Cousin Camp in Boulder City

We had the best New Year's Day spent with family who were visiting in Boulder City, NV, about 45 minutes southwest of where we live. My brother Devin and his wife Sarah, and their daughters Eva (2) and Sophie (3 months) are staying with Sarah's parents for the next week or so, so Saturday we headed out to spend the day with them! Lucy and Zach were in heaven playing with their little cousins-- especially Eva, and all three hit it right off!

First, Devin, Jon, me, and Sarah's sister Katie decided to do a bike ride up to Hoover Dam, which was about 15 miles away. It was a BEAUTIFUL ride with lots of downhill coasting (my favorite) and the red rocks and blue Lake Mead for scenery.

The trail goes through some old train tunnels which are really cool, the only problem was that it was FREEZING!! I couldn't feel my face or hands about 2 min. into the 30 min. ride, but we still had a good time.

Sarah and her parents met us at the end of the trail with the kids, and let us out to explore Hoover Dam for a bit. We hadn't been yet, and it was definitely impressive!!


View of the water level behind the dam, which is only 43% full-- the white band above the water is how high the water should be right now.


The new bridge that goes across the gorge is an amazing civil engineering feat, but I gotta admit, I can never look down from something like that without thinking about falling, so I was pretty glad to get the kids off!! You can see Jon hanging onto Lucy for dear life.

It was sure nice to check one more thing off our Nevada list of "Things to Do," especially since we had resident tour guides.

Afterwards we went back to Sarah's place to watch the TCU/Wisconsin football game, and Sarah's parents treated us to a delicious steak dinner. What a way to start the New Year off!! Zach and Lucy got to play a little more with the cousins and Sarah's dog Lexi. Anytime I couldn't find Zach, we just had to figure out where the dog had gone and Zachy was usually wrestling or trying to cuddle with the poor thing.

Cuddles with Little Soph!!

Lucy's turn!! This girl is super baby hungry...

Sunday morning Devin and Sarah decided to bless Sophie, so we got to attend and have Jon stand in (and yes, Harry Reid WAS there, but he did NOT stand in the circle).:) He gave a really nice blessing and it was fun to watch the CHAOS unfurl as the cousins tried to "reverently" play with each other.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Winter Fun, Las Vegas-style

Jonathan has had these last two weeks off to recharge the ol' batteries for Round 2 of Jon v. AEGD, and weeks ago he kept pestering...er, reminding me that we HAD to do a "Snow Day" during this vacation time.

Luckily with all the wet weather we've had here in the valley, Mt. Doom (aka Charleston) has been getting a TON of snow. We layered up and headed to higher ground and immediately found snow, snow, and more SNOW!!

We looked EVERYWHERE around here for a sled and couldn't find anything, so deciding to wing it we headed up there anyway. Luckily some nice people loaned us some cardboard (duh!) so we didn't have to keep using our bottoms to slide down the hill.

Rub a dub dub! Three Cardons on some cardboard! There they go!!

The kids LOVED our snow day, and everytime we slid to a stop Zachy would freak out and start crying and say, "Weee! Weeee!" and point up to the top of the mountain. He wanted to slide down again so he could yell "Weeee" some more!

Jonathan had so much fun that his reeeeally nice wife even let him go back up on a solo mission this Friday and test out his new snow shoes for a day.

A few nights later we decided to check out a place called the "Magical Forest" at Opportunity Village, which is a center for people with disabilities. It's basically several acres set up outdoors with TONS of lights, decorations, a choo choo (I asked one of the workers where the "choo choo" was, and he looked at me like I was crazy. "You mean the TRAIN?"), a carousel, and food stands with hot chocolate and other Christmas goodies for sale.

It was SUPER cold that night, but we braved the cold desert winds and the kids obviously loved the horsies on the carousel. Zachy also about had a fit over gettig to ride on the choo choo TRAIN.

