Happy 2010! Before I embrace this coming year, I need to post some pics from our Christmas week in Utah with the FAM. We headed up to my parents "Mansion" as I call it that is nestled in the mountains of Alpine City. This "Mansion" is grandkid heaven since it comes equipped with a sand volleyball court, jacuzzi, built in 50's diner, pool table, play room, giant big screen TV, trampoline, Grandpa's cool race cars, and excellent backyard sledding in the winter. This year we had 2 grandparents, 5 kids, 17 grandkids, and a partridge in a pear tree :). It definitely made for a crazy loud house at times!
We made the 10 hour trek on the 22nd so we could watch the BYU bowl game on Dad's giant screen. As you can see Jane and I were very "into" it. But...hey we should get some credit for wearing our TRUE BLUE at least :).
Luckily we were blessed with a descent amount of snow which turns Grandma's backyard into a winter wonderland.
Luke turned into quite the expert sledder needing no help or encouragement from us.
playing in the snow....
Grandma admiring her posterity from on high...
Ahhh....the newlyweds (still under 2 years). Kenny acting like a kid in his igloo and Jane....not so sure she likes the cold wet stuff.
Brent enjoying his stylin 80's (little too small for him) jumpsuit a bit too much and Tami...not sure what she's doing. Maybe a standing snow angel???
some sisterly love..
I think Tryg had had enough of the cold at this point
Nothing that a little warmth and story time with Grandpa couldn't fix
On
Christmas Eve at my parents house we always do a little program where we read from the scriptures about the Savior's birth and sing songs while the kids put on costumes and bring the story to life. It's goofy, spiritual, fun, and serious all rolled into one. And...of course Mom is always good for some requisite tears :). We also added a new tradition this year...A WHITE ELEPHANT gift exchange between the grown ups. And, with our family...you can imagine the ruthlessness that came with that one. Still, everyone seemed to come out of it unscathed.
YEAH.....
CHRISTMAS MORNING!!! This year Dylan was at his Dad's for Christmas but joined us the day after (always hard for me). Luke and Tryg scored some cool baseball stuff from Santa this year.
Having fun spending time together and playing with our goodies.
And of course the treats...
Me, Susi, and Jane headed out for a little run in like 20 degree weather!! Was definitely missing my CALIFORNIA running temps. Although I did think to myself, "
If I lived here...I could buy a whole new running wardrobe" and that was kind of exciting to me :).
We managed to squeeze one more day of sledding in before the week was over.
Throughout the week we
laughed, we
bonded, we
ate a lot, we
fought (of course), some of us
cried, and some of us
threw up! It was a crazy, loud, fun, and chaotic week kind of like Yosemite but with less dirt! But.... all good things must come to an end and I'm pretty sure my Mom was ready to have her house, sanity, and peace and quite back not to mention the in-laws had probably had their cox - fix to last another year :).
ON THE ROAD AGAIN...
As you can see Tryg was pretty content, however Luke had a bit of a tough time as he vomitted in the car TWICE! Not fun!! And although I wouldn't trade that quality week with my family for anything....after that car ride home I am definitely looking forward to a quiet Christmas at home next year with no traveling :).
Goodbye pretty lights, my beautiful tree, fun decorations, holiday parties, and cute Christmas jamies. Until next year....
