Week of Dec 17th-Dec 24th

Now that the kids were off to their dad's for two weeks, what would I do with my time?  Well my family helped out quite a bit.  On Sunday, Jonah had asked if I would watch Oaklee for the day so he could tap off the birthday weekend he had planned for Hollee.  Of course, I said yes.  She was such a doll.  And since he brought her pack 'n play - she actually slept :)  I did take her to church with me...man I forgot what having a baby at church was like.  Luckily the people sitting behind me didn't mind picking up her toys when she played that game.  We only made it through sacrament meeting because Oaklee was ready for her nap.  We had fun playing with her toys and roaming throughout the house.  Hollee and Jonah were back around 5 and hung out until Oaklee was tired again.  They brought some cheesecake back with them and shared a piece with me :).  They had a good time in Las Vegas and going down the zip line they have down there.

I still had a couple of days of work this week.  I tried my best to work as many hours as I could early so that I could take off a little early.  I don't know that I got all of the hours in I needed too but I figured I have worked enough hours earlier in the year.  On Tuesday night I had my MRI done.  MRI's are definitely getting put on the not fun list.  I am in there for an hour and there is no padding for my head so it starts to hurt after awhile.  But I received a call from my doctor's office this past week and the radiologist reported that there are no new lesions and that I am stable.  I guess it's worth it to hear that report.

On Wednesday, I took off after the class party and headed to join my parents on their vacation in Flagstaff.  They had brought Alijah and Jeramiah with them so I wasn't exactly crashing their vacation.  I am so glad I decided to go.  It was a good trip.  There are so many amazing places out there with amazing views.  I tried to capture a few in photos but I don't know that I was able to.

Thursday we headed to the Grand Canyon after waking up to a little skiff of snow.  It was absolutely cold and we didn't hike around much but it was just incredible to see the Grand Canyon again.  It has been quite a few years since I have seen it.  At the last stop there was a shop a quarter of a mile down the trail.  The shop had a fire and a mini cafe.  I purchased a hot chocolate and the boys were a little jealous but it warmed me up.  Here are just a few pictures of the pictures from the Grand Canyon.  Oh and at one of our stops there were two bull elk just eating on some trees.  They were just off the trail just minding their own business and kept eating.  It was crazy and they were nice size too.

Wednesday we headed down to Sedona.  I believe I have been there before but my mom couldn't remember if I had or not.  But my parents had a jeep tour scheduled through their resort.  Unfortunately they could only get the deal for four people so my dad stayed back and read his book.  But we did get a little bit of hiking to see some immaculate views before the tour.  It was a little bit warmer that day :)

Our tour guide was Little Deb.  She was the best.  She shared stories of Sedona and particularly the story about the cabin we went and saw.  I don't know if I could retell the story but it was a great one about how the family had settled and sold off the land.  About a hundred yards away from the cabin is a golf course, you would never know unless you went walking.  While we were observing the golf course (and Little Deb was looking for a golf ball for Jeramiah) I noticed an animal.  She said that was a baby havolina (I think I am remembering correctly) and to stay far away from it.  Apparently they are not nice animals and will chase you down.  She said one once chased her dad up a tree.

Saturday we thought we were going to head down to Phoenix but plans changed.  Not much to do in Phoenix that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.  So instead we headed out to the Petrified Forrest and the Painted Desert National Parks.  Luckily, they are right next to each other.  The Painted Desert was cool to see.  There were so many different colors.  The petrified wood was also amazing to see.  We hiked a lot this day.  Alijah and I went to see the house made of petrified wood while the other 3 went to see the longest log of petrified wood.   The trip reminded me of God's creation of this beautiful earth and to not take for granted all the beauty of it.  I hope to be able to take my kids on a trip to see all of the amazing this I saw.

Sunday was checkout day :( but I had something to look forward to as I would be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with Hollee's family.  So I embarked on the long trek back to Hurricane.  I loved spending the time with family.  We went looking at Christmas lights that evening after dinner.  At first, we weren't having much success at finding good houses with many lights but Jonah did find them eventually.  It is awesome to see how creative people get with their decorations.

Oaklee must have heard her dad say that he always gets up early on Christmas day.  While I was up at 3:45am Oaklee wasn't far behind me at waking up at 4:45...so we had Christmas at 5am!  Hollee wasn't too happy about that and went to take a nap a little later on in the morning.  But all in all it was a great Christmas.  Hollee and Jonah had got me a few presents, cereal, and candy.  I got a seat massage chair and a reminder of how to live life to hang up.  That will be my motto for 2018.

Hollee got the full season of Full House - which she absolutely loved.  Then for her birthday she got an apple watch.  Jonah got a ammunition box with his name etched into it.  Then his big present was a gun safe.  Hollee was creative in how she gave it to him because it was still at the store haha.  Oaklee got some clothes and a few toys.  All in all it was a great Christmas...except when we went to cook the turkey for dinner.  Jonah had got it all ready and put it in the oven.  Two hours later I noticed that the temperature still read 100 degrees so yeah their oven went out.  We moved the dinner party over to mom and dad's and unfortunately they probably are getting a new oven.

I got to FaceTime with the kids after they were done with their Christmas.  They both got new bedding.  Colt got a remote control BB8 and Aspen got speakers for her phone to play music on.  I opened the present that they had sent me, bluetooth speakers for my running.  I also opened the few presents under the tree when I made it home finally.  I had two seasons of The Big Bang Theory from the kids (although they didn't know haha) and a serving plate and brownies from Greg and Sheila.  It was a great Christmas...the only thing missing was my kids but that is expected.