Warm Winter Outing

This has been such a wonderful winter for going to the park and jumping on our new trampoline.  Alex was gone this time around.

Scotty had a great time!

Silly Daddy...  I love Lila's face in this pic.

Haley helping her little brother up the slide...

Then afterwards, we went on a drive to try and find the Flint Hills using the backroads. Crazy that we had a hard time running into them, but we did find this picturesque scene.  There was a clear, beautiful creek on both sides of the road.  So we got out and got pictures.  

We stopped at Olpe Chicken House for some famous fried chicken afterwards.  FYI, they don't serve mashed potatoes until 5 pm.  That was kind of important to me and I was bummed.  But it was a really fun day with the kids.

Christmas Parade

One of the perks of Vince's job, is that we get to drive Santa in the Emporia Christmas Parade!  The float was pretty elaborate with the reindeer going up into the air and Santa riding in a real sled.  The street was packed with people!  But the most unusual and amazing thing about the parade was...

the FREE steak the "Beef Fest" float handed out to people.  Conveniently, the float (complete with grills and smokers) was just a few floats in front of us.  The guy who is actually selling us 1/4 cow in a couple of weeks came up to us and handed us a plate of hot steak! YUMMO!!

Titus was in heaven when SANTA came to get loaded in the sleigh and stopped to give him a candy cane.  He yelled "That was Santa Claus!  I LOVE YOU SANTA CLAUS!!"  What a fabulous night!!!

Sledding

You might want to turn your volume down because I can get a little loud and crazy when I see my kids flying down the hill!