Happy New Year!

We try very hard to make our vacations count. Since Mara and I only had a few short days of vacation we had to work to fill up as much time as possible. We went from Kirksville to Des Moines to Kansas City and Phoenix over the last 2 weeks, and it's been a BLAST!
We had to go see Tim & Allison since we can't get enough of Cameron...:) The Peet family came with us for the 3D/4D ultrasound below and we were really glad we could share it with them. After a brief 2 days back in Kirksville we headed to KC on X-Mas Eve and stayed with Allison's brother Rob & his dog Jake. Unfortunately Linus & Lucy had to be kenneled since we were headed to Phoenix, AZ for a week. I think Jake was happier with the attention he got.
It was a chilly 5F when we left KC for Dallas, then off to Phoenix! It was actually raining in Phoenix when Greg & Nicole picked us up, but it ended up clearing away a lot of the city pollution and we had awesome vistas of the mountains! We got back to their house and started decorating cookies that they made. It was interesting to see who could come up with the most "unique" cookie. Designs included a pimp cane, a Brewer's cane, a cookie that loves Tim, a tweeker snowman, a yellow snow snowman, an Emo & Jebus gingerbread men, and several other interesting ones. Greg & Nico then made us an awesome X-Mas dinner, followed by some relaxation and catching up. Mara got to spoil their dog Abby while we were there too.
We headed out on a mission to find some apartments & daycare so we scoured the city Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. It was really productive and we have some great places in mind now. On Saturday Heather & John (Mara's Aunt & Uncle) took us to their dinner theater for a production of A Christmas Carol. It was really well done, and the food was excellent! We all went to their place on Monday night as well and had a great time catching up, meeting Jordan's fiance Kailea, and playing board games. It was an awesome time. We fell in love with their house too at the base of South Mountain! Wow...
Greg & Nico also took us to some great hiking trails in and around Phoenix. We hiked the Waterfall Trail in the White Tank Mountains, Lookout Mountain in the city, and Cave Creek Trail in Tonto National Forest just North of the city. It was completely different than our hikes in the Rockies since there were several mountain hikes in the middle of the city! It lead to some great panoramic pictures.
Hope you enjoy the pictures! We hope everyone had a great holiday week!