Bear Lake, Vernal, and New Years

 This could have been 4 posts, we've had a busy few days:

• Since we were all around with nothing real going on, it felt like a good time to go to Vernal. Cass was nice to let me go out there for my Birthday, and honestly, there is nothing I enjoy more than going to explore somewhere in Utah with my family that we've never been before. Vernal did not disappoint. We explored Fantasy Canyon. It was freaking awesome, and I can't believe we hadn't been there before. That night we swam at our hotel, had dinner, and went to some stores. The next morning, we went to Dinosaur National Monument and saw all the dinosaur bones and great views. On the way back, we stopped at an awesome diner for burgers.
• We missed Bridger on our trip as he took off in the jeep with 3 friends and went to Bear Lake for 5 days with no adults and no supervision (huge parenting moment). They had a great time playing games (Mostly video games), riding in the side-by-side, hanging out, and going to a giant bonfire with tons of Christmas trees and firecrackers. He had a blast, and we are super glad they all made it home safe.
• Ryan got us tickets to the UVU basketball game to hang out with him and Tate. We had a great time and even got passes to the VIP area, where you can eat all the food and snacks you want.
• For my actual birthday, we hung out. I got spoiled by my family, and Cass made one of my favorite treats- Berries on a cloud that takes 3 days to make. 

Looking back on this year, we have done a lot of things, seen a lot of places, and had some really hard challenges. We had highs, like going to Hawaii, taking surf lessons, and going to Yellowstone with our cousins. And we've had some really crappy lows. Watching McCoy go through everything in the hospital this summer was heartbreaking. We ached for him as he ached in pain for weeks and weeks. Watching him rebound from that and return to the happy and amazing person that he is has been inspirational. I hope we can remember the hard times and not dwell on them. We are always going to have challenges, and things are not always going to go our way. The way we respond and how we rebound is important. McCoy showed us his resilience this year, and it was a good thing to see and to learn from. 

Hoping next year doesn't have the same challenges, but we can all be resilient and learn from each curveball life throws at us!

Christmas

We had an awesome Christmas this year. 

On Christmas Eve, we headed to the Hansens' party. We ate all the best breakfast food. Our favorite is the peach French toast that cass made. After dinner, we had the talent show. We've been working on ours this year. Marshall played a song on the piano. Then Quaid, McCoy, Grantpa, and I played a few songs on the harmonica. It was awesome. Then we went downstairs and played 7/11. As always, there were tons of gifts, and everyone had a great time. 

On Christmas morning, the Hansens came over to watch the kids open their gifts. The boys got a lot of great things. The highlight this year was iPhones for Bridger and McCoy, which has been, maybe, too big of an ordeal. Either way, they were excited. Cass is so amazing at coordinating everything. It's a huge undertaking. 

A couple of days after Christmas, the Bringhursts came up to hang out with us and celebrate Grandma Howell's 90th birthday. We weren't able to get a picture with everyone because Bridger was headed to Bear Lake, but before church and before he left, Steve had one thing that he wanted them all to open together. He had gotten Parker Kingston to sign something for each of the boys and framed them with some pictures he had pulled from the internet. It was a TON of work for Steve, boys, one day you will read this and realize how much time this must have taken him, given their limited knowledge of technology. 

Bridger is 17!

 Bridger is 17, and I can't even process that. Where did my little boy go who liked to stack hats on my head and line up all the 'guys'? Time has gone so fast. We are so proud of how independent he is getting and can't wait to see what he does in life, but at the same time, I'm crying as I look through his baby pictures to pull this one in here.  

For his Birthday, he wanted to go to Top Golf with some of his buddies. I got to tag along, and it was fun to watch them all interact. For his cake, he settled on cherry chip. We love you Bridger!

Christmas Stuff

 Always a busy time of year, this year was no exception: 

• We went to the living nativity in Alpine. The weather was super warm, and we got there right as it started. There were tons of animals to pet. It was perhaps the most pleasant year we've had there yet. 
• We did our Fisher-Price nativity 12 Days of Christmas this year with the Sincich's. It's getting to the end with them, though. This year, just Cam and Mindy came to make the bags. We chose the Nicosia family.
• The Teachers went through the Christmas lights at Ary Dye park. Chad had paid for an extra car, so Cass took the younger boys through also.
• We went to the Kay party in Nephi. Amazingly, it's still going on, but the numbers are getting smaller each year. Andrea and the kids came up for it, so after the party, we hung out in a pavilion and exchanged Christmas gifts by the light of our cell phones. 
• Shelly Elementary had its Christmas pageant. Cass and I got to go listen to all of the songs. The 4th grade sang. The 1st grade sang 'All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth, which was great since Quaid is missing 5 teeth in the front of his mouth right now, and  Santa Claus is coming to town. Marshall sang No L and Child of Peace.
• We had our Jerusalem dinner on the 22nd this year. It was awesome as always and is one of our favorite traditions. 
• The last picture is every Christmas card we've ever done. Pretty awesome that Cass makes them each year, and we can see them all in one place to see how our family has changed over the last 20 years. 

Gigga Gamer Tournament

Dylan "Testimony Tony" and Josh have been so great to create and host the Gigga Gamer tournament each year. They are great at including everyone. 

This year it was held at the Leifsons. They had 4 different games and put each grandkid into a different game. From there, there were 4 winners. McCoy won Mario Kart, Ava won Minecraft, Graham won Wii Sports, and Carson, Syd's boyfriend, won Smash Bros.  From there, Abe held a spelling Bee to pick the overall winner. It was such a fun night! Everyone was laughing so hard and having a blast.McCoy ended up winning the entire thing.

Also, I surprised Cass with a dinner at The Roof with her friends. It was one of our favorite places before Covid, then it closed. It used to be a buffet, which we loved, but it was still really good. Zach and Lindsay had to back out at the last minute, but we still had a great time.  

 

Thanksgiving in St. George

 We had an awesome Thanksgiving in St. George with the Bringhursts and the Browns. Historically, Steve has done his Turkey with the Cronks on the ground. This year, they let us bring down a smoked Turkey. 

We had an awesome dinner. Cass made sweet potatos and we always love the homemade stuffing. Cass put a task under each plate for that person to complete before dinner was over. I got food off Steve's face, and Steve had to refer to water as "wa wa" at least twice. We all had a good laugh when we found out what everyone did. Of course, we had pie night the night before; it's a fan favorite!

On Black Friday, Cass, Bridger, and McCoy got up way too early to do some shopping and ended up pretty empty-handed. Then all the boys went to the grip park to practice their ninja warrior-ing. That night, we all played bunco at Andreas's. Everyone had a good time. On Saturday, we all went to Tuachan to watch a nativity play. It was a bit cold, but pretty nice. Ethan and Elina brought a box of uncooked spaghetti. A bit odd, but we all ate some. It was pretty funny.