A Very Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. Rather than do a letter in every Christmas card with all our "info", thought a blog with our family would be more interesting.
This is such a wonderful time of year. We have snow covering the ground outside and it is very cold but it all lends itself to a special Christmas spirit.
We are enjoying all of the festivities there are to do this time of year. Our family, along with most the Stewart clan, headed to the mall last night to see Santa. With a very reluctant Maddie we had the kids picture taken with Santa.
We wish all of you the most wonderful holiday. Hope you will be able to enjoy yourselves. Relax and remember what it is really all about.
I am thinking let's go "Madonna" and not give gifts anymore. ( But mom and dad don't get any ideas, if you already bought them, just go ahead and mail those babies.)
It is the thing that adds to the crazy, hecticness to the season. Unfortunately, the kids have come to expect them. :)
Wish we could see all of you and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate and sit around the fire. (Well if my fireplace would ever get finished that is..)
A very wonderful holiday to all of you..
The Stewarts

Costa Rica

We headed to Costa Rica on Nov. 10th to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa Stewart. We left Salt Lake at 9 pm and arrived in Costa Rica the next morning at 7 am. It is absolutely beautiful there and we loved where we stayed. Villa Sol, ok except maybe for the construction zone going on right below our villa everyday, starting as early as 7 am. But since they had wanted us to move and go to another location because of it, we didn't complain. The villas were nice and roomy with the most amazing views.

The beach right below the resort was pretty but the most amazing beach we saw was up by the border Nicaragua. There was no one there and it was absolutely beautiful. We had to drive back on this dirt road, that wasn't very well maintained for a while to get there. It was worth the drive.

Maddie and I did the zipline in the jungle. First you climbed up this huge tree to get you up into the canopy of trees. From there we ziplined from one tower to the next, there were 13 in all. They had us going up side down and doing tricks. We won't show the picture of Jolie (me) upside down. Maddie had the hang of it.

It was a great trip. For some reason I was the only one covered in bug bites that itched so bad I was going crazy. Scott kept telling me I smelled like an old person with all the anti itchy lotion I kept putting on.

Trip to Grandma and Grandpa's in Washington

Between going to Southern California and Costa Rica the kids and I made a trip out to see my mom and Dad. Ryder is trying to keep all the relatives straight so my parents are referred to as the Grandparents with the cats.
They live in beautiful Port Ludlow, Wa and we love to go visit them. We leave Dad home because of the cats. With his asthma he can't be in the same house as the cats for long.. really honest to goodness.
We go to the most amazing pumpkin patch. It is enormous and they have a corn maze, little stores, a kids hay maze, a pumpkin shot and they sell yummy food. We did notice it was for sale this year so I wonder if it will still be there next year. The picture of my parents with Ryder and Maddie is in the pumpkin patch. Since we were there just days before Halloween most of the pumpkins were gone.
We had a great visit and got to spend some quality time with my parents while Maddie's school was off track.
It was a quick trip but with trying to squeeze so many things into about a 5 week period it was how it had to be.

October- Trip to California

Our annual Pismo beach trip. Scott does Motocross races and our families favorite to go to is the one in Pismo. We drive the motorhome right down on the beach. It is as dangerous as it sounds. You drive right on the sand in this 36 foot vehicle that isn't really made to do off roadin.
We pulled in at 11pm and were parked by about 2 am. You have to time it with the tide so you don't wake up in the morning to find your RV a drift out in the ocean.
Despite moving it further in, upon our return from Hearst Castle we found ourselves in the not so BLue Lagoon! Our stuff was swimming and our RV was about 12-18 inches under water. Luckily, it dried out and we actually pulled out 2 days later with no problems.
It was a great trip.
Scott actually placed 2nd even with a pretty big crash.
Of course we headed in on Thursday night to San Luis and the Farmer's Market. There is no Farmer's Market I have ever seen like this and it holds many wonderful memories from being a college student there. I graduated from Cal Poly in 1992, which seems like too many years ago.
They shut down the main street downtown and venders sell food, fruits and vegies, treats, there is entertainment and this night they had the Big Pumpkin contest.


California Adventure
On our way home to Utah we went through Southern Cal. Just in time for the big fires. Thank goodness we weren't near them but we were right in the middle of the horrible winds that were egging them on but that and our survival is another story.
We spent a day at California Adventure. SInce we did DisneyLand last year thought we would try something new. Personally, I still prefer Disney Land, it's a classic.