Outer banks, North Carolina

About 4 months ago, we decided it would be fun to get as much family as possible to rent out a beach house during off season in OBX. 3 sisters of mine and their families were able to come for a week of FUN! It was warm the 1st half of the week and cold the 2nd. We spent a lot of time in the hot tub! Three of the men ran to the ocean, jumped in and then ran back to the hot tub. Just a little crazy.

While in outer banks, the twins turned one! We celebrated their birthdays with cake, ice cream, presents and lots of cousins.

We went to the Bodie Lighthouse, but found that it was being fully renovated in hopes that they could allow people to go up it in the future.

We still got a family picture in front of it.

We spent a fun afternoon at the Sand dunes there. We had a lot of fun catching action pictures of us jumping off the hills.

The boys

The girls

Maelie and her cousin Laura jumped together and got some good air.

Sterling is our little wanderer. If we didn't realize he was missing when we did, he would've been long gone. He has no fear and would've kept going as long as he could.

We saw the Wright Brothers museum and monument for our 3rd time. We were able to get nice family pictures this time.

We spent the evenings playing games and watching movies. It was tons of fun and we decided that somehow, we have to make it an annual tradition even if it is somewhere on the west coast.

Arizona visitors

On January 13th Kristen flew in with her family. On Thursday we went to NYC.
We parked at Staten Island and rode the ferry into the city.We rode the Subway many times.

After seeing some sights, we ended up at times square. It is neat to see at night because of all the lights. It was very cold, but we still had a good time!

On Friday we went sightseeing around Philadelphia (the Liberty Bell, Independence hall, the Reading Terminal). It was Gary's first time on the East Coast.

The Big 3-0

On January 9th, Denver turned 30! He had to pop 30 balloons (without using his hands and without using sharg objects) to find 30 things we love about him. Then he had to go on a scavenger hunt with 30 clues to find his presents. We celebrated with cake and ice cream. He's handling 30 really well!

funny Philly lingo

One thing we learned from living in Philadelphia is the lingo. If you say, I haven't seen you in a minute, it means I haven't seen you in a really long time. Well, one of Denver's patients (an older man) came in and Denver asked him when was the last time he went to the dentist. His patient said, "it's been a minute". Now if we had only lived here for a few months, imagine the confusion!

The month of December

December came and went before I could catch a breath. Here is a little bit of our doings in December. From the last of the month to the first. (that is how the pictures uploaded so I went with it.)
Dec. 31: Ring in the New Year at the Griffitts playing wii supermario bros. 3 with 4 people. It was crazy fun!
Dec. 29-30 DC temple
the night of the 29th we went to the DC temple to see the lights. It was beautiful. We went to a session on the 30th. It was a good way to end the month of December.

December 28-29: Gettysburg.

We did an auto tour (it was freezing outside so that was our best option) and loved it. We learned alot and saw a lot of the monuments in the park.

On top of an observation tower:

A monument for the soldiers from Pennsylvania

This valley is known as the Valley of Death. Many were killed on these grounds.

This is a picture a cannon shot. Many homes were hit with bullets and cannons.

Pictures of many who died at Gettysburg.

Robert E. Lee surrendering nearly 2 years after the battle of Gettysburg was fought.

Dec. 25th: Christmas morning started with a fun-filled time of opening presents, followed by our tradition of grits, eggs, bacon, and OJ for breakfast. The rest of the day was spent playing with our new toys.

Dec. 24th: Christmas eve. We started our Christmas Eve with a nice dinner and then a reenactment of the nativity story with the Griffits. Garrett was Joseph, Abby was Mary, Colson was baby Jesus, Emma was a shepherd, Maelie was the angel and Sterling and Kyle were audience members.

After that, the kids opened one present, PJs! Then we all loaded into the car and looked at Christmas lights.

Dec. 18th: Huge snowstorm. The Philadelphia Airport recorded 19inches and a neighbor measured the snowfall in our area and said it was 22 inches. We didn't make it to church the next day. That Monday, school was cancelled because of the snow and the kids went outside to play!

Sometime mid December: gingerbread houses.

Dec. 12th: Ward Christmas party. SANTA CLAUS!

Dec. 8th: 3 weeks post surgery picture.

Dec. 6th: Colson's baby blessing day.

Grandpa and Grandma Palmer with the kiddos.

Dec. 4th: Senior party. Our year in school got together and had a very fun party. I didn't get many pictures, unfortunately. Here Garrett is trying to break the snowman pinata.

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