Our Christmas Holiday

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! We sure did. Here's a very brief overview of our Christmas holiday. Last weekend we went back to Utah for a few days to celebrate Christmas with Ashton's siblings and Dad. Steve and Gail let us stay with them and we had fun hanging out. It was great to see everyone again. It was a bit sad to leave again, especially when we're not sure when we'll get to visit again, but staying in Utah and only having 5 sets of clothes to wear for a while wasn't really a good option.

Christmas Eve, we went over to Aunt Marcia's to visit with them and everyone else that was over there (Becky and Bryce, Mandy and Andrew, and Jeff and Stephanie). It was a blast. There was never a dull moment, especially watching the kids play with the nativity set and when the games came out. Never a dull moment. While we were there, we watched a short movie about an exhibit called the "Reflections of Christ." This exhibit is by a man named Mark Magby and the whole exhibit is photographs that he took portraying different moments of Christ's life. We first watched how the photographs were taken and then we watched a 5 minute thing that showed some of the pictures set to music. It was rather impressive and the photos were well done and powerful.

On Christmas Day, we just stayed home. It was nice to just hang around the house all day and spend time together. We opened presents from each other, called some family to wish them a Merry Christmas, and played games. It was a relaxing day and it was great to not worry about applying for jobs, interviews, and so on for a day. We also watched "The Nativity Story" and we really enjoyed it. I was a bit skeptical about how it would portray the birth of the Savior since it wasn't done by the Church, but I thought the story was well done. I would recommend you watch it if you haven't already.

Well, it's a day late, but merry Christmas to all of you! We hope that you all had a great Christmas holiday and we wish you a happy New Year's!

We are here, we are here, we are here!

Things have been a little crazy here since I last wrote and a lot has changed.

We successfully made the move from Utah to Colorado and it only took about 8 hours. Believe me, it felt a lot longer. Maybe that was because I was following Ashton who was driving the truck with the majority of our stuff. Wyoming apparently isn't as flat as I thought it was because on any sort of incline, it struggled to go past 50 mph. I was kind of embarrassed as I saw semis pass me in my car. Following someone is also kind of lulling in the sense that after a few hours of staring at the back of the truck, my eyes grew heavy. Usually I have Ashton to talk to during the whole trip, and we did have walkie talkies to use which was a good thing, but it's not the same as having someone in the same car to talk to. It was pretty boring to say the least. When I couldn't take it anymore, I told Ashton that I was going to lead for a while, passed him, and tried not to lose him. Unfortunately, we were going up a big hill at the time. We lost connection for a little while, but he caught up eventually as he tried to speed up and I tried to slow down. In any case, we made it!

Not all of our plans have worked out however. We didn't get the apartment or the job that we were hoping to, but thankfully, Paula (Ashton's mom) was willing to let us stay with her on fairly short notice. It's been nice to not have to live in a box.

So, right now, we're focusing our attention on getting a job, then working on finding a place to live. Ashton has an interview today that we're really hoping works out. No pressure or anything. It would make a very nice early Christmas present though.

So, when we were up here for the other job interview before we officially moved, we timed it right to be here when Nate and the girls arrived in Colorado for Thanksgiving. We had fun playing with the girls and here are some pictures.

A holiday treat for all: blowing bubbles in the snow (they used a bubble gun). Katelyn enjoyed blowing bubbles and then chasing them. After a while though, she wanted to just chase them. It then went to Ashton who was taking pictures, to blow bubbles in one hand and take pictures with the other. It was funny to watch.

Frozen bubbles on the snow

Katelyn chasing a bubble.

Paula helping Sadie get some bubbles with her toes

Sadie

Katelyn took to getting the bubbles in different ways. First she just swatted them, then poked them, and then picked up a leaf (as in this picture) and catch them that way.
(By the way, by this time, I had come out to help Ashton take pictures.)

After she saw Ashton blowing a bubble to keep it up, Katelyn took to blowing on the bubbles.

After going inside and getting warm, I turned my camera to Katelyn and this is the face I got.