Last Sunday we celebrated Christmas with the Neyens. I'll add pictures once we get a cord to download them. Rumor has it that Grandma once accidentally burned down her family Christmas tree as a child. You’d think she’d be a little wary of Christmas trees after that, but she always has a beautiful tree and Christmas décor. We are really excited to try out our new Yogurt Maker from Grandpa and Grandma. We go through yogurt like there’s no tomorrow at our house, so hopefully this will save us a bundle. The kids loved playing with cousins and Grandpa, the cousin gift exchange and squirting silly goo all over the house and we all enjoyed the food and company. We also found out that Grandpa Neyens used to be the goalie for his college soccer team. Who knew? We hope he’ll impart some of his soccer wisdom to the little people at our place. Grandma and Grandpa are having all their older grandkids that live close over for a couple days to get a little time with them over the holidays. They’ve had a few over already and Jonathan is looking forward to his little outing away from us.
We left the Neyens’ place and drove through pouring rain to St. George where we stayed the night in a nice time share thing my parents reserved for us. If it weren’t super late at night and the kids weren’t with us it could have been quite romantic. We accidentally left James’ Bob the Builder potty seat there. We ended up getting it on the way back to California a week later. Luckily, Grandpa and Grandma D. have a potty seat and stool. However, the gas stations along the way don’t so Mike taught James how to go pee-pee at the gas stations standing on the potty and leaning forward holding on to the tank…one more reason why you should never actually sit on the seat in public restrooms.
The drive through Utah was scary with snow and at least ten cars on the side of I-15. I told Grandma and Grandpa D. it is probably good to visit them every so often in winter because these near death experiences while driving through the snow force us to review our priorities in life (ha-ha).
We’ve been looking forward to this trip to Utah for quite some time now and were not disappointed. When we got there Grandpa and Grandma welcomed us with Christmas decorations, very yummy food the entire week, rooms ready and stocked with diapers and wipes, boots and snow clothes for the boys and time off work to be with us. Jonathan became an expert sledder, going off jumps and even sledding in the dark. We visited Grandpa at his office and told Jonathan we’d probably get a few samples, meaning lotion, cleanser type samples. Jonathan said, “Samples? Yum!” We obviously spend a lot of time at Costco.
We also really enjoyed the dinosaur museum, time with siblings and friends (I was able to meet up with Dawn and Tanya as well as four of my closest mission friends, Lacy, Heidi, Janae and Stephanie), the extended Donaldson party, Shepherd’s feast, breathtaking Carl Bloch exhibit at BYU, and having willing hands to help with the kids. Sarah was so sweet and insisted on taking the kids so we could get a date and run around our old stomping grounds, which was much appreciated as it has been a while. It was fun to spend lots of time with my sisters and to have other people want to hold Gracie and spend time with our kids. It is always especially nice to see Grandpa, Grandma and Great Grandpa D. Any time with them is a treat. The boys shared a bed and loved getting spoiled with attention and the perfect gifts. Mike and I also enjoyed getting spoiled. I forgot to take a coat and ended up finding my Grandma V.’s old trench coat. I figure she’d like me to use it. I felt like a detective with it and my huge sunglasses. Mom ended up sending it home with me just in time for all this rain.
One hour into the trip on the way back home, James decided he had had enough of the car seat. We told him he had to stay in it for a while and he asked if he could drive on Mike's lap instead. We told him we were driving home and he periodically would say, “Back, Grandpa D. house” obviously not wanting our trip to be over so soon.
I gave Mike some new socks. We got in about 4:30 this morning so we tried to sleep as long as we could. Mike left the room in his undies and socks later in the morning to tell the boys to be quiet. Jonathan said, "Hey Dad, you look great in your new socks." Mike, "thanks Bud."
