Our Christmas Vacation

Wow, I am so far behind on blogging. Is it weird that I get stressed out about that? Well I do. And, being the brilliant genius that I am...I forgot to pack the battery for our camera. So we did our entire Christmas vacation with no pictures. I'm even more irritated with myself because it was Adelia's first Christmas and I have no pictures. Grrr....  Maybe Sydni and Lisa and Aaron's mom will have pity and share some of theirs with me, but for now, here is a recap of our Christmas vacation in text only.

Sunday night- We got everything (and when I say that, I mean practically our entire house) packed into the van and drove to Hooper, where we spent the night at my mom's. We always do that when we drive to Washington because it puts us an hour closer.

Monday- Kelly and Esther met us in Hooper, and we, somehow, loaded their stuff into the already full van. LONG drive. The kids were pretty good. Adelia did much better than I ever dared to hope for, and only screamed for about the last hour. The wonderful aroma of Taco Pie greeted us at the door, and soon all our travel woes were forgotten, and our vacation began. :) Taco Pie is one of those favorite dinners that Aaron grew up with.

Tuesday- Spent a lot of the day at Aaron's sister Lisa's house. The kids had a blast with their cousins. Then we went back to Aaron's mom's and had a big family birthday dinner for Esther.

Wednesday- We drove 30ish minutes to Hillsboro, Oregon to see Aaron's sister Sydni and her two boys Zac and Luke. We ate lunch at her house, and then took the kids to an awesome indoor play place called Out of This World. The kids had a great time, and it was fun to spend some one on one time with Syd. Aaron wore himself out repeatedly climbing through the two-story rocket ship with Lincoln and Zac, and then managed to lose both boys when they ran for their moms without him knowing.

Thursday- Kelly and Esther graciously took our children over to Lisa's house and everyone there pitched in and kept an eye on them for us so that Aaron and Chuck and Debbie and I could go do a session at the Portland temple. I'd never been to the Portland temple before. It's beautiful. Probably the most beautiful celestial room I've ever seen. It was so nice to go to the temple, and we've made a goal to get there more often. After the temple we went to lunch at a very good Thai restaurant across the street. I love Thai food, I don't eat it nearly often enough. Then we went back to Lisa's to rescue everyone from our children. Everyone went in for pizza and we ate together and played Dance Party on the wii. I was not even close to good, but oh I loved it! It brought back great memories of DDR in high school. Sydni and family also came up to spend the next few days at Aaron's parents house with us. Lincoln loved having "sleep overs" with Zac, and was very jealous of his color changing night light. ;)

Friday- For Christmas Eve we all went over to Lisa's.  Oh, quick funny story, earlier in the day Aaron and I went to the store to get a few things, and we took Ivan with us because he wouldn't take a nap. Of course he fell asleep in the car, so Aaron carried him in to the store, and he was out cold, so we layed him down in the shopping cart, and he actually slept the whole time we were shopping in the back of the cart. Silly boy. At Lisa's we had a ginger bread house making contest. Each family did their own house. It was so fun to see everyone's creativity. We used hot glue guns to glue the graham crackers together, which definitely made it a lot easier to be creative. Aaron and I built a barn with a silo, a duck pond, and a herd of sheep with a shepard. We got awarded "most authentic". Some of the things other people built were a train, an Arizona house with cactus, a Scottish castle, a grass hut with palm tree, a zoo, and a candy coated house. Everyone got some kind of award, and we all had a good time. For dinner, everyone brought appetizers and finger food. I thought it was a good way to go. After that we gathered together and read the Christmas story from the Bible and sang Christmas carols and some of the kids played the piano for us. It was a really nice evening.

Saturday- Merry Christmas! Sydni and Jake's kids got up at 5:30am. Luckily, ours did not. But it all worked out for the best anyway. Sydni and Jake set out Santa presents for their kids, and we just have all our presents wrapped and under the tree. So their kids got up and played with the Santa presents, and then when Lincoln got up at about 7:30, breakfast was ready and after that we opened presents, so he didn't even notice that anything about his Christmas was different than his cousins'. Ivan got up right after we'd started opening presents, and Adelia waited until we were finished before she got up. After that we all showered and got ready and headed over to Lisa's for a big Christmas dinner. We had ham and rolls and potatoes, and everything was delicious. After dinner we had a family talent show, which I think was Stacey's idea, and I thought it was a really good one. Zac told jokes, Lincoln sang the Pre-Amble to the Constitution, Bennett counted to 100, Jordan tied knots, Carter and Esther and Ryan played the piano/viola/guitar together, Aneya and Lisa sang a song, Melissa and Stacey and Ryan and Rob did a skit, Stacey and Lisa and Kelly and Rob and I sang Silent Night with Esther accompanying us on the viola, Audrey did a back walk-over, and Aaron jumped up to standing from laying flat on his back, and Spencer built us something out of his ubersticks. I really loved that we had a family talent show and that adults and kids were involved and everyone had fun together. I think we should do things like that more often. I think it brings us together and makes us all feel more comfortable with each other.

Sunday- We got up and went to church at Aaron's parents' ward. The boys did great together in nursery. Adelia had a blow out diaper all over her beautiful Christmas dress. After church we all had naps, and Aaron and I packed. Then Ryan and Melissa and Kelly and Esther came over for dinner. We had a really good roast. After the kids were in bed, Aaron and I packed some more. Then Lisa came over and we got to spend some time with her. It's funny, I feel like we spent almost every day of our vacation at her house, but Sunday night was the first night I felt like we really got to see her and have conversation with her. Isn't that funny? But I'm glad she came over. Lisa is one of my very favorite people, and someone I look up to a lot. After she left Aaron and I stayed up until all hours of the night and morning, finishing our packing and talking about our future job situation with Chuck and Debbie, who had a lot of good advice. It's always nice to bounce our ideas off of someone who has some meaningful input.

Monday- After 3 hours of sleep (why do long trips always start that way?), we woke up and finished the last bit of packing, loaded the car, and said our good byes. LONG drive. The kids didn't do as well this trip. Lincoln was on one right from the get go. Adelia did pretty good, but by the time we were in southern Idaho, she was done. Ivan wins the prize for best child traveler on both legs of our trip. We finally made it to Hooper.

Tuesday- Spent the day in Hooper opening presents and visiting with family. In the evening we had Lemmon/Sparks family pictures. I am excited to see how they turn out. Then we drove to Provo. I think that I never want to get in my van ever again. :) But we had a great trip. It was so nice to see every one on both sides of the family. It would have been the perfect holiday if only I'd remembered my stupid camera battery!