Help! It's nearly February and I haven't completed my final post of 2013. I simply must order the family scrapbook but I cannot because I am completely lame. Oh, well. At least I got the Christmas letter out. Anyway, this is how the Smith family rang out the old year and rang in the new. December was crazy busy as always. Sam, Chad, Amber, Miranda and I got to go to BYU for a college tour and a pitching camp. We even got to watch a live news broadcast from the BYU television studio. It was awesome! I think it cemented Chad's desire to become a journalist. But now he can't decide whether he prefers broadcast or newspaper journalism. Time will tell, I guess. After the tour, we got to meet cousins at temple square. Yahoo!
Aunt Karen and Lucy dressed as Eskimos. It was cold!!! But oh the lights. They were just amazing!
Kate, Amber, Sarah, Bekkah and Miranda staying warm by the floating light pond. Afterwards we had hot chocolate and cookies in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Chad said it was the most ornate architecture that he had ever seen. I think that is probably true. The next day the girls and I got to go to a Christmas carnival for the children of BYU alumni while Sam and Chad checked out the concert in the Wilkinson Center and the bookstore. Not surprisingly, Chad found a sweatshirt that he simply could not live without. Pitching camp was delightful and Chad thought the baseball field was "sick" even though it was completely covered with snow.
This is what the road looked like for all five hours of the trip from Provo to Blanding where we stayed for the night. This is why you don't travel to Utah in the winter, people.
Once we got home, it was time to decorate. Yikes! Every year I say I'm not going to do it the next year, and every year I cave and do it anyway. This year we got a little sidetracked while putting up the outside lights by our neighbor's new puppy, Bella. Is she about the cutest thing you ever saw or what? We did eventually did get back on task though. And I'm happy to report that our house was fully blinged out for the month of December.
Miranda begged for a blue bike for Christmas. She said she would be happy with that and nothing else. So, here she is with her heart's one true desire. (She did get some other things too!)
Amber's remote control car. It broke after fifteen minutes and we had to go straight to Walgreens for an exchange. Who knew they were open on Christmas day?
Sam with one of our many boxes of chocolate. Oh, how I ruined the great weight-loss program I had going prior to Thanksgiving. Boo! But chocolate. Yea!
The girls trying out Miranda's new bike and Bethany's and Amber's new helmets. In case you are wondering, we did get the boys Christmas presents, but they refused to get up until 10:00 to open them. Bah Humbug!
A couple of days after Christmas, we went hiking at one of our favorite places - Tent Rocks! I guess you can tell by the above picture why they are thus named.
The girls love to climb but we had a couple of slipping incidents. Bethany in particular came home with some hand road rash.
Of course you've got to climb into the cave. The girls think they could live here quite happily.
And there they are with Dad.
The girls and dad didn't quite make it to the top, but I did. It was very icy and I slipped a couple of times and even broke a nail :( but look at the view.
For New Year's Dad and the girls went to San Antonio to visit Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Ben, Uncle Abel and Grandma and Grandpa Smith. Fun was had by all except for me who was stuck at home driving Aaron to work and enforcing the boys' curfews. On the way back, they stopped by Carlsbad Caverns. Here they are before beginning the hike down.
On their way down!
Bethany tried out her photography skills to get some pictures of the stalagmites and stalagtites.
So pretty!
The girls checking out the sights.
Daddy with a couple of cuties!
And of course Chad's favorite part of Christmas break is that his boys are back in town for winter break. They even got to play with Chad's jazz band who were the featured honor band at All-State this year. I thought I wouldn't ever get to see them play together again, but I was very grateful to be wrong.
Nick, Justin and Chad out to dinner. Nick is back at NMSU now and Justin goes back to Harvard tomorrow, but it was a great break.
And another highlight of the month was that Chad's 6 foot 4 calendar came out. There are four boys in one of Chad's classes that are indeed 6'4" and they decided to make a calendar for their teacher. Ah, if only all this creativity would go towards class projects instead.
And, in case you are wondering, Aaron still lives with us - I think!
So, here are some things I learned during the year 2013.
1. You cannot make your children do what they don't want to do. You just have to love them and hug them anyway.
2. My fingers will inevitably go numb whenever I am super nervous. This isn't too much of a problem when Chad's pitching, but it is a very big problem when I am supposed to accompany the ward choir on the piano.
3.Sixteen year olds still love you even if they not so respectfully request that you never ask them another question for as long as either of you live.
4. Twelve year olds are embarrassed by everything you do. There is nothing you can do. You just have to accept it and move on.
5. As mentioned previously, do not travel to Utah in December.
Over and Out!
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