The Holiday Season

I know I have not been the best blogger, but at least I am getting on now to update.

We had a great holiday season:
Thanksgiving was spent at our home. We invited Allison, Justin, and their kiddos to join us and it was awesome. The food was good, the company was fantastic, and we had a great time visiting and playing games.
Christmas was fun this year. We left on the 18th to drive to Utah to spend it with family there. We had not been back to Utah in almost two years, and I have to admit I got teary when I saw sunlight hitting snow-covered mountains and pine forest around us. It was amazing! We live in such a beautiful world and I think one of the most beautiful areas is the mountain west. Utah is so amazing. I love being in the southern end and seeing the red rock all around, especially with snow. Then as you travel farther north, the mountains seem to grow and the air is so crisp and cool. One of my favorite moments was when we took a slight detour to go to the Grand Canyon; I have never been (can you believe I was so close and never went there?!). We went to the overlook and watched the sunrise over the canyon. So gorgeous!! Of course we all looked like stupid tourists from Texas wearing shorts, capris, T-shirts.... you know... warm weather clothes. The funny thing is that there was deep snow around (not what I was expecting for Arizona) and the wind was blowing like an arctic gale. You know canyons are synonymous with wind and the Grand Canyon has BIG canyon winds as the temperature changes with sunrise. There was a couple there from Toronto that liked giving us a hard time about our attire. We were freezing! The dogs (well I should say Trixie) loved it. I took her for a little jog up to the overlook and she was not phased at all by the cold wind. If she were a bit bigger, she would be the perfect sled dog.
Well, on with the trip. We stopped in Cedar City (Enoch to be precise) to stay a night with Melanie and Nate and their family (Steve's sister and brother in law). They bought a new house there and it is so nice. It was fun catching up and seeing the nephew we had not met yet. All of their kids are adorable and so well behaved. We went to church with them the next morning and then headed up to my hometown of Nephi. It pretty much looks the same except for a few more houses here and there. It was good to be home and spend some time with family. We had pictures taken while there and we seemed to all enjoy one another. The kids were spoiled, but appreciative of everything they received. It was sad to say goodbye, but we are hoping to see everyone again before long.
We headed up to Cache Valley the day after Christmas. We stopped and visited with my brother in law, Boyd and his family on the way up. It was amazing to watch the temperature on our compass/thermometer drop as we drove into the valley. It was about -5 F! I have not felt temperatures like that in a long time and I realized what a wuss I had become. Texas does not know the true meaning of cold. Coming back home to Texas was nice and I had a new appreciation for 40 degree weather. We had fun visiting everyone in Hyrum. The house there was crowded, but it was nice and fun. I think it helped warm everyone up. Nathan loved playing in the snow there. I think he spent about six hours a day dressed up in snow gear playing out in the yard with cousins. I was surprised he didn't get too cold and call defeat. He was a trooper and spent about every daylight hour in the snow sledding, skiing (thanks to Heidi's help), and tromping around in the snow doing who knows what. Our two littlest ones seemed to enjoy the first couple of days and then things went downhill. There was a sickness going around in the family. I don't think one cousin went unscathed. For most, it seemed to last a day: puking, fever, body aches, etc. For some, like Amy, it was a 3-4 day affair. Poor Amy didn't keep anything down for about four days. She was miserable. I felt bad that she didn't get to enjoy the Hunter Family Christmas Party. She spent the time asleep on the gym floor. Luckily, Lucy was only sick for about a day and then she was more back to her old self. Nathan was a lucky one who only seemed affected for about 3/4 of one day. Who knows... maybe being out in the cold so much helped him??
The drive home was sad and happy. Amy was sick, so that was a sad part and we had to make a few stops along the way to clean her up and whatnot. She was sad to be leaving grandma and grandpa's house and she wanted to go back and have fun. Nathan was sad to be leaving behind so many cousins around his age that were so much fun for him to hang around. Lucy was sad to be strapped back into her carseat for a long car ride home. The happy part was knowing that Steve is heading back to finish his last semester!! We are happy to get on with our lives and to move on to the next stage. I am hoping this semester goes well for him and that everything goes as planned. There is so much bureaucracy involved in the process and I am keeping my fingers crossed and praying hard that the panel he has will approve his topic for his dissertation and that they will go easy on him during the orals on his quals. Oh and the other happy part was for the dogs. They were excited to have room to roam once more and to not be in a cage all day long. Overall, we are very happy about the trip and we think it was so worth the time and the long drive to see everyone again. We are hoping it will not be as long before we are able to make it back to Utah again.
Sorry there are not any pictures of our trip. I was an idiot and forgot to pack the camera. I am hoping to get some pictures from family we were around. So, until my next blog attempt... adieu.