Grandma and Grandpa Campbell got to our house on Christmas night. They stayed for a couple days and the kids enjoyed having them around. Lots of games were played, movies watched, bikes ridden, etc. But we forgot to take pictures of it. Grandma and Grandpa Campbell went to Mesa to have some family time for the rest of the week. We joined them on Saturday.
But first, we had to get a fun visit to Jump in. Jump is a new place with lots of bouncy houses and obstacle courses and slides and such. Grandma Knight and the Tucson Knights came, too.
Apparently I didn't get many pictures of the other kids since I had to stay close to Megan. I did snap one of everyone on the big jumping pillow.
And a few panoramics of the place.
It was super fun and the kids are hoping to go back sometime soon. Afterwards we headed to Eegees for lunch.
Eegees is always a winner.
Later that afternoon we headed up to Mesa to spend time with Jacob's cousins and family. We decided to swing by the Mesa temple to see the temple lights since we haven't been up there at all.
The visitor's center had a creche display from around the world. This one from Guam was carved into the pages of 3 books. It was amazing. There were lots that were pretty cool.
The kids were excited to see all the lights outside, and didn't care that the sun hadn't set yet.
They rather enjoyed the nice grass, too.
After a little while the kids had had enough of the temple grounds, so we headed over to Susie and Shawn's house to stay overnight. Susie is Jacob's cousin and they have kids Rachel and Ryan's age, and a baby. We enjoyed dinner with them, and the kids had fun together. Susie had to go to the hospital in the morning, so we stayed and watched the kids until the babysitter they had already arranged for showed up so we can go to the airport to pick up Cari and Sharon. I loved how their baby climbed into a box to better reach the toys and be close to the TV while the kids were watching a movie.
After we got Cari and Sharon we went to Uncle Galen's house for a little while to see Jacob's cousin Russell, then we headed over to his Aunt Nancy's where lots of the cousins that were still in town were headed. The second cousins got to play all afternoon and had so much fun.
Ryan and Hyrum were buddies playing together all day. Megan joined in with them occasionally.
Annie loved the tree house they have in their back yard. (So did Sharon and Cari.)
The tire swing and rope swing and all swings were in constant use. Rachel's arms and abs were sore from swinging on them so much.
We left about an hour later than we should have, so we had some crankiness on the drive home, but all in all it turned out ok and it was good to see Jacob's extended family that, though they live only 2 hours away, we hadn't seen most of them for probably 4 years.
Because everyone stayed up late Saturday night, as we were driving back from Phoenix, Sunday night on New Year's Eve, everyone needed to go to bed on time, or a little early. We celebrated with fancy cups at dinner, then hot chocolate for a special treat. The pie I had baked went uneaten by the kids until New Year's Day because they were so full from the hot chocolate. Overall it's been a fabulous year, and a fabulous Winter Break. We'll be sad to see Dad go back to work tomorrow, but we're glad we still have the rest of the week for the kids to have off of school for a little more R&R. Happy New Year, everyone!
