Goodbye 2022!

Well 2022 was a big year for our family. I think we traveled more miles in this single year than all the previous 20 years combined! Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but not by much.

First up was Costa Rica in March. Ben and I had been planning and saving up for this trip for years. It was our 20th anniversary trip, plus a family trip as Miles was graduating. We were/are entering that phase where our children are starting to go in different ways and have such different schedules. Costa Rica was just amazing. We all loved it and all long to go back. The food was delicious and Ben is still making his own version (which is pretty darn close) of gallo pinto - rice and beans. We ziplined through the jungle, cruised and toured the rainforest, walked in drenching rain, visited both the Pacific and Caribbean oceans, body-surfed the Pacific waves, saw beautiful and interesting creatures galore, made our own (and slightly gross) chocolate, shopped in the local grocery stores, and much more! One of the biggest highlights of the whole trip, however, was our horseback riding adventure. It was nothing like what one does in the United States! We were so free to ride the horses however and wherever we wanted - and in the most beautiful pastoral country ever. Our horseback ride included trotting by brahman cows (who were adorable but also slightly terrifying to pass), crossing rivers up to the horses’ chests, Ben and the kids running their horses in the fields and up the hills, picking guava fruit off the trees and eating them for a snack, and seeing numerous monkeys and exotic birds. The entire vacation was an incredible adventure for our family!

The last week of June my parents took their two daughters (myself and Erin) and our families on an Alaskan cruise. Another trip to remember for sure! We saw the beautiful land of Alaska as we stopped in the port cities of Juneau, Sitka, and Ketchikan. Each town was so unique and so fun. We kayaked, hiked, shopped, watched a logging show, etc. On the cruise we went to shows, walked around, played laser-tag, drove go-karts, and two of our group (Ben and Jonas) dared the crazy spiral water-slide. Plus, we ate at the buffet pretty much three times a day. The buffet was amazing and I am not embarrassed to say it was truly a highlight of the cruise! The kids could pick and choose whatever they wanted; the parents didn’t have to cook anything. It was a win-win situation for everyone and was truly delicious food. Our last night we took our own walking tour of  Victoria, British Columbia and it was a beautiful end to our beautiful cruise. The best part was having my parents and sister and her family there with us! (We missed my brother Derek, who was busy living his true Alaskan life building awesome log cabins.)

In August, Ben, Miles, and myself went on Miles’ 18th birthday trip. We’ve decided to give our kids, when they turn 18, a mini-vacation anywhere in the U.S or Canada or Mexico. Their choice within those limits - and just parents and the 18 year-old. And Miles was so Miles . . . He chose to go to South Bend, Indiana. The reason? The Studebaker museum. Miles has loved Studebakers since he was a young kid. He even owned one for a short season. So off we went to South Bend, Indiana. It was quite the adventure and we all loved it! It was such a unique trip (which is so classically Miles) and even I, who doesn’t care much about cars nor museums, loved the Studebaker museum. We also enjoyed walking around the gorgeous Notre Dame campus, taking the scenic river walk in downtown Chicago, as well as meeting up with some of Ben’s family in the Chicago area. It was such an enjoyable trip.

As far as trips went, we had our last big adventure in October. This time it was just Ben and myself who went along. We were part of a surgical medical mission group from our town that traveled to Honduras. It was a week-long trip and was a lot of work. Ben, especially, had long and challenging days in the OR - but he truly loved it. These surgeons and their awesome nursing assistants were all part of literally changing the lives of all the Honduran patients they treated. I helped out in the recovery phase of surgery, but due to a ridiculously ill-timed toothache that turned into an infection, my experience was a little less grand. But it was neat to be there with Ben and to take part in such an enriching experience.

It was quite the year full of quite the adventures. However, what we treasure most are our relationships with friends and family. We love you all and wish you a very Merry Christmas!

End of year interviews:

2022 turned out, in many ways, to be a great year. We were blessed to go on so many wonderful traveling adventures. But 2022 was also a tough year as we sent Miles off to college (awesome, yet a loss to our home), as Jonas decided to not care much for school nor his family (for the most part - he "tolerates" us at times, I think . . . :) ), as Emmy struggled with friends and bullying (that continues to this day and makes me want to just move . . . ) and as Lucy . . . Lucy actually had a pretty great year. The rest of us just need her to have a little more patience. :) Here's to a better 2023 - less traveling in the future, but hopefully better situations and circumstance for all of us!

The final days of 2022 . . .

