Happy New Year!

We've been having a lot of fun this month.  Our house is finally livable, but we still have a few things that we have left.  When our house is all done, we will take pictures of everything.

Meanwhile, John's mom came this month to help with the organizing.  For those of you who know me, I am super unorganized.  John's mom helped me with that and the decorating.  I am no longer ashamed to have people over at my house.

While she was here, John had a 4 day weekend and tried to hike and summit Table Mountain.  He didn't, but he found the right trail this time!  Since it is the middle of January, they took snow shoes.  The road up to the trail was covered in snow, so they hiked 4 miles in, 1/2 mile up, then back to their car.  Word on the street is that it was super cold up there.  I don't know.  I didn't go, but I plan on going next time!

Here's John at the trail head, and the Daily's (our BFFs) that went with John.

 And this is the trail that they made:

 Happy Chinese New Year!  Every year for Chinese New Year, we eat Chinese food.  We've only been married for two years, but here is our 2nd one.  The first time I was 8 months pregnant and we were on our way home from one of John's business meetings in Utah when my sister called me and told me I had to start the tradition.  We pulled over at the nearest Panda Express and ate dinner.  This year, we found a new restaurant in Idaho Falls called The Great HuNan.  Best Chinese food in Idaho Falls, but that doesn't say too much.  I think we will go back though.

And just for those of you who like to make your own baby food: this is Olivia's favorite/  Strawberries, cranberries, banana, spinach, and oatmeal puree.  Too many good things all together, but she doesn't like them all separated.

Alcatraz

 Over Christmas break and New Years, we flew to California to spend some time with the family.  Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures.  I do have pictures of our trip to Alcatraz!  I've always wanted to go there, but I think when I was growing up, every time we wanted to go there it was closed.

Before our Alcatraz trip, we went prepared.  The night before, we watched the movie Escape From Alcatraz.  That's all the preparation that we did.

We took the "Alcatraz Cruise" boat out to the island and went on an audio tour that allowed us to go at our own pace instead of a huge tour group.

We arrived early, so we walked around and took a picture in front of Alcatraz, but you can't see it in the background.

This picture is taken from inside the prisoner's rec area.  Sitting on the top steps are John, Chris, and Olivia.

Olivia really enjoyed the tour.

 At the end of the tour, we tried to walk all the way around the island, but it was closed off.  Here we are standing in the courtyard where the guard's children played?  I'm not sure.  But there is the Alcatraz tower, the prison behind it, and the Warden's 14-room mansion to the right.

In California, we also went to family Christmas gatherings, the Science Museum, and "camping" in the Redwoods with both my family and John's family.  It was a lot of fun and I look forward to it again!