Our typical holidays in Arizona involve rotating houses in the Valley, but this time Dallin's parents each had different ideas for a fun week. 

For the first few days of our trip with the Samuelsons, we enjoyed a peaceful stay at their new cabin in Heber-Overgaard. Beckham and his two cousins enjoyed romping around and riding quads.  Dallin's sister Danielle planned out gorgeous and delicious meals and appetizers, and the rest of us did our best to help her put together the perfect Thanksgiving meal. 

For the second half of our trip, we joined the Urness family in Tombstone. Originally Dallin's dad, Danielle and little Maverick were scheduled to compete in the mounted shooting rodeo event, but the rodeo was cancelled last minute due to an outbreak of an equine illness. We all went to Tombstone anyway and stayed at the historic China Mary Inn.  A carriage ride, gold panning, and meals at the Big Nose Kate Saloon all made for a classic Tombstone trip.  Beckham's favorite part? Sprinting along the old boardwalk as fast as his legs could carry him. 

It wouldn't be the holiday season without various illnesses, such as Dallin having no voice above a whisper for the entire second half of the trip. A Chipotle worker thought that Dallin was deaf and recruited someone who spoke sign to try to take his order. Beckham, on the other hand, was already on antibiotics for an ear infection, and then on our last evening in Tombstone he started vomiting. He threw up again four times on our car ride back to Mesa (while stuck in stop-and-go traffic in the middle of nowhere at night) and then once or twice a day over the next three days. Thank goodness we survived the plane ride to Utah without incident. Poor Dallin finally got his voice back after we got home. 

A week after we returned from Europe, Beckham and I boarded another flight, this time to Phoenix. I had thought the flight would be a piece of cake after our international travels, but he was a lap child on a late-night flight, and our flight got stuck on the tarmac for 45 minutes after we landed. Poor bubba was fussing with exhaustion and finally fell asleep draped at a 90 degree angle over my lap.  

We celebrated Christmas Eve at the Samuelsons', Christmas morning at the Lundgreens' and Christmas afternoon at the Urness'.  This year, Beckham and I were sick for July 4, Thanksgiving and New Year's, so we were grateful to be spared for Christmas. 

When Rachel announced she and Dick were flying in from Alaska for a psychology conference, my parents also bought tickets so that we could have the whole family together (minus missionary Eric).  It was my cousin Paige's idea to celebrate Easter all together, albeit a few days late. I hosted and had a lot of fun finding fun Easter-themed appetizers and desserts to go with our traditional meal. In addition, we played an Easter egg game where everyone took turns rolling a dice to see how many eggs they got to open that round. Most eggs were stuffed with candy, but I stashed a few with small gift cards. Beckham had a massive Easter basket, thanks to the Amazon gifts from the various grandparents. Rachel gifted the babies with toy bunnies she knitted!