Christmas to New Year's

Happy 2018!!

I posted all of the Christmas activities we were up to, but have yet to mention that we had visitors in between and during too!  My mom came in town for a few days.  Two days later, Mike's parents came in town for about 5 days for Christmas and then we were ready to CHILL OUT.  We didn't go out New Year's Eve and did a last minute lunch with some friends for New Year's Day.  We are now back to school and mostly into the normal routine.  We have a busy couple of months ahead with travel, vacation, and you guessed it...more visitors!  :)

Here's a quick recap, I just threw it all in.

   You could say that 2017 was the year of the beach.  We went every week during the summer and during this fall we have gone every month here to Natural Bridges.  It was really hot in October, pretty darn warm in November, and here they are again running around in their suits in mid-December.  This is not typical, and you bet I LOVE it, but I am getting nervous about this lack of rain.  Drought, wildfires, no good! Also, those two blogs I linked are 1/3 of the blogs I did in said months and am hoping to change that trend in 2018!

   We went further along the rocks to the deeper tide pools and the kids had so much fun.  These ones even had sea urchins.

He thought it was so fun to chase his sister around with a dead crab.  His sister was screaming and running around like a wild child.  Welcome to my world.

Hike in the nearby open space preserve.

My swim team's annual holiday hot tub party, this was at 6:30 am after our swim.  Yes, most of us had champagne or mimosas in our cups.  I am so fortunate to get to swim with a very fun group of people.  This past fall we got a new swim coach that is kicking our butts in the best way!

Christmas Eve at church.

Christmas morning

We dined on cinnamon rolls as per the usual for breakfast. 

 This pic got me!  LOOK AT HOW BIG THEY ARE!  Hannah does not fit in my lap.  Excuse me while I go bawl in the corner...

 SO excited she got the same dress as Hannah!

Santa came through with "the big green truck from Target."

That baby doesn't even know how good of a Mama she has.

 Ava's fave toy!!  Okay, Okay, I admit it, I was living vicariously through Ava as I picked out some of her presents this year.

Christmas morning walk

That turned into a short hike up a really steep part of trail.

Picture opp turned kissing trading session.  Because she is the lovingest, sweetest, most affectionate thing and my days would be less without her.  What am I going to do next year??

  Another swim pic.  This was the final jewel of our triple crown that I may have mentioned in the past.  5000 yards at Thanksgiving, 7500 at Christmas, and 10,000 for New Year's.  This year we had the option to do it on two diff days so my group was really small this year, but it was still awesome!

Had a fun surprise visit from my cousin for the day.  He played daddy to Ava's baby, a lot of kickball and catch, and occupied the kids while we took all of the Christmas stuff down.

   Then we stayed at home New Year's Eve, had our own little dance party, let the kids stay up till 9 to watch the ball drop, and then missed it because we weren't on the channel that was showing the live version of the NYC ball drop so we sent them to bed.  Haha!  So very uneventful, but so very necessary!

Hope you had a wonderful holiday!