Idaho/Utah trip 2015

The day after Christmas we left at 6:45am to go on our trip to the mountains & snow, freezing cold weather & friends!  5 of my favorite friends live right on the path to Provo & I really wanted to see them all (although we could only see 4 this time) & see the lights on temple square.  Those were the two main reason, yup.  This was my Christmas present this year & it was awesome.  The kids were amazing in the car.  The first day we drove 9.5 hours & we only stopped twice for a total of 30 minutes to use the bathroom.  It's all about making sandwiches in the car for lunch & not having to stop to eat.  It was also the best trip ever sleeping all together.  I think a lot of it was that Hunter doesn't snore anymore - hooray for tonsil/adenoid surgery!

Our favorite Seaside friends who have now relocated out of Seaside :( They were generous enough to house us for two nights & two days - so fun

 

We went to the lights on temple square two nights in a row.  Once by ourselves & once with our good friends the Englands from Springfield MO who have now relocated to Utah- yay!  Our kids picked right back up where they left off & had so much fun together.  They introduced us to the restaurant HuHot in MO & we found one in Sandy - so yummy.  The first night at the lights we lost Emma for a solid 10 minutes.  Those are 10 minutes I don't ever want to experience again.  Let's just say if you're going to lose a child the best place to do it is on temple square.  We finally found her in the visitor's center with the missionaries.

We took the full tour of the conference center.  Can't wait until we can take the kids to a conference session here.

 

 

 

 

Second night of looking at lights - with Olivia & family.  We also went to the Church Museum of History - they have a fun kids area.

When in Provo we always have to drive by our studio apartment we lived in when first married.  It won't be there for much longer they have really built up that area & changed it completely.  It used to be kind of dumpy & now there are so many nice buildings & apartments around.  Even the smoke/alcohol shop is gone.

This would have been a super cute picture if the darn camera had focused on the kids instead of the wall in the background...errrrgh

We went to the paleontology museum that is part of BYU - I never knew they had one but it was pretty cool.  The kids loved it.

We walked around campus of course like always & visited the "art" in the HFAC building.  This was my favorite display - hahahaha!!!  We went over to the MOA which was way better & were able to go through the Norman Rockwell display/collection that was there temporarily.  I had kind of forgotten about him & how much I love his art.  Now I want to buy some of his prints.

Bridget & I - we went bowling with them & had a delicious dinner & saw their new home.  She & I used to work together at the Financial Aid Office way back in the BYU days.

Snow, snow & more snow!  The kids didn't quite know what to do with it all :)  It was absolutely freezing. The coldest was -10 degrees one evening.  Brrrrrr!  People tell us they don't know how we stand the rainy winters but I'll take my 45/50 degree winter over the freezing ones although it was really fun to visit for a week.

 

 

We went to the Provo Rec Center that has a great indoor swim park with slides etc.  I didn't really swim but I enjoyed watching everyone else have a good time.  It was so nice & warm in there.  Justy had grandpa hands for a while afterwards.

Jeremy was able to catch up with two good friends from BYU days on different nights.  I know that was a lot of fun for him too.

I really wanted to see the new Provo City Center temple that will be dedicated in March.  It's gorgeous!  Next time I want to go inside :)  We also had dinner at Cafe Rio with my favorite cousin on Jeremy's side & her husband.  We were able to visit with Grandma T on our way out of town as well - it's always so good to see her.

We headed up to Rexburg for just a short hour or two to revisit Ricks (BYU-I) campus.  I hope at least one of our kids go here some day.  It is such a special school & one I have so many fond memories of.  I visited my old apartment complex - can't believe it's still there.  It's changed so much since I went to school here 15 years ago.

 

We stayed in Idaho Falls that night & were able to hang out with my best friend from Ricks & her family.  They even shared their Harry Potter butterbeer with us - that's a mark of a true friend :)

CHRISTMAS  2015

Another Christmas came & went quickly.  My favorite part (as usual) are the traditions.  Every evening we do something Christmasy.  We did a Hershey kiss count down chain so the kids ate one kiss every day until Christmas.  I noticed Hunter wasn't eating his but keeping them in a bag so I asked him about it.  He said he was keeping them & then going to give them to Daddy in his stocking.  He is the sweetest kid ever!  Anyone who knows Hunter & his love of food would know what a sacrifice that was! I made sure Jeremy knew where that gift came from & how special it was.

