Christmas Parties!

Ok, so I only actually have pictures from one party, but we have been having them. Tis the season!

The primary was in charge of the ward Christmas party this year, and we planned a "Night in Bethlehem" party. We set up the night before and it was joyous. 

The thing I was most excited and proud about was we asked Billy to make us a manger scene and he whipped this thing out in like a half hour and it was so cute and perfect!

He didn't make the little manger bed thing, someone else had that, but the frame with the gate and the sign he made! So fast and so perfect. Everyone loved it and i think Billy was pretty proud even though he was just humble about it. But we liked it so much!

The night of we just handed out food (which we got it from BYU catering and they forgot to give us our chicken and we were freaking out but we tracked it down right as the party started, thank goodness!). It was fun to dress up like Bethlehem people even if we weren't very good at it haha

The other thing I was so proud of and pumped about was our Primary kids! We made them all little halos out of tinsel strands and they were so adorable in their little Bethlehem clothes and singing their songs which I know they worked so hard to learn. I  love being in Primary and I love the primary kids!! 

Just look at that sweet manger scene. Good job Billy. 

We also had my infamous Costco work party, which ended up being kind of mediocre. haha we remember feeling last year kind of selfish about how the party made us feel and this year we just felt that right off the bat so we only ended up playing a few games and earning enough to buy a bag of chicken haha. It was good and fun though I guess. 

And there are more parties to come! And only 6 more days of work until I have two blissful weeks off and only 3 more days of school until Billy is done with school forever! Pray for him! 

'Twas GRAND Indeed!

We went, we saw, we descended! And ascended! One of the very best Thanksgivings ever. Here's a billion pictures!

After a long drive, huge (scary) elk sightings and a late arrival, we saw the canyon!

It was joyous to hang out with Mom and Dad in their camper

I didn't get a picture, but Mom made us the most legit and delicious Thanksgiving feast in that little camper. Even delicious stuffing! 

We went to a ranger show and all four of us pretty much slept right through it!

Then the next day we hiked!

It was nothing short of glorious. And the Colorado River was amazing! The bridge! Scary!

We made it down in around 3 hours and snagged a good camping spot by the stream. Who would've known there is an oasis down there?

The stream was SO COLD.

We thought we had hours to kill before Mom and Dad made it down so we played cards, turns out they were way fast and made it down hours before we expected them to! Good job, peeps!

We went to another ranger show (through which we stayed awake) and Mom was the deer whisperer. 

Also Billy. 

We had a wonderful camping night during which Dad dressed up like the most ridiculously horrible bohemian in the whole camp site (camoflauge blanket tucked underneath inside-out bright red beanie, hand towel wrapped around neck, the whole nine yards) and it was beautiful! Beautiful and grand. 

Then the next morning there was more hiking--up this time!

We felt like we were in Zions on the way up. tons of sweet, amazing walls. We just did not know how we would get to the top, but eventually we did. 

Then we stopped taking pictures. But, we thought again that we had hours before mom and dad came up and turns out they were just barely behind us! So we finished the last little bit with them and it was glorious. 

Everything MOm and Dad have raved about the Grand Canyon is TRUE! It was beautiful and grand and I am amazed that as a small child I was not the least bit enthralled or amazed. It was so fun and so pretty! We are grateful the parentals let us tag along for such a joyous time (and that we didn't hit any elk or deer or anything on the way home)!

Happy Thanksgiving! Now we will (hopefully) graduate college and enjoy some good Christmasness!

Just a regular ol' update

Nothing too exciting to report, but I noticed I have a lot of relatively interesting pictures on my phone. 

Guess who came to visit last month? 

Kat! And her very, very tall husband. She is standing on a chair. It was quite good to see them and made many hilarious memories come back. Good reunion. 

This isn't that cool, but I made this banner in my first year working at the Grounds office and I was dropping Billy off on campus and saw that they are still using it haha! It made me happy, even though I was quite embarrassed at the design and pleased to see that my design skills have improved over the years.  

My cross country season finished off strong with a great awards ceremony and lots of sweet hardware, much of which my own team members claimed. I was so proud!

And so sad the season was ending that I extended it and had free, casual practices for a couple weeks. Now it's really over, but here's the party we had for our last formal practice. 

Oh, how I love these runners!

Mom and Dad and Doug came!

I still am running through the hills and these are the moments when I am supremely happy. I will be so sad when it snows for real in the mountains. 

Me and Bum Andy and Billy ran the Halloween 5k. 

Billy bought another plant--a pineapple!

We went with Bum and Andy to the Halloween lifts. They were fun again!

We ended up with some carrots in our garden! 

(Billy's making such a weird face because all I wanted him to do was smile so of course he pretended to smile until the last second before I shot the picture and now I have 18 pictures of Billy holding carrots with weird faces)

Trunk or Treat! Billy made this spider and some of the kids were genuinely afraid of it. 

We also had the kids do the minute-to-win-it games that mom had the reunion. They thought it was pretty fun. 

We went to the Manti temple and when we stopped for gas on the way home, these huge candies were available. You can't see the details, but those reese's are half pound cups and that Hershey's weighs 5 lbs and costs $40. Whoa. 

Ok that's it. Like I say, nothing too exciting but we are happy and doing good. Billy is still actually pretty busy becuase the weather is just still warm, but he has definitely slowed down. He is almost done with college! And that's all. Happy November!