Post-Christmas Time With Family...

The day after Christmas, we left for a post-Christmas trip to visit our families.

The first few days were spent in Utah where we were busy with 2 baby blessings, family dinners, wedding festivities, present opening, a birthday celebration, family pictures, a bit of snowmobiling, a movie, a bridal shower, late night talking... and we squeezed in a bit of house hunting between things. Whew!

Only a few pictures exist (on our camera, at least). Shameful.

Here, Bekah and Abby are opening presents from Hannah. We rotate names in Paul's family for gift-giving, and this year Hannah was so thoughtful in her gifts to us.


In addition to the super-cute wall plaque she hand-made for our home, she completely outfitted the kiddos in official BYU attire. They are probably the best-used presents from Christmas. Michael didn't take his off most of the rest of the trip, and Abby and Bekah give them equal time with their princess dresses (which is a LOT of wearing...).


Because she knows some of the basketball players, she even took Michael's jersey and got two of them to sign it. Wow! She sure knows how to make him feel special! Thanks again, Hannah!!

Paul's dad took the time to rev up the ol' snowmobile in the back field for a little adventure for the grandkids. Thanks again, Grandpappy!





After a few Frandsen days, we headed for Oregon for some much-awaited Risenmay time.

Adventure followed us a little too closely, and somewhere between Abby's throwing up and Ella's dirty diapers, a piece of metal found its way into our back tire somewhere in the middle of nowhere in 20 degree weather. Paul renewed his Hero status for another decade by changing the tire while I entertained kids, nursed Ella, held the barf bowl for Abby 4+ times, changed a diaper, and spent some useless phone time with AAA trying to find a place to fix the tire. Our 6-hour trip turned into an overnight stay in Burley Idaho, and we were on the road again once the tire was fixed in the morning.

Sweet kiddos...

Michael, the good sport, as we had to squeeze the luggage around him to make room for the tire...



Our conquering hero...


Our overnight adventure was actually pretty enjoyable, but we were glad to get the tire fixed early the next morning. We hit the road again and arrived safely in Oregon and the kiddos were off and running with their cousins, Brinlee and Max. Oh, the Uncles and Paul off and ran for some b-ball and there was a hunting expidition or two. There was movie-watching, present opening, a New Year's celebration (with a home-made balloon drop), our traditional New Year's Cafe Rio feast, and of course... The Great Dalmuti.

But somehow, the only thing I got pictures of was our afternoon in the snow. Don't scoff at our California kiddos and their scrounged-up "snow-gear." Thanks, Angela, for lending us some of your left-overs. Something tells me we'll have to budget for some warmer clothes next winter.


But these kiddos sure enjoyed some time in the snow. Our biggest snow-lover was Bekah. She stayed out the whole time, mostly playing with Max.


They ate snow for the longest time, and would exclaim "EEW!" and do it again and again.




There were cute snow angels...


... and lots of snowballs.


Matt and Marc spearheaded the building of a snowman with the kiddos...


It turned out to be pretty cute. And Bekah soon discovered that he was edible, too!




Then all the boys joined their efforts to make a snow... creature. Here is the base...


It was taller than them all...


...very wide-mouthed,


and a little... disturbing. (Notice he even has a uvula... such attention to detail...)


They ended up giving him a beard, and Brinlee thought it was supposed to be AJ. No offense to AJ was meant, I'm sure.

Thanks, mom and dad, for a wonderful few days!

But time went by too fast, and we were on the road once again. A quick night's stop at Paul's family's house got us rested up and fully packed for our trip home.

Now we are left with renewed family bonds, wonderful memories, and some great presents as we start off a new year. We were so happy to spend at least a little bit of time with our parents and each of our brothers and sisters. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful families. We only wish the gap between you and California wasn't as big.

Thanks, everyone, for a great trip!