deepest joy, which comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ. At the season where we relish the spirit of Christmas, we express our gratitude to our Lord, whose spirit it is that lifts our hopes, lightens our burden, softens our hearts and strengthens our loving ties. We wish you all a very merry Christmas.

Love, Mark, Kristi, Kendra, and Megan Vickers

Love My Girls

This past week the girls and I went to Wal-mart. While we were there Kendra must have felt festive and broke out in song. She sang, "Santa Claus is coming to town" in her loud voice. It made me smile and I thought, "this is why I love Kendra." She is loud, fun, boisterous, obedient, loving, silly, difficult temperament - vibrant personality Kendra.

Kendra's Gingerbread Bears even have personality!

Yesterday we went to Straight Chiropractic to see Santa. Megan sat on his lap without crying, curious as to who this new person was. I thought, "this is why I love Megan." She is easy-going, flexible, content, happy, peaceful, easy temperament - calm personality Megan.

This is why I love my girls. They are polar opposites but so cute in their own way.

I Am Glad For Many Things

Before I can talk about how we spent our Thanksgiving Day I need to first discuss the past week.

Last Thursday before Mark and I fell asleep I expressed my deep sleep deprivation status and my concern for being on the brink of a break down. Two months ago (when Megan had her shots) Meggers stopped sleeping. I am lucky if I can get a two hour stretch at night. I don't nap during the day because I have Kendra. The exhaustion is wearing me out. Little did I know it was about to get worse.

That night Megan woke up after sleeping for 30 minutes. 20 minutes later Kendra walked into our room, (she hasn't walked to our bedroom for over a year, usually she just cries for us). She wanted to sleep in our bed with us. Her whole body was on fire. I laid awake next to her expecting her to be sick. 45 minutes later when I no longer could keep my eyes open she threw up! Mark raced to the bathroom with her but wouldn't you know Kendra was too scared to puke in the toilet. So, I spent the first couple of minutes of my birthday cleaning vomit. Happy Birthday to me!!

Friday was hard as Kendra laid on the couch all day. She has NEVER done this. I had to force her to eat ice chips and sip any liquid possible. Although she did eat toast late that night her appetite hasn't been the same. Megan got sick somewhere between there and Monday but wasn't really sick until Monday night. She coughed many times so hard that she would throw up. As the cough progressed her little face turned red. Because she is so little I took her in to see her doctor. Oh, and Mark got sick on Tuesday. Don't know why I'm not sick yet. We think everyone has parinfluenza (croup) and let me tell you that it is worse than the swine flu. With the H1N1 we had two really bad days and then it tapered off. Croup seems to just linger. Kendra sounds like a little barking seal.

So that brings me to today. We were invited to spend time with friends today, but because everyone is sick (except me) I decided we needed to stay home and I'd make us a Thanksgiving meal.

Not much of a feast but all homemade!! And because I'm the only "well" one we have a ton of leftovers!! I was happy because my pumpkin pie tastes just like my mom's.

It is nice to have a day when we can remember all we are grateful for.

Laughter: The Best Medicine

Kendra can always make her sister laugh. It's the funnest thing for us to watch and we finally taped it for all to enjoy.

During our scripture reading tonight we asked Kendra, "Don't you want to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus again?" To which she replied, "No, I just want to go to Disneyland." We have failed as parents!!

Earlier today Kendra went to a friend's birthday party. She got to ride a horse!

For Halloween Megan was a bunny and Kendra was Tinkerbell. I didn't post a picture of Kendra in her costume because it's the same costume she wore at Disneyland. We only went trick-or-treating to a few of our neighbors. When Kendra learned we were at our last house she said, "We need to go to some more houses." I told her that this was the last one, and she replied, "but I need some more candy."

The Ocean

I wasn't going to travel all the way to California and NOT see the beach. We took off one afternoon to spend a couple of hours in Long Beach. It was perfect timing. It was warm, sunny, and beautiful. The fog rolled in just as we left.

Mark and his girls walking the beach.



This took some coaxing. Kendra is still hesitant when it comes to new situations. The first step was to take off her shoes in the sand. Then it was to get her to walk on the wet sand. To get her in the water we began with our backs toward the ocean and dug our feet into the wet sand. The tide came up a little and got her. She realized it wasn't scary but fun, so began to play in the water.

Building a sand castle.


Kendra made "sleeping beauty's castle." Notice the beautiful trash in her castle. I am disappointed that people don't take care of the beaches. There was quite a bit of trash on the beach and in the water.


Funny picture of Meggers.

The Rides

Here are some pictures of the rides that we went on.

This is It's a Small World. We were able to ride this one as a family which was fun. Mark and I thought it was interesting that at the end all the dolls of every nationality were dressed in white.

Kendra in the Dumbo ride - one of her favorites.

Kendra on the Carousel. She wanted to ride on this particular horse because it was "Snow White's horse."

Mark and Kendra on the Buzz Lightyear ride.

Can't remember what this one is called but Kendra referred to it as the rocket ship ride.

Okay, not a ride but a good movie. It was too loud for Megan so I missed it. :(

This is called the Golden Zypher or something.

King Tritan's Carousel.

Tea Cup ride. Kendra loved to make it spin. The good thing about this one is that the line was always short.

I took Kendra on a Pinocchio ride and it scared her half to death. After about 5 seconds she screamed, "I want off!" Unfortunately we had to finish the ride with my hands over her ears and her eyes closed.

Mickey's Trick or Treat Party

On Wednesday night we took the girls to California Adventure for Mickey's Trick or Treat Party. I loved it! They have characters all over, candy stations, parades, rides, etc. We were all very tired by the time it began, but I would love to go again when the girls are old enough to enjoy it more. As you enter they give each person a trick-or-treat bag (they even gave Megan one) to use at the candy stations. They give you handfuls of candy and other items like apple slices, baby carrots, craisins, car raisins, etc. By the end Kendra wanted me to hold her bag because it was too heavy!

This is Kendra in her Tinkerbell costume in our hotel.

Us as we are leaving our hotel. The maingate is just down the hotel and accross the street! We were lucky enough to be at the very end of the hotel!

The decorations were really fun.

Snow White's step mother.

They had places where you could wait in line to meet characters and then they had two different dance parties with characters around.

This is one dance party - Mr. Incredible and Frozone were there.

Kendra and Megan enjoying the fun!

Woody and a Toy Soldier.

Where Dreams Come True

We just got back from our family trip to Disneyland. Kendra was finally able to meet some of the princesses and fairies.

This is Kendra's face as we approached Pixie Hollow.

TinkerBell


Kendra actually talked to her!

Kendra loved Fawn. Fawn is one of the fairies in Tinkerbell's movie.

We saw the princesses first - although Kendra was completely excited, she was somewhat hesitant to meet them and I had to walk up there with her.

Snow White

Sleeping Beauty (my least favorite character that we met). You can tell Kendra wasn't that fond of her either.

Belle - Kenrdra's favorite. Belle did a great job with Kendra!

Kendra was so excited to meet Cinderella!

We took a ton of pictures so I'm still sorting through them. More to come...