Auntie J's Visit from Cali!!

The kids (and everyone really) adore Auntie J.  They had school while she was here but we made the most of her time here regardless.  One morning she & I and the two younger kids went on an explore up Hobble Creek Canyon.  We found some frozen still parts of the creek and played there for a bit and then took a short explore up a trail.  Little J blazed on ahead and was definitely the leader of the pack.

Little A tired out more quickly and once we got to the top of a decent hill she and the clock convinced us to get back home, even though it was a balmy 45 degrees out and sunny.

Where's all the snow?! my sister asked?  We were asking the same thing....it looks so barren!

One of the kids' favorite activities is mini golfing so we decided to take Auntie J and it was even warm enough to play outside.

Speaking of playing outside, we took a trip up to Super Bowl Wall in Rock Canyon one day while all three kids were in school.  Big J was able to take a few hours off work (not hard to convince him of that!) to head up.  It was incredibly warm up here next to the rock!!--especially after the harrowing trip up to the wall.  

Here we are at Alta!!  With the snow being almost non-existent Auntie J was trying to decide if it was worth skiing.  That's when our planned hatched.  Thanks to Big J and his grandma we were able to get up to Alta by 3pm to take advantage of the free after 3 policy.  That way since the lack of snow wasn't really worth skiing on at least we got to go without paying for it. and my sis felt better about bringing her skiis and getting in the snow, or ice as the case was.  We got 5 runs in before the 4:30 closing time and it was super fun.  It looks really warm but on the lift it felt quite cold.  And, I remembered how to ski!!  Yay!  Like riding a bicycle. After we skied we met up with my other sister at Tsunami in SLC for dinner then shopped for a little while before our show, "The Help" started.  The flick wasn't as good as I was expecting so I was a bit disappointed, but it was still ok.  It certainly condensed the 300+ page book that was too long but also otherwise ok.  Auntie J then went with my other sis for the rest of the weekend.  Among these things pictured, Auntie J also took my new bike up the canyon for a ride and we all had fun on the Wii and playing games and going to the park, etc.  We all had fun with Auntie J here!! 

The day after Auntie J left we woke up to about 2-2 1/2 inches of SNOW!!!  So, the kids helped pump the tube up while Big J shoveled.

Sledding at Rock Canyon Park!!!

Snow fun!!!

We built a little snowman; isn't it cute?!  We decided more sledding was more important than finding rocks for the eyes and mouth so you'll have to picture the face.

The kidlets and us all had a blast sledding and B rocked it on the snowboard.

St. George!!

Can I tell you how excited I was when Big J suggested we take a St. George trip with just the two of us over the holidays?!  Almost exactly 3 years had flown by since J and I had been alone longer than about 7 hours.  But I was still anxious: where will we stay, what about the kidlets, will the weather be nice enough to be worth it.  Sometimes those things just don't work out (like when I was going to go to Greece with J's mom but ended up due to have a baby the same timing).  This trip was PERFECT!  His generous Aunt K lives in St. George and let us stay at her place, even with her gone for the holidays.  Thank you!!  J's parents graciously said they would take good care of the kids and I absolutely believed them.   And the weather turned out gorgeous!!

Thanks Mom & Dad for making it possible!!

 Our first stop was Chuckwalla Wall in St. George.  We didn't get our camera out but I found this picture online.  Cool wall chuck full of routes.  We did two routes, or maybe J did three, and we were done.  It was a beautiful day and we loved being outdoors without freezing!  We cleaned up at Aunt K's house then went to dinner at Brick Oven--yes! there's one in St. George!!--and then went shopping at the outlets.  After more than enough shopping for my man we went back to his aunts and relaxed with a movie.  Life is so much easier with just the two of us!!!  But, at the same time we love being parents and we love our kidlets so wouldn't trade it for anything.

Zion's!

J pushed me to my limits with this hike.  Not with distance, but fear.   At first I thought it was both.  Until this point in the picture I had heard it's a 5.4 mile hike so my novice hiking mind thought 5.4 miles there and 5.4 back.  That's quite a day of hiking!  I was quite relieved when I found out that 5.4 was round trip.  And then he showed me the next part of the hike--on the right side of the picture.  We were to go up the ridge to the tip top with 1000 foot drops on BOTH sides.  Augh!  

Well, we lived to tell the tale.  I kept my eyes ahead of me while moving to avoid getting dizzy with altitude and fear but I surprised myself by how many times I wanted to stop to enjoy the view and didn't freak out.  Here's Big J on top of the Beehive.  Not really a real beehive, but you can see why it was named that.  I thought I'd be cool too and sit on the top too but I drew the line at just leaning my elbows against the top once I started to get up.  I was just fine with that.

