This last week of Christmas break was PACKED full of fun! I was telling someone this morning at church that it's a lot of work to have so much fun and that now I need a week of just relaxing at home with my kids. Too bad it's back to school tomorrow.
Life is not perfect here, but it is full of so much joy, love and snuggles that it doesn't really matter. We have our share of squabbles, but most of the time, I see my kids busy being best friends with each other.
New Year's Eve, Leigh and her sister Kara and brother Micah, came over to celebrate with us. It started with Dad wrestling people in the hall upstairs. He got Sara and then Josh. Silly Daddy!
Lots of love with these two!
Josh, Daniel, Micah, Andrew, Kara, Susanna, Laney, Leigh and Freddy
Susanna tried to make it to midnight, but she fell asleep like this at 11:45 pm. Almost made it! She has her Lucky socks on that Tim sent for Christmas. She loves them!
Micah brought some fireworks with him and the boys had fun setting them off out front.
I had my sweetie with me to welcome in the New Year. Here to an awesome 2018!!!
Sparkler fun
Always sparks flying with Josh and Leigh!
So cute!!!
Sara also did not make it to midnight. She was wiped out!
Monday morning we got up and drove our 2 Priuses to Sedona for the day. Sam and Josh both had the day off so we went on a family adventure.
Susanna doing her Little Mermaid pose.
Then they rode the javelinas, statues of course.
The sun was super bright, but here we are all ready to start our adventures.
The first stop was The Chapel of the Holy Cross. It is up on the side of the beautiful red cliffs. The views were amazing and the chapel was beautiful and unique. We enjoyed looking down on the huge and gorgeous houses too.
You can see in the chapel doors and also see the reflection of the cliffs in the exterior windows.
You can see one of the mansions down behind the girls and the beautiful view!
We drove around below the chapel and looked at houses for a while and then we went to downtown Sedona and walked around in the galleries and shops. There were so many fun things to look at!
We had a lot of fun in a Natural History - Rock and Mineral Shop. The sales lady was named Cherry. She was super fun and talkative (very sanguine). She told us all about the energy vortex in Sedona and all sorts of other crazy things. She was sweet and entertaining. Sam bought a cute little stone rooster for Grammy. He said it made him think of her because it was a rock, a bird and tiny.
There was a musician performing beautiful, calming music on a Chapman Stick. I had never seen or heard of this instrument before, but it was mesmerizing!
This was the write up about the instrument and the musician.
Heading back to the cars for some lunch we came across these cool wind spinners. The kids had fun blowing on them.
Looking at this picture, it feels like we are missing more than one person. Tim left a big hole!
We grabbed Subway and Chipotle for lunch and then went to Oak Creek Canyon to eat it and explore. Susanna, especially, had been eager to do some stomping around and hiking. This was the perfect spot, nothing too hard and it was easy to get down by the water to relax while the girls explored nearby so we could keep an eye on them.
Daniel and Drew took and nice nap by the creek. The sounds of the rushing water was so relaxing!
Sam spent a while throwing rocks across the creek trying to hit a sign. He succeeded several times.
Everyone soaked in the beautiful surroundings. You can see the sleeping boys in the upper right corner and Josh, Sara and Freddy over on the left watching the water and talking. Sam was up above us throwing his rocks and Laney was wandering around nearby.
The girls crossed the creek on some rocks and explored over by the little falls.
Then they tried to throw sticks and bark across the creek to each other. They were not successful, but had a great time trying.
Sam and Sara
Freddy and Mom
Then we packed up and headed home around 5 pm. Traffic was pretty backed up in Sedona (about 40 minutes to go just a couple miles), but not bad the rest of the way. In our car we listened to Magik by Angie Sage with Laney and Zanna while Freddy had his earbuds in to listen to The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. We love our audiobooks!!
It is wonderful to have cousins as our neighbors! The girls see each other almost every day.
