Christmas in a Nutshell

Merry Christmas! 

Waiting to open their Christmas Eve jammies.

Pajama shirts in the dark.  It's hard to take pictures of glow in the dark.

Christmas Morning

Excited to dig in.

Light sabers come in keychain sizes!  The force is portable. 

As always, plenty of Legos.  An airport and a train station quickly materialized in the front room.

Bathing a guinea pig at 3am wasn't originally on our to-do list, I'll post that story sometime.  The piggy disapproved so loudly I thought her squealing would wake up the kids, but they slept through it and she was a complete (clean) surprise for a very happy girly.  Her hair-do earned the name Bellatrix Lastrange.

The dog was a little jealous and wanted to make sure he got his fair share of attention. . . and treats.  He stole her carrot.  Then came back and stole her lettuce.

By the end of the day they'd warmed up to each other enough to share a plate.  Yes, the weird dog eats lettuce too.

Hope your holiday season has been, and continues to be, full of surprises and love.  Best wishes to you all!

Making up for Lost Time

Obviously I missed posting October and November; so I have lots of pictures and I'll keep the commentary short. 

Our visit to Utah was wonderful!  Started out with a field trip to an animal education center in the-middle-of-nowhere Moapa.

Ever feel like you've got a monkey on your back?  It might be a lemur.

 It's not every day you get to hold a rosy boa!

 Or kiss a camel. . .

 Or pet a capybara. . .

 Or an albino wallaby. . .

 Or an otter. . .

Or have a kookaburra use your arm as a perch!  Loud little guy.

Needless to say, the field trip was a lot of fun!  We got up close to some incredible animals and spent the afternoon with lots of friends we've really missed.

Next up was a night at Tuacahn for Mary Poppins and some Grami time.  It was excellent! 

Then it was off to Grandpa & Nana's house where we enjoyed stocking up on hugs, visiting, and being fed like royalty.  The kids were under the weather (I hate airplanes, I swear they are flying petri dishes!) but that didn't stop them from going out to pile up grandpa's leaves. 

It snowed while we were there which made the kiddos happy campers!  As much as they want it to do that in Florida I just don't think it's happening.  We headed up the mountain for a little walk. . . and snowball fight. 

Got to go for another coveted ride in the truck out to the gap for another walk and to look at the petroglyphs.

Sorry Nana, I only got pics of the back of your head! I'll do better next time.

It was cold, windy, and drizzling the whole time we were at the gap but the rocks are always intriguing and we were treated to this afterwards!

We also got to soak up some of this cuteness!!!

 

 

 

And this cuteness too.

After the cold spell it warmed up for a day and we decided to spend it in Zion. Dad (aka Grandpa) came along and we got to work our sea-level lungs out on a couple of spectacular hikes.  So nice.

 Miss these mountains!

There were friends, and sleepovers, and swimming, and even Halloween.  Plenty of laughter, love, and valuable time spent with lovely family and friends. 

The kids even discovered something they've never encountered before. . . the joy of heating vents in the floor of a cold house.

And too soon, it was time to say good bye.

After a long day and a late night of travel we made it from one 'home' to the other.  Thank goodness for all the love we get to soak up and bring with us.