Merry Christmas 2008 and Happy New Year!

We hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and that you will have a wonderful New Year! We had a great Christmas with lots of family parties, chili cook-offs, sledding on the side of the house, and an adults only dinner out on New years.

May you all be healthy and joyous in the New Year!

Love The Kilpacks!

Opening the Christmas Eve gift.

Thanks Mom, your the best!

Yay!!! Mom made us new pajama pants!

So, on Christmas morning, Josh and I had laid in bed for what seemed like forever. We never heard any kids rustling about in the living room or anything. So we finally got up to find that not one of the kids was up yet, and it was 7:30! That's a first! The girls came out shortly and we had to have them go downstairs and wake all of the boys up! Can you believe it?!

(All the boys sleep together in Coltons room and the girls in their room on Christmas Eve. It's become a tradition!)

This is what Colton looked like Christmas morning. Funny!!! It didn't take Dallin or Will long to get over being woken up!

The dog got a new bone and chewed away while we opened presents.

Christmas Eve.

Everyone got what they wanted.

(Will did, except for the real motorcycle with training wheels that he wants soooo bad!!!)

Merry Christmas everyone!

The kids and I with Val and Megale.

(Dallin was taking the picture)

Dad's turn!

After all the presents had been opened, we spent the day enjoying them together. Josh made a great Christmas breakfast of French Toast and honey dew melon. Later we had my Uncle Joe, and the kids Grandparents Val and Megale over for a ham dinner with funeral potatoes, green beans, rolls, a green salad, and of course dessert. Megale made a wonderfully yummy cheesecake (all for me of course) and a delicious chocolate cake (all for Josh of course)!

A few random pics from Seattle 12/08

Here are a few more pics that I wanted to post. They are some of my favorite.

Josh standing in the forest. We stopped at a trail on the side of the road over on Bainbridge Island. It was so cool. I wish we could have explored it.

Josh and I riding the ferry over to the island.
It was a bit cold out.

Josh and I a top the Space Needle.

Me on the ferry.

Mt. Rainer

Trip to Seattle Day Three 12/07/08

On our second full day of being in Seattle we went sight seeing. We crammed a lot into one day, but it was totally worth it. Her are some pics in random order.

At the end of the day we managed to squeeze in visiting the Boeing Flight Museum. I think Josh could have stayed here all day. They had some really neat stuff and lots of it.

One of my favorites.


A flying car. Who knew?!

There were a lot of airplanes in here. This was just the first building. There were like three more, and you could go out and see the Concourse and Air Force One. You could even walk through them, but we didn't get there in time to do that. Josh was bummed.

Some more airplanes.

View from atop the Space Needle. A storm had just moved over us, and this is what it looked like after it left.

Downtown Seattle from the Space Needle.

There was a Seattle Sea Hawks Football game going on while we were visiting.

This is the stadium. I can't believe how many people were there!

Josh bringing me a warm cup of hot chocolate while a top the Space Needle.

What breathtaking views!

On the elevator to go up. I have to say that I was a little bit freaked out by riding the elevator. For those of you who don't know, the elevator is on the outside of the building and the whole front of it is glass. You can totally see how far down you are from the elevator. I wasn't really sure that I wanted to ride it back down. (But I did with much teasing from my husband no less.)

Some more pics from the Space Needle.

Looking out towards some of the islands.

Getting ready to go to the top of the Space Needle.

The Science Fiction Museum. It looked really cool, but we didn't get to stop here. They recommended at least three hours to see everything and we didn't have three hours.

The monorail by the museum.

A view from the restaurant where we had lunch.

After lunch we walked through Pike's Place Market. I loved it! They had everything for any type of meal all right there! I thought that I had died and gone to heaven. There was crab everywhere!

(For those who don't really know me, I love crab tremendously!)

I was able to have some for dinner that night. We ate a place called Ivars. It was wonderful!

(Although I thought that Josh might not kiss me afterwards. He doesn't like any seafood and doesn't understand how I can eat those things. They are like a giant spider!)

After riding the ferry back over to Seattle from Bainbridge Island, we went to the Seattle Aquarium.
It was pretty neat. We hoped it would have been a bit neater though. It was similar to what we have here in Sandy. Except ours isn't on a pier.

At the Farmer's Market.

The entrance to the aquarium. If you look closely at the tank behind us, there are actually scuba guys in there.

We had a busy day, but I enjoyed every minute of it. It was so wonderful to spend some quality time with my husband. The trip was over (too soon in my opinion). On Monday and Tuesday Josh had class, so I just hung out in the hotel room. I napped, ate, napped some more, read, napped, and watched t.v. All of which I don't have a lot of time to do at home.

Thanks honey for inviting me on this trip.l I had a blast!

Trip to Seattle Day Two 12/06/08

My Aunt and Uncle have a house over on Bainbridge Island. It sits on a few acres of property and it is just beautiful! (it's also for sale if anyone is interested in moving to Washington!)

So, on Saturday we headed over to the Island to visit with them.

WOW.... can't even describe how beautiful it is! I'ts early December and it's still so green.

There are trees everywhere. And not just little trees, but some huge trees!

(more to come on the trees)
The upstairs of my Aunt and Uncles house.


My Auntie Kay and their dog Bailey.

The backyard, with a gazebo that my Uncle hand made and a fire pit for salmon bakes!

Mmmm....yummy!

Walking through the trees.

Giant ferns.

More cool scenery.

The meadow.

Josh was trying to capture just how big the trees were. But, no luck. They are just to tall!

Amy with her Aunt and Uncle.

A leaf that Josh found. Look how big it is!

The fireplace in the living room. My Aunt and Uncle and my two cousins found all these river rocks and had them made into their fireplace. How cool is that!

Josh and I at my Aunt and Uncles house on Bainbridge Island.

The driveway.

Some more BIG trees.

A picture of our rental car.

Dallin wanted us to make sure that we took a picture of it.

So, here you go Dallin.

After visiting for a few hours, we went down to another town called Poulsbo.

The boats that were docked were all decorated for Christmas. Some had lights and some even has some of those blow-up decorations. It was way cool.

We walked around the downtown area and checked out some of the shops. We stopped at the bakery and bought some delicious treats and at the chocolate shop for some little sweets.

(I won't rant about the photos putting them selves in random order!)

As we were leaving my Aunt and Uncles, we looked up and there was a Bald Eagle sitting in the tree top.

The Port of Poulsbo.

When we got here, there was some festivities going on.

(not to sure what it was, but it was neat)

Barnacles!

After wondering around the downtown area we headed back into town to have dinner with my Aunt and Uncle.

(Thanks again for dinner, and we sure did enjoy visiting with you both!)

After dinner we headed over to the hotel for a good nights sleep.