The Web 5 Christmas Adventure 2013

About five years ago our family decided to build a family adventure for Christmas, rather than focusing on individual gifts.  We have invested in travel and adventures to new places.

This winter we spent the actual Christmas Eve and Christmas Day playing games and hanging out with our family here in Boise.  Then we took our Webster Family Geeky Adventure just after Christmas and we enjoyed the best that Las Vegas and Los Angeles had to offer.  I'll just run through some of the highlights.  Maybe not what you might expect from those two cities.

Las Vegas With Our aunt, uncle and cousins 
Josh is a test pilot, although we don't really know what he does.

The National Atomic Testing Museum
We learned some things none of us knew before that. Probably the sound track for this adventure would be a clicking geiger counter.

Discovery Children's Museum
What a great hands-on experience.  All of us had a great time building and testing things out.  There was something fun for each of us.  One of the highlights was a tower with about 15 levels of science demonstrations.

Los Angeles Highlights

Evening walk at Sunset Beach.

Early morning run at the beach (Hannah and Heather)

Hanging out with the Stephens family
We enjoyed two days hanging out with Andre, Beth, Jason, Micah, and Torrey.  What fun.  We played everything from basketball to charades and mostly enjoyed just sharing life.

Touring Biola University
We walked from the Stephens house and recounted tales from our youth.  It was fun for the girls to be able to add pictures to all the stories they have heard.  We met some of the animals and profs in the science department and made ourselves at home in all kinds of places.

LA Public Library
On Friday we drove to downtown LA.  The LA public library is majestic.  Huge expanses.  A collection of books like we have never seen.  Beautiful art.

Downtown LA on Ice
The city parks system sets up a small ice rink in Pershing Square, right downtown.  It was T-shirt weather, beautiful sunshine, and there we were ice skating.  It is fun to see all the different people trying hard not to slip to our deaths on the ice.  All of us are still a bit sore and are nursing quite a few blisters.

Visiting Our Old Neighborhood
We drove down to our old neighborhood and showed their girls our old church (Celebration Church) on 20th Street and drove by to see our first apartment at Kenwood and 27th street.  The street and the house have been cleaned up quite a bit since '97.

Phillipe's French Dip
The Stephens family loves to wrap up their time in downtown LA with a visit to the famous Phillipe's for french dip sandwiches. A classic LA eatery.

It took some gumption to put my sweatshirt back on, put my pen back on my ear, and to head back north to work.

A Christmas Experience vs. More Stuff

A few years ago we decided that we wanted to give our family an experience together for Christmas instead of giving more traditional Christmas gifts.  We felt like we all had enough stuff already.  Our hope was that an experience together would bring us together more, would build memories, and would expose all of us to things we don't usually get to do.

Maybe an experience together better matches the spirit of what Christmas is about, as opposed to the drama of getting and giving gifts.  We certainly haven't missed fighting the Christmas crowds in search of bargains on stuff that we really don't need.  Sorry, I'm not much of a capitalist.

Over the years we have done the following, as family Christmas experiences:

• Mountain adventures in the snow (McCall, ID)
• A Staycation in the Treasure Valley, including experiences in the arts, Boise adventures, eating out, cultural activities, etc.
• An urban adventure (Portland, OR)

This year, after much debate and research, our family adventure is to Moab, Utah.  It is a part of Utah we have driven through but we have never had time to stop.  This is Moab's down-season, so bargains abound for housing, making a condo possible.  While there are still plenty of tourists here, the crowds are much more manageable.  The winter experience in the desert is quite different.  It is a different kind of beauty.  

More than the location, the best part is just being together.  We have had fun watching movies, playing games, and traipsing around on snowy trails.  We have a good time with books, science, rocks, and geeky banter.  We have had a good time taking and looking at our pictures.

Favorites on this trip:

• Games: Ticket To Ride, Ruckus, Oh Really!
• DVD: They are all watching the "Emma" BBC mini-series right now.
• Audio Book: Okay For Now by Gary Schmidt (The next selection in NPR's "Back Seat Book Club."

We are looking forward to adventures to come.

Cross Country Skiing at La Sal Mountain

We took at day to try cross country skiing at Geyser Pass on La Sal Mountain.  We had to chain up about 4 miles short of the trail-head and the four wheelers coming down warned us that we wouldn't make it up, as the drifts were quite high.  We, instead, skied up the road and made the most of a beautiful day in the snow.  A good workout.

As you can see in the pics, we were still happy to be in the snow, even after our day of skiing.

Arches National Park

Instead of traditional Christmas gifts, we have given an experience.  This year it is a family trip to Moab, Utah.  One of the highlights of the trip was the two days we spent wandering and gawking at the beauty in The Arches National Park.  A winter experience.  Much smaller crowds.  Sometimes chilling cold.  Hikes are often crunching through snow.  The views are amazing.  I'm going to ask the girls to add comments below the various pictures.