All the proceeds go entirely to running Opportunity Village, so they have lots of high school aged kids volunteer and dress up. We even saw the governor of Nevada doing some publicity rounds, but he was't dressed up and this is not him in the costume.

Enjoying the beautiful lights before the freezing rain drove us home!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

Today Jonathan and I celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary! It's a momentous occassion, but then not so much when you think we've got eternity to go.:) Jonathan said to me the other night (after I asked if he thought we were still the same people after 5 years of school and 2 kids in 4 years, plus one crazy residency) and he very honestly said, "No. I think we both look worse!" Well, I had meant it in a more emotional sense, but he's probably right about that. I think we both agree though that we love each other more than we did this day, six years ago!! Now for a walk down memory lane:

The night before the wedding!

Coming out of the Boise temple, where it was windy and FREEZING!

Officially sealed for time and eternity.

Mr. (he wasn't a Dr. then) and Mrs. Cardon at the wedding lunch.

A Merry Little Christmas!

We had a really nice Christmas, and hope all who are reading this did too! As I mentioned before, this was really our first Christmas we've just spent as a family on the home front. Jon has had such bad luck flying across the country in the wintertime throughout the last few years that he made me promise we could just spend the holidays at home without the stress and expense of traveling.

Lucy and Zach patiently waited all 24 days of December for the last and final piece of the nativity: Baby Jesus! They were both so excited to open it that we had to do it twice so they each got a turn pulling him out of the pocket.

Since it is Jonathan's "year" for Christmas he got to decide what traditions we would do to celebrate, and we had hoped his parents would be able to join us from Washington, but due to some conflicts with work and other things, they weren't able to come. So, we tried to do our best at recreating their traditional "Holy Supper" which is probably Jon's all-time favorite Christmas tradition. We watched the "Nativity Story" right before so Lucy could understand better what they dressed like and where they lived and what they ate. We had a simple meal of fish, cheese, flat bread, hummus, and grape juice-- the foods Joseph and Mary would have eaten back then. It's always a really special feeling to turn out the lights and by candlelight eat dinner, sing Christmas carols, and read Matthew 2. After dinner we wrote our letters for Santa, left out some cookies and milk, and then it was off to bed (but 6+ hours of putting together toys for Jonathan)!!


Bright and early the kids woke up and we let them head downstairs to see if Santa had come. Lucy was ECSTATIC to get her Ariel talking salon, a toy dog (sorry, not a real one per her request!), Tea Cup piggies, and a princess scooter, plus lots of other fun stuff.


Zachary got his very own car to scoot around in, and a huge dump truck and lots of other fun cars and trucks and Toy Story toys.

But the pies de resistance was their new TRAMPOLINE!!! They LOVE jumping on it, and with the 60 degree weather we're enjoying, why not? It's the perfect size too-- low to the ground so they can climb on and off, it has the safety netting so they can't fall off, and it fits right under our patio so it will be shaded in the summer.

Christmas breakfast of cinnamon twists, deviled egg casserole, sausages, and hot chocolate. Jon's favorite!

Basking in the afterglow of being terribly spoiled by Santa and grandmas and grandpas. THANKS!!

I worried we would get bored Christmas day and need to go see a movie or something, but the kids played ALL day with their toys and out jumping on the tramp, and by Christmas dinner they were still happy campers.

Playing with what has ended up being Zachy's new favorite toy.:) Both these kids are desperate for a dog and I don't know how to break it to them that it aint gonna happen anytime soon....

Ready for bed in their new PJs!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE CARDONS!!

Long Lost Friends!

The holidays often bring visits from loved ones and friends, and we've just been lucky enough to receive a few of those!

After the kids and I flew in from Boise we were able to meet up with the Kellys (playing with Dixon was the only incentive worth getting on a plane and leaving Whitney behind, for Lucy), our very good friends from dental school in Philly. Calli's parents live in Henderson, so while they were visiting for Christmas we got the added bonus of seeing them too! Monday afternoon we met them for lunch and were able to catch up, and then Wednesday night they came out to our place for dinner. Lucy and Dixon had a blast playing together again, and Zach and Taylin got reacquainted. We LOVED seeing these guys!

