Why-O Why-O Why-O, Did I Ever Leave Ohio?

If you've ever seen "Back to the Beach", the title to this post won't be so foreign. ***WARNING***Dangerously LONG post***We spent Christmas break spoiling ourselves with treats, family and lots of fun. The time went by way too fast and Nic and I are wishing we were still there. As always, Nana and Papa were top chefs, spoiling us with turkey, ribs, crab, steak and all the delicious sides that go along with it. We were also lucky enough to have Grandma & Grandpa Schenk AND Grandma & Grandpa Clark join us all for the holidays! My favorite part was that there was no room left in the inn and part of the family slept in an RV parked in the driveway. Can you say, a Griswald Family Christmas? Awesome. Camryn & Brooklyn were in heaven with the surplus of Nana's toys, and also the surplus of toys from Santa. They spent most of their time out of sight in the basement! It was so fun to see their excitement for Christmas and Santa this year. The most magical part of Christmas day was when Camryn and Brooklyn discovered some of Santa's sleigh bells out on the patio. There just happened to be enough for all 4 little girls. Guess they fell off Santa's sleigh!! (Nic, you're adorable.) It was also fun to have Dani, the Clark's foreign exchange student from Spain, around. He'd never seen snow and spent half his time outside on his little snowboard doing flips off his ramp. We were also lucky enough to have Nic perform the Haka for us! He went on his mission to New Zealand and learned some wild stuff over there. The last day of the trip was spent getting family pictures taken in Columbus. Let's keep our fingers crossed that I don't have "frozen smile" in each picture. We had a Very Merry Christmas and feel so blessed to have such wonderful families to celebrate with. I truely think of Nic's family as my own. It was destiny that I become a Clark. I wish we could all be together more often!

Other highlights of the trip
*Steve telling me about his new alarm clark....3 times.
*Going to Sherlock Holmes. (AWESOME movie)
*Going to Princess & the Frog with Nana, Gma Schenk, the twins, and another set of 3 year old female twins from Nana's ward.
*Punching Kate in the arm so hard she had knuckle bruises for a week...j/k Kate. Our arm punching war was actually pretty fun though! And painful.
*Donald's Donuts
*Hottubbing
*Rock Band- I am a SKILLED drummer :)
*Kendyl's never-ending mission to find candy.
*Watching old home videos that Lyle so kindly put on DVD for all of us!

The girls did exceptionally well on the airplane. Kendyl actually napped and C&B entertained themeselves with Barbies and Paperdolls.


Acting out Luke 2. I still don't know how I didn't get a part!!! ;)







The infamous pinata. Yes, Sean and Tanner seem to out-do themselves on the pinata making. Tanner made this one, but Sean made a sweet dude snowman at our last Ohio Christmas. (See Christmas 2007 :) )

Shooting Ashley with a paintball gun. And getting shot square in the back with the paintball gun. It hurt like a you-know-what. Thanks Ash.


Camryn & Brooklyn have their own mini table at Nana's house.

The Jingle Bell

Opening presents Christmas morning. Notice Camryn extracting a pack of gum from her stocking. Pretty sure that was her favorite present.






Searching for the Pickle on the Tree. I hand my crown to you Ashley.

Camryn & Brooklyn got to sleep in a princess castle in Nana & Papa's room!

A counter FULL of treats at all times.

Camryn & Grandma Schenk. The girls really bonded with the great grandmas during our vacation.

Kendyl's a PRO at the Wii Fit!

Nic went out for a hunt one day. Unsuccesful.



The proud puzzle-doers.

Sean & his friend Alex Williams had their Eagle Scout Court of Honor while we were there (which Sean actually earned in June 08'). Now Papa and his 4 sons are all Eagle Scouts. Does that make for some proud parents!?





Doing flips with Papa!

Kendyl & Averi are the cutest little baby BFF's ever! They had so much fun together and practically looked liked twins themselves, being only 3 months apart. And don't worry, Camryn too became best friends with baby Averi.



Dani snowboarding.


Kate & Steff Punch-out video


Paintball Attack (I'm the victim in this particular episode)


Nic's Haka