Christmas and UT Vacation

I felt so unprepared for Christmas this year, but it turned out good and I think the girls were happy with what they got.  One of the best gifts we gave the girls was a mini-trampoline.  Ken and I are so tired of them jumping on the furniture, that we got them something legit to jump on.  Now if only we could harness that energy to power something in the house.

We were all excited to have Grandpa Ernie stop by for a short visit.

And then we hit the road for a trip to UT - to play in the snow, visit cousins/aunts/uncles/ Grandpa, and experience UT in the winter.  Neither of the girls have ever been there in the winter, and I thought it was about time to experience that fun.  So, our first activity was sledding with my friend, Carol.  I loved watching my girls sledding - screaming all the way down the hill, and at the bottom saying, "that was awesome, let's do it again!".

And of course, I couldn't let the girls have all the fun.

 What do you do when you're tired of hiking up the sledding hill?  You swing, of course!

A big thank you to my friend Carol for providing winter gear for Ken and I so that we could stay warm in the very cold weather.  I think the average high while we were in UT was 10F.  Burr!

My girls love Carol too - and it didn't hurt that she provided hot chocolate and brought them gifts ;)

The next adventure was checking out the lights at Temple Square.  We met Carol and her son (and a few of his friends) for dinner at the Lion House Pantry - yummy!  And then off to brave the very cold air while we enjoyed the lights at Temple Square.  I haven't been to see the lights for years, and enjoyed it as much as the girls did.

My girls said that all the lights were their favorite, but I think Amelia's real favorite was the snow.  I couldn't keep her out of it.

Since we were in Salt Lake, we stayed overnight at my brother Paul's house.  The girls LOVED playing with and being entertained by Paul, especially when he showed them some magic tricks.  If they ask you if you have "magic armpits", just smile and nod.  A super big THANK YOU to my brother and sister-in-law for watching our girls the next morning so that Ken and I could finish the paperwork for our new car!  Who knew we'd drive to UT in my Honda and drive home in a brand-new GMC Acadia?  Crazy!  Thank goodness I had all of the girl's winter gear with us, because they spent quite a lot of time playing in the snow with Uncle Paul - snow angels, building a snow castle, eating snow (but not the "yellow snow"), and putting snow in their hair.

That evening I went to dinner with Carol and another friend, Natalie, whom I haven't seen for 15 years - before either of us were married.  It was a great evening with friends.  Great friends are those that you can talk to as if it had just been yesterday that you were together.

And on Thursday, Ken & I went to the Logan temple, with Carol, and a niece and nephew who had recently returned from their missions.  My niece, Richelle, babysat the girls and everyone had a great time.

None of us stayed up to ring in the New Year, but it came anyway.  We had a great time in UT, but ran out of time and weren't able to do everything we had planned.  Guess we'll just have to come back next year!