Christmas 2011 Part 3

 Grandma and Grandad have some new neighbors with several horses.  During our stay we visited them several times at Eliza's request.  The first time we went out to see the horses the owner came out to greet us and she was very nice.  I asked her a couple of questions and we had a little conversation about trail riding and team penning.  As we were about to leave she said I could put Eliza on one of the horses and she could walk him around a bit in the pasture.  I happily complied and plopped Eliza up on the pinto in the picture below.  Everyone else had already gone in the house so I had no one to snap a picture but it was so cute.

 These were taken a few days later.  The owner didn't come out this time.

 Cody's brother is the Head Greens Keeper at the Verde Santa Fe Golf Course in Cornville so we went and did a little golfing.....I was terrible and Cody sliced it every time.  At first I was totally annoyed because I couldn't hit the freaking ball.  I had scenes of Happy Gilmore yelling at the ball to "GO HOME!" flashing through my head.   I finally made contact with the ball a few times and it went about 50 feet.  I kind of got the whole swing-follow-through-thingy down which made me feel a little better.  Then we went to the putting green and I dominated.  For my first-ever golfing experience, it was really fun.  The best part was being childless.  Grandma so kindly watched the kids so we could go have some fun.

 In our downtime we did this puzzle...

On Thursday we took a day-trip to Payson to see my Dad and Becky.  We had a little lunch and then went sledding down a big hill on our boogie board in 80 degree weather.  There was supposed to be snow so it didn't quite work.  Oh well.

 We had a great time talking and giving gifts.  It is always nice to be with family!

 

We drove down to the Mesa for a lunch with Cody's extended family and to see cousins.  This is basically how we survived all the driving.  Eliza watched Kung Fu Panda 4 times in our week-long trip.  And she cracked up at the same spots every time.  She loves that panda!

We spent New Years' Eve with Cody's sister and her family.  Eliza loved playing with her cousins.  We stayed up late chatting and eating delicious food and then rung in the new year with a glass of sparkling cider and a smoochy-smooch.  Sorry I don't have any pictures.

Everyone was healthy, the trip went smoothly and we got to do so many fun things!  It was a perfectly delightful little vacation with a few moments of crazy.