Christmas 2013

SO....I really want to do a post to wrap up things for 2013....like posting the finished shed Josh and Richard worked so hard on....and a few other things. BUT, before I do I want to share our fun family Christmas in Utah/Idaho. We flew into Salt Lake the Saturday before Christmas. I had everything planned down to the minute....and believe me we weren't sure things would go as planned, what with a snow storm that had closed the airport 2 days before we left and another storm expected the day of our flight. We were really blessed things went so WONDERFULLY!!!

It WAS snowing when we arrived....but we made it to Magna Utah to see Christophers kids. They live with their mom Katherine and stepdad. They were all so sweet. We had fun seeing their rooms...and visiting. I'm holding Helen (Katherines little girl...who we consider our grandaughter too) with MaraLee next to me, then Kadelyn, Richard, Terran and Serenity.

Serenity got all bundled up to play with a neighbor friend as we left......heading to Rexburg Idaho to see Jon and Brittany.

The roads were pretty clear...Thank Goodness!! We were so worried we would have to cancel going to see them because of the weather. We had fun playing games after going out to eat our "Christmas" dinner with them at Applebees. Jon and Brit are such fun game players. They had to bring their dining room table out of storage in their bedroom so we could play. Their apartment is small and they put it away so they could put up a tree.

We had such a nice visit. Richard hadn't seen their apartment yet, so he enjoyed seeing it. We went to church with them the next day and then headed back to Salt Lake.

The weather was a bit rough driving back, but we made it to LaDena and Rob's house mid afternoon. They moved over the summer so it was fun to see where they were living and get a tour of their new house.

Here we are with the kids....Nate, Tanner and Natalie. We missed seeing the oldest MaKinzie. She's living on her own now.

Can I say we trudged through the snow (which we actually did)....to go see Chris and Mary. We just missed Chris...he had to pick someone up from the airport (Army business)....but we did see our daughter in law Mary and 2 of her kids, Whitney and Chandler.... and her new grandbaby Noah. We catch up with Chris later in the trip.

The ONE part of this trip I really really wanted to do was to go see the lights on Temple Square. By now it was nearly 8pm and we had had a very long day....and we still had a 2 1/2 hour drive to Jennys....but I was DETERMINED!! You can see why! There are hundreds of thousands of lights...and lots and lots of nativities displayed. The snow was turning to a light drizzle but we didn't care. I posted lots of pics on facebook already, but I will post a few here. This is one of my favorites...love the colors in this one.

There is a huge reflecting pool between the Temple and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. In the center was displayed this beautiful nativity. Interestingly enough, when we were at the Portland Temple last week they had one very similar displayed in the reflecting pool where we took pics of Jon and Brittanys wedding. Something I didn't know until then.

Here is an overall view of the reflecting pool. You can see the outline of the nativity in the center. On the other side you can see the lights...and specifically the big lighted tree with the star. Our son in law Rob put's that up each year, along with another one on the other end of the square. It was a beautiful evening, and though we were pretty much exhausted, we LOVED every minute of it. In fact....we were LOVING every minute of our entire trip thus far.

We made it to Gunnison, obviously....and I had fun doing crafts with Sadie the next day. The best part of my job is that we do lots of crafts. Here Sadie is beading a pipe cleaner to make a candy cane. She made one for Isaac too:)

It blends in well with her shirt....but if you look hard you can make it out. She was having fun...I think Jenny said we did like 7 crafts. I've saved copies of everything because I'm hoping we will have other little kiddos to do crafts with in the future:)

Here they are in some little penguin outfits I got them when Jenny and I did our marathon shopping on Black Friday.

Had to get this in...Richard and Logan pounding their fists on the table chanting....FOOD FOOD!!! I think they came out of the same mold...no joke!

Jenny's friend Melanie hired Santa to come visit the kids at her house. Isaac did much better with Santa in a private setting. Thanks for letting me share.....except for not having Josh with us, it was a wonderful Christmas. More to follow........