2011 Holidays

I know I'm a bit behind on posting this, but I'm a bit behind in everything in my life. That's what happens when you are rarely ever home and the few days you are home you are working. But here I am, trying to catch up on life. For Christmas we went down to Mesa for a few days. Cade, Conner, Emma, Ashley, Blake, and I took a trip to see the temple lights. Later that night Blake proposed to Ashley, but I don't have any pictures because I was fast asleep during the blessed event. Maybe she'll post pictures on her blog if she ever gets back from Africa.

Here we are, I'm sporting my African earrings in honor of Ashley

I just had to throw in this picture of Conner so squished by his large jacket. He doesn't mind though, anything to get a stroller ride.

At Thanksgiving I took Conner to Bass Pro Shop to get Cade's Christmas present and he loved it there. We could have wandered around looking at the dead animals and riding the elevator all day. They also had the cutest merry-go-round with bears and moose to ride but it wasn't open, so Cade decided to take Conner back to ride it.

I swear his pants aren't highwaters when he is standing up, but if they are any longer than he trips all over the place.

Then it was time for Christmas Eve dinner (fondue) and family presents. 

Emma, Eli, Conner

Grandma Rodgers gave him his first bike. On Christmas Eve he simply enjoyed the box, but Christmas morning it was all put together for him like a whole new present!

He also really enjoyed Eli's new Wii car from Grandpa

For the first time in years, Cade did not get up at 4:30 am Christmas morning. I enforced the rule of no one getting up until Conner does, which I think was about 7:15.

He loves his new bike.

 He is enjoying his first mini Snickers from Cade's stocking. He loved it and recognizes it whenever we're eating them now and wants some. One day he broke into a candy cane lying around and quickly started dripping candy cane saliva all over the carpet. So in order to avoid the outrageous tantrum from me taking away his candy cane, I quickly grabbed a bite of Snickers and he forgot all about his candy cane and we avoided the tantrum altogether. It was nice. 

Conner only got two presents from Santa this year (a water table and an umbrella stroller, ha ha) since he just got plenty for his birthday and doesn't like toys anyway. But since he was dealing with his second cold in three weeks he was too tired to even open his second present and I had to do it for him. I don't blame him, I was getting tired myself watching Ashley and Blake open present after present after present from each other. (I have to give Ashley a hard time on here because she just informed me she doesn't read my blog so I have free reign to say what I want :)

After our trip to Mesa we went to Hurricane for New Years. We had to drive at night so Conner slept most of the way. Except when Cade decided to stop at Sonic for a drink which woke him up and then he really wanted out, but 10 minutes later we were back to our peaceful drive. On Friday Katie, Tina, and I took a shopping trip to St. George. Katie and I were both successful at Tai Pan Trading and got really cute miniature casserole dishes and other things. That night Cade and I enjoyed catching up with Whit and Tiffany, staying up way too late. The next morning Cade took Conner to see the horses, cows, and chickens, but I was feeling really crappy so I stayed in bed and missed out. (I had that same cold as Conner at Christmas only my stuck around for awhile and staying up late every night wasn't helping.) 

Even though I've been to Hurricane many times now somehow I have never noticed the street next to Grandma Johnson's. Its exactly the street I've dreamed about living on. Of course all of the houses were beautiful with different kinds of brick, all of the houses being unique (not a stucco subdivision), but the kicker is that next to the street was green grass with evenly spaced trees, then sidewalk, then the yards. I'm dying to live on a street that has grass on both sides of the sidewalk, but I've only actually seen it in movies until now. Grandma Johnson later told me that the subdivision was built around those trees that led up to some house and the street is not wide enough so no one is allowed to park in the street. But I don't care, I would be in heaven to live on that block that I'll never be able to afford. (Sadly, I didn't get a picture.)

Cade, Conner, and Russ on the pond at the boys' home.

Conner and I getting into cowgirl/cowboy form.

This kid can't get enough of boxes and other fun things that can be climbed into.

We spent New Years Eve with some of Cade's cousins and Kameron and Katie at the future boy's home. (Cade's parents are going to help run a home for troubled boys and the house was just bought but is about to be renovated, but in the meantime it was a nice big place for us to hang out with an awesome theater room.) Amazingly all the little kids, except for Ryan, made it to midnight and weren't even too annoying. It was fun to catch up with everyone.

On Sunday we hung out, played a few games. Grandma Ewell and Russ came down with the flu, but stayed on the other side of the house. On Monday we took a small hike to see a rock arch. Thankfully, even though Kameron and Jeter's horse slipped and fell no one was injured and we all made it safely to the arch.

It took a little time, but eventually Conner warmed up to the horses.

He just loves playing outside in the dirt.

If you look really close you can see Tanner in a white shirt near the top of the rocks in the center of the picture. It made me sick just looking at him.

There was a really fun sand hill that the boys tried sledding down.

Conner found it more enjoyable to just slide down on his butt.

We made it to the arch.

It would have been nice if we had gone home after that, but we planned to leave in the morning. That night Tanner came home throwing up. I kept Conner and I as far away as I could but a few hours later Conner woke up throwing up (so sad.) It was making me sick listening to Tanner throwing up downstairs (still) and watching Conner and cleaning up after him so Cade was very nice and volunteered to watch Conner while I slept. I didn't actually sleep AT ALL, but it was better than watching everyone puking. Pretty soon Cade joined the bunch and was throwing up too. I now had to get into the contamination area to take care of Conner and just waited for my moment to come. Miraculously, it never came. Somehow I didn't get sick. Poor Conner threw up about 15 times in 24 hours, he couldn't keep anything down. But he basically stayed his normal, happy self. We had no idea when he was going to throw up because he would just be sitting there fine and then I'd need to change my clothes, again. Thankfully he didn't get the awful stomach pains that Tanner and Cade were writhing around on the floor with. Finally, about 30 hours late we were on our way home. About an hour outside of Flagstaff Conner started getting really upset so we stopped at Cade's Flagstaff office and right away Conner got diarrhea, which explained why he was upset. But then he slept the rest of the way home. It wasn't very fun to arrive with colds and leave with the flu, but thankfully we're all healthy again. And we agreed that no matter how far we travel to visit people, if they are sick we aren't hanging around. Happy New Year!!