Telephoto View

I experimented a little with my telephoto lens on the back porch in Angel Fire. Here's a couple shots of the view.

Dec 26th

The day after Christmas was a pretty lazy day. Lots more games, some work at Russell's Mom's store and lots of good food. Russell had been sick and Eden and I woke up sick that day. Ugh. Rachel went out to feed one deer she saw in the morning and then all these deer came bounding out of the woods!



Camille, Willie, and the kids drove down from Colorado Springs and we hung out that night. I passed off Eden to others so I could hold Spencer!

Supposedly Rachel doesn't hold babies...but she held Eden, at least until she spit up all over her! Haha. Sorry Aunt Rachel!

Christmas Day

We all slept in on Christmas, even Eden! Once we got up and around we had a great breakfast and then opened presents. The rest of the day we just hung out, played a lot of games, and I think there was a nap involved too.

Santa forgot a reindeer at the house, but grandma loved her for him!

My cool blue corduroy elephant!

Doc getting ready for all the trash. He was in charge of handing out presents and collecting trash. He was a busy guy.

A game, a game! Thanks Rachel.

Kenneth got Capri Suns! Just kidding, there were homemade fruit roll-ups inside from Camille.

The cool hat we got for Rachel. Everyone knew about it except for her! She's going to grad school at U of U, so Russell couldn't resist.

Grandma put all the bows on Eden!

Christmas Eve

And now begins the chronicle of our Christmas trip to Angel Fire. I'm just going to do a post for each day....at least the ones we did something fun on! Here goes!

Christmas Eve we woke up early and headed to the airport to fly to Albuquerque. Eden did great on the planes, she didn't cry at all! We let her wiggle on the floor during our layover in Vegas.


Once we got to Albuquerque we drove straight up to Angel Fire (about 3 hours!) so it was quite a long day. We left our house at 6am and got to Angel Fire at about 5pm. That night we relaxed and played games. Then we read scriptures and sang several Christmas songs while Doc played the guitar. I didn't know he played the guitar, so that was fun!

Eden and Grandma.

Playing Agricola.

Meeting Grandpa.

Early Christmas

We had our own little family Christmas the Sunday before since we were leaving for New Mexico. No way was a dragging all the presents down there just to drag them back up! Saturday night we did our Christmas Eve traditions (singing carols, reading scriptures, opening jammies from grandma, and opening one present). Then Sunday we headed to church, had a nap, and then had Christmas! Here's some highlights:

Eden's cute Christmas dress.

This is where Eden spent Christmas. I can't wait till next year, she will be much more fun.

A pachyderm from Grandma and Grandpa Flanagan...she loves this one.

Eden got Daddy some Little People. Haha. That's what I used to do as a kid.
Yes! I really wanted this and the normal Worldwide Ward Cookbook and I got both! We definitely have some new things to try.

I got Russell this Sandra Boynton Alphabet book because he likes alphabet books since he is a linguist. In the book A if for Angry Aardvark, which is why he is making the face.

A baby carrier! Now we can go some places without the stroller!

And...best of all, a telephoto lens! Here's to zooming 300 meters!

Family Pictures

We took family pictures the week before Christmas. I took them with my camera. I would set up the shot, turn on the timer, and then run to get in the picture! We just went to a couple places around the neighborhood to take them. Our neighborhood is so beautiful we had lots of options. Here's a few of the shots.

This one is the best one I think.

The cool rock fountain.

And some fun ones on the slide....

And swing. Too bad this one is off center. Russell was in charge of the camera that time!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Okay...so there weren't really lions and tigers, but we did see a bear! Eden and I went to the Orange County zoo a few weeks ago with my friend Courtney and her little Ava. We had a great time even though the zoo was quite small. It was cheap and a fun afternoon out. Here's some pictures:

Eden slept the whole time. Good thing she was free!

Eden and Ava. Ava is such a Rockstar!

A Bald Eagle. That was super cool.

And...a Cougar! I was excited about the cougar.

This was our zoo warm-up. Now we have to find a time to go up to the L.A. zoo and meet Shelley and Jett there!