Our Christmas Road Trip

*WARNING: HUGE POST!

The Plowman Christmas this year was awesome! Nate, Claire and I road tripped it to Lincoln City, Oregon where Nate's family had rented a beach house. The house was amazing and so was the company! On the drive there we found this HUGE waterfall called Multnomah Falls. It was gorgeous and a great reason to get out and stretch our legs. Claire was in the best mood (I'm pretty sure she was just trying to be cute so that we wouldn't put her back in her car seat.)

We had so much fun all week just hanging out and playing games every night. Nate's family is the best! One of the days we went down to the beach for a little photo shoot. It was freezing, but SO beautiful. The waves were gigantic! Here are all the kids:

The sunset was gorgeous...

Nate, his sisters Brianne and Mehren, and his brother Chris

The Christophers: Brooklyn, Aaron, Brianne, and Marcus

Claire and me

Claire LOVES her daddy. He can get her to laugh and smile better than any one can.

Family self-portrait

I can officially say that this Christmas was my best ever. Everything is so much more meaningful when you have a baby. Even though she had no clue that Christmas day was any different that any other day, it was fun just watching her take it all in. She especially loved the bows on the package. Here's Nate giving her a present - she was really pretty good at opening presents if we started them for her.

Her first piano from Grandma Plowman...

Here was the huge MESS we made!

Christmas morning family pic

Here are the grandkids with their matching pajamas, thanks to Grandma Plowman! Claire LOVED being able to meet her new cousins!

Then we all left Lincoln City (*sigh*) and road-tripped again up to Seattle. Here, Claire got to meet her Great Grandpa Clarke.

Nate's mom had a little chair that you could attach to the countertop. It was Claire's new favorite seat...she liked it WAY more than her high chair at home!

One of the awesome presents I got for Christmas from Santa was "Karaoke Revolution". And yes, you can use it with my other favorite game "Dance Dance Revolution". You sing AND dance! It was awesome, but hard! Here's Nate's mom giving it a try:

On our final night in Washington, we went to the Cheesecake Factory (YUM!). The food is SO good there! Nate and I shared the Chocolate Oreo Mudslide Cheesecake and wow, that was one rich cheesecake.

Then in downtown Bellevue on "Snowflake Lane", they have a little drummer show where there are drummers everywhere, music, and they pump out fake snow. It was so cute! If only it weren't so freezing!

So that was our Christmas 2007! It was a great holiday and I'm so sad it's over!!