For the first time since we've been married, we spent our entire Christmas holiday in Idaho with the Merricks.  We had a great time!  We arrived a few days before Christmas and spent those days in Boise with Zach, Rochelle and the cutest twins on the planet.  Highlights of those first few days include:

• Dinner with Lee's cousin Dennis and his wife.
• A couple of hours with Lani, Kyle and Jack before they flew to Ohio
• Decorating gingerbread houses with Max and Miles (pretty sure more candy made it into their mouths than onto the houses)
• Cuddles and kisses from the affectionate Max and Miles (loved them. Despite the residuals colds we're still suffering from)
• Max and Miles opening and playing with their birthday and Christmas presents (they loved Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and their combine)
• Family outing to Frozen.  Uncle Lee promised the twins popcorn, and I'm pretty sure the refillable large popcorn was the only reason they made it through the entire movie.  
• Family trip to Winter Garden A-Glow at the Botanical Gardens. Gorgeous lights and a train that mesmerized the twins.

Christmas Eve morning we left Boise and drove out to Bruneau to visit both sets of grandparents.  We enjoyed lunch with the Steiners and an afternoon with the Merricks.  They are all so cute and we wish we could have spent more time with them.  From Bruneau we drove to Twin Falls where we spent the next three nights with the remainder of the Merrick clan.  Bryce and Elaine hosted Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner.  They always go to so much work to host the entire family.  We are very grateful for that!  

Lee's spent much of this fall scanning negatives from pictures his parents took when he and his siblings were growing up.  He surprised them all with access to them on our website - and we spent some fun nights looking at the pictures and hearing stories from everyone. 

Zach, Rochelle and the boys came over on Thursday and Lee and I put together dinner for everyone at Lee's mom's house.  It's rare that we're all together and it was great that everyone was willing to meet up.  The kids got new games for Christmas and we spent a fair amount of time enjoying them while we were there.  My personal favorite game moment was when Eli (age 7) in all seriousness teaching the twins (just turned 3) how to play Enchanted Forest. 

Bowling at Scheel's Friday we totally mixed things up and the family (with the exception of Connor, Whitney and Bryce) all headed to Salt Lake for the night.  We got a hotel and had a really fun 24 hours.  We spent time at the Church History museum, played in the 24 hour pool, entertained ourselves well at Scheel's with the bowling, mo nster trucks,  aquarium and play structure while Rochelle and Karlette shopped to their hearts content at Ikea.  

But the highlight of it all was the trip to Temple Square on Friday night to see the lights.  It's been ages since either of us had been there at Christmas, and never together.  It was absolutely beautiful.    I gave Lee a pretty incredible new camera for Christmas and he had lots of fun taking pictures of the lights at 25K ISO!   At one point his brother Cole asked Lee to take a picture of him and his girlfriend, which he did, and then he got down on one knee and proposed! So exciting!  We had hoped for that all of 2013 and it finally happened, and we got to be there for it.  So awesome!  We're super excited for Aubrey to officially join the family!

We had a wonderful week with the Merricks and were sad to say goodbye to them Saturday afternoon when they returned to Idaho.  We decided to stay the night and visit with a few friends (the Browns, Lori Jo & BJ and Laura) before driving home to California on Sunday.  Things worked out perfectly and we can't wait to go back to Idaho (hopefully soon) for the wedding!

Pictures of the engaged couple are here (password is Cole's full initials).

Pictures of the entire week are here (password is our usual)

Scenic pictures of temple square are here (password is our usual)