What We Did Over Christmas Break

Ryan had time off from work for the holidays, so we thought, let's go home for the holidays. And we really did, I crunched some numbers and we saw all of Ryan's four siblings, spouses and all of the cousins. We saw 7 out of 10 of my siblings and many cousins. Not to mention parents and some aunts and uncles thrown in there. We saw the whole South Western United States, (I'll save that for another post), and so much more. It was exhausting and so fun and some portions I took a bunch of pics and others, I took zero. So here are some of the things we did:

We went to Utah first to hear my niece Hannah give her Homecoming talk after serving in the Boston, Massachusetts Mission for a year and a half. She gave an excellent talk and it was so good to see her and all of Kate's "sisters" aka cousins. I bummed I didn't get a picture.

We were also excited to get to Utah to finally meet our newest niece on the Stephens side. She is so precious, such a sweet little girl and a great way to round out three brothers.

 The Stephens siblings, reunited.

Baby Emma and Uncle Ryan.

We got to meet up with some of Ryan's cousins and our kids and their kids got to play together. It was good to catch up with everyone and it was fun to see the 2nd generation of cousins play.

We went to San Diego for a two days and had some Hill time and crossed off so many food places that we miss, being so far away. I don't normally take pictures of my food, but I crave this place sometimes. So it deserves a picture.

We took the kids to the beach and it was freezing. I was so cold, but the kids absolutely loved playing in the sand and running away from waves.

Millie could throw rocks in the ocean all day.

The next day we went to a cave in La Jolla. We had never heard about it before, so we thought we'd check it out. Parking was horrible, but if you are in the area it's a fun thing to do once. The kids liked it.

When I went through the pictures of the kids in the cave, I kept thinking of the phrase "Goonies never say die." So there you have it, our little Goonies.

Also, we went to Palm Springs to see my brother and his family and just spent time between both families. 

It was busy, but I am glad we were able to spend time with everyone. Even if it was just for a little bit.