I believe this was the 6th year in a row that we have traveled to AZ for Christmas. Mason has spent every Christmas of his life there. I never thought we'd be able to make this trip for so many years of our marriage, but we are usually faced with the choice of spending Christmas with just the four of us or driving over 1,300 miles to be with my family. Family always wins. :) And, the drive really isn't too bad with older kiddos and lots of family to visit along the way. I had some mixed feelings about going home this year since my last visit to St. Johns in September was so traumatic and disappointing though. Some of those emotions resurfaced when we got there, but it's always good to be with family and healing for my soul to get away from the business of the city and my everyday life.
We left on a Friday afternoon and drove to Geoff's house in Middleton, ID. We had a great time with them until Saturday afternoon when we headed down to Riverton. Katelyn and Zac were out of town for Christmas, but they graciously arranged for a neighbor to keep a key for us so we could stay at their house. We went to the closest 9:00 ward we could find on Sunday morning and then finished our drive to SJ.
Elise and Eric's family was there along with with Marc and Lindsey. Alan and the boys had never met Isla and I hadn't seen her since she was 6 months old, so it was fun to get to know her a little. Alan has a super soft spot for little girls and tried really hard to become her best friend. It was SO good to see everyone!
The weather was nice for the first few days so we spent lots of time outside playing horse shoes, running around the yard, and exploring Lyman Lake. Alan and Eric had never been out there before. We took a short hike, saw some Native American ruins and threw rocks in the water. The highlight of that excursion was definitely sliding rocks across the ice in a frozen bay. The guys LOVED it and probably spent an hour making up all kind of competitions. I'm so sad that I didn't get a picture of it!
We had a yummy dinner of tamales and Spanish rice on Christmas Eve along with our normal program and driving around town to look at the lights. BYU was playing in the Hawaii Bowl that night so Alan watched some of the game on his phone after the usual festivities were over.
Christmas morning was as magical as always. We slept until 7:00, the boys were happy with their gifts, and the sweet rolls were so good. Miraculously, I didn't even get a migraine from eating so much sugar for breakfast! Hooray for new migraine meds that are working!! Sadly, Elise, Eric and Isla weren't sleeping or feeling well and they decided they needed to go home later in the morning. We were so sad that it was a hard trip for them and that they had to leave. It was so good to see them even if it was short.
Mom made a delicious ham dinner and we spent the rest of the day playing lots of games, eating, and watching movies. Some of us went on a walk in the evening and it felt so good to get some fresh air and exercise. It was a happy day.
Dad took us to the Petrified Forest (another place Alan had never been) the day after Christmas. I hadn't been there since my 4th grade field trip and I was surprised at how big the park is. We spent 5-6 hours driving and exploring different sites and there was lots we didn't get to see. The weather was perfect and the sun felt so good! I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Plus, Mason and I rode with Dad and I got lots of good time to talk to him.
We got a little snow the next couple of days and Mason was over the moon about it! He loves snow so much! Marc was a great sport and helped him build a snowman even when he wasn't feeling well himself. Spencer doesn't like it as much and doesn't have warm gear so he didn't go out much. He is the game king and played every chance he could. We had some wild games of Scum on two of the nights.
Saying goodbye is always so hard because I never know when I will see my family's faces again.
We had planned to take a detour over to Albuquerque to visit Dani and her family in their new house, but decided we needed to get home a day early to beat a big storm heading to Utah. :( So, we headed straight back to Katelyn's house from SJ.
Kate and Zac were home by then and we had fun visiting with them. Spencer and Mason both loved John! Linda, Jamie, Cassie, LuAnn, KJ, and Jae also stopped by for a few minutes. They were in town for Jadzia's wedding just a few days beforehand. It was so great to see them! I hadn't seen any of my Dad's family since my Grandma's funeral almost five years ago. We also got spent a couple of hours at Elise and Eric's. That was good too. And, of course I had to stop at Down East so I could get myself a new dress. It's hard to find modest dresses in Oregon!
We spent an extra day in Utah mainly so we could see Mason's birth mom, Heidi, and her husband, Zak. We met them for dinner at Zupas and had a good visit. Mason was super excited to see her, but got really shy when it actually happened. She bought Mason a dessert and that helped a bit. Hopefully he'll grow out of that with time so Heidi can see more of Mason's fun personality.
That was a great way to end our trip and we drove all the way back to Oregon the next day. It was a super long day, but we were all just ready to be back in our own beds by that point. Kiki was excited to have us home and everything we fine in our house thanks to a great friend who fixed a leaking pipe under our kitchen sink for us! He discovered it was leaking while his kids took care of Kiki for us. That happened just a few days after we left so we are extremely grateful he caught it before it caused a lot of damage!
We feel so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends and are so grateful to have made that long trip safely once again.
