Hawaii, part 3

I believe these were all taken at the Pearl Harbor Memorial / museum:

Hawaii, part 2

On some giant slide?

At the beach, naturally:

And with some giant trees (clearly I'm not the right person to be providing narration here...):

Hawaii, part 1

As soon as Christmas was over and Alan returned from an economics conference, Cooper attended school for one day, and then promptly left with Alan for a week-long trip to Hawaii.  Alan and his co-worker Martha taught an interterm class at Baker on the history and culture of Hawaii, and then naturally had to take a group of students to visit.  Coop was more than happy to tag along.

Hanging with the big kids in the airport:

Behind Martha at the Iolani Palace (I believe):

I think these next photos were at the Bishop Museum, which got rave reviews from the boys:

Xmas in Lawrence

Look who I busted sneaking around in the living room:

Excitement:

I asked for a shirt from my gym, but they don't have a lot in stock.  So instead, Coop made me one.  I love it:

And then Coop spent three straight days putting together legos:

Xmas in Inman

Grandma and Ellen getting supper ready:

Coop's surprise (and glee!) at his Christmas gift:

This snappy blazer!

With Grandma:

Xmas in Lyons

 Watching movies with the cousins:

 And playing school:

I french-braided the girls' hair:

Supper with some of the cousins:

All of the kiddo generation at the Farm gathering:

The Burdettes and their grandkids (and dog):

My sisters and I:

Coop taking a break from the family to go shoot tin cans with his Grandpa and Dad.

Other pre-Christmas things

Gus and Eleanor came over and the kiddos made this marble run:

We saw Miss Linda, the cinnamon roll lady, at the holiday farmers market, so we spent a couple of hours working in her booth, helping to sell cinnamon rolls!

An army invasion, held off by nerf guns:

The presents Coop made for us at school came home with these decorations of things we each like:

 (netflix, wine, diet coke, the snake, sleeping)

(glasses, guns, cat, beer, iPad)

Getting ready for xmas

Coop and I enjoyed a Topeka production of It's a Wonderful Life:

New ornaments for this year:

Reading through the xmas books:

And the much beloved xmas village:

Thanksgiving

We enjoyed the 39th Annual Raintree Thanksgiving Feast, for which the kids make all of the dishes:

This year, Cooper recited a Thanksgiving poem that he had written:

For Thanksgiving itself, we hosted some law students (and one other law professor and her son) at the house for Indian food:

The Washburn Law crew: