Cherishing Christmas!

 

We had a nice, pretty mellow Christmas in Utah this year. We attended a Candlelight Christmas Eve service to start it off right. Jeremy got his present of deep, fresh, light fluffy snow from Santa so we hit the slopes Christmas morning & stole some freshies! Fun! Here's some other photos from our holiday! 

Picking out the tree!

Collin's preferred Christmas morning breakfast

Doggie balls are more fun than presents apparently

LOL Elmo, a riot!

Our little Santa reading stories

This is one of my favorites: cookies by the fireplace!

Family photo

Playing piano with Dad

 

Hope your holidays were happy as well! Here's to a new 2013!

Grandpa's Winter get-away!

My Dad found out last minute about some vacation days he had to use or lose...so he decided to come on out to visit! It worked out great & I was able to get the time off as well. We had a great time playing with Collin, chasing some POW!, & getting some projects done around the house. Super good to have some time together, glad he brought the snow with him. Here's some photos of his trip:

Alta, as it opens for the day!

Glad they taught me how to ski, & now we can enjoy it together!

The obligatory run down High Rustler!

Catching some POW at the end, fun!

Story time

Morning cuddles with Gpa!

Taking on a new view up high

Light saber anyone?!

Celebrating Jeremy's (I won't say how many) Birthday!

Nice nappies?!

Brushing TEETH!

Twilight hike

Dinner at Market Street Grill, yum!

Thanksgiving!

We had a nice Thanksgiving here in Utah (but missed my family in MN)! We have had such an amazing & fun year with SO many blessings to be thankful for! Can't help but be all smiles this time of year. We were able to have fun friends join in the family festivities so Collin had a little gal to run around & play with. The adults even got to sit a minute & chat then!

 The Fam

Collin loves his kid-sized chair

Our fam

25 hours, really?!?

Well, the fellas decided to conquer the 25 hours of Frog Hollow race in Hurricane, UT once again. This time we got smart & took a couple days off before hand to enjoy Zion National Park since it is close by. The weather cooperated wonderfully (MUCH better than last year) and the team was 3 hours (=3 more laps) faster than they have ever been before! We were so wiped out by the end of the weekend!

Enjoying the River walk

& throwing rocks of course

 

Heading up Angel's landing

The top all to ourselves

Crazy trail & crazy exposure!

View along the Watchman trail

Collin leading the way

The Bennett family

Crusty at camp

The tough life of a mountain bike racer

Post-lap smiles

Tom, Max, Jer, & Geoff- Nice work boys, way to go!

Go, go, go! Jer accomplishes his sub-1 hour lap!

MEA Moab

My Mom & Sister were able to come out to Utah for a weekend from MN, we headed straight for the sun & warmth of the desert. We had a ton of fun & packed a lot in during 48 hours. It was so nice to be together, never long enough! Here's some of what we saw & did.... 

Arches National Park

Delicate arch- a must see!

This is how Mom felt about the mountain biking!

The girls out on biking adventure!

Corona arch at sunset

Super silly group photo

Fisher towers hike

Collin cruising around, loving it!

Thanks for coming out to visit! Good times!

Camping: American Fork

I really wanted to get out camping at least once this year! We grabbed our last chance before winter & got out to enjoy the fall colors. It definitely got quite cool at night, but we stayed warm by the campfire (smores & all!) Unfortunately we had some rude neighbors that blared their music until 4am (it's the national forest people, REALLY?!?!), but luckily Collin was never bothered by it. Zelli was excited that she got to go too! Here's a few photos from our adventure:

Throwing rocks in the stream, favorite past time!

Dinner by camp chair

Ahhh, this is the life!

The "pajamas" for the night

Barb & Emmet even got to come & visit for a while

Crusing around the campsite

Family self-photo, morning views