Christmas Vacation

This year we spent Christmas day with just our little family.

Christmas Eve with brand new Christmas pajamas.

Waiting to come downstairs Christmas morning.


Gwen's excitement at finding a Princess hoppy ball under the tree.


Looking through the stockings.


The day after Christmas we left to go to Utah and Idaho. I will never travel the day after Christmas again if I can help it. A lot of Christmas day was spent doing laundry and packing and making sure everything was ready for the trip. But we did have a wonderful trip. We stopped in Utah at Ben's brother and sister-in-law's house, where we had a great Christmas party with a lot of Ben's family.

The grandkids opening presents from Aunt Melissa. She is so good to get presents for all the grandkids every year when she has a party at her house.

The morning after the party Jared spent about three hours running around and playing with his cousin Caleb. When we left around noon to head up to Idaho Jared wanted Caleb to come with us to visit my family and cried when he couldn't come. After getting a picture of the two of them together and Caleb's email address he was finally able to say goodbye.

In Idaho we stayed at my sister Anne's house and spent a week visiting with my five siblings (and their families) that live up in that frozen wasteland. We had so much fun, but I have definitely gotten used to the Arizona weather and find it preferable in the winter months.

One of the days we spent sledding and playing in the snow at my brother Bob's house. Here are some pictures.
Nate didn't do much sledding. He just really enjoyed walking through the snow.

Bonnie on the other hand, found that sitting in a sled and scooting across the snow was much easier than walking through it.


Jared and Gwen loved sledding and would have stayed out for much longer than they did if Mom and Dad hadn't convinced them to finally come inside for soup and hot chocolate. Then they went right back out again until it got too dark and we had to leave.


Ben and I both sledded down once, mostly just to prove that we are not totally pansy Arizonans and that we can handle the snow. Of course I was also the one the pansied out early and tried to convince all the kids that they wanted to go inside where it was warm.


When we left Idaho we spent another night in Utah, where we were able to see my Grandma Sorensen, who just turned 92 yesterday. We didn't get any pictures with her because she was in her pajamas when we got there, but we did get a picture of Ben and I in the snow outside Cove Point where she lives.

Thank you to everyone who let us stay at their homes and who kept us so entertained while we were visiting. We loved seeing you all.