Ladd Photos

All the PNW Ladds gathered at my sister Courtney’s house to eat dinner, open presents, and watch the Seahawks lose. The camera loves my little niece Braelyn!

The boys got a lot of books this year, as well as a few games and Legos.

Santa was a little more fun. Connor got a cool R2D2 robot to construct, build the circuits to bring it to life, and then program using his tablet! Gavin got a radar gun so he can monitor his progress to being a fast enough pitcher to draft.

After our morning presents, we headed down south to the traditional Loera Family gathering, for dinner and more presents.

I managed to snap some photos of Connor while I was running the “stack the hex nuts” station. The kids had a sugar filled chaotic blast.

Experimenting with foam satellites and playing with science at the Fleet.

We spent the day before Aliciana’s birthday at Disneyland, so she could celebrate it like a princess. Everything was decorated for the holidays and the castle looked beautiful with all the lights.

The boys got to paddle the canoes for the first time, and I got soaked when I went on Splash Mountain with Gavin. The new Star Wars land has an amazing atmosphere to walk around in; it really felt like you were on a remote outpost on some alien world.

The Safari Park is the new home of 2 platypuses, the only 2 outside of Australia. The zoo had been working on getting them for over 100 years, as it was a dream of the founder to have some.

Unfortunately, it was quite dark in their exhibit (they are nocturnal), and I had a huge line of people behind me, so I didn’t get any good photos of them. The exhibit had only been open one day, so hopefully next time I go I will have more time to try to get a better shot.

Making new friends at the Zoo, such as the spurred tortoises, Mickey the umbrella cockatoo, anteater, gerenuk, and reindeer.

Connor was José Altuve of the Astros and Gavin was the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani.

Gavin pitched the last inning, getting all three outs with strike outs.

Gavin was brought in with bases loaded and got 2 strikeouts. Then he pitched the next inning and rang up another two Ks.

One of Gavin’s strikeouts:

Staying cool at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

It’s hard to believe Gavin is already in middle school, starting 6th grade at Oak Valley. Connor is excited to be in Mrs Cunningham’s class for 3rd grade this year at Turtleback. Have a great school year boys!

We filled the time before our flight home by going for a hike in an Illinois forest. Then we visited beautiful Lake Katherine and the creatures at its nature center and gardens.