We had far too much fun while in Utah and my kids loved being spoiled with attention from all their most favorite people. I really love, love, love going home!
Myra loved playing in front of my mom's mirror
Myra's first pigtails
The first event in our travel log is Amy's Wedding. I came early enough to go through the temple with her, which was super neat, I love being at the temple with the people I love most. She left the temple saying how "awesome" it was. She is awesome. Afterward we went to I-Hop with everyone. As a side note, I love always having babysitters when I go home! Amy and Landon are the best!
There is so much that goes along with a wedding, besides the actual ceremony there is the wedding dinner, reception and so much preparation beforehand. Well, I wasn't too much help at the preparation end. Except, maybe, with a little ironing of table cloths. The dinner was held the night before at the church. They had it decorated beautifully, using much of the reception decor. . . I love this reminiscent setting. . . I may have only loved it more if I could have gracefully bowed out of speaking myself, but that ended up being fun too. They told each other how much they loved the other, and I guess it really is true because the next morning they both showed up to the Brigham Temple to be married.
These occasions remind me what is truly important in life. I can clearly see the big picture inside the temple, and especially on occasions when we can be in that sacred, holy place with our family. It is a sacred experience.
(Oh, another side note, Amy wanted me to do her hair for the wedding, which was super scary. We didn't practice before hand and I was really praying, the whole time, that it would turn out. She is beautiful and has gorgeous hair so that was a big help, and it came out pretty).
Then to pictures and the reception. We are lucky to go home for big events where I get to see so many people I grew up knowing, all in a few short hours. The reception was held inside the transformed senior center. It didn't look at all like an old folks home when they were done with it. Amy's colors were black, red and white, and it looked elegant. I just felt so lucky to be there. She and Dallin are super awesome. I love Amy and am coming to love Dallin just as much. It's so great to have them married!
After they set off on a honeymoon, our little family headed to the Poulton Christmas party at Lynndi's house. It was so great to see them all! We don't see them nearly enough. Bridger loved playing with the cousins, and their toys. First we had pictures taken, then lunch. After, at Lynndi's, we decorated ornaments, had a fun white elephant exchange, and hung out together. (We so, so love this being together thing). One day we went to check out the new store, Schields in Salt Lake. It's HUGE. We even rode the Ferris Wheel for $1. It's a fun store, too expensive to buy anything, but we liked all the photo opps.
Painting ornaments, Bridger is painting everything but
The next week began and ended with a three letter word . . . FLU. Eww. It actually started with Myra at Lynndi's house. The first night she woke up and threw up, which I though was just due to the orange juice I gave her at lunch. Apparently not. She was fine after throwing up once. . . if I would have known that she was to share such Christmas cheer with the whole, entire family, we might have stayed locked up in the bedroom. But we didn't know, so Bridger and I got it next, along with Paislee, McKenzie, Krew, Aileen, Cliff and Deon, followed closely behind by Devin, RoLane, Katey, and my mom. We are very sorry!
A few meeting ups I almost forgot to mention, but they were too fun to leave out. .. First, seeing the lights in Layton with my cousin Mandy and her family. It was freezing, but fun. Lights make it seem Christmas-sy. I am a big fan.
Second, we went to see my good friend, Mindy and her two cute girls. We met at the Kangaroo Zoo, where there are all sorts of bouncy toys and slides. I brought Katey along, she helped Bridger and Gracie to be brave and go down all the slides. They had a good time and it was fun for Mindy and I to catch up.
The third one, was seeing my roomies! Oh, how I love these girls! It's crazy how things change, yet it still seems the same. I was going to say after just a couple years, then I realized it's been about five. That is so crazy, it doesn't seem that long ago. We chatted the time away, catching up, reminiscing, and laughing. They are such a fun bunch. Bridger played in the kids room along side the other kids. (Its crazy to see my friends as moms, yes, even though I am a mom too). Devin, sadly for us, was very busy fixing his snowmobile for his once a year play in the powder (which I'll mention with more detail later). Our fun gathering was at Kati Layton Barlow's big, beautiful house (yes I use all three names, I can't leave out the Layton, just like I can't leave out the Williams with Katie Williams Wyatt. It's a quirk I'll probably always have.) I stayed too late, but loved every minute and Bridger conked out. . . right after we stopped by Walmart on the way home (oh no, I am also one of THOSE mom's! . . . you know, the mom with the over-tired kid, pushing a Walmart shopping cart at 11:30pm. . . Vacations don't leave permanent marks for that, right??)
Our third and final week in Utah was spent in my other favorite place, "Lincoln's Logs", my grandpa's cabin in Bear Lake. It's a magical place where most my growing up, Christmas memories lie. Devin was praying for snow and he must be living right, because he got it. We did the traditional, hiking up the mountain to chop down a Christmas tree, where we also traditionally sang "Oh, Christmas Tree" to which we, traditionally, forgot all the words following, "How lovely are thy branches", the first line. And, yes, traditionally dragged the tree back down the mountain while, traditionally, dodging snowballs. Love it. A little un-traditionally, but for added fun, we had the Bryce Tolman family join us, who also cut down a tree, and added to the snowballs we had to dodge. I was fortunate to be carrying my baby and therefore, avoided being targeted by most of the snowballs.
Other traditions that played out while we were in Bear Lake . . .
Acting out the nativity, Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve toasts with our Mormon Wine (sparkling cider)
Christmas puzzle (this year was 1000 piece, we are saving it out on the table to finish next year :))
Apple French Toast Christmas morning
Opening presents one by one, Christmas morning
Sibling gift exchanges and mom's ornaments to remember the year by.
Snowmobiling
Tubing, and popping of tubes (never planned but always happens)
and a new, upcoming tradition, swimming at Trendwest.
