our christmas break

this year we spent christmas in utah. it was nice being able to spend a few days before christmas and christmas with grant's dad and step family and then spend some time with my family after that. on our way to utah we split up the 10 hr trip with matt & jessica (family that stayed with us back in october). one morning while i was in the shower grant and jessica took some beautiful pictures of trudy and her two boys kaden and beckham. they had just turned on baby einstein and were completely glued to it. we were able to stay with them again on our way back and loved every minute. we've never split up the trip before and now i want to do it this way every time!  

because we had our trudy baby with us this year, christmas could not come fast enough. even though i knew she would mostly be into wrapping paper and bows... i could not wait for christmas morning! i am so excited to be santa. i think i saved everything possible that i bought starting back in november. it isn't fun to travel with lots of christmas presents but surprisingly they held up nicely. grant and i tried to be creative with our wrapping for each other. grant did the one below with three bows. after opening presents trudy just laid around with daddy. she was so chill and i had to steal a couple of pictures. that night we were able to skype with my brother who is on an lds mission in peru. it was so fun to show him trudy girl for the first time. after christmas we went to visit bff jess and her new baby fran. while we were there we took some pictures, i was holding little franny and jess had trudy. fran started to cry (she was getting kinda hungry) and all the sudden trudy plopped her hand on her head as to calm her down. it was the cutest thing ever, clearly she will be a good friend...  already trying to take care of her best friend!!overall it was a great trip. this was the first time we drove home feeling like we finally got in some good time with our families. we are happy to be home, especially with new toys for trudy... she is at a stage where she can almost crawl but not quite yet and wants to move around everywhere. i'm afraid it's going to take me a year to unpack and then take our christmas decorations down. i hope everyone had a great holiday. we received some of the cutest christmas cards from friends that i want to keep on the fridge forever. it just seems more fun to get christmas cards from friends and family when you live away from everyone. i totally forgot that we could do a christmas card this year since we have a baby now. hopefully we will do something fun next year.

sante fe railyard & my family

the last family that visited us in october was mine. i loooooooooove when they come. this time they brought both of my grandma's, it made the whole trip that much better. i love my grandma's so much. i'm happy that they were able to make the trip and see our life here. grant and i spoke in church while they were here too. having them and my family both there to see us made me feel much more comfortable. with having moved so much... we get asked to speak a lot so it's nice that my nerves are getting a bit more used to it. wish my family could come every time, maybe that way i could muster up the courage to add some more personality and throw a joke in here or there. i mean my nerves are getting more used to it but i can't relax enough to be funny. and i am pretty funny.

sadly, we took NO pictures of my family. how lame. it happens every time! i think it's just because we are too busy enjoying each other. while they were here we went to a bunch of estate sales here in albuquerque. and then we drove to the farmer's market in santa fe. something i've been wanting to do FOREVER. we hit up the farmer's, artist's and flea markets there. i thought that my dad might be a bit bored but turns out he was just having the time of his life. buying little snacks everywhere. kinda makes me laugh when i think about it. anywho we've been scoring pretty big at all these market's and estate sales. but hopefully that will be another post.

utah trip from my phone

this last weekend we took a quick trip to utah for a wedding. as usual, we were able to squeeze in some time with some friends and family but not near enough. thankfully we shall return in a few weeks (and then christmas too) and hope to visit with as many people as we can. i don't know how many more 20 hour (round trip) car rides i can handle. we'd like to fly but then we always want to have a car there blah blah. anyway here are just a few pics from the trip.

things that i have to have on every trip? my instyle and camelbak.trudy has this thing where she will NEVER sit. she only wants to stand.things grant needs on every trip? headphones for listening to his audio books.

i think he'd really die without them. a highlight from the weekend? trudy meeting her uncle wesley. 

apparently it's zion not zions

a few weeks ago we went to southern utah for a family reunion with grant's family. it was a high adventure trip and very action packed. no kids were allowed except for our trudy baby. we spent a day in zion national park which included little day hikes. trudy was such a champ in the scorching hot sun. she put up with it for almost 6 hours. the next day was a high adventure canyoneering hike. it deserves it's own post. i wasn't able to go on it since trudy only drinks the good stuff. my sweet family drove down to see us trudy since we'd only be 5 hours from them instead of the normal 10. i met them and we were able to visit for a few hours while most everyone was on the hike. that night we had a game night and it was super fun. we played "minute to win it", which is really the perfect game to play for a big family. the next day we did bryce canyon. i have been to zion before but never bryce canyon. it was absolutely breathtaking. my family took trudy for most of the day (i was prepared. if ya know what i mean) so that grant and i could hike together. saturday we spent the day in kanab (trudy and i decided it was romper day and loved being twinners) because that is where grant's grandma is from. she had fun showing us around too. we were lucky to be there during their annual "kanab days" which included some artsy booths, a parade, and lots and lots of old old western actors that you could visit with. after that we went to the grand canyon. the trip went by too fast and we are looking forward to seeing all our family again soon! oh and clearly i have a hard time looking into the camera when the sun shines brightly.

trudy & friends

i thought i should post up some pictures from all the family that came and stayed with us. trudy bear has quite the fan club. she really knows how to make everyone smile too. she already looks so different from these pictures:( i don't want her to grow anymore!