Week 3 Home ~ Dec 22 - 28

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 Sunday, December 22

We got up and went to Bear Paw Cafe for breakfast. Cory and I shared a meal of eggs, bacon, toast, and their breakfast home fries.  Then we took of to Cathedral Gorge State Park in Nevada. This place was awesome.  It's an hour and a half drive from St. George, north then east.  The puppies had fun running around and there were plenty of trails to explore.

 



 





 



















We stopped to eat lunch and while I was making the sandwiches, Cory got called over to take a picture of an older man.  He started talking to Cory and didn't stop for 30 minutes.  He was telling him all kinds of story's like how he won Publisher Clearing House and Sandra Bullock, Mel Gibson and Kid Rock rode up to his house on a fire truck and delivered the money to him in boxes. Another one was he was college room mates with Elon Musk and Elon implanted a device in his back that can administer his medication via Star link.  He also campaigned for Donald Trump and he gave us some coins and told us to never give them away, they are worth a lot of money. After he left, we looked them up and you can buy them on Amazon, 12 for $17!!



 

After some more exploring we headed back to St. George. Both dogs were exhausted from all the hiking. We got back to the hotel and ordered Howie's Pizza and gave the dogs a bath. Then we watched a Christmas movie, ate dinner then went to bed!

Monday, December 23

We slept in a little bit, ate breakfast, then headed to Snow Canyon. We went hiking out on the red rocks and the let the dogs run around for bit. Cory remembers going to a slot canyon in Snow Canyon when we were first married, with my family.  (We fondly gave it the nick name Swenson Crevasse) The park has changed so much over the years, we couldn't find it, but we had fun anyway!





Then we took the E-bikes out for a ride with the dogs in the back packs. Moqui fought it at first but then loved it once we were on the move!




 










Then we took the puppies to the sand dunes and went out far enough that no one was around and let them run!  I just giggle at all of the action shots of Moqui and the "action" shots of Kona! I couldn't choose just one to use, so I put them all here!


 







 




 



 



 



 

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at Poncho & Lefty's and shared an enchilada meal.  Then went and gave the puppy's another bath!


Tuesday, December 24

We woke up and took our time packing up to head home. We made it home, unpacked, and Cory took a little nap, since I slept on the way home!  We went to Katie's for Christmas eve dinner. We had smoked brisket, smoked cream cheese & crackers, chips & dip, chopped salad, rolls, and figgy pudding. We also visited Ashley Boo.  Salem Cemetery make Christmas Eve magical, all the students in town decorate bags and then the youth council puts candles in them and they line the streets with them. We miss Kaylee and Aaron. There is a house on the way to the cemetery that has HUGE Santa inflatable's...Aaron would have love them!







Wednesday, December 25

We slept in and then had a chill morning. Katie invited us over the breakfast. She made sour dough cinnamon rolls with browned butter frosting...amazing! Mat made festive water!



 


Yolanda invited us over for a late lunch/early dinner with her family.  As the front door opened we were welcomed by a cardboard Emery!  They also made smoked brisket, cheesy potatoes, bread, and I brought cheesy corn and chopped Italian salad. 





Then we played games...Cues & Hues and Hit-sters




Thursday, December 26

Kaylee and Aaron came home from Randolph today! Cory and I had a chill morning. I was getting caught up on laundry from our trip.  When I took a load out of the washer and moved it to the dryer, I noticed a baby scorpion that had hitchhiked home with us in the washer!


My mom always has her Christmas party the day after Christmas.  The family is growing...this year we had Ben's fiancé, Courtney with us and Tyler's girlfriend Isabelle.  We missed Hillary's family, but they were all up in Alaska. We order Chinese food then play some games.
 The first game, each grandkid had to unroll a wrapping paper and what ever bowl it landed next to, that is the prize they got!


 

 



Then the grandkids played Left, Right, Center. Kaylee won this year!





The last game, grandma had cups taped to the table with prizes in them and the kids took turns rolling ping pong balls into the different cups! They had fun!

 



We ended the night playing Cues & Hues!


Friday, December 27

Spend most of the day taking Christmas down! I love having the house decorated but I love having it cleaned up as well!


Matt and Amber came over and they gave us this beautiful picture! One of Matt's clients did it! I am shocked how hard it is to find pictures of Christ with black children. Here, in Lubumbashi, in our church, and the distribution center, all the pictures are of Him with white children. 


We went to R&R BBQ then came back and played games.


Saturday, December 28

For Christmas, Kaylee and Aaron gave us an experience, which I love!  We went and did a Christmas Escape room and we got out with 3 minutes to spare! Then they took us to Chom Burger. We ran into Cory's cousins Matt & Candy and Matt & Bonnie.  It was fun catching up with them!





We are trying to get in all the good food before we head back! We were supposed to go to Top Golf with Mark & Amberlee and Troy & Robyn but Troy got sick so we cancelled. We still went to dinner with the Cope's to VIA 313. So Good!!



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