Christmas is always the most important thing in December and we did many things to celebrate the birth of our Savior. We went to see the lights at the temple and Kelly participated in the live nativity. December also brought Ellie’s 12th birthday, a trip to the temple for baptisms, the annual snicker train event and our vacation to California.
Another year vanished and new adventures on the horizon. Last year brought so many changes for us and I have no doubt that this year will do the same. I am both excited and nervous to see where we are at the end of 2014. I think I have learned to trust my Heavenly Father more, so my nervousness is not taking over the excitement.
We spent our afternoon with family and friends walking Sabino Canyon. Melanie and the kids were in town for a few days, so they gathered a group together and we spent a few hours in the hills. The hills are alive with the sound of…laughter. We didn’t sing, but we had a good time. It was beautiful, Sabino never disappoints in that area. It was perfect weather. Great idea Melanie.
The group was made up of family with the Green’s, the Snell’s and Grandma; then the friends that came were the Hamilton’s and Truc’s family—I don’t recall their last name. Lot’s of kids, even some pretty small ones, so that made it slower than what we were used to but lot’s of fun.
Hunter had never been to the beach, seen the ocean so we of course had to schedule that into our trip. We decided that Saturday would be the day. The Saturday plan was to sleep in, after all we would be tired from our late nights at Disney. We would then pack up the car and go to the beach before we drove home. We slept till the last minute and still make the check out time. Check. We got the car all packed up and readied for our drive home. Check. We went to downtown Disney again for the last minute purchases of mementos—not part of the plan but sometimes changes are necessary. We loaded the car…again. Check. Then drove to the beach. 
It was chilly, but sunny. I loved watching Hunter and the excitement he felt at being at the beach. I didn’t even put shorts on, just rolled my pants to dip my toes in the cold water. Hunter didn’t even flinch. He ran right to the waves, 
jumping them and running from the as they chased him up the beach. After a few minutes he ran up to the sand and wrote “I (heart) (
waves-squiggly line)”. Then he ran back and went deeper into the water letting the waves crash into his back, running and splashing. It was awesome. I loved being a part of that moment with him. 
Ellie was less enthusiastic about the cold water and just put her feet in. She loved the sand, burying feet and searching for sea shells.
We stayed longer than I thought we would,thinking the cold would dampen the excitement, cutting our stay short. Instead we ended up making a late night drive home since we didn’t leave till early evening. Watching Hunter made it all worth it. 
Trip to the beach. Check.
Friday we spent the day in California Adventure. We started off waiting for two hours in line for the Cars Land ride. That was grueling, but so worth it! That is a great ride. Disney did good on that one.
The park was crowded, more so than I have ever seen it. That meant we were waiting for every ride, but there were many times we hit it just perfect. It was a fun day, with lot’s of great memories made. It was fun to share our favorite spots with Ellie and Hunter.
And going to the new ones in Cars Land and Monster University
We had to go on Tower of Terror by ourselves…they just couldn’t bring themselves to do it! But it just wouldn’t be complete without at least one ride in that elevator!
By the end of the day our feet hurt and we were tired, so much so that we went home before the park closed. What a great day.
After opening gifts we began our Disney adventure. We rented a car because we don’t have enough seat belts for all of us. It was such a great idea! We had so much room, enough for everyone to have their own space. It was a pleasant ride, seriously. We are convinced that we will always make our trips that way from now on.
This is a picture of Ellie at the start of our trip…Ouch!
We arrived in California and settled in at the hotel. We walked to Downtown Disney for some dinner and to soak up the fun Disney atmosphere. We knew it would be the perfect way to get ready for the fun we were going to have the next two days.
We decided to go to Disneyland on Thursday. We got up early, ate breakfast and then walked to Disney and straight onto Space Mountain. And so it begins!
It’s A Small World Holiday and Splash Mountain
A haunted Christmas and spinning teacups
The singing pirates of the Carribbean and Hunter in the fake snow
We opened gifts in the morning before starting our trip to California. The kids got lot’s of presents from their family, just like I had predicted. I felt a little like the girls kind of got the short end of the stick as they didn’t get gifts from us since we were going to Disney. But as usual the girls were examples to me. They were fine, declaring that they know Christmas is for kids, they prefer the memories of the trips and they have a family. 
Kelsey made us all calendars, each with the theme that we love. She also bought Maryn a zebra blanket…perfect! Maryn got Kelsey tickets to the Demi Levato concert which was a fun surprise for her. Those were very thoughtful gifts with the sweet relationship to back it up. Best gift of all.
I hope that eventually we can teach Hunter and Ellie that the “things” they receive are not nearly as important as the relationships they have. I know it is hard for those around them not to try to make up for the difficult things they face with stuff, but it is hard to watch and counteract that.
We spent Christmas Eve in a new location this year…Maryn and Kelsey’s apartment! Maryn had to work so we decided to drive up there and leave for California from there. Even though we were at a new place and we were small in numbers, we had a wonderful time remembering the birth and life of our Savior. To start the evening off we also kept the tradition of playing some of our favorite Christmas songs with the bells. 
Some bell players took it more serious than others,
but it didn’t take long for us to get our act together and start sounding like it should. It was one of our best performances to date!
Ellie was so excited to be able to go to the temple now that she is 12, so we planned a trip as soon as we could after her birthday. We worked on trying to get some family names for her to take with her, but that didn’t work out. Still, it was a nice trip. Maryn was such a sweetheart to stay with Hunter while the rest of us went inside. Kelly was able to perform the baptisms while I watched Kelsey and Ellie do 10 temple names each.
We hope that she will remember this experience and the peace that being in the temple brings to our lives.
Dinner just had to be at the Organ Stop!
.One good thing about having the kids here is that we get to do many new things with them. Tonight, we took them to one of our favorite places, the Mesa Temple. They have never seen it decorated for Christmas or the nativities from other countries. We had fun making this memory with them. There was a new treat for us. The temple had a new display in the water fountain—the Holy Family.
We walked around and took lot’s of pictures of the beautiful lights and some of our zaniness.
