End of the year

 We wrapped up 2025 getting ready for the New Year's Eve dance that our stake was hosting, and having a BBQ with the Allens and Reimanns. 

Megan went with me to get ready for the NYE dance, with the promise that she could try out the mechanical bull. She did great on the bull, staying on longer than some older kids.

She helped blow up so many balloons for the balloon drop while I helped wrap so many hot dogs in bacon for Sonoran dogs. 

The BBQ was fun. It's always good to get together with friends, though it happens less and less as we get older.

The oldest girls did some photo recreations from when they were little. They turned out pretty spot on. 

Jill, Karolee and I hardly ever remember to get pictures together, but we did for once! 

And apparently it was a day for pictures with friends. We got a picture with our presidency at the NYE Dance. Beth Hills, Kenia Simkins (and her son), me, and Julie Bytheway. It's a pleasure getting to work with them.

So many Sonoran dogs!

The dance was a lot of fun for the kids who came. Annie was the only one from our family that attended with me. Rachel opted to stay home and have Eden come hang out at our house instead. Jacob and the kids too young for the dance stayed home and watched movies, I guess. 

2024 was a pretty good year in all. There were some very hard things, but also many good things. On to 2025!

Post Christmas cousin time

 We did a family trip to the temple while the Knights were visiting. Megan and Sammy came along, but since they can't do baptisms, I hung out outside with them. They spent the time counting how many purple flowers there were around the temple, then spent the rest of the time hiding a tiny duck in the flowers for the other one to find.

After the temple we went to Chick Fil-A for dinner. 

The weather was great and we spent some time at the park playing with our new games (corn hole and Slammo (like spike ball)), and playing with Mosca.

It was sad to see the cousins go, but we're glad they came to visit.

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!  

Having gotten a record player for her birthday, Rachel mostly wanted records for Christmas. She gave me a list of the ones she wanted, and I visited the used record stores around town and found more than I intended to get for her, but I bought them anyway, since they were just $5-10, and my kids bought them off of me to give Rachel for Christmas. She was very happy to add so much to her collection.

The aftermath--destruction reigns:

The cousins were glad to jump in to playing some of the new games together.

Ryan was excited about his treadmill, though he really has only used it a couple of times since we moved it out of the front room to the office where it's less in the way. Annie and I have put it to good use, though.

Megan loved the riding apparatus that attaches to her hoverboard, and the Instant (Polaroid) camera she got.

We managed a family picture while everyone was together! Even Mosca, the Knight's new puppy was in it.

Christmas nativity

 The traditional nativity reenactment was different this year, doing it at our house instead of Grandma and Grandpa's, but it opened up new possibilities, like having the angel up in the clouds (loft). 

Eloise the wise guy man with her graduation cap.

After the nativity story we gathered to exchange cousin gifts.

The highlight was Jared's Beatles abomination for Rachel. He made her a Beatles shirt with his face replaced on every band member. It was so funny, going with the Jared's face socks he gave Rachel a few years back. 

Cousin Christmas fun

 We were glad to have Todd and Savannah's family visit for Christmas and stay with us. Lots of fun was had. 

Of course we had to do our Ugly Christmas Sweater cookie decorating contest tradition. So many ugly sweaters were made, but each person had to choose just one for judging.

Grandpa is the official judge.

Rachel, twinning with her sweater.

Savannah made a sweater to match my shirt. :) 

We got some fun Christmas minute to win it games as part of our Christmas Eve party. This one was picking up marshmallows with "reindeer hooves."

Rachel favored us with a single person duet between games.

The kids loved this ping pong game. If they bounced the ping pong into a spot in the egg carton, they got whatever was under the cup corresponding to that spot. There was mostly candy, but a few $1, $5 and even a $10 or $20 bill.

Wright Flight

 Megan worked hard all semester, learning about this history and science of flight as part of the Wright Flight program, and earned a chance to fly a plane herself. She and another student went out to their plane, but the other student got psyched out, which also spilled over into Megan a little bit, so they came back and waited a bit, which allowed Megan the chance to fly with a better pilot and just go one on one. It was so cool to see her overcome her nerves and do something super hard, but also rewarding. Wright Flight is such a great program.