Has anyone ever heard of the acronyms DH and DW? Since when did these become normal everyday abbreviations? (Darling Husband and Darling Wife, if you didn’t know). We have come across these acronyms a lot lately as we have been researching vacations on the internet to decide where to go for our “graduation present.” Well, DH and I decided that a cruise would be in our best interests, since we have never been on one, and we will get to use our new camera to take pictures in Alaska like this one:

Beautiful huh?

Tonight for our family night we decided to go take a tour of the Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni building on campus. I don’t know if they were doing special tours to honor his life because of his passing, or if they do them all the time, but we loved it. It is a beautiful, welcoming building that houses artifacts and mementos of his life that were special to him and that he felt compelled to donate to “his” building on campus. It was so special to experience things that were important to him, including his family, the gospel, and the education that is offered at BYU. I recommend this activity to anyone who is going to be in Provo anytime soon. Isn’t it a beautiful building?

Also, DH and I have decided that we are master pizza makers. We tried a new pizza tonight with Chicken, Alfredo and pesto sauce, and green peppers. It was so good! We can’t wait to finish it for lunch tomorrow!

Life has a way of showing you that you are not really in control after all. This Christmas has been no exception for us. My grandfather passed away 5 days before Christmas, and although we had planned on going home, sleeping late and relaxing this Christmas, we whisked off to California on Christmas afternoon to attend his funeral and to spend a few days with Grandma and the rest of the family. Christmas at my Grandparent’s house is CRAZY (we have to open gifts in 3 shifts)! No wonder Zac has to escape to the den to get a release from the sheer size of my extended family. For me it is great because it’s all I know, but for some who are welcomed into our family, it is a bit overwhelming.

After our few days in California, we went to Broken Bow for a few days with the Taylors and had another Christmas! We got Austin the coolest bouncing Zebra. We think he liked it!

And my favorite present was……

Zac got to go golfing while we were there, and I got to relax and read. This is the definition of relaxing for us. The next week, we were able to attend my cousin’s wedding in California. It was not such a beautiful day, but it was a beautiful wedding and it was nice to gather as a family again, this time under happy circumstances. HOWEVER, the flight created a new experience for me that I have never had before. We were supposed to fly into Long Beach airport, but since the winds were too strong, they had to divert our plane. We ended up landing in Palm Springs, and taking a chartered BUS two hours to Long Beach airport. Thus, we missed the rehearsal dinner, and got into town 4 hours late. We were so mad. I would put up a picture of Zac’s mad face, but I think he’d be embarrassed. Nevertheless, we got there safely and got to take part in the celebration the next day. Thank you family for making this Christmas break so fun and for making us doubly excited to come back to Texas!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written on this thing, but it has been the busiest 3 weeks EVER, so as soon as I have my pictures uploaded to my computer, I will make a picture blog of our recent activities. Keep checking back!