Christmas In Arizona

It has been a few weeks and they have been a whirlwind, but given that we are barreling forward into 2018, I think it is time we put 2017 to bed. Our last almost 2 weeks of 2017 were spent in Arizona with the Clifford side of the family and Emily's crew.  We had so much fun and crammed so much into our time that I almost don't even know how or where to start, I am going to have to focus on the highlights.

We spent a good chunk of our time at various parks.  There are several local parks that we have recently been renovated and combine new, fun, parks with 70 degree weather and you have a recipe for a good time.

Of course we saw Santa.  This was quite the story.  We wanted to go see Santa at Bass Pro Shop but apparently that has become the thing to do and we didn't realize we should have gone to the store hours before it opened to stand in line.  Long story short, we shouldn't have gotten to see Santa at all but after two sets of people took pity on this very pregnant lady and said "We really aren't supposed to do this...Don't tell anyone we did this...", we got our time with Santa and came away with an adorable picture.

On Christmas Eve we had the Clifford family Christmas party.  The food was beyond delicious, but the real highlight of the night was the white elephant gift exchange.  Jeremy's gift of a hairy belly fanny pack won the night.

Christmas day was great!  We started early with all the family coming over for presents.  Santa spoiled the kids for sure and Jeremy and I got an amazing baby quilt, handmade by Carolyn.  She actually made gifts for each of the kids and I got to help with some of them after we got to AZ.  It made for some really late nights, but we had a lot of fun together.

After Christmas the fun continued.  We hiked "A" mountain at ASU.

We went to see Star Wars.  Well everyone but Carrigan, Garret and Brianna, and Emily went to see Star Wars.  They went to see Coco and since their movie was a little shorter and started later, Emily took Carrigan to the playground in the mall to play while they waited.

Grandpa and Jeremy took the kids paintball shooting.  Of course Merrick had a blast, but the real surprise was how much Carrigan got into it.  Someone would help her aim and she would rapid fire.  Afterwards she really enjoyed telling people how good she was.

Twice over the time we were there some of the family went to ride go carts.  Merrick enjoys this even more now that he can drive by himself and he was really pleased to find that the cars at this track were really fast.

One of the times that the boys went go cart riding, the girls got to go see Cinderella.  It was a seriously magical night.  Not only did we have amazing seats at 7th row center, but we got a backstage tour after.  Carrigan got treated like a princess. She got to climb the stair to the palace, got an invitation to the royal ball, got to see the glass slippers, and got a poster to take home signed by the entire cast.  There really is no other word to describe the night besides magical.

This is just scratching the surface!  We also made gingerbread houses, had an amazing dinner cooked by Tala, had a graduation celebration party for Savannah, cooked, ate and ate and ate, and laughed more than I can even tell you.  It was the perfect vacation but, just like all good things, it came to an end.

We headed home on New Years Eve and, after two stops on the way home, that was pretty much it for the day.  We had dinner that night at my parents and opened gifts from that side of the family and then went home and went to bed early.  We didn't even try to make it to midnight but that is ok.  We were all so exhausted that we were ok with calling it a wrap on 2017 a few hours early.

So that's it for 2017.  It was a great year for our family and we are so thankful for all our many blessings.  We are now anxiously awaiting what 2018 will bring and can't wait to meet the new member of our family and see what else is in store.