Christmas 2014

Uncle Mark and Aunt EJ drove up to our house on Christmas Eve and stayed the night.  We had a nice time reading the bible story and eating treats.  Christmas morning we enjoyed opening presents and eating egg casserole with sweet rolls.  Here are some pictures from the day.

Mistletoe Hunting

As per tradition, Mom took the kids hunting for Mistletoe on Christmas Eve.  We found some of course and enjoyed a beautiful hike along the lake as well.  We even saw a Blue Heron sitting on a rock watching us.

Mom's Trip to Utah

Dad was super nice to Mom and let her take a trip to Utah for a week to see family. It helped her not be nearly so homesick for her family over the holidays.

She has always wanted to take the Amtrack train over the Sierras to Utah so she decided it was now or never.

Mom's experience on the train was less than ideal (to put it nicely).  She will never ride the Amtrack train again and doesn't recommend it to anyone.  Mom will only ride trains not owned by the American government in the future.  The train itself was really fun, but the environment was not good.

 Mom had fun in Utah shopping with her family, playing with nieces and nephews, making gingerbread men, and going for hikes. She flew home after a week and had a much nicer experience.  Here are some of her favorite pictures from her trip.

Thanksgiving 2014

After coming home from our trip, we enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving day at home. 

 First thing in the morning, we ran a 5k race in Sacramento with 27,768 other people. It was a miracle that we found each other at the finish line. 

After the race mom got right to work and made a yummy Thanksgiving feast.  It was delicious.

  Sarah and Lily picked flowers from the garden for our table.

We felt very thankful this year for our family, health, and the gospel.

Tenaya Lodge and Yosemite Trip

We took a trip to Yosemite the during the week of Thanksgiving break.   We stayed at Tenaya Lodge outside the south entrance to Yosemite.  The Lodge was really nice and  had lots of fun activities and restaurants. It was decorated for Chistmas with a huge tree in the entrance, a gingerbread house and lots of other fun things to look at.

The first thing we tried to do when we got there was take some family pictures.  Some turned out better than others.

 We had a lot of fun hiking and exploring in Yosemite and doing fun activities around the lodge. Yosemite is less busy and really beautiful even when there isn't much water in the winter.  We hiked up to Mirror Lake (which was empty) but we were able to go in the middle of the meadow and take some pretty pictures of the huge mountains around us.

 Each kid got to pick an activity to do on the last day.  Lily picked Ice Skating and Alex and Sarah picked mountain biking.  So Daddy and Mommy split up to save time.  Mom and Lily went Ice Skating and Dad, Sarah, and Alex went mountain biking.  We also spent each evening swimming and sitting in the hot tub.  It was nice to play and relax together.

 

 One of the days we spent exploring Mariposa Grove, which was just outside the south entrance to Yosemite.  We hiked through the beautiful grove of Redwoods.  Dad, Sarah, and Alex hiked up to a cabin in the forest that looked like a doll house next to the giant trees.

The trip went by so fast and before we knew it we were getting ready to come home.  We made lots of fun memories and are already looking forward to coming back to Yosemite.