Never failing, the day after Christmas, I want to go through my whole house and throw everything away. I make all sorts of lofty goals of all the things I’m going to go through and clean out. It lasts about one whole morning and then I realize that all my kids are home for break and I’m going to get little done – not to mention we had company!

So although my week after Christmas wasn’t overly productive – we really did have the best time with my brother and his family visiting.

Our kid’s took care of our friend’s mini-farm which is a bit out of our comfort zone and they totally owned it. I was pleasantly surprised with how serious they took the job and how willing they were to ride they’re bikes and scooters over two times a day. We had eggs for days!

We took the girls to the Gilbert temple.

And made a visit to the Christmas house which is just as fun after Christmas as it is before!

There were books and movies and snuggles and naps…

We went to a pre New Year’s Eve party that would rival most parties. Complete with food trucks, photo booths, bouncy house/ninja warrior. It really is the best night ever.

A week with my brother’s family is never complete without frisbee dodgeball, KTR (trampoline/ninja warrior park) and anything else that would leave us completely exhausted.

We played games every night.

We made the rounds and grabbed some favorite foods for date night.

As one last memory for the Christmas break: the older kids and dads hiked flat iron. Not an easy hike at all – we wanted to really make sure they couldn’t feel their legs when they went back home. 🙂 Steve was reluctant to bring Bennett because it is that intense, but Bennett insisted and didn’t want to be left out of the big kids. He was warned and promised he wouldn’t complain. As hard as it was – he never complained.

Steve on the other hand couldn’t stop talking about his leg pain for the next three days! They all had some great stories.

The time with them is never long enough. Briggs cried and cried as they loaded their luggage into the car and drove away. He keeps asking when he gets to go to their house. We love that they take the time to be here. It’s loud and chaotic and exhausting and yet they keep coming back!