We had nothing going on the Monday after Christmas and so Ben just came up with the idea of "painting the bathroom." The girls were all for it! It's something that has needed to be done for many, many years.

Here are a few before pics:

Ugly, white cupboards.

Ugly brown wall.

More ugly, brown walls.

The girls had really never painted before and so it was quite fun for them. :)

So us girls helped out mostly that first day, then it was mostly up to Ben to finish it up. I had recently pinned a wall painting design that I just loved. The kids all loved it, too, and Ben at least agreed to it. . . 

So Miles did the stencil painting one afternoon. It'll be fun to have his touch on our bathroom for years to come! And we all love how it turned out! Ben spent the rest of the week doing the finishing touches and completed the project on January 2nd:

Kind of a weird, panoramic picture - but at least it gives you the idea of our new & improved bathroom!

On New Year's Eve day, we kind of let the kids and parents all chose an activity to do. Jonas chose to go snowboarding with friends, haha. He'd already decided on that before we had come up with our plan, so it was fine. We started off by doing Lucy's 2nd choice activity (her 1st choice was going to Amazing Glaze, but unfortunately it was closed): a rice-krispie molding contest! Theme: Wednesday (the show on Netflix). Here's what we all came up with:

This was my creation - Uncle Fester's motorcycle thing.

Haha.

Emmy did "Thing."

Ben did Wednesday's cello.

Miles did Gomez and Morticia.

And, finally, Lucy made Wednesday when she's having one of her visions. :)

Next we were off to Ouray. Miles had wanted to go and just walk around the shops . . . Emmy didn't know what she wanted to do for her activity . . . but she's been wanting to go and get some "cute pictures" of herself (such a teen girl) and so we decided to do that first up in Ouray . . . 

The boys posed for a photo, too. :)

Awww, so cute - daddy and daughter.

She liked some of them and so that was counted as a win!

Then we walked around the shops of Ouray and had fun. We ended our Ouray experience by going to the Ouray Hot Springs (thanks Huband family!!). Awesome.

We drove back into town hungry and excited to go eat dinner where Miles had wanted to while he was in town, Taco El Gordo. But, bummer, it was closed for the evening! So sad! But we all decided on Colorado Boy Pizzeria because it is also delicious and amazing and it did not disappoint. Except that it took forever to get the pizza and it wasn't even that busy . . . However, they gave us our food for free because it took forever! And we didn't even complain to the waiter about it. So that was Awesome. We paid for our appetizers and left a nice tip. :) Fun!

After dinner we played a little championship game of table-top Curling (Ben's choice). Sadly, no pics, but it was fun and Miles won it all!

Then the kids were off doing their own thing for a while - Miles went and hung out with friends, Jonas was hanging out with his friends, and Lucy went over to G's house. Emmy stayed home with us and we all watched Father of the Bride. So great. Everyone came home by 11 and we finished up the year by destroying and devouring our gingerbread houses. Happy New Year!

Christmas 2022

My Christmas Eve was spent doing a lot of stuff in the kitchen . . . making these delicious Christmas cheese braids, making Christmas 7-layer jello, making Christmas Eve rice pudding, etc. Ben was doing . . . something. Probably a lot of house cleaning and last-minute Christmas shopping. :) (December is always a busy work-month for him and so it's hard to get the time!) Jonas . . . was off with friends. Miles, Emmy, and Lucy delivered our dozen tins of toffee. As a "Christmas gift" to Emmy, I let her drive while out delivering - even though she's technically not supposed to unless there is someone like 21 or older. Oh well. I fully trust Miles. Not Emmy quite so much, but enough. They had a fun outing.

Our reindeer got a makeover on Christmas eve - cute "scarves" and a Rudolph nose for the little one. Love these guys! :)

We had planned to send the kids bowling that afternoon while Ben and I finished up dinner. But it was closed that day and there is literally nothing else to do in our town (okay, maybe I am being a little dramatic . . . but I am in a I-hate-living-here phase at the moment). Sadness! But luckily Everett and Oliver were available and so our kids played these fun online games together. 

Then it was dinner time: Swedish meatballs and Christmas jello. We had three elders over and I am so sad I didn't get a picture with them! They were fun and so great to have over. Elder Hyer, Elder Bailey, and Elder Warren. We ate, played a super fun and funny game of Telestrations, watched the Christ Child, and then gave them gifts to open: cool Colorado socks. Fun, fun.

