Christmas and Catching Up!

Christmas holidays at our house were especially fun this year. We were so happy to have Rio and Lillian and their 3 girls come for the holidays. We usually don't see family at Christmas so this was a special treat. Mostly we hung out around the house while the kids rode bikes enjoying the perfect weather and great food! Rio and Lillian also looked at a number of extra large homes to invest in!



This pinata needs to become a yearly tradition. The girls had so much fun on Christmas eve with this.


We didn't take alot of pictures on Christmas morning I guess cause we were having too much fun. Sierra and Maysa got brand new bikes from Santa and Elena got a stack of Beverly Cleary books she hasn't read yet. Between the 6 girls, I think there were at least 15 or more brand new webkinz that were opened that morning.


They went to visit the ruins. It is such a nice little trip in the winter.


Dan gave the girls rides on the motorbike alot. Do I even need to mention how much they loved it, or is it totally obvious.



We also took some time to go sledding in Flagstaff at Wing mountain. We stayed overnight in a hotel and spent the next day sledding. Maysa keeps begging to go back to "the snowy place". It was really so much fun.








I have lived in Canada my whole life (up until 2 years ago) and I have never ever seen better sledding than here at Wing mountain. There were bathrooms, a concession stand with hot chocolate and treats, and a bonfire area. Not to mention absolutley perfect hills for sledding with really great steps in the middle to climb back up the hill. I think this is our new sledding place, its much better than Mt. Lemmon.


To make a wonderful long story short, this was by far my best Christmas gift. I bought this antique violin at a pawn shop for 75 dollars a year ago. A friend luthier fixed it up for me. This year on Dec. 26th he finally called and said "your fiddle's ready, come get it". I was dying with excitement. He fixed it up and without going into great detail, he did about 900 dollars worth of work and only charged me 100, and he threw in a brand new case. It plays like gold, its very sweet, kind of soft but it has that deep rich mellow antique sound that I've been craving for the past 5 years. Anyway, its my new baby, I can't get enough of it.

Veterans Day Concert

Last night the Golden Corridor orchestra that I play 2nd violin for, held a concert to honor the Veterans. Last year's concert was about 4 times bigger, probably because we were in a much bigger hall. This year was small but still very fun. We played 7 different songs and Dan was so sweet to stand and video all of them for me. Including 4 songs from the youth orchestra. I am going to post my 2 favorite numbers from last night. Take a minute to watch, you won't regret it!





O, America you’re calling,
I can hear you calling me:
You are calling me to be true to thee,
True to thee… I will be.

O, America no weeping,
Let me heal your wounded heart:
I will keep you in my keeping,
Till there be… a new start.

And I will answer you, and I will take your hand,
And lead you… to the sun:
And I will stand by you…do all that I can do,
And we will be… as one.

O, America I hear you,
From your prairies to the sea,
From your mountains grand, and all through this land,
You are beautiful to me.

And… O, America you’re calling,
I can hear you calling me:
You are calling me to be true to thee,
True to thee… I will be.

And I will answer you, and I will take your hand,
And lead you… to the sun:
And I will stand by you… do all that I can do,
And we will be…as one.

O, America you’re calling…
I will ever answer thee.
The fact that William Joseph wrote the music does not suprise me. This is one of the most American heartfelt lyrics I've ever heard. They are truly touching. Brad Kepler the soloist often sings for us, we are lucky to have him.




We played this tribute for the armed forces veterans. Airforce, marine, coastguard, army and navy.

Cindy's Wedding

Cindy is Dan's youngest sibling. She had the faiytale wedding she always dreamed of, and now they are off in Paris, France enjoying Disneyland and the Eiffel tower. They are such a cute couple.


Can you believe that I only snapped one picture of the bride and groom and they weren't even POSING! I'm going to have to steal a better picture from someone.

Dan and Maysa just danced it up at the reception that night, it was very cute.

The purple girls were all the older girl cousins, aren't they so sweet. They really loved being together and hanging out.


These were the flower girls with the white and yellow dresses. They LOVED being flower girls and throwing flowers out of their baskets, even when they weren't supposed to.








Dan, his brothers, Dad and Grandpa. Aren't they a great lookin group.
SO there you have it. I wish that I took way more pictures, but we were having too much fun visiting and playing with cousins and family we barely ever get to see. Dan has 7 brothers and sisters, they were all there. I will post a better picture soon.

Trip to Canada

We had a really great time in Vancouver B.C during spring break. Mostly we visited family. We also visited Glen Canyon park, Crescent Beach and White Rock Beach. We had 2 Canadian thanksgiving dinners while we were there, it was fun.





These 3 pictures were taken at white rock beach. It was sort of a chilly day, the sea wind gave me a bit of a headache. But it was beautiful, the beach is such a novelty to those that abide in Arizona.

Fun hottubbing at Dan's sister Lillian's house. Dan's little brother and wife Viviana were there as well.

Maysa playing with cousin Fynlee.


Glen Canyon park....

... and Suspension bridge...

lots of fun with cousin Leah.