A Good Old Fashioned Family Christmas

Christmas came and went again in a big hurry, as it always does. Just like every year, we had a houseful of guests for a few days. It was noisy and energetic and busy and fun. Then, everyone left and our house and life seem suddenly strangely quiet and slow.

 Kye and Grandpa Don

 Pekay looked like an elf.

 Calder playing in the snow.

 Beware of Pekay; she throws a hard snowball.

 Grandma Teresa

 Grandma Ellie

 Calder liked his fire truck.

Kye's first Xmas- the most exciting thing for him was...

...eating the wrapping paper!

We love having everyone up at our place for the holidays. It's a ton of fun and great to catch up with family. The typical festivities were enjoyed: good food, gift giving, playing with newly received toys, snowball wars, hotty toddies, and pumpkin pie. We also discovered a super sweet toboggan run in the woods, all lit up by strings of Xmas lights. Tara gets the Gold for best/most death-defying sled run, although she may be traumatized by it and never sled again. 

Puffy Cuteness

Everyone knows that I'm in love with 'puffies', (a.k.a. down jackets). I think I should have one in every color, some with hoods, some without, pullovers, vests, zip-ups, etc. They are so comfortable! And fashionable too!

So it's only fair and right that Kye should have a puffy of his own. But they are expensive and little babies grow so fast that it almost doesn't make sense. Thankfully, my new friend Isabel loaned us a puffy for Kye to use this winter, since her little boy is just a bit older and bigger.

Here are some pics of puffy cuteness:

Thanksgiving!

We are grateful for our many blessings! Happy Thanksgiving to all!

And thanks to our family for a great holiday meal and time with everyone. We just showed up and everything was already done. Wow, one of the benefits of having a baby! :)

 Grandpa Dale & Kye

 Kye & Auntie Carly

Uncle Jon & Kye, Nicole in the background

Heading Home

We broke the trip home from Zion into several days, so that bambino wouldn't spend too much time in his car seat. The first leg of the journey went from Zion to the City of Rocks, near Boise, Idaho. We camped and climbed here several years ago in the summertime. Since it is such a cool place, we thought there would be some people there camping, but it was absolutely deserted. So we camped all by ourselves in this land of large granite boulders. Although we enjoyed ourselves in the desert and red rocks of the Grand Canyon and Zion, this landscape -with snow on nearby hills, dark clouds, and brisk air- felt way more appropriate and comfortable for the holiday season.

 Kye's traditional morning pic; B took one in each camping location.

B is looking a little scary with his unshaven face. :)

 The cave at one of our favorite campsite

 Ninja Kye

After a walk through the city and breakfast/dessert at the Almo Outpost (known for their excellent pies!), we hit the road and drove to McCall, Idaho. There, we pulled off and parked in a ski area/snow-park lot to camp for the night. Not exactly the most 'off-road' accommodations but not bad either, as we had the lot to ourselves and a forest service bathroom.

Thanksgiving day- we better clean up (after 2+ weeks on the road) 

before we go to the fancy turkey dinner!