Tippy Top of Angel's Landing.  A gorgeous 60 degree & sunny day for end of December!!!

These short switchbacks are called the "wiggles".  (I thought of Little J who's been extra wiggly lately.)  Big J said it was tradition to run down but I wasn't sure how my ankles would do with the painful tendinitis I'd been having all fall.  I was happy to be able to take tiny running steps down and we both felt so good we ran much of the rest of the way down the trail.  

We felt so good we decided to hike Emerald Falls too.  We got to the Lower Falls no problem, stopping every now and again to look at cool icicles along the way.  However, we got to this point and the trail was closed.  The rebellious side of me wanted to keep going anyway and had not 15-20 people been at the same point I just may have.  It was hard to believe that it was so icy when it was in the 60s!

After cleaning up again we ate burgers at 5 Guys--Yum! and then went to the St. George Temple.  

The next day I got to use my Christmas gift--Big J surprised me with golf clubs & bag for Christmas.  And golf balls and tees in my stocking.  This is when I figured out his true reason for the St. George idea--to get me to use my gift really soon after Christmas.   We went to Sand Hollow Resort for a round of 9.  Sadly, we forgot to take pictures!.  Guess we'll just have to go again!  I'd been to a few golf courses before with Big J and it seemed to me this one was quite nice.  We got a great deal though--especially because we walked.  I think my best hole was only 2 over, but don't ask about the rest.  I had some good shots though so it was about what I expected.  I'd been 2-3 times before so I knew more or less what I could do.  It was fun to play with my new clubs and they put us with 2 other players who fortunately were patient with me.  We hurried back North to meet up with our kiddies and J's family to look at the lights on Temple Square.  

                                  Christmas in Utah


Christmas was a whirlwind of fun this year!  We had my parents from WA and my brother from TX in town and sister and family stayed overnight on Christmas Eve.  It was pretty awesome.  Big J and I were so busy hosting, which we love, that we didn't get enough pictures.  But here's a sampling of our fun:

We started off the Christmas weekend with a call from my brother Thursday night saying he felt quite wretched and wouldn't be on his plane.  Augh!  He must come!!  I told him to drink lots of water and go to bed early so he can get better.  Meanwhile we were at J's parents and went to the new U of U Natural History Museum on Friday and mi hermano called while we were there saying he felt much better and would be on a plane that evening.  Whew, what a relief!  We went back home and my parents rolled in that evening in time for dinner and the Spanish Fork Festival of Lights.  This pic was the best I got--they were hard shots to get in a moving car!  The lights were way cool.

What PJBJA Christmas season would be complete without these bad boys filling our tummies?!

Saturday morning we got out a puzzle well over 1,000 pieces and by that evening it was complete.  We had some expert puzzlers in the house.  Obviously, as my bro is a Super Genius.

The girls had fun playing dress up with grandma there to admire them

Once Big J tore me away from the puzzle (boo! he is always doing that!) I started on dinner.  Thanks to J's sis we had two lovely turkey's who gave their lives for our feast.

All the Christmas Eve party goers

The kidlets helped with their rendition of the first Christmas while Uncle D read from the Bible.  Then we heard a couple Christmas songs each on the piano from our three and then Big J played Christmas songs while we all sang our hearts out around the tree.  SO fun.  

 The kids were all given a time not to wake adults up before (7am) and Christmas morning we woke up to our alarm and went downstairs to find this.  I have a feeling the leader of the pack had a large part to do with their quiet choice of reading books.  :)

We opened stockings and then made a quick breakfast of juice, sausage, eggs and hashbrowns 

Big J very  manly manning the eggs and hash browns while I flipped sausages and gave out duties to willing volunteers

Eventually all the presents got unwrapped.  We started out with two at a time and it quickly escalated into several at a time so it was all done within an hour.

Da group 

La familia despues de la iglesia.  Que hermosa.

After church we headed up to J's family to open gifts and hang out with his family

J's brother and sister also blessed their baby in the evening after Christmas dinner.  She is a lovely niece if I do say so myself!  

We then spent the week up at his families house until New Years Day.  The Monday after Christmas we met up with my parents, brother & sister and family to see the Children's section of the Church History Museum, stroll through Temple Square and lunch at Crown Burger--yum!  Bro went home that afternoon and my parents went the next day.  Three days and two nights of the time we were at his parents, Big J and I were in St. George, which is likely to be the next post.