It's Been 24 Years Since This Man Changed My Life! 💓 💓 💓

Merril is so good about planning little getaways for us. I wanted to try harder and so I surprised him with the idea of going to a historic bed and breakfast in St. George called the Mulberry Inn. We met 24 years ago and it has been fantastic. We have spent so many good times together! He has made life so good.

 I also wanted to go out to Anasazi Steakhouse and get cheesy fondue! It was delicious. 😀

The Mulberry Inn is one of the oldest houses in St. George. It was super cute and they had an adorable Christmas tree in the parlor.

It was great to spend the time together to distract from all the busyness of the holiday season. Although I've been killing my to do list, with the help of Merril, and I haven't been too stressed!

For breakfast, I requested oatmeal and the cutest tray came out with tiny serving dishes. 😍

Also, the St. George temple was rededicated and opened this week. I had planned a little ahead and secured an appointment for endowments. We could only get an early morning session and it was pitch black when we arrived at 6:30 a.m.

The session was great and it was wonderful to be so close to a temple again! Not that Cedar or Vegas is terribly far but this is nice. We are doubly blessed because the opening of the Red Cliffs Temple is right around the corner in March! Yay! We will have two operating temple so close! 

Merril's Having Trouble Seeing But It'll Be Okay

I didn't want the title to be too alarming. Merril was having trouble seeing out of his good eye. After googling some symptoms, it seemed a little scary. He had a new big floater and had seen some flashes of light. Those can be signs of a detached retina. He jumped over to St. George to get an eye appointment and it's not a retinal detachment. He was diagnosed with a large posterior vitreous detachment. The jelly in your eyeball pulls away from the back. It's more common as we age and more common for people with nearsightedness.

 

These are the pictures of the inside of his eye. It shouldn't require any surgery and the big grey floater will improve over the next 6 months. If it doesn't get much better, they can zap the floater with a laser to break it up. So he should be okay.

It was a little scary for half a day. He followed up with a retinal specialist and they weren't concerned with it either. Merril's dad had detached retinas and we didn't want the same thing happening to him. He should be good though!

December Music and St. George Temple Dedication

Mark started piano lessons and has taken off. He doesn't practice that much but is quickly picking it up. He had his first recital.

This is Mikayla's second orchestra concert. Their teacher said they've improved a lot for a beginning orchestra.

This is the picture we took right before the St. George Temple dedication session! Yay! My littles were able to get a special recommend and attend with us. Talon was with us too. Yay! It was a fun experience because my sister, Jeannie, was asked to sing in the choir at the dedication. Such a cool experience for her. Low key, kinda jealous. :) It was fun to look for her in the choir and the dedication was lovely! So excited to finally be able to use the St. George temple again!

Ward Christmas Party

The Relief Society was in charge of the ward party and I was in charge of putting together a live nativity of primary children.  It was a good time but I was feeling a little scrambled trying to get costumes for an entire primary worth of children. I borrowed some from Amy Werrett and also made a few more for my batch. Mikayla is actually wearing my mom's first temple dress. She gave it to me several years ago and it's been in the back of my closet because I didn't know what in the world to do with it. I finally gave it a purpose. It fit Mikayla perfectly.

 I can't believe my mother ever fit in that dress. It is so teeny! I was running around that whole night and didn't take a single picture but I took a picture of Merril and the primary activity boys setting up chairs.

 Merril took this picture of Mikayla as the angels entered. I made a manger out of some old wood and a pallet. It turned out well and it was fun to build something. The nativity was cute and I'm so glad it's over. Now I can focus on Christmas for our family!

 

Lovely Times Together!

Getting a freshly cut Christmas tree is something that I truly love. I wonder how long Merril and I will be able to do this. I assume at some point we will be too old but that day is not today!

Look at the groovy snow this year! It was so spikey! I loved taking pictures of it. So fun!

Love my boys!

Mikayla smacked me on the elbow with this stick. Made me laugh for a good bit because she got my funny bone.

Yay!

Silly me and Mikayla got it in the house!

It took a few more days but the tree was decorated with all the memories made with the people I love. Feeling grateful for the people in my life and the good times. 😍

 

Thanksgiving at Jo Anna's House!

Thanksgiving was at Jo Anna's house this year and that made it easy for Maxine! We got an Airbnb up north for a few days. Recently, my kids convinced me to get BeReal. That's been fun. :) 

Me and my girls independently picked the same color to wear today.

We went to the mall and played with the escalators on Black Friday.

 It was snowing in the parking lot of Best Buy and the most perfectly shaped snow flakes landed on us.

I've never seen snow flakes like these. 

Maxine has a friend from college and she was going to be alone for Thanksgiving. Her name is Karalee Bundy and she's from Oklahoma. I told her to make sure and invite her to vacation with our family if she didn't have Thanksgiving plans. She came! We were crazy and funny and everyone was agreeable. It was a lovely time together.

While chatting, Merril discovered that he went to high school with Karalee's dad. (Of course he did. He knows everybody!) We took this picture to send it to Karalee's dad. He responded and said he remembered Merril.

On the way home, we stopped at the Beaver Creamery. It was packed and lunch took a while but it was still fun. 

It was a great little weekend. I've really missed having all my kids home. Maxine's mission was amazing but it was hard. She grew so much and had great experiences. That being said, I have enjoyed having her within arm's reach again. Hugs all around! I love my family.💓

Baja 1000, eh 1300!

They don't look that ready but it's about time to goooooo!

These crazy boys are racing the Baja 1000 again! Merril signed up for Pro Moto Ironman and Jack is on a team with Ryan, Dillan, Shawn, and Darryl. One of Merril's old missionary companions, Shun, was in Las Vegas. Merril met up with him on his way to Mexico. The race start is in La Paz, which is way down at the bottom of the peninsula. So to start, they had to drive a lot.

They stopped at this cool old church. It's called the San Javier Mission. Wade found it and picked it out to visit.

Tacos!

They are running my little boy ragged.

There was a live stream of racers being interviewed.

They goofed off on the beach and took some pictures.

Merril and Wade got IVs on the beach the evening before the race. Uh, seems sketchy but the nurses were from the US so it's fine.

And they raced. Merril and Jack started the race together. I don't have a good picture of it.

It was super hard. This Baja 1000 was more like 1300. Merril raced as long as he could. After about 32 hours and 800 miles of racing, Merril had to drop out. He didn't feel it was safe for him anymore. He said all 4 limbs were cramping up and he didn't want to end up dead. The other team continued and finished with minutes to spare before the cutoff.

Merril hopped in a chase truck and fell asleep. He'd only had a few minutes of sleep in 32 hours. The other team finished safe and that makes me happy. When Jack was almost to a checkpoint, he crashed and blacked out a little. He said he woke up and another team member was already there. They fixed the bike a little and got it to the next team member. Glad my boys made it. I predict Merril won't have any grip strength for a month. 

This is unrelated but while the boys were gone, I wanted to see a huge flag hanging in Snow Canyon. It looks awesome! It's so much bigger than this! Mikayla was the only kid I could get to come with me. Juliet had homework. That's basically her life now.