 

Another night we did snowflakes.  Jeremy noticed a mole hill or two in our backyard & went out to investigate.  He saw it moving a little when he got out there, grabbed his shovel & whack!  Mole for dinner! (not really...he was actually super stoked he got it on the first attempt)

Instead of a homemade ornament this year we made snowmen socks.  They turned out cute (& a little creepy) & as the month wore on they became more misshapen & slouchy like they were melting.  It was weird.

For a Scout project Hyrum helped his Dad make these wooden slats for displaying art work in our art room.  I LOVE them!  Way better than on the fridge.

A generous & kind elderly gentleman had a piano that he & his wife had been the only ones to own & they'd had it for decades.  Well I think she had passed away & it had just been sitting there for 10 years so he wanted to give it away for free.  What?!  I had recently told our piano teacher if she ever came across a good deal on a real piano we would be interested.  Our 10 year old electric piano has served us well over the years but I was really starting to want a real one (I've always wanted a real one really).  Anyway this gentleman called the elementary school, the school told the music teacher, he told his wife who happens to be our piano teacher & she told me.  We went to check it out & picked it up the same day.  Now we have two pianos & he also gave us a cool lap harp as a bonus so there is lots of music going on around here :)  The lap harp has music you slide underneath the strings & the note is drawn under the right string so even if you can't "read" music you can still play songs.  It has been fun to hear Em, Justy & Dallen play familiar Christmas tunes.

One of my favorite activities we do is to go through our toy room.  I love getting rid of stuff!  We had a garbage pile, pile to give away to charity & a pile to put in the basement for grandkids.  I know - thinking WAY ahead of myself here.  Or maybe for baby E when she arrives.  She may like trains right?  Even though none of my boys ever really did?

One activity was our yearly Christmas concert at the school.  It was fun to have 4 kids participating.  Hyrum & Hunter both played prelude Christmas music before it started.

 

On the left is how Dallen felt about being there for 2 straight hours.  On the right is how he feels about eating cookies.

 

We love making treats & giving them to our friends (as long as we can keep a few for us at home :))

 

 

A new activity we tried was riding the Polar Express train in Portland.  I've always wanted to do that but the kids always seemed too small to really enjoy it.  I'm glad we did it but that was definitely a once ever thing.  It was crazy expensive & wasn't that amazing after all but fun to try!

Shepherd's night is always a big hit.

Protecting their paper & cotton ball sheep from the great wolf predator (Daddy)

To help get Hunter pumped & prepped for his baptism in addition to teaching him in FHE every week we asked the sister missionaries to come over & teach him the discussions like he was an investigator.  I loved doing that for Hyrum & will continue the tradition.

Jeremy & I went to the preshow of the long awaited Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  I may have been a little overly excited about it & Jeremy was awesome enough to go along with dressing up.  He's the best :)  He wore a Star Trek shirt to the last Star Trek movie so sometimes it's his idea :)

Gingerbread house

Hyrum had the opportunity to play his binder full of Christmas music as prelude before the production of 'Once Upon a Mattress' (princess & the pea story) at our local theater.  I was so proud of how well he did!  He played for 15 minutes straight!  A guy that works there asked me if Shakespear was his stage name or real name.  Whaaaat?? Yes we gave our 9 year old a stage name.  I laughed hard about that comment later, not in his face.

Snowmen pizzas & movie nights are always a favorite too.

I thought this was so funny - reading Calvin & Hobbes while listening to our "elevator" type music that's programmed into the piano.

Sleepover & Elf!

Hanging up the last Advent ornament

We had my parents & Grammy with us for Christmas Eve & Christmas day which was very special.  We loved having them here!  It made the nativity much nicer to have that many more people participating :)

 

 

Presents!