Brandon's 40th Birthday!!

So this is the first time that the kids have had such a long Christmas break. They got out of school on Thursday the 21st, then had the two full weeks after Christmas off. So usually they are back to school by the time Brandon's birthday comes around and it's so hard to celebrate a birthday with an early school morning so it was really nice not having to worry about that this year for the first time ever!

We were so excited to celebrate Brandon turning 40. I'm so happy he was able to book this cruise for us so we could make it a really epic birthday. The kids all picked out treats and we bought him some clothes. We knew the treats would come in handy on our road trip coming up in 2 days!

We ate dinner at Texas Roadhouse that night.

Then wen to Nickel City to have some fun!

Ross and Karen came over for brownies and ice cream later that night. Again, so nice not to have to worry about it being a school night. We partied hard all Christmas break long! And then extended it by a week with our cruise. And then got another Monday off after our cruise for Martin Luther King Day. The kids ended up being off of school from half day on December 21st to going back to school January 16th, missing the first week back. Epic!

So two days after Brandon's birthday we were all packed up and headed to Las Vegas for a pit stop on the way to our cruise!

We wanted to show the kids the venetian and it was so much fun! They got to see the guys on the gondolas and even hear them singing. It was a blast.

There is this new sphere thing in Las Vegas which is really cool and pretty trippy to look at. We got a good view from the Venetian parking lot.

From there we drove over to the Bellagio to see the display and the fountains. The display was Christmas themed with the Nutcracker. It was breathtaking!

The kids finally got to see the water fountain show! The last time we were there it didn't go off for some reason.

We walked across the street to the Paris hotel to look around inside.

Then went to Raising Cane's for dinner and stayed at Buffalo Bills again.

There was the craziest windstorm all night long! The pool had chairs and tables that had blown into it in the morning. Pretty chilly weather but we headed out to California hoping for better weather.

Christmas Break and New Years

Christmas break had its ups and downs like you would imagine. We had this one day where I organized a bunch of girl clothes and boy, I just hated that day.

Then another day where we met up with Ken and his family to celebrate Sky's birthday at the Bean Museum.

After that I took the kids to Wendy's for lunch and then my mom took us to Nickel City as part of our Christmas present. It was really fun as always.

Tyler ran into his friend Nixon so they got to hang out together which was awesome.

After that we went to see Brandon at work and stopped at the new park by his work. The weather was incredible and the kids had so much fun at this awesome park.

This was absolutely the most perfect Christmas Break day you could ever have! I was so happy.

New Years Eve celebrations happened on the 30th since New Years Eve was a Sunday.

Then on actual New Years Eve we hung out and played games. Kallie had Sophie sleep over since her family was all doing other stuff.

Every single one of the kids stayed up till midnight! Then the next day we had fun playing games.

Mckinley made the cutest cross stitch and Grandma Bishop helped her turn it into a pillow.

She also helped her finish off this cute stuffed elephant Mckinley made. She got the pattern from her sewing class at school.

In preparation for Brandon's 40th birthday we started celebrating and decided to take the kids ice skating. It was the first time for all of them. It started out a little rocky but ended up with everyone loving it and asking to go back again. Jackson said it's what he wants to do for his birthday, ha ha. We used our starving student cards and were able to take the whole family for $22. It will definitely be more expensive next time!

I just absolutely love all the memories we are making as a family. These really feel like the golden years and I am enjoying it so much!

Tyler was the one kid who just took off and didn't have any problems at all! He did fall and hurt his tail bone pretty bad but he was so good at it. He's so athletic! Just like his dad.

Ava was a little pro! She had been practicing quite a bit on roller blades lately and I think that really helped her.