Johnny & Megan

Johnny & Megan's family was visiting Megan's parents in Oro Valley. We were able to have a few pleasant encounters before we flew to Virginia and they started their long drive back to Maryland.

Saturday was a whirlwind of activity. First stop: Pancake breakfast with Santa!

Santa was much better received than the Easter bunny. 

Next stop: Madera Canyon.

Some enthusiastic rock throwers

Also hole fillers

Aaron won Catherine's affection long agon

Now he has to work on earning the adoration of the next round of nieces

Elliot oh-so-slyly poking Aaron with a stick

Don't be fooled- this rock was really huge and you all should be impressed with our climbing skills. 

And then we capped the day off with a December swim in the heated pool. Well, Annie and I watched everyone else swim. The verdict was that it was not too cold! That's a pretty awesome perk to living in the desert- swimming pretty much year round!

A few days later, the kids and I met up with the whole Mikesell family (Megan's family) at the Zoo. Unfortunately, I was completely unable to get the double stroller into my truck. Apparently you have to turn the wheels a certain way to get the whole thing to click all the way folded. Anywho, Annie was the perfect sleeping baby at the Zoo while Elliot was his normal Zoo self. Meaning he mostly wanted to drop rocks between the bars of exhibits or sit on the sidewalk. Johnny and Megan took turns helping me push the stroller with Annie so that I could lug him around until he got too grumpy and we went home early.

A rare instance of actually looking at an animal

What he mostly does at the zoo

The exception is always the elephant displays

The Mikesells invited us to dinner followed by Winterhaven Lights a few days later. I failed to get any pictures with cousins in them, but rest assured that they were there. I liked getting to have some chats as we dragged our tired kids around. 

The snow machine was a hit

SO. MANY. LIGHTS.