the end of Christmas holiday and on to the new year

I LOVED the smile on Lucy’s face as she got to be so independent with cousins.  She was so pleased with the fact she got to sleep over with Emmeline one night and Lyla the next.  She came back rosy-cheeked with the biggest smile both times and it just made us all so happy.

Loved hanging with our bigger girls while Lu was gone. 

One of the nights we ran, all four of us, through the freezing cold (we are desert wimps for sure) to see part of the Jazz game. 

Man I was SO into the Jazz as a kid, so it was nostalgic to be there with some of my family who hold that team at the tippy-top of the “awesome” list 😉  They were ahead by 40 at one point, confetti falling all around at the win. 

Then we went to see Spiderman with those folks.

We got to go to Music and the Spoken word the next morning (this happens every Sunday morning in the conference center and anyone can go).  It is beautiful with music and a thought to ponder.

There’s something about being in that conference center, the sacred feeling there, the thought of all those people singing and playing and conducting out of the goodness of their hearts, as volunteers. 

We rushed to join Dave’s sister’s family for church.  I love that family so much.  We always talk deep in their family room for hours.  We got to pepper McKenna (recently returned form a mission in Spain) with all kinds of questions since we couldn’t be there for her mission homecoming, and our discussion turned to how we don’t really “raise” adult kids.  It’s a delicate balance with merging into the world of adult kids for both of our families.

Love all these cousins!

Japanese curry back with my family, Zara’s birthday filled with lots of commotion and love and excitement,

…and games.

…always games 🙂

A little later we RAN over to see the temple lights (we thought they would turn off at 10:00 and it was 9:56 by the time we got there).  But the lights stayed on and we were all laughing as we skidded on the ice and tried to stay warm and took in all that beauty.

It was COLD!

(Lucy wasn’t up for the freezingness so she opted out of this little excursion)

My sister Saren got home from Idaho where she and her family had been for a few days and Saydi and I joined her to head out on a New Years Eve hike to her favorite place.

I’ve wanted to hike this with her forever since it’s a hike she does every week.  But it was COLD and the wind was so relentless whipping snow up all around us so we could hardly hear each other even if we tried to talk with our frozen jaws so we took in as much beauty as possible and ran back down the hill, getting back to Saren’s as fast as we could where we huddled by the fire trying to get warm.

Which took HOURS, we were so COLD!  But loved talking with those wise sisters of mine.

Indian food for dinner with Max and Abby and fam talking through new years resolutions.  The kids have come up with some really great ones.  Abby probably wins the prize, she has some wing-dingers.

We had a New Years celebration at my parent’s house, dancing and games to bring in 2019. 

After midnight we kind of all got our second winds and kept on going.

New Years Day was filled with this:

Kids sledding on that hill up there as my dad, sisters and I glided by on our cross country skis.

My Dad is a cross-country ski guy and it suits him so perfectly.  He loves that quiet beauty and makes it impossible for you not to just adore it right along with him.

Back to Provo to our married kids…

Waiting for them at a restaurant…

…and on to fun times playing pool that night.

And then it was off…Grace and Claire back to HOME…

…and Bo Jangles…

Elle off to more beauty in Europe:

…and the rest of us off to see some doctors who are awesome.

Fun to have a little mom/dad date with our Lucy girl, who is quite the little traveler.

Through some beauty that filled me up with the Christmas spirit even after that day was gone.

…and back HOME to our chauffer who I only got a blurry picture of, but I want to remember her there waiting for us with that glowing smile.

It was a good break.  And I still cannot believe it’s 2019.