I flew home to Utah on Christmas Eve. Big thanks to Uncle Steve who came and picked me up from the airport! We made it to Mom’s house around 9:30pm, so I pretty much missed all the Christmas Eve festivities, but I did get to visit with Annie, Steve, and the gang for a little while before they took off.
Christmas morning was rather quiet… it was only Mom, Grandma, and I. So, we all enjoyed a lazy morning sleeping in before building a fire and getting breakfast on the table. We did have our traditional breakfast of scrambled eggs, cinnamon rolls, and hot chocolate! I love Christmas breakfast!!
Christmas Day we enjoyed a visit from Rochelle and Travis. We found out that they are expecting their first… a little girl, so congrats to them! Annie, Brandon, and Makayla (I just realized I have no idea how she spells her name, so if I am wrong I am sorry!) also stopped by for a bit. Jess, Sean and the kids came around 4:00pm and we enjoyed hanging with them. They spent the night so that was fun. That night we enjoyed a wonderful dinner of potato soup and Mom’s amazing rolls… so good!! We also opened presents once they arrived. It was a good Christmas and nice to be with part of my family!
Grandma w/ Some of the Grandkids!
Yeah for Christmas Dishes!!!
On Boxing Day Jess and I took Tayler and Rylee sledding on the famous sledding hill in Stansbury. Such good memories sledding on that hill as a kid! We had a great time and we even walked away with no injuries! Good times! Jess and I made a Wal-Mart run to Tooele before Jess, Sean and the kids headed home that evening.
Just Hangin'
The 27th was a good day. It started bright and early… I had to get up a 5:30am! Seriously, who gets up that early while on vacation??? Its funny how I get up around 5:00am on workdays and it is no big deal, but when I’m on vacation 5:30am was super early. It was nice to do a session in the Bountiful Temple and then attend the sealing of Kim and Byrian’s daughter. The sealer did a great job and it is always nice to be in the temple, so it was worth it to get up early.
After the temple Mom and I headed up to Jess and Sean’s where we spent the rest of the day with them. We went to lunch at Chili’s and then we went shopping! I was on a quest to find good boots that I could wear snowshoeing. With Mom and Jessica’s approval, I purchased a cute pair of Columbia boots! The shopping outing was successful!
We stayed and played with the girls for a while longer before making the trek back home.
Brent and Ashley came out Friday morning, 28 December. It was fun just to hang with them. I went shooting that morning with Uncle Steve and crew. It has been 2 years since I’ve last shot trap… so I didn’t do so well. My best score of the day was 14 out of 25… I’ve definitely done much better! The rest of the afternoon was spent helping Mom catalog all of Grandpa’s books. We must have gone through 18+ boxes of books… it took a while! We got a lot done, which helped Mom out a ton, so that was nice. That evening we watched the movie, Star Dust. It was a really good movie- if you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it!
Brent being Brent!
Saturday was spent cleaning out Grandpa and Grandma’s house. We are trying to get it ready for sale, but we can’t do that until all the stuff is out of it first! Steve, Annie, Mom, Carl, and I got to sort, pack, and throw a lot of stuff away! Over a lifetime people tend to accumulate a lot of stuff… I’m totally selling my house and moving into an apartment when I’m sixty just to cut down on all the stuff and not leave it for my kids to deal with. Surprisingly, it was kind of fun to sort through stuff and see what treasures we would come across. After two trips to D.I (with a full trailer) and filling a huge dumpster, we finally called it a day. We did a lot, but there is still a lot of stuff that still needs to be sorted through.
Cleaning Fun
Brent and Ashley joined us for church on Sunday and spent the rest of the day with us. We tied a quilt that afternoon and then we played games… good times playing Family Feud and Mexican Train! It was fun to enjoy a relaxing day and enjoy the good company!
Monday was New Year’s Eve and the last full day I had before heading back to Colorado. Jess and the kids came out that day. Brent and Ashley also spent the day with us. It was great fun to play with the kids and, once again, enjoy a relaxing day. I wish I could hang with my family like that more often. I love just to be with my family. I wish it could be my entire family, but it was nice to be with at least half of my family! Jess and the kids took off around 6:30pm so they could ring in the New Year with Sean. Mom, Brent, Ashley, and I played games until midnight, watched the ball drop, shouted ‘Happy New Year’ and then it was time for me to pack! I did quite the amazing packing job with all the stuff that I accumulated while I was in Utah that short time.
Tuesday morning Brent and Ashley kicked me out at the curb of SLC airport at 8:30am. Since I am typically to my gate in about 15 mins when I fly out of SLC, I was not too concerned that I only had an hour and ten minutes until my flight was to leave. I wasn’t concerned until I walked in and saw the hundreds of swarming people in the airport! There are never that many people in the airport! I seriously thought I was going to miss my flight, but luckily I was able to make it through security just in time to board my plane! That was cutting in close! Oh, and speaking of close, my bag weighed 51 lbs… I was able to take one thing out and through it in my laptop bag and that made my bag 50lbs even so I avoided a $50 heavy bag fee! Nice! Well, as soon as I went through the security check point I ran into Uncle Kent… it is always a pleasant surprise to run into someone you know at the airport!
Well, that is my Christmas adventure. I was able to make it back to Colorado and start the unpacking/organizing my new apartment since I left it as a bunch of boxes when I flew home on the 24th. That evening I enjoyed a nice dinner and played games with the Crabbs! Thanks for letting me join the party!
Well, here’s too lots of fun adventures for the year 2008! Happy New Year!
