The rest of the year (Thanksgiving & Christmas)

So we made it through to Thanksgiving and then Jordan started throwing up and for the next couple of weeks someone or other was throwing up too....til eventually we were over it....
And then it was time for Christmas!!!!!!

We bought a real Christmas tree for the second time ever and just remind me not to buy one again while we live in Arizona....it barely made it through to Christmas Day and I watered it and gave it Christmas Tree food religiously....by Boxing Day morning it was out the front door.....but for that first week it WAS beautiful just not really worth the money.....

Anyway, some memories.....
The kids put on a nativity on Christmas Eve.....the girls and I had worked on it all day and  the boys jumped right into their parts....some more enthusiastically than others.....(the pineapple was a 'gift' to baby Jesus)....it was cute and fun to watch them....

Christmas Day...being woken up at 5.30am by some desperate pleading from Amelia (the kids always send in Amelia for the really hard sell!)....we had to be at church at 8.30am and they were concerned they wouldn't have time to open presents (not sure quite how many presents they were expecting???) Lots of fun presents of course......

and facetime with family all around the world...I have to say I LOVE this technology that lets us sit in a room across the world and chat with and see our family....all for FREE:)

And ended the day with an eve with friends and family....(and McKenna singing for all of us!)

The rest of the year (Amy, Ammon & Darius)

OK so Amy and Ammon and Darius overlapped a few days with JJ and Kate which was very fun!!

But we had way better weather as soon as JJ and Kate headed back to Aus....and went houseboating on Lake Powell....

Can I just say BEST houseboating trip EVER....perfect perfect weather....perfect beach location....lots and lots of fun.....

 The weather had been terrible the week before...and so I think most people had abandoned the lake for somewhere warmer...which was fine by us as we had our pick of great beaches to pull the boat up to.....we ended up in a fab spot....lovely sand...

 perfect spot for kayaking.....which Amelia LOVED and was really good at....

 ...a little walkway through to the other side where there were amazing sunsets....then again...the sunsets were amazing from all angles:)

 We got to go out exploring in the boat and on foot....Andrew is an expert at maneuvering the canyons...

 Erm, yes I was a little concerned at these footprints....imagining Mountain Lions lying in wait behind the next rock or tree.....luckily they are just coyote prints...

 pretty flowers along the way....

 Jordan can always manage to find an animal...

Jordan caught some fish....he was the only one who did and was very proud of himself.....Capt Rusty actually gutted them for us and Jordan and Ammon cooked them on a fire and ate them....



Andrew got to ride jet ski's to his hearts content....ok so not that much but he enjoyed it....and Amelia is almost as much of a daredevil as he is....:)

Amy was not too impressed when Andrew tried to abandon her on a rock face....

 We went to Rainbow Bridge (and this year I had an extra charged battery with me.....so we actually got photos!)

 Got to spend lots of quality time together...aaawww...

 And Daniel and I even got to explore some mega cool caves.....very surreal surroundings....

 Great Trip!! Love Lake Powell:)

The rest of the year (Uncle JJ & Kate)

So my biggest brother turned the big 4-0 in September and his ever adoring girlfriend Kate managed to pull off a huge surprise and bring him all the way from Melbourne to the US as a birthday trip of a lifetime.....and yeah ok they went wine tasting in Napa Valley....yahdee yah...the highlight of their trip I am quite sure was coming to stay with us for about 5 days!!! It was a jam packed fun filled five days...maybe it was 6 who knows....it was crazy and lots of fun and Kate was lovely and Uncle JJ spoiled everyone....and we had lots of fun memories....laughing out loud, shopping for cowboy boots, eating out, freezing at mormon lake and the Grand Canyon (unseasonable SNOW if you can believe!!), cooking, lemon meringue pie, oh and did I mention shopping??
We miss you JJ and Kate....one more reason to get our act together and plan that trip over to Australia xx
 (need to get photos from JJ....)

Ah yes the couple of photos I have (my battery was dead and I loaned James my memory card)....one beautiful day we set off with the boat to go to the lake....about 10 minutes from the lake Andrew pulled over and we got out and watched this pack of wild horses pass by us and cross the river...very "Spirit" esque....
10 minutes later the sky was black, it was raining and the winds were picking up as we sat on the lake dock watching boats struggle against the wind to get back onto their trailers....needless to say we turned around and went back home.....another crazy Arizona weather day specially for Uncle JJ....at least the horses were cool:)

The rest of the year (Alex visit)

So I'd just about stepped off the plane myself, when Alex arrived on her first visit since moving to Australia 3 years ago......we were all excited to see her again (although the kids were bummed she didn't bring Aimee and Nathan with her!!) Pauline flew out too and everyone enjoyed hanging out together....

We stayed up at Mormon Lake and took the quads out....

 It's just beautiful up there....loved the fields of gold....:)

 And then we spent a day up at the Grand Canyon too....pretty cool:)

 We miss Alex....gotta get planning on a trip to Australia soon:)

The rest of the year (England Trip)

So I know I'm playing catch up here, but we had a non stop busy year since school started!!!

First of all my Dad was diagnosed with MLL (Luekemia) and I flew back to England for a week.....got to spend a little bit of time with Dad - although he was in hospital finishing up another round of chemo, he was doing good enough that he got to spend a few hours back at home on the last couple of days I was there.....so far so good.....

Also got to hang out with almost all of my brothers, sisters, nephews & nieces,.....and what a cute bunch they all are....xx

 And of course, England was at it's most fabulous....no rain, just blue skies and sunshine.....and Amy I'm sure was purposefully driving me the long way through every cute village imaginable.....

It was a good trip for many reasons.....:)