We're back

I think it's funny that so many people (including us) that used to be such dependable bloggers disappeared over the holidays! We spent a lot of time out and about; we went up to Show Low for Christmas and Salt Lake for New Year's.

Christmas was so relaxing, which is not something you can always say about holidays at the in-law's! We got there late Tuesday night and left on Saturday, and we pretty much spent the entire time eating good food and playing games. All of Natalie's siblings were home, so it was a full house but it was really fun. We played Apples-to-Apples, Sequence (which I ruled), Balderdash (which Natalie ruled), Rook, watched old movies, and sat around talking for hours. It was miserably cold and windy on Christmas day, it rained almost the entire day. Somehow "Wet Christmas" doesn't hold the same charm as a White Christmas. It started snowing Christmas night, and it snowed almost the whole day. We had a few pick-up snowball fights, which mostly consisted of me putting snow down the shirts of Natalie's little brothers.

We got back on Saturday, hung out with my dad's side of the family for a while, and then left again on Monday for Utah. Natalie's friend is dating a boy (Paul) whose family is from Utah, and the three of us went up, the friend to meet the boyfriend's family, and Natalie and I for moral support. The best part of the trip was that Natalie and I got to go snowboarding! I had wakeboarded before, so I was pretty sure I could pick it up fairly quickly, but going down that first big hill was more than a little terrifying. Natalie was a good teacher, and I am happy to report that not only did I make it down that big hill, but I didn't break anything or die in the process! ... not to say that I didn't have more than my fair share of hard falls, but that's what I get for turning off the green trails onto black ... twice. We didn't get any pictures from the trip, but we had fun anyway.

We rang in the new year at Paul's brother's house. The 4 of us were out in the hot tub (a rather strange combination of burning hot and freezing cold) when we realized that we had about 90 seconds to get inside to see the ball drop and drink our Martinelli's. We got inside just in time to shout hurray and throw streamers at each other.

So now we're back home, Natalie's back to studying, and I'm going to try and figure out what to do with my free time.