Wray Christmas Letter 2017

Merry Christmas Ya'll!

I can't even believe another year has passed. Am I a little embarrassed that I haven't blogged since January? Maybe. Maybe not. I guess we will never know.

2017 has been good to us. We spent the winter snowboarding and skiing, spent the summer at the beach in San Diego, and have spent the fall with family and friends. 

When I thought about the biggest thing that happened to us this year, my first thought was that Isla was born. But then I remembered that Isla was actually born in November of 2016 and not 2017. But I guess when such a little person takes up such a big part of your year, you forget exactly when it all happened. As with most babies, Isla hit a ton of milestones this year. Not only did she turn one, but she learned to laugh, sit up, crawl, stand, and walk. She is now running around everywhere talking up a storm. Her words mostly include Lala, dae doo (thank you), I-didi (I did it), dada, mama, and doggy. Most mornings, Judd and I wake up to Zoey coming into our room saying, "Isla's awake!" and hearing Isla's chatter in the next room. Lala adores Zoey. She is always watching her and wanting to do whatever Zoey is doing. The two of them have started to play together, but most of the time it is Isla sitting right on top of Zoey's toys and Zoey yelling for her to get off. Every time that someone is sitting on the ground, Isla will walk right up to them and sit on their lap. It is the most inconvenient when I am doing Zoey's hair and Isla tries to sit on her lap. Zoey gets mad at Isla and then I get mad at Zoey for moving. Isla usually just laughs when this happens. We also discovered that Isla inherited Grandma Pearl's dimple on her right cheek. This is extra special to us because Pearl is her namesake. 

After spending the summer soaking up everything at the San Diego Zoo and SeaWorld, Zoey joined a more traditional classroom and started preschool this fall. She loves her teacher and loves her classmates. She only attends preschool two days a week, but every day she asks me if she is going to preschool that day. We started her in fairy tale ballet back in January and Zoey loved dressing up as princesses and dancing around every week. In January, Zoey will start gymnastics and Jazz. Zoey is the best helped and the best big sister. Anytime we have a babysitter over, I almost always catch myself saying, "If you have any questions about the house or Isla, Zoey should be able to answer them for you." Zoey is extremely observant, but she is also very independent. She wants to do everything herself and she will sometimes try to boss me around. In a half joking/half not joking way, I always have to tell Zoey that I am the mommy, not her. She usually says, "Yes, mama," but I am still not convinced that she really believes that. 

When I found out we were moving to San Diego for the summer, I decided to take full advantage of my time in SoCal. I bought our family San Diego Zoo season passes and then was surprised by my mother who got us SeaWorld passes too. Every week we went to the beach, the zoo, and SeaWorld. I can honestly say that I did not take my time there for granted. One of the goals that I had made at the beginning of 2017 was to do a front aerial again. I could do them growing up, but I hadn't done one in years. So when we got to San Diego, I decided to look up adult gymnastics classes near me. I found a highly rated one and started attending. Not only did I accomplish my New Years resolution and an assortment of other tricks, but I also made a bunch of new friends that I will keep for a lifetime. Another one of my New Years resolutions from this past year was to get back into rock climbing. Judd and I found a rock climbing gym just down the street from us that was open late. We both got passes and multiple times a week I would put the girls to bed, get our friend to come over, wait for Judd to get home, and then go rock climbing. It turned into a hobby that Judd and I could do together and that we both have loved. If you ask me who is better out of the two us, I would say Judd. If you ask Judd, he would say that I have better technique, but he has a longer reach. I received a devastating email this summer telling me that the barre studio I had been teaching at for the past couple years was closing. When we got back to Utah, I was extremely sad about not having anywhere to teach anymore. Barre is something that I have grown to love and am very passionate about. Deciding that I didn't want to let barre go, this past month I have taken the steps to starting my own barre class. It has been an interesting experience trying to work out all of the details of running your own fitness business, but I have been thoroughly enjoying the process. Shameless plug--if you want to come to one of my classes or follow along on my barre journey, follow @BlushBeeFitness on instagram or check out blushbeefitness.com.

I asked Judd what he wanted me to write about him for this year's Christmas card. At first he said, "I don't know." After prodding him for something, he said, "Well, I read Oathbringer." I had to include this because a) Judd told me to and b) he has been waiting for this book to come out for like three years so this is a big deal for him. For those of you who don't know what Oatherbring is, it is the third book in the Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archives. It seriously is an awesome series and I would highly recommend it to all of my friends. I, myself, am a big fan of Sanderson and this series. Other than reading Oathbringer, Judd has continued to grow business wise. We have been blessed to see growth every year with Judd's teams and sales at Aptive. Judd continues to amaze me every time I see him accomplish anything he puts his mind to. The girls and I are extremely lucky to have him. Judd has also nailed his honey-do list this year. Basically any home update I have been interested in doing this year, Judd has done for me. Our bathroom had the original vinyl flooring that was put in back in the 50's. I wanted to do something to the floor in there so Judd put in wood vinyl flooring. For those of you who don't know what that is, it looks like wood floors, but is waterproof and long lasting. It is awesome and looks great. I talked about possibly doing the front room too after seeing the bathroom, and just last Saturday, Judd got a team of his guys together and they ripped out the carpet and put in wood vinyl floors. It looks amazing. Judd rocks. Sundance officially opens on Friday, so Judd is pulling out our snow gear to hit the slopes bright and early. He is super excited to be teaching Zoey how to ski this year. 

2017 was a good year. We continually look forward to the future by making new goals and completing our current ones. We have been blessed with good health, financial stability, and love. I have hope that 2018 will be an even better year than this one. We would like to thank our many family and friends for the positive impact you have had on our lives. It has not gone unnoticed. We love you all dearly and hope that you also have a great new year! Merry Christmas!

Love,
The Wrays
Judd, Camie, Zoey, and Isla