We are not ready for Christmas to be over on Dec. 25, so we have Old Befana come on Jan. 6.  Colin put out his boots, hoping for lots of goodies. 

 Jane got a magic teapot.  We were downstairs, but my mom said she said, "what the heck?" 

 We are in a big Beyblade phase. 

 And Brian made a French Epiphany cake, very yummy!  We had some friends over that we met in Rome to eat it. 

 Jane made a big tower all by herself, so cute. 

And Brian put the tree outside so he could see it with snow on it.  It was fun the first couple snow storms, but not fun after all the snow we got.  It was a brutal winter. 

 This was the day we let the kids eat their gingerbread house. 

 Crazy kids. 

After our second day at the Science Center, we got some pizza.  We tried to go here two years earlier, but there was a 3 hour wait!  No pizza is worth three hours, especially when Brian makes awesome pizza.  But we got a table right away.  It was fun and we were hungry. 

The big kids love to play with Kate while in the stroller. 

We spent the night in Las Vegas coming home to break up the drive.  Sadly, we missed a turn and got into town about an hour later than we could have.   We stayed in the New York New York, got some fish and chips and headed out onto the Strip. 

We had fun pointing out how Las Vegas is a fake city to the kids.    

I do love the fountain shows! 

Colin's cute little head watching the show. 

 

And he was asleep in the stroller, but we woke him up to get a photo with Bumble Bee.  How did he get so big?  (Colin, not Bumble Bee.)  We also learned to NOT go to the pirate show at Treasure Island.  It used to be fun and piraty, but alas, has gone very tasteless.  Seems the ladies who probably work inside the casino without shirts on cover up, come outside and do a siren show.  Brian thought their target audience was 12-15 year old boys.  It was super dumb, and Colin even thought so.  He wondered why they did not talk like pirates, and why they had to make it "romantic".  Below, we had very tired kids.  Kate was asleep strapped onto Brian, and although way too big, the big kids can still sleep in our phil&;teds!  Brian and I walked about 4 miles on the strip and got back to the hotel super late.  Who were those irresponsible parents with their kids out so late? 

 

Way back again in November when we were in AZ, we spent 2 afternoons at the Arizona Science Center.  I wish I had used this better when we were on the road most of the year, but ASCT memberships have reciprocal benefits to lots of museums.  I did it wrong bu not joining our local museums thinking we would not be home enough to use the memberships but I was WRONG!  Reciprocal museum memberships are wonderful!  The AZ Science Center was wonderful1 

 

 

They had a great Lego exhibit.  We love Lego.  

 

 

 

 

Kate just hanging out on the beach playing lego. 

Kate took off with the small intestines. 

And the most life-changing for my kids, they had a huge model of a human stomach that was a slide.  The slide made realistic and LOUD digestive noises.  Hence, we called it the Fart Slide.  Jane said it best with, "I liked it because it farts and it is a slide." 

We spent a lot of time wheelchair racing. 

 

And playing in models of the heart. 

 

 

This was some digital exhibit, and below, that lovely image of me was frozen huge on the wall.  One of the most fun things that I did not get a photo of, there was an exhibit on extreme weather.  They had a show where you could feel earthquakes and the heat of fires and the wind and rain of hurricanes, etc.  It was very, very cool. 

 

The Opera put us up in a great place.  Every inch was explored for playing options.  Colin is no stranger to getting under sinks, etc in temporary housing. 

Baby Colin in Mexico City!

So baby Kate was in good company. 

 

She LOVED the soft dirt in Sedona.  She had started the day clean.  She bath water that night was very red with dirt. 

 

 

A lot of places we go, Jane just takes her own time lagging behind.  She is a strong willed little one, but so smart and sweet.  The other day after Christmas, I told her how I would have loved one of her toys when I was a little girl.  A couple minutes later she told me she would share her new toy with me.

We went to some fancy shopping place that had many fountains to enjoy. We got some Mexican food.   

 

And there were courtyards in which to run.