Our year has been filled with lots of nature and exploration. The photobook below reminded me of all that we have and all that we have seen this year. I am thankful - for the beauty around us and for the love of my family.
Of course, we had to go back downtown for a rally - this time to protest the federal decision to reduce the size of the national monuments (Bear's Ears & Escalante) in Utah. This is sad. Those areas are so incredibly beautiful, but soon they will be destroyed by grazing, quarries, and drilling.
I spent the morning with Michelle making our wreaths at Red Butte Gardens.
We enjoyed the faculty club Christmas party on campus, followed by a weekend at Snowbird. The kids tried on all of their new equipment, remembered what to do on skis, and spent plenty of time in the pool. We have not had too much snow in Utah yet. Pray for snow! We need it.
There were holiday performances at both girls' schools. Steve and Becky played xylophones in the parent orchestra again. I must have been so nervous for our number that I forgot to take any photos or videos of Carolyn's performances. Lizzie waved some string around to be wind (perhaps it was an interpretative dance) and then sang some Christmas carols.
The girl scouts saw The Nutcracker. Lizzie and Ava absolutely loved it (so did Carolyn), then they danced all the way down the street back to our car.
After the Nutcracker, we went to a fancy hotel downtown to look at the window displays and the world's largest gingerbread house. Well, I am not sure if it is really the world's largest, but it is BIG.
We had friends over to make and decorate cookies.
We made a lot of crafts. Carolyn taught us how to make giant paper and popsicle stick snowflakes. The gingerbread house is always a favorite (messy!) activity too.
We enjoyed family movie nights in our matching pajamas and a striped blanket that fits all of us, made by the talented knitters in Ohio. Lizzie is so happy to have her very own blanket now.
Lizzie asked for an Elsa doll. Carolyn did not have a request, so Santa said he would bring her socks and underwear. Lizzie thought this was funny and then became so concerned that she later wrote a letter to Santa making sure he knew that Carolyn would prefer a new backpack instead of underwear.
Let's hope her wishes come true on Christmas morning!
It is fun to believe in the magic of Christmas, and to see how much Lizzie lights up with excitement when thinking about Christmas. Carolyn, who loves her little sister more than anything, has fully joined the ranks of "magic makers" this season. It has been fun!
We did not travel back to Ohio for Thanksgiving this year, and decided to take a quick weekend trip to Moab where we hiked Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.
The hiking and scenery are spectacular. The girls are becoming decent hikers. Instead of camping on this trip, we opted for a quaint bed and breakfast. It was called Cali-Cochita. The girls had their own room off of ours and loved going down to the kitchen for cookies and tea and guessing what our innkeeper was making for breakfast.
We also found a park in town where we spent a morning putting on a concert.
It was a fast and full two-night trip. I love exploring the state we live in with the girls.
Steve and i took a group of girls to an escape room. It was fun, but we did not make it out of the room, and definitely could have used more help in solving the puzzles. We will try it again, and will probably know more about what to expect.
This is carolyn and her friend parley. A resemblance, yes. They decided to switch glasses, coats, hats, and fool parley's parents when we dropped her off.
