Christmas 2018

We spent a quiet, snowy Christmas morning at home! Azucena was thrilled to see that cookies and carrots had been eaten overnight. We received geeky clothing, new books, fun pajamas, and Disneyland tickets!

Last Hike

Our last day in Cedar City was spent going on a hike to the Hidden Haven. It was a shorter hike (hooray) and ended at a waterfall which the kids loved. Actually, all Austin wanted to do was throw rocks, so he was just grateful we finally stopped and let him for 30 minutes. :D Thanks, Mom and Dad, for hosting us and showing us some really pretty places.

Azucena's Birthday Cake

Since we were visiting Mom and Dad, Mom asked Dad to make one of his legendary cakes to celebrate Azucena's birthday a little early. At different times, she asked for a blue cake, a rainbow cake, and a Rainbow Dash (MY LITTLE PONIES) cake. Dad hit it out of the park by combining all three! As you can see, she was thrilled! Thanks, Dad!

Jordan River Temple Open House

The Jordan River temple has been closed for renovations and is currently hosting an open house! We headed down so the kids could see the temple that Clark grew up with. It's beautiful and it was so nice to spend time with family. We did have to laugh at our "official" family photo, though. Something was lost in translation. :D

Disneyland

Considering all the (terrible, horrible, no-good) adventures we had on our last trip, I'm shocked we have so many nice character pictures! Mostly of the good folks at Winnie the Pooh. Bless them. They made this trip worthwhile to the girls. And Austin was only a little scared of the giant stuffed animals. :D

 

Star Wars Christmas Party!

Tuscon Temple Open House

We were lucky enough to go to Arizona to attend the open house for the Tuscon Arizona temple! I was so happy to make it down there because my grandparents used to live in that area and I've always wanted to visit. A new temple gave me the excuse I needed to beg Clark to make a family trip out of it.




A little miracle happened while there--we were directed to one part of the parking lot but, when we got there, were told the lot was full and we'd have to go to the overflow. No big deal, it was just across the street. We pulled in, parked, and left the car. As we were exiting the lot, I recognized one of the volunteers just as he recognized me: it was Adam Clark, who I knew from Alta and who married one of my old roommate Christina! We took a moment to catch up and marvel at the chances of seeing each other and then I joined the rest of my family on the tour.

What a beautiful building! I love its unique architecture and I hope I can go back in the next few years.

Family Pictures 2017

We did it!

We finished reading the New Testament as a family! HOORAY! The more kids we have, the more difficult it is to read things in a timely manner. But, we can now say that we've read the Book of Mormon twice (English and Spanish), the Doctrine & Covenants, and the New Testament together! Next year, we're going to try to read the Book of Mormon again, but also finish it in one year. Wish us luck!

Gwen's Funeral

The day before her 88th birthday, Gwen passed away. I got a call a half hour before midnight on Sunday saying she had been taken to the hospital and got a few texts and Facebook messages a couple hours later confirming that that was old news and she'd passed away. Clark had promised me long ago that I'd be able to go to the funeral services no matter when it happened, so we spent a lot of time looking up flights from Salt Lake to any Bay Area airport. Turns out that this week was UEA so everything was sold out or over $900. Eep!

Clark looked into renting a car and it turned out that that was $25/day so we talked it out and decided to both travel to Petaluma by driving rather than flying. Annie and Kelly were amazing and took the girls last minute while we packed everything up. I love Clark for taking time off work and then driving like crazy to get to the services so I could spend time with my family and honor Gwen.

 

 

 Turns out Gwen was the first female high school band director in the state of California. What an amazing accolade for my awesome aunt!

All five of Jerry's children were able to make it!

Mara has the full shot, but this was setting up for our group picture

 

I love this picture of Mom with Aunt Harriet!