Phoenix continued...

Wait- there is more! We went to the zoo with Mom, Dad, Londy, and Bean. Kami loved it! We got to feed giraffes, eat lots of popcorn, see a Gila Monster, and go in the monkey den.

We also had the chance to visit GrandDad's new home. I am so grateful for people who tend the elderly with love and respect.
LAst, but not least, we got to meet Elizabeth (hopefully my soon to be sister-in-law). She is simply adorable. Gorgeous on the outside and inside. Writing all of this just makes me a little more desperate to move to Phoenix. I miss you all so much!

Christmas/New Year's

Chip is seriously the best husband ever. He let me go home to Texas for a week prior to Christmas week while he stayed home to work. I love you honey. I always enjoy being home. I only wish that Chip could go with me each time. I slacked on the pictures big time while I was there. My cousin Aime got married and had such a fun reception. Kamila danced the night away (so did I) and finally gave in at about 11pm. We got home at about 2. I can't remember the last time I was up that late.

These are the only pictures I have. Sad for me.
For Christmas, Chip drove down to Phoenix and Kami and I met him there. We had Christmas dinner at Aunt Ginna's followed by the traditional Christmas story play. Kamila wanted nothing to do with it...until the play got going. Then the manger with all of its cozy blankets allured her into thinking she could throw the baby Jesus doll out and take his place. So she did. She laid down, put her thumb in her mouth and let the show go on. Hilarious to say the least.  I don't have pictures to prove it, but I do have a video coming soon.

Christmas day.  We are so blessed to have the families that we do. GrandDad's last words to us before we left were "You know, very few families had the type of Christmas that you did". Truer words could not have been spoken. We are so grateful for our parents, siblings, and their families. We love you all SO much. Christmas would not be the same without you.

More Mexico/Thanksgiving vacation

We began our trip in Cancun. We scored a direct flight from Salt Lake City to Cancun (very, VERY nice, especially when you are traveling with a restless toddler) which was also only 4 hours long. Before we knew it, we were in the smallest rental car you can imagine, driving 65 mph while the locals are driving 95 mph. I was clinging to my seat for my life as Chip excellently managed to make his way through the chaos and get us to our hotel safely. Keep in mind, I taught myself how to drive in Mexico, so ether these people were driving like maniacs OR it had been too long since I had been there. Probably the latter.
Anyway. We got to our hotel in Tulum, just 3 minutes walking from the pyramids. My girlfriends met us there, we headed to the small town center for a yummy dinner and then off to bed. The next morning, we ventured to Tulum. No LDS tour guides available (2 hour waiting list- no thanks). I tried to give Chip an unofficial tour from what I remembered. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach. On Monday, we left Tulum and drove to Playa del Carmen where we would be staying along with my family at the Riu. We laid on the beach, played beach volleyball, taught my mom and dad how to use a buggie board, took a catamaran out for a ride, swam in the luke warm ocean, enjoyed the music/theater shows at night, and ate, ate, ate, and drank piña coladas.
After our 4 days of heaven, we drove to Chichen Itza and made a quick stop (I mean quick...we literally went in, circled the pyramids so we could check them off our list and hopped back in the car). We finished the drive to Merida. We got to see the rest of my girlfriends and have dinner at my favorite restaurant. My parents took Kami back to the hotel so that Chip and I could go to a restaurant bar with the gals. Chip LOVED that place. It is an al fresco restaurant with mariachis playing in the courtyard. So typical of Mexico. Loved it.

The next day we were back on our way to Cancun. Our flight left Saturday morning so we had to be back in Cancun asap. We stayed at the Marriott Casa Magna. Such a beautiful hotel! Wish we had had more time to enjoy it's amenities. Maybe next time? We are dying to go back!

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A Brief (but much needed) Recap

They say pictures are worth a million words or something or other along those lines. I am heavily relying on this premise to be valid to most of you. This is what has been happening in our lives as of late October (don't hold your breath- it looks like it will be a long post):

 Our annual porch Halloween decoration night. Loved that Kamila was able to participate more!

 Kami's first pumpkin patch experience. We went with our friends Mitch and Jessica to the Red Barn in Santaquin. We loved it! The weather was perfect.

 Family pictures taken by my best friend Laura who is a culinary artist, imagine that! I set my camera up and she got to work. I think she needs to reconsider her choice of profession :) The pictures turned out pretty dang well, if you ask me! They are straight out of the camera.

 Mexico. This deserves its own post really. It was amazing. Chip in so enamored with this special land that he is already planning our return for 2011 (so he wishfully thinks).  I saw my friends from high school, took him to the schools I used to attend, the houses we lived in, the beaches I adore. Kamila loved playing in the sand with the bucket her grandpa bought her and even loved being in the ocean itself.

Christmas begins with CHRIST

I should be in bed right now but my mind refuses to turn off. This seems to happen quite a bit during the holiday season, much to my dismay, my grey-matter is much too preoccupied with things that are not worthy of such attention. I have been thinking about things I wish I had, things I wish I could get for people I love, things I wish life would hand me on a silver platter. I spend too much time telling myself why I don't need all these things when I should really just be focusing on being grateful for the things I have been given. 
Days are shorter and colder now, and my little Energizer bunny who is actually a little girl and not a bunny, goes bonkers if left indoors for more than 4 hours during the day SO we went to the mall. Not to shop, may I clarify, but to let her roam around the children's area. She was in complete awe and I was happy to just sit and ponder as I watcher her attempt to climb up and go down the slide by herself. 
All the things that I have previously mentioned circled my mind. Again and again. Over and over, until- the worst thought made it's uninvited presence in my mindless mind: "I hate Christmas". I couldn't believe I had let myself think those nasty and very untrue words. I LOVE Christmas! I look for Christmas music on the radio the morning after Halloween, for crying out loud.
I am still a bit shocked and ashamed at myself. Why would I think such a thing?
Kamila played, ran, and then it was time to get some substance in her so we went home. As we exited through Nordstrom in all of its glory with its red carpet rolled out for its refined, fancy valuable customers, I realized how much I was forgetting what Christmas is supposed to feel like. I miss those days when the best part of Christmas was on the 24th and all the cousins and aunts would come over for dinner and games and even a huge slumber party. Watching How The Grinch Stole Christmas at 10:00 and being told by our parents that the longer we stayed up, the longer Santa would take to get there; that would send us into a silly giddy laughing spell. The days where a quiet, reverent evening of thought and remembrance of the Savior's birth would strike a deep chord within that made me feel as if the entire world outside our festive and warm home was also still and quiet in observance of His special birth.
Christmas begins with CHRIST. Not with shiny, silver boxes from a trendy department store; not with huge lit trees or wonderfully decorated neighborhoods. It begins with Him and with us. Tonight, I am particularly grateful for the many blessings I have been given. I am grateful for my husband and daughter; for our parents, siblings, and their wonderful companions and children; for friends that are genuinely friends that care and reach out when we need them, for living in this special and magnificent country, and for having the only gospel in my life. I know that Christ lives; I know that Joseph Smith was an instrument in His hands; I know that families can be together forever and that I will see my grandfather again as well as all the ancestors I never met; I know that His church is true and that that jolly, kind and tenderhearted man called Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. I know that my Heavenly Father and His Son live- and that they know who I AM, who you are; They know the matters behind our heavy hearts and the reasons that make us smile. They know me inside out. But do I know THEM?
This is for you, my dear friend (you know who you are). Thank you for sharing your heart with me tonight. I think I needed to hear from you... someone upstairs is also awaiting. Thank you for making Christmas come alive for me this day.