Cousin Chaos

If you ask Luke and Ruby their favorite part of Christmas vacation, without a doubt they will say "playing with cousins".  They are lucky to have so many cousins that are all close to their age and fortunately, most live super close to us.  We don't get to see Roman and Sadie nearly enough so when they decided to come for the holidays, we took advantage and got all of the kids together as much as we possibly could.   I think they all ended up having way too much fun together.

Craig and the kids flew here and got in super late, so they came straight to our house to crash.  Luke and Ruby were so excited to have them here for a sleepover and could hardly wait for them to wake up.  As soon as all of the kids were awake the fun started and didn't stop for the next several days.  Luke and Ruby showed off their Christmas presents and then we just let them play together for awhile before gathering everyone up to go bowling.  We formed two teams, the kids vs. the adults (we recruited Brycen to our team) and had a great time helping everyone learn and cheering on the cousins.  I failed to keep track of the official score, but I can tell you the kids were the big winners.

  

After bowling, we grabbed some lunch and then packed everything up to head to Santaquin.  It has been a good snow year so far and the kids wanted to go sledding.  By the time we got there it was later in the afternoon so we decided to just let everyone get pulled around the back yard with the four wheelers.  It was really cold, and the snow was super powdery and constantly blowing everyone in their faces, but the kids stayed out until it was dark and even then had to be convinced to come inside.

The girls had a great time just playing in the snow

These boys were maniacs on the sleds

Ruby constantly begged to go faster

I ended up joining the fun

The kids were impressed that I knew how to drive

Over the next several days we spent a lot of time in Santaquin.  I think we may have gotten close to wearing out our welcome, but Grandpa and Grandma always seemed ready with hot chocolate, food, and space for the kids to play together.

Gracie was completely spoiled with all of the attention

The boys bonded over video games

And everyone got in on the wrestling

And everyone bonded over grandpa's hot chocolate spoons

On New Years Eve we somehow ended up back in Santaquin with a few new sleds and all of our gear for the snow.  This time everyone loaded up in trucks and on the fourwheelers to go up Pole Canyon.  There was a ton a fresh snow and the sun was shining so the conditions were pretty much perfect.  The hills were big enough that the adults even got in on the action.  I wasn't at my best (thank you gum grafts) so I was on official photo duty but loved the chance to be together with family.

This one is ready to shred

The tubes were terrifying but the kids loved them

Swollen face selfie

The best boys

At least someone was willing to pose for a photo...

Jarin took his machine duties very seriously

I think this was right before Ada launched over a huge hill

It was a tough climb up the hill

One of Luke's wild runs

Plenty of snow in the face

The little girls found their own little hill

Ruby wasn't happy that no one followed her orders

I kinda love her adventurous spirit

Luke finally got cold and decided he was ready to go home

We didn't have any specific New Year's Eve plans, but had intended to go back to Provo to celebrate.  Instead, we ended up staying in Santaquin the rest of the night.  Roman and Sadie were leaving the next morning and we couldn't bring ourselves to separate the kids any sooner than necessary.  We didn't end up with any grand plans or activities, but mostly just hung out and watched the kids play.  At about 9:00 p.m. we watched a New Year's countdown and then finally said our goodbyes.  Luckily, we get to see the local cousins often, and the kids are already making plan to go to Arizona so that made leaving each other a little bit easier.

Happy New Years!

Thanks for the fun memories!