Merry Christmas!

So we went to Loveland for Christmas and it was awesome!!! We left two days early due to a storm we wanted to avoid. The first night there we went to see Santa Claus with the nephews- that was fun. We also went ice skating on the frozen lake in the White's neighborhood. And on that one "we" means Sarah and Ben, everybody else thought it was too cold. Wussies.

Then we had Christmas. An abbreviated one, because Celeste had to leave on Christmas eve. :( So we opened the presents to and from Celeste, and Elijah almost had a heart attack when he saw his present- a Spider Man toothbrush. It was SO funny to see a three year old freak out over a toothbrush. He was so happy.

The next day it was actually Christmas and we opened the rest of the presents and April got me gaiters and an ear warmer headband thing. She does love me after all! Good thing I got her a Foreman grill so she knows I love her too.

(OK at this point April has informed me that I need to learn from the Facebook fiasco of two weeks ago and not say things like "she does love me after all" because as funny as I think it is, other people think we're having problems when I put things online like "Ben Willford is feeling lonely since his wife moved out" . So nobody worry- she does things that let me know that she loves me all the time.)

So just when I thought that this year's Christmas couldn't get any better- we went skiing!! In Colorado! It was awesome. And April went up the lift and she did really well! She conquered her fear of sliding down a mountain with nothing but two sticks strapped to her feet: by the end of the day she was even smiling! It was amazing. So we came home and now we're going to bed early because we're very tired after all the hardcore vacationing we did. Oh, and we got sick.

Ok, so I will tell the tale of the lonely Facebook status tomorrow and until then- Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

So I got released from being the Relief Society president of my ward today. And I definitely have mixed emotions. I am excited and sad at the same time. I will miss it, but I am excited to have a different learning experience. I will miss working so close with the girls in my presidency. They are awesome. But I know that this is what was needed and it will be great all around for everyone.

Long hard hike

So that hike that I was so excited about for today was so much longer and so much harder than I was expecting. The last bit before Cascade Saddle was like straight up, then when we finally got to the top of ridge it was blizzard conditions, so we couldn't even see the view from up there, I still took a couple of pictures though. Then we had to surf on our butts down the west face of the mountain because there's no trail and it was straight down! Except for the contours that made us stop, it was so hard. Then the trail went forever. And it was icy the whole way down. We spent 9 hours on an 11 mile hike. That is so long!!! Now I am really tired and super excited to go sleep in my warm comfy bed with my beautiful wife. So I'll put pictures up later and I'm going to sleep.

Wow, this is just like a journal!

I just realized that this thing is just like a journal! I haven't touched it since May. So we went to Cancun, Mexico in October! I'll put some pictures up as soon as I figure out how to do that. It was a crazy time. I'll make a separate entry just for that story- it's worth it, trust me.

So I have been a full time student for 3 straight years now, including summers. Awesome. I keep thinking that I'm really tired of homework and tests, but then I think about the goal and decide that it's worth it. April is amazing, as usual.

Oh, I don't think that I actually recorded when I ran my first road race, it was a 5K called the Rex Lee Run, named after Rex Lee who is a former President of BYU, my future Alma Mater. He died of stomach cancer so the race is a fund raiser for cancer research.

Tomorrow is Saturday and I am hiking with my friends Tyler and Albert, we're going from Big Spring Hollow to Rock Canyon Park via the Cascade Saddle. It's going to be awesome, and awesomely cold! The high this WEEK has been around 35. Tomorrow isn't supposed to be much better. Two weeks ago we had temps in the 70's. This really is too cold too fast.

Tonight we're going to our friend's son's first birthday party. Ellynn and Jason Willmore's little boy Finn is already a year old!! I can't believe it!

Ok, I have to get ready for the party and I have some more studying to do for finals, so I should get going, but I'm going to write sooner than 6 months from now this time. I really am. I'll probably write tomorrow after the hike. It will be awesome, you'll see. Well, 'till next time... see ya!

Pictures finally!!

This is the view off of Sunset Point.

Ben and I with a fantastic backdrop!

These are pictures from our wonderful trip to Bryce Canyon National Park. As you can guess, Ben had the camera most of the time but I did get some cool pictures too.

Bryce Canyon

We had the wonderful blessing of having a weekend that we could take off and go camping. I took off Friday and Ben was done with finals so we went down to Bryce Canyon National Park. This was the first time that Ben has been to a National Park (that he can remember). He apparently went to Bryce when he was 6 months old, we found out later from his mom. We went down on Thursday night and camped just the two of us. Friday we drove the rim and stopped at all of the points and lookout spots and took over 100 pictures. Also Friday, two other couples came up and camped with us. We had some adventures and some fabulous tinfoil dinner. Saturday we hiked down into the Hoodoos on the Navajo Loop and then the Peek-a-boo loop trail. Man alive it was amazing. It was really every 50 feet there was another amazing view that we needed to stop and look at and take a picture. So by the end of Saturday we had another 200 pictures. We had a lot of fun but we were very happy to be home in our own bed. We learned some things that we will do differently for next time. We definitely need to bring our air mattress, we need to get a duffle bag so that we have a bag to put our clothes in, and I should always carry a toothbrush with me. I will post pictures when I can. There are some pretty amazing ones.

Physical therapy, plays and Swiftie McWirthlin

So we went to Isaac's play tonight. It was pretty cool They did West Side Story, he was some Jet or another. His name was Mouthpiece. April cried. Then we came home and made smoothies. They are super delicious! And I had physical therapy on my ankle today, I stood on my bad foot for 2 minutes straight and it only hurt a little bit! Oh, and Joseph B. Wirthlin is the man. Ok, I'm going to go read my book and study for my finals that are coming up. See you later, new blog!!