Celebrating the Holidays!

Well, Christmas break is over and we've made it through our first week of school. Go us! Christmas break was fun--we spent some time at Shell and Nate's house for the beginning of the break (we were there on Christmas day and got to sleep with a surprise kitten in our room for a few nights! The kitty, named Timothy, only pooed a couple times, but MAN did it STINK.). It was so fun to be with the kids and see the wonder and excitement in their eyes on Christmas morning. It was also fun on Christmas Eve night to see them all exchange their gifts and to give them the gifts from the dollar store that we got for all of them. I think Asa liked his present the most. We got him a little flashlight with a button on it and he walked around shining it everywhere for a long time. :)

 We went to see the lights they do at the Roy fire station, and witnessed Nate accidentally plowing over Bryn while playing tag. It was cold and Mason let me wear his jacket, because he's SUCH a sweet heart!

 We spent some time outside playing in the snow (this was before it really snowed). We also got to go sledding with some of the Waite's friends later, and it was a blast!

It was so pretty! I love looking at the coniferous trees with snow on them, they're gorgeous!

 Sweet little Timmy, who was named Africa by Mason and I while he was living in our room. He's precious!

Also, I got to squeeze my Latin hips between 2 car seats and Mason sat on the floor of the minivan for some of our car rides. :) I don't even mind doing that! These kids are fab!

It was also really fun to give/receive presents with Mason for our first Christmas being married. I'm glad we'll have lots more Christmas's together! :)

A few days after Christmas, we had a beautiful trip down to Las Vegas to spend time with the Parkes family. It was so fun to go down there and see everyone!And there was no snow! We actually got to go running outside for several days because the weather was in the 40s a lot. It was great!

For a few days we watched some distant relative's kids, and it was quite an adventure (7 kids, only 2 could talk!) but there was one named Axel who was a favorite and just ADORABLE.

AND THEN WE GOT TO GO TO IKEA FOR THE FIRST TIME AND IT WAS LIFE CHANGING. Unfortunately, this was the only picture I took the entire time. I think it looks like the space ball Christmas lights we used to have in front of my house.

For New Years we had discada, a new tradition that has emerged at the Parkes home. :)

We also went on a day trip to Death Valley, which was my first time being in California that wasn't for marching band! It was fascinating and fun and so cool to look around and explore, and we LOVED being with Mason's family! The road home was really bumpy and windy (that's like, a winding road. Not like, wind blowing) and dark, but we stopped for a minute or two to look up and see the stars. It's been a long time since I've seen so many, and it was truly awe-inspiring.

Pictures of Death Valley coming soon!



The next day Maddie and her boyfriend Tony came to town, and we partied it up with them! We were able to go to a really interesting aquarium called the Shark Reef and Mandalay Bay. There was an octopus there! (I'm going through an octopus phase... I just love them!) And we got to touch some kind of sting ray thing and look at piranhas and LOTS of sharks!

Then, we walked all the way across the strip and saw some street dancers, which I thought was awesome. It was cool to look at all the casinos and stuff, even though I for one was a grump for a little while. I blame it on dehydration. We stopped and I chugged an entire Arizona in about 7 seconds flat and felt like a new woman.

Then, we made it to THIS!

It was sooooooooooo much fun to go up so high and see Las Vegas from 550 ft up! Mason liked it too, he started to get his groove on in there. ;) It was excellent because we got the entire car to ourselves, just the 4 of us! I absolutely loved it. Thanks to mom and dad Parkes for making it possible.

All in all, it was a fabulous and much needed Christmas break. We are excited for school to start again!