It's the weekend...finally.

This first week of catch-up-after-vacation is finally coming to a close. It's been busy and exhausting. But we celebrated by doing fun things: Nate had breakfast at Kerbey Lane with the kids (I was having Relief Society Board Meeting Breakfast at our house), looked at Ferraris and cool eyewear, and got gelato. The afternoon was spent having friends over, making cookies, playing games, shooting the BB gun, chopping up the Christmas tree with a chainsaw, and launching marshmallows over the golf course. (Remember those JUMBO marshmallows I mentioned earlier? They fit perfectly into the golf ball launcher! Lots safer too.)

Luckily, tomorrow is a day of rest (relatively). I might be able to squeeze a few minutes nap in there somewhere and perhaps be ready for next week. Hope you enjoyed your weekend!

Idaho

We took a couple days and drove up to Idaho to visit Jake and Amy. I think it's my children's favorite place to go. The kids love to be with each other. And there is always something to keep them occupied.

Karl came with us too. I don't think he wants to ride in our car again for long trips. But we were glad for his company.

First Snow

There wasn't any snow when we got to Utah. The kids were worried that they wouldn't get any when we were there. But we woke up to snow and the kids couldn't wait to go out and play in it. We planned to participate in as much winter/snowy activities as possible during our stay.

Early Christmas

We had our first Christmas morning, complete with present opening, the Sunday before we were supposed to leave on our vacation. I didn't want to take all those presents to Utah, just to bring them back again. Besides the fact that there just wasn't room in the car. So we got up, dressed for our 9:00am church schedule and then, because we had a few extra minutes, opened up all of the presents under the tree. It was fun. Everyone was just as excited as they would have been 10 days later. And we got to enjoy them for the next couple days. I think a few of the presents did end up coming to Utah with us anyway. I like extending the fun of the holidays. Maybe we'll do it again next year.

Family Home Evening #1

Family Home Evening this week was a little spur of the moment. (I am determined to be better at this counsel from our prophets, and I didn't want to skip week 1!) So we had a lesson from the Friend magazine about going to the temple (even if you aren't a grown up) and sang some songs (teenagers aren't big on singing so this is a little bit of work in our family) and then we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores.
I found these:

They are new. So I had to try them. They are HUGE! One will fill you up!

That is just a little slice of one marshmallow. It takes up the whole square!

So we are off to a good start!

Merry Christmas Eve

Well, our car never did get fixed enough to drive on our trip. So we ended up renting a car and left last weekend. We've had a fun trip so far. Sledding everyday, visiting with family, getting ready for Christmas. Now it's finally here! We are glad to be able to spend it with people we love. I wish that everyone could all be together at once. But we are glad to see everyone we could.

I'll blog more later. I have some great pics from sledding.

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas. Love to all!

latest update

Things have been super busy. Finally am feeling better after last week's strep/tonsillitis/cellulitis. Saw the doctor again yesterday and he gave me the all clear. Isaac and Aspen both got some stomach bug the last couple days. So they missed school, but still had to finish all their homework and go after school to take their finals. Lovely thing to do when you're sick, but had to be done.

Our other busyness has been trying to get my car ready for a 3000 mile road trip. New tires, check. Oil changed, check. Then the alternator died, which killed the battery. Took them in to be repaired. Decided to rebuild the alternator to save money. Finally got the car back. Two days later, the alternator is broken again, on a Friday night. Of course mechanics don't work on weekends. Took the car back in on Monday, they fixed it again. Got it back late Monday night. We were getting ready to leave today. The alternator is STILL broken. Good thing we hadn't left yet.

I should have just paid the extra $100 for the new alternator in stead of the rebuild. It's probably not going to be done until late tomorrow. So instead of leaving Wednesday morning for Utah, we won't be leaving until Friday I think. I guess we'll just live it up at home for the first part of our vacation. I already told the schools that we would be gone, and church and work. So it looks like we'll be hiding out until the car is fixed. It's a good thing we weren't on a strict schedule. But, still, I wish cars didn't have so many problems.

So, my family in Utah...we won't be there on Thursday. We'll keep you posted.