The Smith Symphony: Opus 98 - Christmas in Arizona

I know, it's been FOREVER since I've posted. It's been crazy around here. We left for Arizona on the 19th and got back on the 28th. Then I've spent the last week completely rearranging the bottom floor of our house (it looks soooo much better!). Now that I have a moment, let me catch you up.

I was nervous about driving down to Phoenix (Avondale really) with the kids, but they did quite well. We took several long breaks and stayed the night at Uncle Floyd and Aunt Connie's house, er, I mean Bed and Breakfast :) on the way down and on the back up to help break things up. We also stopped at Doug and Charrea's both ways. As always, it was fun to visit them. Their kids had a lot of fun playing with Lissa and Joshua. Lissa and Joshua had a great time getting lots of attention from their cousins. The only problem we had on the trip was Lissa and her, um, let's just say "accidents." Silly goose. I packed a lot more clothes in the diaper bag on the way back up :) It was wonderful having Aunt Lissa sitting in the back seat. She helped so much!! Thanks Lissa!

It was so nice to spend some time with my parents in Arizona. They haven't seen the kids since they were blessed at the end of May! Lissa and Joshua loved hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Camacho. It was so cute to see their little faces light up when Grandma or Grandpa would enter the room.

We had an interesting time keeping Joshua in the living room - we had to build "Fort Joshie" - but it worked.

Grandma pulled out her "Johnny Jumper." The kids had a blast playing in it. We renamed it the Joshie Jumper and Boo Bouncer (for Lissa).

We loved spending time with my brother, John, and his new wife, Joslyn (yes, I did just type that - John got married! it's a long story so I won't go into details right now, but I'm just so excited that he's married!). John and Joslyn had never met Lissa and Joshua so it was great to get the four of them together. Of course the kids loved Uncle John (who wouldn't? isn't he the coolest uncle?) and it seemed as if they already could feel bond with Joslyn since she's also a twin.

We brought our Wii down with us and had fun playing it with John and my parents. I think we got John hooked. Sorry Joslyn :) Mom killed all of us on Wii Fit - shocker (LOL) - she's so in shape!

Christmas day was a nice, relaxing day. As expected, the kids didn't seem too interested in opening presents but they enjoyed playing with them once they were opened.

(Wii fanatics will notice the little remote next to Joshua. Aunt Lissa found the coolest little Wii remote candy dispensers, took out the candy, and put them in the kids' stockings. They LOVE them!)

In addition to hanging with my immediate fam, we also visited Aunt Ara, Uncle Gary, Sarah, Lissa, Steven, and Matthew and got to see their great new house. We drove WAY out to Queen Creek on Christmas Day for cousin Carrine's annual Birthday Party and saw several Stevens cousins there. Uncle Jim, Aunt Sara, and Jacob came over for dinner - we enjoyed catching up with them. Jim enjoyed harrassing John :)

Since we were in the East Valley on Christmas, we stopped by the Mesa Temple lights on the way home. It seemed like the kids enjoyed the lights. It was a bit chilly for Arizona and had rained all day, but it stopped long enough for us to see the lights. Of course, the weather was nothing compared to what Utah was getting at the same time!

Most of the time, we just relaxed. It was so nice to have Jason, Mom, Dad, and Lissa to help out with the kids. What a wonderful break! We even took the kids to the nearby playground and helped them go down their first slides. They sure loved that. I wish I had the camera with me at the time!

Here are a few more pics from the trip:

Joshua chasing Basil - Basil is much more experienced than Sage...
he knows when/how to get out fast!