Anybody who's lived far away from family knows what I'm talking about when I say you really depend on your friends for everything--and the Kellys are like family.

Thursday morning we drove up to Cedar City to spend the afternoon with Jon's Grandma Cardon, which is always great to see her and all the various Cardon family who drop in and out. And that evening we were able to have dinner at my Aunt Kay and Uncle Ken's house in St. George, UT, where we got to see my cousin Shonna and her husband Blake, and their baby Caleb-- who are visiting from Ohio.

Shonna is not only my cousin, but she was also my roommate in college at BYU, and one of my very best friends. I don't know what I would have done without her while in Provo! She was my "kindred spirit," and even after she graduated and moved out my new roommates and I adopted the mantra of being "Shonna Hinton nice," because she was just that likable. After a nice dinner we were able to spend the night with Jon's Grandma Del Toro who also lives in St. George. It was wonderful for the kids to get some extra attention, they loved playing with all these long lost friends, and it was wonderful to spend time with family. There's just nothing like it!!

We Got Our Sister Back!

The day we've all been anticipating, praying for, and dreaming of occurred at long last when Aunt Whitney made her way back home from Mother Russia after 18 long months!! I couldn't bear to miss out on the action, so I convinced Jon to let me fly up to Boise with the kids for a couple days to see Whitters fresh off the mish. She was originally supposed to get home Thursday evening so we'd have 3 whole days of bonding time, but after a 2 hour delay in Moscow, she only made it to Atlanta the first night and missed her connections home...

In order to take our minds off the disappointment, we decided to take the kids to "Tangled", which was AWESOME!!

Zachy ((amazingly)) sat TOTALLY still for the first 3/4 of the movie, got a little antsy towards the end, but otherwise LOVED his first move experience (even if it was a princess one).

But finally, Friday evening rolled around and almost a full 24 hours later than expected she arrived in style...

And no one even recognized her at first!! We were all frantically searching the wave of passengers exiting to baggage claim when she walked right up to my mom and was like, "Hi." Aaaaahhhhh!! Calamity ensued!!


She looked SO different with her long dark hair (it was short and blond when she left) plus walking 10 miles a day in -25 degrees with 30 lbs of winter clothing on was great for her physique.:)

The two things she wanted most when she got back on American soil were an American cheeseburger (which we checked off the list when we hit up SMASH burger on the way home from the airport),

and to play the piano. So happily both wishes came true.

Oh yeah, and to cuddle with her nieces and nephews!! Here she is making a move for MFR (most-favored relative) with Zachy who was just a few months old when she left. Taylor's antics have left him with a pretty hefty advantage, but we'll see what happens this summer when he leaves for HIS mission...

We got to spend all of Saturday hanging out, doing a sisters' lunch (+ a Luce), and attending my parents' ward Christmas party, where Lucy had her first big crush (on Hunter Manwaring, no less).

She also got to sing "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" in front of my entire ward while Whitney played, with NO hesitation. Who is this grown up girl??

Celebrating our first snow!! I don't think we'll get a chance to enjoy much of this stuff in Vegas this winter...

Zachary in his brand new 3-piece suit I found on sale at Burlington for $14.99. He is a handsome little devil, if I do say so myself!!


Zachy with his buddies Taylor and Grandpa Tom-Tom.


We had kind of a short, whirlwind trip since we had to be back by Monday, so we spent Sunday evening singing Christmas carols and looking at Christmas lights in the snow. Zachy participated by dancing atop the piano. He is one WILD little guy (and Uncle Taylor definitely does not help)!!

WE LOVE YOU WHITNEY!! I am SO incredibly proud of you, and the way you dedicated yourself 100% to your mission, and serving faithfully to the very end. You are TRULY amazing!!