A White Christmas

A few months ago, I made a terrible choice and let Benson hold my camera.  I was making dinner and he had been extra whiney.  I sat him on a kitchen chair and set the camera in his lap.  Within a few minutes it fell to the floor. And it was a gonner.  So all the pictures we have from our recent trip to Utah and all Christmas activities leading up to it are from Riley's phone.  I have a few on my phone I'll add later.

Luckily we got a new camera for Christmas so I'll do better on this blog.

Benson, Bennett and Elsie at the Temple Christmas lights! A fun tradition.

This is in Utah at the "tree of life" in Draper.  It was pretty neat!

Zoo lights at the Hogel Zoo

Christmas morning was VERY fun. Having a kid makes Christmas much more meaningful and magical.  His expression when he saw the "trrraaaiinnn" was priceless.

This is the only picture I got of cute Elsie Serafine :) Benson really did like her!

Chocolate Pie with Graham and Mason

These four sure know how to navigate an iPad.

Riley and I snuck away one morning and went snowshoeing up Rose Creek Canyon. It was beautiful and so fun!  We found a hidden trail to the top of a mountain that had a fabulous view of the valley. Pre-inversion.

I crocheted Hadley a snuggie!

Christmas Eve Jammies!

Riley slept out with Andrea and Kalen.  The boys didn't last too long because of the rain but somehow Andrea made it all night.

The train :)

It was a lovely Christmas! We had really begun to miss everyone and it was nice to see lots of family and friends that we hadn't seen in a while.  I don't have pictures of a many things, but here are some highlights:

-Natural Museum of Curiosity

-JDawgs with friends

-Eating at our favorite restaurants

-Visiting Matt and Taylor in the hospital and meeting Max :)

-Game nights with Kalen, Jenell and Andrea, and the Wilson's

-Serafine night of Ginger

-Snowshoeing

-Mini dates while Benson napped

-Several trips to the temple

-Benson's birthday

-Benson and Hadley dancing and Stephanie's wedding

-Seeing the Hobbit and Into the Woods

-FHE with the Brandon's

-Shopping with Mom and finding incredible deals at the Gap

HE'S TWO??

And just like that our little boy turned two. What?  I know. 

We sure love this kid.

Breakfast in bed. He was sooo thrilled.

Yellow party- yellow cake.

And for comparison's sake- here he is one year ago.

Fun Run

One day last fall we drove downtown bright and early to go for a run around the National Mall.  We started by Eastern Market (behind the Capitol Building) down to the Washington Monument and back.  We knew it was a long distance but we didn't know it was over 5 miles. Whew. That was fun :)

On our way back we stopped for a tour of the rotunda in the Capitol, I have pictures somewhere of that, but all I could find was cute Benson, who really enjoyed the fast stroller ride.

We feel very lucky that we live in a place with beautiful and historic things.  The National Mall always takes my breath away.  The views are spectacular.

Four Score and Seven Years Ago

We finally figured out the perfect day for a trip to Gettysburg. Had we realized it was 90 minutes away from our house any sooner I'm sure we would have gone. I was thinking it was a good two and a half hours.  We went on a week day, in January, and we had the whole place to ourselves. It was lovely and not too cold to get out and see things.  Our first stop was at the museum where we watched a short film about the Battle at Gettysburg.  Then onto the cyclorama- which was absolutely fascinating and I highly recommend spending time there asking a guide to show you all the neat things hidden within.  Seriously- go. 

Then we went on a driving tour of the battlefield.  It took us nearly three hours to complete but we loved it.  The CD's we purchased for the tour provided a lot of context for each stop and had some interesting human interest pieces that brought the battle and Civil War to life.  A couple of the stops had look out towers and we could see for miles- which around DC is a hard thing to come by so we soaked it in. Until we were too cold.

Benson was incredibly pleasant the entire trip.  We had a really nice time.

I had been to Gettysburg before, but I was only 6.  The only memory I have is our family standing in front of this memorial- which is dedicated to Abraham Lincoln and his Gettysburg Address.  So here, Serafine Family. A backdrop you should all recognize.