The best part of Christmas was being all together. Grandpa's cabin is cozy, one bathroom, one bedroom and a loft. So, also thanks to grandpa, we got a Trendwest condo to help fit everyone. Our family has grown quite a lot since our last Christmas together, four or five years ago.
Maybe the worst part of Christmas also had to do with being together, so that we had to share a room with Myra. She is such a stinky, light sleeper that no one gets any sleep. Nicholas and Courtney regretted sharing the condo with us the one night they did. If we rolled over, the rustle of the sheets would wake her. So the rest of the nights we let Myra sleep in the cabin bedroom by herself, for everyone's sake. Everyone else in the cabin slept in the loft or on the floor in front of the fire.
Devin was super excited to try out his snowmobile, newly fixed with almost all the parts replaced, on the white powder at The Sinks. He said it ran beautifully, while he and Dallin, a very cute couple, doubled on it. We let the boys go out for a spin in the morning, then in the afternoon we were going to meet them, so they could trade off or pick us up for a ride. We got there and were waiting, and waiting. I took Bridger tubing down the hill, but after three runs down he was too cold to move, so he spent a lot of time warming up in Bryce's trailer. They finally rode in, dragging Devin's snowmobile along. Sad day. He's not sure what went wrong. He couldn't even give us a great tale about charging mad up a steep mountain or rolling it into an inescapable tree. It had been running well, he shut it off, then it never started again. It's a mystery, and bad luck!
Despite that tragedy, the trip went great. Oh, and one other snowmobiling fluke. . . My dad, Devin and I went on a snowmobile ride the next day. Had a fun ride from the cabin to the top of the mountain, we were almost ready to turn home when we ran out of gas. ha ha. I don't know if that can really be called fluke, more of a rider error I guess. So we rode three people down the mountain on one snowmobile. That was exciting! Should have gotten a picture, we tried out a few different positions but ended up with my dad sitting in front, the driver, with Devin and I both taking a knee on either side of the seat, all huddled in, hugging. We got very close then.
The boys engineered an exciting tubing run by the cabin. The boys really got a kick by just making it. They were super proud of the nice, high bank off of the curve. Devin had some funny crashes in the process. I liked tubing down it. Bridger liked it for about three runs down, he is a fair-weathered friend. Katey, Hunter and Leanna's kids loved it.
Every night, minus Christmas Eve, we spent a couple hours at the pool. Super fun. Bridger LOVED the hot tub, he didn't care much about the big pool or the kiddie pool. . . too cold. The first night another boy shared his water gun, which he loved, then every day after that he asked to go swimming. Myra only went swimming one night, because usually it was past her bedtime when we went, and she LOVED the water! She didn't mind the cold at all. The whole time she was excitedly bouncing up and down and kicking her legs. She was so much fun!
It was fun to have the Tolman's partying with us. They were staying in another Trendwest condo. Christmas Eve we had a big dinner together with a big turkey and a ham. Together we ate, played games, Devin played tricks, and we acted out the nativity. Super fun.
Cody acting out our funny game
Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus
Mary and Joseph with young Jesus :)
Devin pranked Jake and Dallin. . .
When I think of Christmas morning, I think about just how spoiled we were. The best present was just being there, but then we got many more presents to unwrap. Bridger was thrilled with all the presents he got to unwrap! He just loves the unwrapping part of opening presents. He got several presents that were right on, and when he opened them he hardly could contain his excitement.
I got Myra a baby doll. It was so cute to see the smile on her face when Bridger helped her open it. She hugged it and loved it like little girls do. We were all super spoiled with presents from our family and had to bring home a couple extra suitcases because of it. So spoiled. So blessed. Such a great, happy day!
Oh, and a funny. This may be a bit inappropriate but its a good story. I was going through my suitcase at the condo and, from the front pocket, I pulled out handfulls of lingerie! They weren't mine. So I looked to Devin. . . The suitcase was new to us. One of Devin's customers, who also happens to be a Redskins Cheerleader, was throwing away a suitcase that had been in the same garage as an unfriendly mouse. Devin told her he'd throw it away for her, but he kept it because it was a really nice one. I guess neither one of us had checked the front pocket before that. We laughed a lot about it, and then Devin got the hilarious idea to use it for stocking stuffers. It was a good joke Christmas morning, Courtney got a lot, Amy got some, my mom got a pair, and a little present even ended up with my cousin Brooke, with a note "Love Curtis" (her boyfriend). We were crying, we laughed so hard Christmas morning.
The trip seemed to come to an abrupt end, when my mom checked the flights to see that they were all full or oversold except the Thursday flight, which was the following day. The next morning we hurridly packed up the whole cabin, filled two cars and the truck, rushed home, scrambled to find a family photographer, got our pictures taken and rushed to the airport. It was all so fast and so sad. Our flight went very well. When we made it home Thursday night it was nearly midnight. I was so sad to be home. Usually it feels good to be back in my own house, but I was so sad. I cried. It's very unlike me to be so emotional, Devin asked me if I am pregnant, (which I am not), but we were there long enough, I had grown accustomed to being with family all the time and now we are so far away. It also feels harder being away when my siblings are married and living all so close to each other. Knowing how much we'll miss out on and miss them. Amy and Nicholas can't fly free anymore now that they are married. In the moment, they just seemed very far away, and along with my longing to be there, it all hit me at once, and I cried about it.
Looking back I only have good memories. December seemed to have flown by. It was here and gone. We did a lot, as I'm sure you can tell, by just measuring the length of this post. Thanks to my mom and dad for each making a special trip out here to pick up, and then bring back, Bridger. I'll toast to another Christmas like this one!
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