Tuesday Mikael Anderson came over to play Settlers of Catan with Josh, Daniel and Leigh. It is pretty much a weekly event, although not as much in December since he was working lots of hours at Amazon and didn't have time to do much of anything other than work and sleep. We missed him.
Susanna loves Daddy time!
That evening Branden, Lilli and Josh also came over. They jammed out to You'll Be Back from Hamilton. Freddy is learning it on the piano. Branden is a great pianist and Josh is getting really good on the guitar. Andrew surprises me on the piano. He can play quite a bit too.
After Settlers of Catan, Josh went to bed and Daniel and Susanna played the Wii with Mikael. He is great and hanging out with everybody. We all love him!
Wednesday, my mom and I went to Costume Connection and got more costumes for Beauty and the Beast. It is an incredible non-profit organization that has hundreds of thousands of pieces for schools and churches to rent (very affordably, $5 - $15 mostly, for up to 3 months). We spent about 2 1/2 hours there. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun!!
Laney made this cute little lamb out of pipe cleaners. She thought of her Timmy, Boyfriend Black Sheep, while making it.
Laney got to go hiking with Jessi and her girls at the White Tank Mountains that afternoon.
That evening we had the missionaries over for dinner and 3 guys (Josh Jensen, Caden Cook and Miles) from Millennial Choir came for dinner and to hang out for the evening. They are all so talented as well as kind and fun!
They performed Far Far Away along with the new recording that was released for the missionaries. They even did some Scottish dancing while the bagpipes played. It was awesome and hilarious!
Daniel tried on his Gaston costume for us, since I had just brought it home earlier that day.
They all played Super Smash Bros Brawl for a little while. Heidi and Lilli came to join the fun.
Then they went out back and had a fire. We had a ton of cardboard to burn from our new sofa and other Christmas packages.
It made beautiful flames!
The next morning, the older kids went to the temple with cousins and Dandi, Gram and Papa. It was the first time the older boys got to baptize the younger cousins and siblings. It was a pretty touching experience.
Then it was soccer at the park by Ben and Nan's house. Branden and Caden came along, although Caden couldn't stay all day. Gavin even came up with Peter and Freddy. It was tons of fun!! It was the only time we got with Dandi's family over break, but everyone loved every second.
Cute little monkeys in the tree!
Ryan, Jonah and Justin
Some Hearts was played.
More Hearts playing
Susanna had a horrible case of pink eye so she missed out on the fun.
I mostly stayed with her so she wasn't SO sad, but I went over to hang out in the evening. I watched the new Broadway video of Holiday Inn with Grammy, Papa, Gavin and a bunch of the kids.
Friday, Sammy lost his job, but he has a great attitude about it. He was ready for a fresh start. He helped me put the Christmas decorations away and then spent several hours trimming the vines on the front porch. They had gotten quite overgrown. Now they look amazing! Timmy would be proud.
Sara got to spend a little time with Makaila while she was home for break. We got a quick pic when these guys brought her back home.
Friday was also wedding day for our dear friend Kallie Jordan!!!
Saturday, we went to Kallie and Casey's wedding reception. It started at 6:00pm, but they didn't arrive until 8:30pm. They got married in the San Diego Temple and because they are so in love and such, they left late to drive home and they forgot about the 1 hour time difference. Anyhow, the reception was still lots of fun. They had really good street tacos and lots of dancing.
Noah, Rich, Sam, Andrew, Leigh, Josh, Kyler, Josh Jordan, Freddy, Sara, Jason Jordan
Steph, Nelly, Sara and Lilly
When Kallie did finally arrive, she was so happy to see Sara. I loved to see how much they adore each other. Such sweet friends!
Sammy and Kallie
Susie and Kallie
Dancing fun!
More dancing!
Cutting the cake!
Kallie's sister, Averi is one of Laney's best friends.
More pics of these best friends.
It was another busy and super fun week!! We have the best friends and family!!!
