Vaca- into January.

 Look closely. There are hot air balloons. The Barons get to see them all the time.

Macey playing on the tramp alone. It wasn't safe with the 4 boys on there.

 Macey petting Utah the cat.

 Macey wasn't near as shy as usual. She made friends with her aunts quickly while she shared her toys with them.

 Everyone had a favorite princess and could sing along to their 'castle' songs.

 We had a family party for Ryan (which was really a reason for all of us to get together as a big family.)

 The goods.

 And for family fun, we went to sky zone in Peoria.

 Alex flipping.

 Macey on the toddler tramps.

 Why don't we have a nice picture of us with the Williams? Who knows, but we did spend the night with them. We exchanged gifts. Ours was a lunch at Island's burger place. Yum!

 The W's have got on Skype so we'll be 'seeing' a lot more of this part of our family this year. Hooray!

 Park day with the Inmans.

 Field trip to an outlet mall.

 Macey wanted a picture by herself in front of the tree.

 The cousins.

Taking home the trophy.

 Playing with stickers. Ah, it is such a long trip home.

 

Electronics anyone?

The day we got home was Jan 6th so we had to go to the Contreras for the baby Jesus cake. Alex got the 2nd baby so he is supplying us with tamales for our Feb 2nd dinner. (Don't worry, they have already been ordered. I'll let him put the tortilla chips in a bowl!)
This vacation went longer than last year since the kids didn't start school until the 8th. Next year will be Ryan's baptism, so maybe some of the AZ crew will come visit us at Christmas time... :)

Ryan's real birthday

The morning of Ryan's birthday was spent packing up for the day's events. So instead of a bed gift, he got a morning gift, which was a Ninjago long sleeve t-shirt (that he has nearly out grown already).

For his birthday we loaded up the our car and the Baron's loaded up theirs and we headed for the mountains.

 It snowed on and off all day. Macey had been watching a lot of winter shows and had an agenda for her snow experiences.

 1. We will make snow angels.

 Ryan was thrilled! He was barely dressed before he jumped out and ran to a clean patch of snow.

 This is up in the mountains in Flagstaff. It is operated as a sledding area and maintained by the state, (or more likely, by some 3rd party, because in AZ everyone profits when the government needs something done!)

 Here is Kirsten, Macey and Coby.

This is our whole crew, minus me. Left in the blue jacket is Coby, Kirsten, (stranger), Mark holding the red sleigh, in front of Mark is Ryan kneeling, Trey with the blue sleigh, Dan and Macey are about to go down sitting at the top and I'm not sure where Alex is. Maybe he had already come down.

 2. We will go sledding

 3. We will catch snowflakes on our tongues.

 We left the 'mountain' and headed to the city. We went to a large football practice field for sledding and play.

 Mark going head first.

 When the snow was really coming down I wanted pictures. Mark and Trey. Kirsten and Coby were huddling in the truck during the snowing.

 Happy Birthday, kiddo. Happy? I think so!

 The boys built some forts on the bleachers.

 Ryan thrilled to be in the snow.

 4. We will build a snowman. His name is Frosty.

 Here is everyone playing on the bleachers.

 5. We will have a snow ball fight. Macey and Mark trading snow balls.

 Mom and Macey playing in the snow. Macey thought this was hilarious. I didn't have on a snow bib, so I didn't think this was too great.

 But look at that happy face.

 The boys trekked in the snow across the whole field. They were wiped out by the time we finished.

Isn't this a nice picture? Thank you for letting us camp out with you for a week and for joining us in the snow.

Christmas Week

We spent the time before Christmas in Tucson.

 

 Here is Ryan showing off for the guests at a holiday dinner party.

 

On Christmas Eve we acted out Luke 2 and the kids got to open one gift. The boys got the PJ's you see below.

 There is probably video of each of us opening our gifts, but I'm only posting pictures for ease of blogging this time. But happily everyone got something they wanted. Macey got her Steam n Go Thomas, Ryan got the Lego Ninjago Ice Dragon, Alex got the NanoBlock Statue of Liberty, I got a Land's End canvas bag (monogrammed!), and Dan got 3 green ties (including one with shark fins). The family got a tablet to the delight of 2 boys.

 Here we are playing Too Many Monkeys. It is a very easy and fun game of chance.

And lastly, while in Tucson Dan won the Fantasy Football League and was awarded the league trophy. (I'm not sure what he'll spend his winnings on...)

On the Road to AZ

Here we are on our road trip.

Movies were a major past time.

 See that box of cereal in Ryan's hands. When we got up the second morning at the hotel, Ryan refused to eat breakfast saying 'I'm not hungry.' So we made him grab a box of cereal on the way out. Guess how long it was before he got hungry and opened that box. Did you guess, 'after buckling his seat belt and before getting out of the hotel parking lot'? Later he asked if it was lunch time. It was 9:30am.

 



Alex was a good sport and handled the long trip fairly well. Except right before lunch. He becomes grouchy when he is hungry (real hungry, not Ryan hungry).

El Paso, TX. There was a train in the food court. $2 ride. Macey rode all alone and got to make the horn blow. 14 hours is a long time to be trapped in a car. But we eventually made it to AZ with everyone still talking to one another.