Uriah's First Camelback Hike

Last Sunday Uriah hiked up (part of) Camelback for the first time. I don't know how it came up, but over the summer he said he wanted to hike the mountain with me. I never heard him say this, but my mom said that he said it multiple times. We waited until the weather cooled down and after a couple of failed attempts finally made it the first Sunday of January.

At the start of the trail...first time hiking and on a double black diamond :)

Sibling hike with Uriah. #stillfitafteralltheseyears

As he was hiking he kept saying "I can see everything!"

This was as far as we went...but for a 3 and a half year old it was far enough.

He got a picture with all of us.

Water break...

...with Uncle Kyle.

Then they built a rock mountain.

Overall the hike was a success. Kellyn said Uriah talked about it Sunday night and on Monday he saw a mountain and said look at that mountain we hiked yesterday. As he gets older we will just keep going farther distances until he makes it to the top!

Christmas Festivities 2014

This year was my first Christmas of having a nephew...be prepared for lots of pictures of Uriah :)

Mom bought a new Christmas decoration which is a plastic Santa boot (another box to add to the approximately 150 boxes of decorations). Uriah fit perfectly inside of it.

On the Sunday night before Christmas, Mom and Dad had a Christmas open house. This is mom and dad with mom's best friend from high school, Robin, and other long time friends Albert and Anne Marie.

The home school group pic - Mom, me, Jan, Jenn, Jessica and Kellyn.

Taylor Morrison friends - Ben and Dave. I am not usually this close in height to them but my shoes helped me out a little in this pic.

Jenn and I have known each other since 3rd grade - and I'm glad I still know her so well.

On Christmas Eve we started the night at the 4:15 service at church. Brian talked about hot yoga during his message and I was sitting in the same row as Rob and Kathryn and mom and dad so we were all laughing pretty hard. The point of his message was that the message of Christmas must confront you before it can comfort you and how we don't like to be exposed - hence the connection to hot yoga where you practice in a room with mirrors and not wearing a lot of clothes.

The last song we sang was Silent Night and everyone had a candle - it was pretty in the room.

After the service we took some pictures by the wreath.

Rob and Kathryn...

Me, Kyle, Mom and Dad...

Eli, Brian, Bella, Gina and Faith...

and Gina and I.

The Horton Christmas Eve was at Kevin and Jocelyn's so we went there right after church.

Tyler got to meet Uriah for the first time.

Table #1...

and Table #2. 

Santa (aka Rob) showed up. Uriah was the first of the kids to sit on his lap.

I think in a year from now this could be a screaming picture as opposed to a smiling picture.

Chloe was the last of the kids to get her named called by Santa...and she was the first to line up when Santa arrived. Santa played a joke on her when it came to the last gift and told her the gift was for Frank. She looked like she was about to cry but Santa saved the day and told her the gift was actually for her.

A little dark, but a panoramic shot of everyone during the white elephant gift exchange.

On Christmas morning Kyle and I continued our tradition of hiking Camelback, but this year Kellyn joined us. #stillfitafteralltheseyears

#CamelbackSanta

Warming up and feeding Uriah after Camelback. It was pretty cold on the mountain, and coming down it got windy. After everyone was showered after the hike we had a really late brunch (1:30pm) at Mom and Dad's.

Now instead of taking a kids pic in front of the tree, it has become a grandkids pic in front of the tree.

In the end, Mom and Dad couldn't go without the kids pic.

Uriah had fun opening gifts...mostly just ripping the paper.

I found this vintage toy at World Market. We had this as a kid...will be the "landline" phone Uriah will ever know.

Dad made sure Uriah had a basketball.

Grandma and Grandpa and Uriah.

After we finished opening gifts, Kellyn and Uriah left to go meet Coby and go to the Hiatt's. Coby had to work on Christmas morning so that is why he wasn't at our Christmas. I took a nap and then Mom, Dad, Kyle and I went down to AZ Center and saw the movie Unbroken.

It was a good, quiet Christmas Day but Christmas is so different now without Grandma Hazel. We were all missing her.

Thanksgiving Day 2014

I am so far behind on this blog, so decided I should just blog today so I don't get even further behind. This morning started out with the Phoenix Turkey Day 5K. This is the third year I have completed this race, and I had no plans to run it until yesterday at about 10am. Gina and I were originally talking of going to hot yoga since it didn't seem like anyone wanted to run, however, got a text from Gina yesterday saying her whole family was running as well as the Browns. So, I couldn't not run. My official race time was 27:02, which was 2 minutes slower than what I ran last year. However, today was more for fun than for a time. I did move up age groups this year, so was 9th out of 208 for 35-39 year olds - I guess that is a benefit of getting older - lower places in races :)

Amy, Gina and I before the race.

Pre-race girls picture - Kylie, Amy, Me, Bella, Gina and Faith.

Brian and Eli - Eli beat Brian by one second.

The kids did great on the 5K.

Amy, Gina and Faith almost to the finish line.

Post-race group picture.

The Browns and Kruckenbergs are neighbors, so we went back to their houses for some post-race brunch. Brian was the barista.

We all earned that brunch - mimosas, GF/DF/SF cinnamon rolls, GF pumpkin pancakes from TJs and scrambled eggs - that's my kind of brunch :)

After my morning with good friends, I came back to my apartment and made some Brussels sprouts to take to my parents for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Cranberries.

Roasted Brussels sprouts with cranberries, maple syrup, ginger and grass-fed Irish butter - yum.

Uriah's first Thanksgiving. (There might be a lot of pictures of him in the remainder of this post.)

Uncle Kyle entertaining Uriah.

First time for Uriah on the trampoline.

Colby, Kevin, Shane and Jocelyn playing a little bocci ball.

Lulled him to sleep by bouncing him on the trampoline.

Post-dinner family time.

After dark it got a little cold outside, so Coby built a fire.

Dad, Kyle, Colby, Shane and Randy sitting by the fire.

Uriah with his grandpa.

All in all a great Thanksgiving Day.

Psalm 100 - Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him, bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.