Post New Year's Blues

Now that Christmas break is over this is what it's come to: A big case of insomnia. Ethan spent the two weeks of Christmas break staying up way too late and sleeping in way too long, and now he's all out of whack. It took him 3 hours to fall asleep the other night. Two hours last night. And so far, as I'm writing this we're at about an hour. I caught Chad and Ethan reading together last night in efforts to get him to sleep. It worked!... two hours later.

Here goes the history of how he became an insomniac. We spent Christmas in California with Chad's fam. It was a smorgasbord of fun, eating, playing games, Christmas shopping, more eating, opening gifts, seeing friends, playing with cousins, late nights and more!

He was quite happy with his spoils this year, although at one point he did question why Santa dare not give him an Xbox like he had asked for. Guess what? Its all about teaching Ethan the true meaning of Christmas next year. I'm open to any suggestions on how to effectively do that.

One of the days we were there me, Chad, and Chad's brother took a 10 mile hike near the ocean not too far from San Francisco. Chad and his brothers have been doing this hike the last few times we've come to visit. This time I made sure to invite myself. I'm glad I did. It was gorgeous.
We ended up here on a small cliff where this waterfall dropped onto the beach. It was way cool.
Family picture time.We then headed home and experienced a whirlwind of activities since my nephew was home from his mission and my brother Ben and his family were in town. All I know is that it was a week of REALLY late nights, games, tons of cousin time, sledding and of course food! What would the holidays be like without being totally glutenous. Not fun. I'll tell you that much. The only picture I took all week is this one, taken at the church during our family volleyball game.
Sisters in law Melissa, Kathy and Tasha and sister Courtney.

We did squeeze in a little friends time too. Here's Ethan and his buddy Logan with whom we also spent News Year's Eve. We even had a little slumber party to boot. Thanks Justin and Lori! Fun times!