Ringing in 2006

Wow, such a fun and exciting Christmas and New Year's, I hardly know where to begin! First of all, we hope you all had a great holiday as well, and we wish you all the greatest for 2006.

Jon and I actually stayed in Queen Creek for Christmas this year and celebrated the day with Cary and Warren and their girls. We enjoyed a great choir performance directed by our musically-talented Cary at her church building, went back to the Brown's home for cinnamon rolls and orange rolls (special request--i.e. requirement--of Jon) and later had a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings at our home. It was my first year doing a turkey with stuffing, and I have to admit I thought it came out great, as did my homemade rolls. I'm all set now for next Thanksgiving!

Our real vacation started the day after Christmas, however. Jon had the two weeks following Christmas off, so we left for a 10-day trip that included 5 days in Las Vegas and 5 days in St. George with Mom and Dad Coombs. In Vegas, we got to stay at our time share, the Cancun Resort, for the first time and it was absolutely beautiful. It will be an even more fun place to visit during the summer when it will be warm enough to enjoy the huge pool and waterslides. Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately), Jon has an almost allergic reaction to the Strip in Las Vegas, so out of our 5 days there, we probably spent maybe 4 hours on the Strip, but we actually found lots of fun things to do away from Sin Central, including touring the Ethel M.'s chocolate factory and seeing their cactus garden all decked out with holiday lights, visiting an old western village complete with a melodrama and other productions and a petting zoo, and catching up on a couple of movies that we had been wanting to see. (King Kong was really good, but Chronicles of Narnia was exceptional.) What made the Vegas experience really nice, however, was that Mom and Dad Coombs and Crystal kindly offered to keep Aaron for 2 days while Jon and I enjoyed some much desired time alone. We dropped Aaron off on Wednesday afternoon in St. George, drove back to LV for 2 days, and then headed back to St. George Friday afternoon. This was the first time Jon and I had left Aaron for longer than half a day since he was born, and although we both had been looking forward to the time alone, I have to admit, it was harder than I thought it would be! I cried for almost 20 minutes after we left, and I missed him the whole time. Okay, maybe I am a little extra hormonal because of being pregnant and all, but both Jon and I were excited to see our cute boy when we got back to St. George. On the flip side, Aaron did just fine without us and charmed Grandma and Grandpa just like I knew he would.

The rest of our vacation in St. George was a blast, too. We didn't really do anything extra special, but just hanging out with Mom, Dad, Crystal and Kekoa was the best we could have asked for. We played lots of games, went for a beautiful hike over red rocks, looked at a couple of nice homes in the St. George area (for future reference, of course), and ate Mom's really good food. Jon and I also got to see the new Joseph Smith movie playing at the Temple Visitor Centers, and it was wonderful. Of course, it made me cry (again, I am pregnant), but I was comforted by the fact that most people in the room were also crying. Overall, the time at Mom and Dad's was wonderful and relaxing--we didn't want to leave.

Jon and I reluctantly returned home on Wednesday, January 4th, but it was fun coming home and having our new neighbors, the Roses, all moved in down the street! Cary and Warren hosted a big gathering of the old Las Campanas group on Friday night, and it was just like old times--only with bigger homes and more kids! We're totally looking forward to all the fun we'll be having together over this next year.

In other news, we also came home to a message from the Stake Executive Secretary asking to visit with Jon and his lovely wife. Right then, we knew Jon was in for a new calling, and we both started crossing our fingers and hoping it wasn't Elder's Quorum President. Well, Jon did get a new calling--he is the second counselor in the Elder's Quorum Presidency, so I guess our silent prayers were answered. He'll be a great member of the presidency and it doesn't surprise me at all that he's been called to serve. Jon is looking forward to getting to know all the men in Elder's Quorum better and working with the other members of the presidency, all of whom he loves and respects a great deal.

Well, Jon headed back to work today, and I settled back into my routine being Aaron's mom. Sadly the decorations are now all down and put away, and we still have over 350 days before we'll have another Christmas to enjoy, but until then, we have many fun and exciting events to look forward to, including Jon's 30th birthday on January 20th! We hope you all had a great holiday season, and may all your New Year's Resolutions hold true! We love you all!