Just January

I'd like to say that I'm getting caught up on this blog. While in some ways it's true, I've taken so many dang pictures here in Southern Utah that it also feels like a hopeless cause. Fortunately, many days are more "normal."

Speaking of relatively normal, here are photos from our first few weeks in January.

Friday, January 2nd--we went to the Bountiful Temple to do baptisms as a family. I love this tradition! Annika's Sunday School teacher challenged her class to attend 40 times in 2026. We'll see if she makes it. :)

Saturday, January 3rd--Our first day on the ski slopes! Annika was quite excited to try out her new helmet. Both she and Eli were eager to demo their new-to-them boots and skis as well. The snow at Brighton was okay, but so much less than in prior years. We desperately need precipitation!

Before Brooklyn went to college, she made dinner for the whole family. So many thanks to NomiAnn and Papa Kay for hosting in their beautiful Christmas home!

The adorable chefs. Brooklyn learned how to make arepas on her mission and kindly taught Talia. As for me, I am an outstanding consumer.

Just looking at these makes me hungry!

A fun bird's eye view of their living area from the loft above. Their home really is great!

Three cheers for family.

 

Of course, not every moment in January was happy. Jason tested positive for Covid, then both Eli and Annika got Influenza B. Blech Plus, Brooklyn got some awful unidentified virus that caused so much congestion that her eardrum burst! Ouch. It makes the miracle of everyone staying healthy in New York all the more astonishing.

Backing up to happier moments, here's Brooklyn moving into her cute new apartment. The move-in crew included me, Lily, Brooklyn and NomiAnn.

I still love that cute bedspread! Plus thanks heavens for beds that loft. In truth, I'm amazed that we managed to get Brooklyn moved in at all. When move-in day arrived, the basement/flood zone was still in shambles. This made locating all of her stuff a true treasure hunt. We almost lost track of the linens completely but finally discovered them deep in our bedroom blanket abyss. Lesson learned: when the next missionary leaves home, we need to make a list of where we stash all their junk beloved belongings.

Trying out her comfy bed. We may have gone a little overboard with mattress toppers.

Speaking of parting ways with lovely treasures, we took a picture of Brooklyn with her cello trophy--earned after receiving Superior ratings at federation over multiple years. Congratulations, cute girl! Great news is that the musicianship outlasts any tangible award, plus we promise to never donate your cello.  :)

Brooklyn and Talia both came home from college after a few days so that we could attend a hockey game together. Go Mammoths! This is the first year Salt Lake has had a professional hockey team, so it was exciting to see them play.

Hanging out with Soudabeh and Nadir.

Great crowd! I'm glad they are filling the arena.

Plus, we even scored some free hot dogs. Let's be honest--free food most always makes me happy.

Even though Christmas was over, we kept the tree up a little longer and spent more evenings doing devotionals with our advent wreath. Annika was particularly entranced by the matches.

Another fun Annika moment: going to a laser maze with her friend Atticus. These two are quite twitterpated, but I figure it's pretty harmless since they live thirty minutes apart, don't attend the same school, and don't drive.

Obligatory puppy pics. 

Love this guy on the trails. 

Don't love when he eats scat and then gets diarrhea... (Thankfully not in our bed.)

Having a dog might be a pain, but there are stranger pets. Like these two black widows that Annika brought home from school.  I'm dead serious! They were named Eclipse and Webekah, but Eclipse died. Annika explained that Eclipse likely starved because Webekah was bigger and wouldn't let her eat. Not one to be overly sentimental, Annika decided that she still liked the name Eclipse better and renamed the surviving spider after her victim.  

Sometimes I look at my life and wonder, is this for real? 

In case you are wondering how in the world we ended up with black widows for pets, her art teacher reached out because they had captured two at the middle school. Annika expressed a keen interest, so Ms. Proctor wondered if our family would be willing to adopt them. Eeek! In the end, I decided that life is short and we'd take the risk in favor of her joy. As Jason expressed, "Best case scenario: they die. Worst case scenario: we die."

The things we do out of love for our children!

Feliz Año Neuvo & Joyeux Noel (noch einmal)

Today's been a great day! We are in Zion National Park staying at our favorite Springhill Suites. We picked up Brooklyn and Talia in Provo on our way down, so the whole family is together which feels amazing! Since everyone is busy working on homework or work-work, I figured I'd snuggle in to my cozy bed and catch up on the blog a bit.

Thought I was done blogging our fabulous New York adventure? So did I. But here are a few more fun photos from our New Year's Eve flight back to Salt Lake. I can't remember if I wrote about what a miracle it was that all twelve of us made it without any major flight delays or lost luggage. Our budget flights even got consolidated from being small groups with multiple itineraries to all of us flying on the same plane both directions. What tender mercies! When you think about it, air travel of any sort is truly incredible.

Pickles enjoyed some time out of her luggage during our layover in O'Hare.

As soon as she popped out of the bag Anders popped in.  Gosh I love this kid!

The Chicago airport boasted this University of Illinois sculpture. As Illini alums, Jason and I naturally needed a photo.

Here's Anders taking in the sights before boarding our final flight home.

Back in Salt Lake, we relaxed for a bit before heading over to our bishop's home for a New Year's Celebration. The party was primarily for the youth, but most of them had other plans so the Buell family invited our whole crew to join the fun.

And fun it was! Between chocolate fondue, a pinball machine, games, marshmallow roasting, and a charcuterie board, it was a spectacular way to end 2025. Thank you Buells!

The next morning, our jet-lagged travel crew gathered again to celebrate "Second Christmas" on New Year's Day. Packages, ribbons and family all in abundance...this was a delightful way to ring in 2026.

I'll let the pictures tell the story.

With her long blonde hair, Brooklyn's bestie Lily sure looks looks like family!

And with that, we really do wrap up Christmas 2025 Thanks to all for the epic holiday season! There may be hard things happening in the world around, but love still shines bright.