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..

Arizona Christmas 2017

Christmas with Derek's family 2017

Boxing Day December 26, Tuesday.
We did another drive through the night deal. We traded places around Mt. Caramel and I drove until just outside of Page where I napped and Derek kept sleeping until right outside Flagstaff.
Our view of The Grand Staircase area where we were napping.

Leg stretch in Flagstaff at the Elden Pueblo Ruins. It's right next to the road, free, and smelled amazing with all the trees. A nice little walk around. 

We didn't do much stopping this year because we wanted to get down to his family and do things with them.

Wednesday Dec. 27
After a nice long run in the morning with some yoga, we just chilled during the day and played games.

Thursday Dec. 28
Back to Flagstaff to go hiking at Sunset Crater. We would've stopped on our way down since we made good time, but we had already talked about hiking here with Derek's parents.
We started the year hiking volcanoes and ended the year hiking volcanoes.
I love these funny looking squirels! 

It's not as steep or long as it looks, I only took it from this angle to tease Alicia.

There's the volcano.  This is as close as you can legally get to the cinder cone. 

 A hornito aka spatter cone.

The backside of the volcano.

Was such a cute photo until Derek's face got washed out and looks like a grandpa :(

Of course all the hot air balloons on the way back.

And then some minecraft quests to finish off the evening.

Friday Dec. 29
Hiking at Lake Pleasant while Rachael preps for her party.

This is why we came here.. because Derek didn't believe that that burro crossing signs are because there's real live wild burros in the area. 

Watching the burros.

Then it was game time!

Rachael made a Clue themed escape room party!

Goodwill costumes included!
We were Mr. & Mrs. Green... arms dealers.

Derek thought I looked a lot like The Childlike Empress/Moon Child, guess I have my next Halloween costume.

Solving puzzles.. and learning about "Horse Chip".

Then a 7 course dinner.. 7 courses!!!

Monkey Brains.. pasta salad with veggies.

Col. Mustard Chicken.

Palate Cleanser of flavored ice.

Miss Scarlet Stake and Potatoes.

Mrs. Peacock fruit salad.

Mrs. White Cheesecake.

So much fun! Rachael did a fantastic job! 

Saturday December 30
Derek took his sisters and Cameron out shooting. I stayed back and read. It was amazing.. for me :)
The spot we had gone shooting at last year was taken, so they had to drive farther and then hike in.  Derek said it wasn't the best and there were a bunch of hill-billies out there that probably could use some safety lessons.
After they all got back, had a nap, and showered- we played more games, watched clue, and had our own mock-tini bar that Janae wrote up all these fun drinks to try.

The trip went by fast! We left Sunday Dec. 31 morning so that way we could get back in town with enough time to relax before I bad to pick up Jordan for the Beat The New Year.