Christmas in California part 1

This is going to be a multi-parter, since there was so much activity packed into a weeklong trip. My dad was generous enough to offer to fly us out to California if we wanted for our Christmas gift, and after initially declining, I decided (and convinced Jenna) that we should go ahead and make the trip this year, since future years will be all spent at home and I hadn't seen everyone in a long time. We chose wisely as this was the first of three Christmases since we've been in Colorado that wasn't a white one.

The trip started out pretty interesting. As we were taxiing out of our gate, the pilot got on the intercom and announced that the west half of the airport was shut down for some unknown reason, and we were going to be delayed. We found out on arrival in Burbank that the reason for the delay and shutdown was that Continental flight that crashed on takeoff. Suffice it to say, that an hour delay sounded pretty reasonable given the circumstances.

We got to the Hoskinsons house (my parents) and put Laina to bed, then spent the next day at their house with Laina's three cousins (who were eagerly awaiting her arrival) and aunt and uncle (my brother and his wife). The kids had a great time playing with their cousin Laina, showing them as much fun stuff as they could come up with in a day. We went outside for a while and they all spontaneously broke out in a production of "The Wheels on the Bus" to Laina's sheer delight. I can't decide if she got a front row seat or she's the star of the show.

We basically spent the whole day hanging out, playing games, and watching the kids parade around the house with Laina. She loved it. We spent the night there, then headed up to the Ali's house (Jenna's parents) Monday for Christmas #1. That's all for part one. Here's some pics:

This is a classic "lets make the kids stand facing directly into the sun" picture... sorry guys

Dueling lego towers action. Later I started building lego robots for battle, and Kaity (red dress) kept asking me "Can you build another mighty robot Uncle Colorado Jay?" How could I refuse? Although I don't know how mighty they were if Conner kept destroying them. Incidentally, I'm "Uncle Colorado Jay" because they have another Uncle "J"

We discovered that Laina just perfectly fit inside the lego wagon, along with a teddy bear buddy, so many laps were made with her in tow (with all three cousins getting a 'turn'). Luckily she loves wagons.