If you don't know what Telestrations is, it's kind of like pictionary meets telephone. We learned the DIY version from Brittany, my sister-in-law. One person starts off with a saying. The next person reads the saying, then draws a picture of it. The next person looks at the drawing only and then writes down what they think it is. And so on. Here's a funny one:

Meant to be "bed." 

Angel of Christmas future visiting Scrooge

Haha, so funny. What started out as "Santa on his death bed." Ended up as "The peanut dad makes his peanut kid do chores." :)

After they left, it was time for PJs and sibling gifts!

The kids started this tradition on their own. We had gotten a smaller "kid" tree one year and the kids started putting "gifts" to each other under it. Gifts like half-broken toys, hand-me-down toys, paper toys, DIY crafts, etc. You get the idea. Sweet for sure. But as they have gotten older, the gifts have become quite impressive. Emmy definitely gets the most excited about the gifts she gives out. She loves it. Here she is holding an elaborately-wrapped gift from Miles. It was not a gun, of course. Miles made this gun out of a Life cereal box. Neat-o. Miles gave Jonas a super-cool hoodie; Emmy he gave an awesome painting of a yak and this hair dryer/volumizer she totally wanted; for Lucy Miles got her scriptures. Actually, Ben and I bought scriptures and Miles painted them. How special! Jonas got (on Christmas Eve and on borrowed money from me . . . because I wanted him to participate as well as have to think about what to get others . . . ) Miles some fenders for his bike (well, he will get them . . . the store was closed on Christmas eve); Emmy got some hair stuff, a really pretty earring/necklace set, and a cool airpod case; Lucy got from Jonas some hair stuff and really cute and perfect-for-Lucy jewelry. Emmy got Miles a $50 gift card to the climbing gym in Rexburg, plus a cool leather journal for his artistic doodlings; Jonas got a nice pair of jeans and a cool belt buckle; Lucy got adorable purple Ugg boots and an awesome fleece sweater. Lucy got Miles an awesome Studebaker tshirt and some circus peanuts (gross, I know, but he loves them); Jonas got a soft and awesome American flag blanket; Emmy got a super-cute baseball hat that looks so good on her. I promise I won't write all the other things the kids got for Christmas this year. I just love what they get for each other. So thoughtful for each sibling.

After gifts, the kids went downstairs to the boys' room to watch movies and fall asleep . . . 

While Santa came and delivered gifts . . . 

Christmas morning! The kids got us up at 7:30 and we checked out what Santa brought. Fun. :) The boys had gotten "big" gifts from us, but not the wrapp-able sort (plane ticket for Miles to Germany and a season's pass to Powederhorn for Jonas. Both gifts are also birthday gifts, too. Plus Miles had to pay some money of his own . . . ) So luckily Santa had delivered some gifts to everyone. The boys got lego sets because why not. :) 

After checking out Santa's goodies, we got ready for church . . . 

The girls got dresses from my mom and they loved them and were so excited to wear them on Christmas Sunday. Church was good with lots of good songs sung by beautiful voices.

After church, I had signed us up to deliver meals from a community organization to those who were homebound or lacking in funds. So we stopped by the fairgrounds on the way home from church and had to wait in quite a line to get our meals and addresses. Each car had 2 houses to stop off at and so it wasn't too bad (standing in line took longer than driving and dropping off the meals). Jonas and Miles took a group, Ben and Lucy another, and Emmy and I went together. Emmy and I were invited in to the last house we went to. Two cute older ladies - one elderly lady taking care of her even more elderly mother. :) It was nice to do.

The kids in line . . . 

After that we finally got back home and ate our brunch - Christmas cheese braid with orange julius. Best ever breakfast. Then it was back to opening up gifts. Like I mentioned earlier, the boys didn't have many gifts to open bc they had gotten "big" items already. But they still got some food, socks, etc. And they were more than fine and grateful for their ski pass and plane ticket and so it was all good. Emmy mainly got clothes and accessories. She loved them all pretty much. And Lucy got some clothes, friendship bracelet kit, and more.

This gift was a totally fun surprise for her - an adorable bluetooth keyboard. The kids do all their work on iPads and I can't stand the on-screen keyboards. So I saw this over a year ago and am glad I got it for Lucy. She totally LOVES it.

Jonas and his super cool "farm truck" from Lego. It's really an awesome set. The details that go into these lego kits are so amazing. Miles got a Mars Land Rover and it's equally awesome. It's a fun project for the boys to work on on Christmas day. :)

We ended the day with a movie (The Mafia Only Kills in Summer), fondue dinner and dessert, and another movie (Groundhog's Day) taking us to midnight. Haha. Fun times.