Our Christmas Story

So I thought I'd post a short entry about our Christmas this year. Adam had to work for a few hours on Christmas Day, so we ended up sticking around here for the holidays. On Christmas Eve we both got off work around 1p.m., so we were able to enjoy some time together during daylight hours. That evening, we had a fun dinner and then went to see some Christmas lights (although I had to drag Adam into the car to come with me - he's not a fan of Christmas lights-observing like I am). I know he secretly enjoyed listening to me talk about what kinds of lights were my most/least favorites. Although, Heidi seemed more interested in the lights than he did. That evening, we decided to go ahead and open our gifts since Adam was going to have to work the next morning. Here's Adam with "the only thing I want for Christmas for the rest of my life:" I love the Willow Tree angels, and Adam's mom and my mom both got me one! I was very pleased indeed:One of my gifts from my dad certainly came in handy too:Christmas Day was very relaxing and enjoyable. We had some very delicious food together at the dining facility on base after Adam was done greeting the distinguished visitors that served lunch. It really was very good - I was impressed. It even made the front page of the Rapid City Journal and was covered by the news! That evening we had another yummy meal with some friends from church. All in all, we had a low-key, enjoyable holiday full of good food and good friends.

I'm so thankful that Heavenly Father sent his son to this earth so that we can return to live with Him again someday. The gifts and food are nice, but they are only reminders of how much Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have given us. I hope that we can keep the spirit of Christ in our hearts all year.

I have to end with a video of Heidi playing with one of her Christmas presents. She's so talented...

Merry Christmas!

4 Years and Counting!

On December 18th, Adam and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary! It's hard to believe that it's been 4 years already. We did what we usually do for anniversaries, and instead of getting each other gifts, we went somewhere fun together. This year we went to Hot Springs, SD, which is about an hour south of Rapid City. Our neighbor Lani checked on Heidi for us for the two days we were gone. Thank you, Lani! We decided on Hot Springs because a few weeks ago, Adam won a $50 Shell gas card playing McDonald's Monopoly online. Come to find out, the closest Shell station was in Hot Springs! Well, my car doesn't use $50 in gas, so luckily for us, the gas card was good for anything in the convenience store too! You'd be surprised how much fun it was to go on a shopping spree at the Shell gas station. haha. That's where we ended up eating lunch once we arrived in Hot Springs last Thursday. Here is a picture of us with some of our goods: We took a little tour of the town (very little tour - considering it's a very little town) after relaxing at the hotel for a little bit. It was really cool to see the naturally warm water flowing through Hot Springs (although it was very cold outside!).

That evening we went to Evan's Plunge, an indoor waterpark made from a natural Hot Spring. The water is always 87 degrees, and the bottom of the pool is covered in smooth stones. It was a pretty cool place. They have an outdoor area too, but it was closed (for obvious reasons).

My favorite part of Evan's Plunge was the fast slide. It was really short, but fun. That evening we had a yummy dinner of chicken-fried steak at a local restaurant. I told the host/owner/server that it was our anniversary, to which he responded that it was he and his wife's anniversary too! He was so nice and gave us a complimentary slice of raspberry cheesecake for dessert : ) YUM! The next day we visited the Mammoth Site in town. The Mammoth Site is the world's largest mammoth research facility. It is also an active dig site for mammoth bones. Thousands of years ago, mammoths kept coming to drink from a hot spring and would fall in. Because the rock around the water was so slick, they wouldn't be able to get out of the hot spring and would die. As a result, the small area of land, which was once this hot spring, is full of mammoth remains, along with some other animal bones. I found it quite humorous that so far, all of the mammoths they have found have all been boys - mostly adolescent boys. That's all I'll say about that...

One of the advantages of being married in the winter is that it's the off-season for most touristy places, so we get to celebrate our anniversaries without the big crowds around. We even got our own private tour of the mammoth site! When we went downstairs to check out the laboratory through the glass windows, one of the workers came out and offered to show us around inside! I felt like I was behind the scenes on Reading Rainbow!

After the Mammoth Site Museum, we went to Wind Cave National Park, which was on our way home. It was pretty exciting to see a bunch of prairie dogs everywhere! I was most excited to see a wild coyote:

We toured part of the Wind Cave, which is the 4th largest mapped cave in the world. However, the tour guide told us that it is estimated that only 5% of the cave has been mapped! Here are some of my favorite pictures inside the cave, including calcite crystals, boxwork, and the temple room. And again, we got our own private tour of the cave. Woot woot!

The last picture is of the natural entrance to the cave. It's barely large enough to squeeze yourself through, so there's an elevator about 300 feet away to take you down into the cave. The cave was discovered by Native Americans who noticed that the hole had wind blowing out of it. It's interesting because the cave "breathes." Sometimes air is being sucked into the hole, and other times wind blows out of it (depending on air pressure).

We drove through the rest of the park and up through Custer State Park on our way home. In Custer State Park we came across some wild donkeys on the side of the road. There were about 8 of them! They got me in the Christmas spirit. haha.

We ended up having a very fun anniversary with some sweet, special moments shared. I love being married to my best friend!