Christmas/Birthday 2016!

Christmas this year was wonderful. It was SO nice to get out of the city and spend time with my family and (gasp!) boyfriend. Here are some pictures.

Got home late at night and my mom had a cookie cake waiting for me that said
'Welcome Home Jenny'

My favorite

Decorating the tree with my lovely parents!
Of course, my dad had to turn the traditional 'Jingle Cats' on

Hank just being adorable

Reunited with my buddy walter! 

Silly

Milo didn't want to miss out on the Selfies 

I love the way that my house looks at Christmas

We hosted Christmas Eve dinner for everyone at the Hurst House

The three brothers

Annual talent show that the Shipps skyped in for. Laura's talent was singing/playing a song on the ukelele that she had changed the words to be about Miriam. Dustin was juggling in the background. Because...obviously hahaha

Just thought this was so sweet of Walter

Christmas morning!
It's always so much better with kids around! 

Hank loved his little fox stuffed animal

I got my Dad that sweatshirt for Christmas. Walter got him the piece of tape and put it on his nose. 

Shoulder wrestling

I just thought this was adorable

I came back from putting the boys to bed on Christmas and found Emily and my Dad just randomly playing a card game. It then turned into a thing where Emily, Matt, my Dad and I played card games for like an hour- it was so fun! 

Oh, can't forget the welcome chalk board! 

Why is Walter just so adorable??

And then Bright came!
He was super tired but I made him go to Steak and Shake
(I was so excited to see him that I accidentally left my car running in the parking lot!)

My mom made a welcome sign for Bright!

We went to the butterfly house. They had all these cute little fairy set-ups to correspond to different types of butterflies which I thought my mom would like

The video about butterflies was very crowded when we got there so we had to sit on the floor

AND THEN IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY!!!!

It started out great with some flowers from my aunt!

And also with Bright being a hero and climbing up into our tree to cut down a dead branch

I mean, come ON! Look how high he is!

Then Bright and I went to the zoo!
I made him pose for this picture because giraffes are his favorite animal

Zebras

Bright's first venture into funnel cake!
(we had tried to get it on Coney Island but they were sold out)

Bright's first bear sighting!

It was a really full day and after the zoo, we went ice skating with the Johnsons
My Dad was there to take paparazzi pictures. I particularly like this one.

Cute little milo wanted to go it alone! 

Walter, on the other hand, was content to be dragged along the rink
(I think he enjoyed eating the ice)

That face!

He's just so dang cute!

But constantly capsizing! 

And trying to bring me down with him! 

Bright wasn't much better!
I had to pull him around everywhere because skating is still so new to him! 

It was fun

After Ice Skating we went to Birthday Dinner with the fam at Red Robin. Then we went back to Emily's house for cake and presents and ping pong. It was a wonderful day.

The next day (New Years Eve) we went downtown

I love him

Silly.
Also not sure if you can tell but I had dental work done and accidentally
 bit down on my lip while it was numb and it got SO swollen. It looked so bad in person for pretty much the whole time Bright was there.

St. Louis! 

Starting to get tired, haha

Bright in front of the court house. Sadly we couldn't go up in the arch because of construction.
Next time ;) 

Church selfie

One last game of soccer with Milo before Bright had to go on Sunday

Milo is very good. But Bright is better.

And then I took Bright to the airport (it's becoming a common occurance) and had to say goodbye. The next day I left as well to go back to New York. Honestly, it was hard coming back. Break this year was just so wonderful and I had the best people to share it with!