Disclaimer: I am HORRIBLE at taking pictures so what you are about to see doesn't do justice for the great time we had. I didn't even get pictures at some of the events so you'll just have to believe me when I say the kids smiled the WHOLE time.
The kids came to stay with us on Wednesday the 28th. We don't usually celebrate our Christmas until New Year's Eve but we had a lot to do this year so we started early.
The morning of the 29th, the kids woke up and all of the stockings were missing. Nobody really thought much of it and just went about their morning eating breakfast and blaming Zak for hiding the stockings somewhere (since he was the only one not out of bed).
Then the doorbell rang. Like 5 times. The kids (and the dog) all raced to the door to see who it could be. Only a Christmas bin. They brought it inside and opened it. To their surprise, there were the stockings full of all kinds of stuff. Along with the stockings was a letter from Santa explaining that he was anxious to get home and be done with Christmas so he dropped theirs off a little early. He told them to pack a bag with specific items and to be ready to go by 2pm.
The kids raced around the house getting chores done, taking showers and packing bags and watching the clock closely. At 2 they were all whining wanting to pack the car and get going but we had to wait for the first surprise that showed up a few minutes late. The kids couldn't figure out what we were waiting for. Then Santa's sleigh arrived. A black stretched limo had come to pick them up and take them to their destination. Their faces were priceless and burned into my memory but I don't have any pics to prove it.
We arrived at the Westin in Bellevue. We checked in and went to our rooms. All I remember the kids saying was "we don't deserve to stay at a place this nice."
We had gotten a room for the kids and a room for us. The rooms joined of course, but the kids thought it was great that they got their own room.
After looking around for a minute, Mom and Dad opened the envelope that Santa had left for them. Inside were 5 envelopes (one for each child). We handed them out and watched the kids light up again.
Spending money for the mall across the street. Since we didn't buy gifts, we thought it would be fun to give each kid their own money to go spend. They were THRILLED!! So we hi-tailed it off to the mall. They all made out pretty well with new shoes, shirts, jackets, iPods, etc. After walking the mall for what seemed like hours, we decided to go to dinner at ZTejas. Dinner was on Grandma Wescott who also helped with the expense of the hotel rooms.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel and went swimming. We didn't last long, everyone seemed a little worn out from the days events so back to the room we went where the kids found another gift for each one of them lying on their beds. New pajamas for them to wear to bed. They also had all kinds of chips and goodies sitting on the dresser in their room so we ordered a movie for them and let them eat junk food to their hearts content.
Since they all had money left from the mall, they decided they wanted to order milkshakes from room service and thought that was "awesome".
The next day, Uncle Evan picked us up at the hotel and we went home for a few hours. Everyone was happy to be home but then Josh's parents had planned a surprise for the kids for 3pm that day. We drove to Nana's office and she told the kids where they were going.
Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures here, but we did get a DVD of all of us flying. You'll have to come over and watch the DVD if you want to see how much fun we all had. We all had two 1 minute sessions each and had a BLAST!! I would HIGHLY recommend it to any who are thinking about going. After our flying lessons, we wrapped up our Christmas at Spaghetti Factory and headed home! Nothing more fun than spending time with the ones you love more than anything on the planet! Something we'll NEVER forget!!
