Arizona Christmas 2018

Christmas in Arizona 2018

Not too much happened on this trip but it was still fun nonetheless.

Driving down we did some geocaching, when it wasn't snowing. We were lucky to have missed the big snow storm but unlucky that we made it out before the snow plows came out but then lucky again that we were the only ones on the road so we were able to move faster.  We wanted to stop and hike toadstools but Derek was still pretty exhausted so we that got nixed. 

 Introduced them to geocaching. It was a little slow at first but once we found the cache it was a different ball game. Plus we found scorpions so bonus!

Took a walking break one night and tried to find another cache just down the way from their mailbox but it was dark and we couldn't find it. 

 Found this cache about a mile walk from their house. 

Most of the time was spent playing games. 

Jane was on fire with her commentary, it was a riot!

 Minecraft.

VR gaming. 

Thanks to the government shut down, we didn't get to do the adventures we wanted to, so this was as far as we got with one park.  There's always next year. 

January 2019

The month of January 2019

2018 Year in Books
Last year's goal was to read to alphabet, which I got almost completed; V, X, Y were the only letters I didn't get done. I thought I would have gotten more reading done with how much traveling happened but oh well. I also got stuck reading into series whose titles didn't fit the blank holes and some other projects took up some time too.

Thanks to the Clegg's, Ragnar got some new stuffies which she promptly began practicing brain surgery on.

Hockey Games!

"Professional Development" day.

It's indoor track season aka no more weekends and kids act more silly than normal. 

During one indoor meet at the Olympic Oval, Nate was cooling down after the mile and slipped on some black ice. 

His eye got blacker as the night went on. The next day his mom took him in and he ended up having a mild concussion and fractured his cheek bone. 

It's been tradition to stop at Wendy's after indoor meets at the Olympic Oval. It's just down the street and by 10pm everyone is starving anyways. Well, the last one of these visits as a coach happened and it got a little depressing for me and a couple of seniors. 

Then Kate spilled her frosty and everyone laughed and was happy again. Chasity also spilled some on herself and it was a fun memory to finish off the night. 

Cute Ragnar photos.

This is Ragnar saying sorry for eating 3/4 of Derek's sourdough loaf. 

She's such an old lady.. she wants to go to bed at 8pm and will glare at me until I walk back to the bedroom. 

We had some warm winter days that she thought were summer days so she demanded some front porch time.

 Elise wanted to build a snowman with grandpa, so he pulled out the buckets and this is what we ended up with.

A week later some punks knocked over her snowman. 

 She also came with us to the vet for Ragnar's shots which turned into a photo shoot.

 Sam's Club pretzels and churros.

 Then we *had* to go to the dog store to get Ragnar toothpaste (she really was out) and bonus! We found her a puffy jacket for winter overnight hikes.

Also... Elise had been asking to help give Ragnar a bath since the last time she helped. She's good at keeping Ragnar distracted with treats. 

 When a read-a-thon happens during the weekend of a two-day track meet.

 Free 5k in Morgan for an Eagle Project.
When the race started it was 10 degrees. When I finished it was 14 degrees.
They gave us free hot coco. Worth it.

  Finally got our wedding portrait framed. It needed a custom frame and my parents paid for it for Christmas.

December 2018

The month of December 2018

Gingerbread Festival in Bountiful with my folks, Tyler's family, and Elise.

 G

 Best Friends.

 Elise would pick up Sabrina but Beans couldn't pick up Elise.

Austin came home for 35 days.

Madi's birthday date where she picked to have a paint day "on wood". 
She meant canvas. 
There was also Holy Smokes. 

 She painted a beach scene.

Worked on my knife skills.

Derek's surgery #2.

We checked out the Christmas in Color. The Clegg girls and Austin came with us.
It was pretty cool and everyone said they had a fun time so it was worth it, but we wouldn't pay to go do it again. If you do go, make sure you use the promo codes out there and go during their bonus days where you can drive through twice or have a second car go in with you. 

Family photos to help out my friend who started her own photography business.
It was her first time shooting with a dog so she learned a lot on that end. 

Christmas traditions... Claymation Christmas and pizza. 

Team run to Christmas tree hill.

 Nate LOVES Ragnar and wanted his own photo with her.

Elise asked me to take her to go look at lights with Ragnar. Well it was raining most of the time but we drove around looking at cool houses and stopped in Roy before getting our traditional slushee.
This was probably the best house (Christmas Vacation, it's pretty quiet and Elise really wanted to listen to Rudolph but I was trying to record this for Tyler).

 Nightmare Before Christmas house.

Winter Solstice hike with Andrea and crew.

Ragnar was such a psycho on the trails. I think snow is like crack to her. 

Mateo.

I might just have to get this one printed off to hang in the house.

 Spent Christmas Eve with the family, saw Auqaman, and then hung out with my parents for a while. Then had dinner at the Cleggs with Austin.
Pizza and White Christmas. 
I had to bail early since we were leaving for Arizona super early Christmas day.

Rachael gave Ragnar a rawhide bone for Christmas. 

New Years Eve.. we couldn't find the bottle opener but luck for us I have a plethora of Ragnar Relay medals..