from the land of endless summer

I don't know about anyone else, but I can't figure out where January has gone. I figure it has absolutely flown by because the weather has been so marvelous here. At home, January would drag on for ages and ages because the weather was so terribly gloomy. Here, though, the weather is just like Idaho summers, which makes for some pretty good days. Since it's been forever since we've posted anything that has been going on (except for the strange event in the nighttime), I thought I'd catch you all up on the happenings in the land of endless summer.

We had a great Christmas. We drove up to Idaho and spent the week of Christmas with my family. Because I'm really cool, I didn't take any pictures. None. My mom did, though. Mom, will you send me some of your pictures? Thanks. Anyway, we had such a nice time. It was good to get together with my family and do the things we love doing around the holidays. On the way there, we drove over the Hoover Dam:



But the Hoover Dam Bypass that is under construction was much cooler looking than the actual dam itself.



One of the days we were up in Idaho, we got to go visit my great grandma McKenzie. She has congestive heart failure, and it getting frailer (she's a McKenzie, so this doesn't mean much) in her old age. My grandma is great. She lives in an underground house and has the hottest, loudest wood stove known to man. It was good to sit with her and talk. Matt had never been to her house, so it was good for him to see a basement house. : )

Matt surprised me with some pretty neat things, and I hope he wasn't too disappointed with mine. Santa did bring him a remote control helicopter, thought, which ended up being kind of dangerous as it nearly sliced Jane's finger off, and got stuck in Katelyn's hair. Disastrous.

I opened one of my presents to find a Phoenix Suns shirt, along with this letter:

My mom and dad got me the coolest thing ever---A Silhouette! If you don't know what a Silhouette is, and you are still using a Cricket, you should really come watch my toy in action. FABULOUS!!! And so much fun.


I was surprised with a trip to here: (Thanks to grandpa Serafine for letting us use a week of his time-share!)

Where we'll get to look at this everyday:

And get to see some of this:

Needless to say, I'm pretty excited.

I had a birthday, and since Matt was the only one to take a picture, here's me having Jane help me blow out my candles. We also went to dinner with my mom and dad, Hannah, my uncle David and aunt Lisa, my uncle Rob and aunt Coleen, and Jeremy. It was fun to have my family in Utah for my birthday.

Since we've been home, I made a bed skirt and pillowcases for our extra bed.

And made a picture wall with some vinyl words. I'm having a hard time thinking of things to make with my Silhouette. It does so many things I'm coming up with a writer's block of sorts.

Coming up next: Gardening in January!