2022-12 December in Utah

 Dean and I flew into Utah, planning to stay until sometime in March. 

 We shut down our Commerce house for the winter, and flew to Utah on December 1st.

Friday, December 2nd, we took our turn staying at Bob and Mary's house, but first we stopped by the Festival of Trees.  Our friends son, Eli, had a tree made in his honor, and we needed to stop by and see the tree.  We also saw our friends, (Eli's cousins and aunts and uncles) at the festival.

Then off to Bob and Mary's  

I had to leave Bob and Mary's early Saturday morning, because that day there was a bridal shower at my house for my niece Savanah.  I still had my fall decorations up from before we went to Michigan.

So down came Halloween and Thanksgiving, and up went a little bit of Christmas!  Then act like I have everything under control and enjoy getting together with family on the Jenson side.

After the bridal shower it was time to decorate for Christmas!  I was looking forward to it this year, since last year we didn't even put up a tree because we were busy with Caitlyn and James' wedding celebrations.

I had help from Lucy decorating for Christmas, which made it magical!

Help from Deaner made it magical too!

James and Caitlyn were in town and we got to celebrate Braden's and Jesus' birthdays with them.

Always sad to say goodbye.

Every year we attend the Special Needs Mutual Nativity performance.

Some of my most favorite people in the world are there!

There were lots of cookies made during December!

As a family, we decided to all watch the same Christmas shoes on agreed upon evenings.  It kind of made it feel like we were all less than 2000 apart from each other.

Dean participated in the Stake Christmas Choir.  Love listening to Christmas music.

Me and my mom.

Ej and Lucy

Livy showing off her new beanie

Matching beanies for everyone!

Walter, Dex, Mike and Miles acting out "5 golden rings" at a church Christmas party.

Black Toenail Friday Half Marathon and 7.5 miler 11-25-2022

 It's been a while since we have run a race.  Back in September Braden ran a half marathon.  He inspired us to start running again.  So we signed up for a race in Michigan, the day after Thanksgiving.  We opted to run the 7.5 miler.  It was a trail run, and for me, those are much harder.  It hard to pass people because of a narrow trail, and you have to watch your step, where as running on asphalt you can kind of zone out.

One odd thing about this race, besides it being on a Friday, was that the start time was 11:00 am.  That meant that all our pre-race routines wouldn't work.  We would need to eat a meal before the race, but not have our stomachs full.  It was just a little different than we are used to.

It was a fun race, felt good to finish.  Talked to people along the route, enjoyed some beautiful scenery.

  It always feels so good when you finish a race, and look back and say "I did it".

This has to be the ugliest race shirt we have had.