Christmas Vacation Part I

Well, I guess I will get around to posting about our trip this Christmas. But there are too many pictures to fit in one post, so I will do just a portion now. As many know, Dave had four weeks off from school this Christmas. He had this big of a break last year, but we decided to stay here for it. This year we wanted to visit back west and see our families. This was our first trip back to the west coast since we have moved to the east coast. And it was mine and the kids first plane ride since the twins were about 8 months old. I was a little nervous about this part.

We flew from Ithaca to Utah about a week before Christmas. We had two layovers, one in Detroit and one in Las Vegas. We had one hour layovers each time, and luckily made all our flights. It really went pretty smoothly, considering we were flying with three kids, and eight carry ons between us all. We arrived in UT in the early afternoon, exhausted but excited to be there.:)

Madeline and Scott loved helping Grandma Vinnie make all her Christmas goodies!

Here they are decorating sugar cookies with Aunt Kim.

We were able to visit Temple Square in Salt Lake City and see the Christmas lights there.

On Christmas Eve, Dave's family does a little Christmas program where anyone who wants can share a talent of some sort. Since I have no showy talents, Dave and the twins represented our family. Dave did a magic act for everyone, and the twins sang Stars Were Gleaming, a song they learned in church this Christmas.

Christmas morning, Dylan was much more excited about eating all the candy in everyone's stocking them opening his gifts!

Princess in Training

Scott and his cousin Josh with the Pirate sets they both got for Christmas. The kids LOVED seeing their cousins this Christmas. Too bad we live so far away from them now!

We spent a week in UT, before driving to CA fthe day after Christmas. Interesting tidbit. The first day we woke up in CA, Scott came and told me he wanted to show me something. He took me over to the window of the room we were staying in, and said "Mom, look what a beautiful day it is outside." The sun was shining, grass was green. I looked at Scott and said, "Scott, we are in California now. Everyday is beautiful here.":):) Yes, I am brain washing my children, but at least it is with the truth!:) I hadn't been back home to CA since I was pregnant with Dylan, two Christmas' ago. Sorry snow lovers, but I would trade the snow for sunny CA winters almost any day. I loved thawing out in CA for two weeks on our vacation.

The day after we arrived, our family went to my parents ward for church and then headed to my sister Nicole's house for dinner. I wore this green shirt to church, and then put jeans on with it afterwards. I walked downstairs in my sister's house, where we were staying for a few nights, and found Nicole in a green shirt and jeans too. We had a little laugh about being twinners, but didn't mind since we were staying home all day anyway. A little while later my sister-in-law Sarah and her family came, and what do you know, she was wearing green as well. (Above picture for those who don't know, left to right: Sister- Nicole; Sister- Lara; Me; My mom; Sister-in-law- Sarah) We had a good laugh that we were all wearing green and jokingly said we should call my mom and Lara and tell them they couldn't eat unless they were wearing green. A few minutes later they walked in wearing green to. This is no joke. It was completely not planned. Although, since I was wearing green originally at church, I credit that I looked so good, they just wanted to look like me.:):):)

The kids had REALLY been wanting to go to Chuck E Cheese, and since we don't have one here, we went to one in CA. They all loved it. They had so much fun running around playing all the games.

One Saturday, we went and saw my cousin Noah play baseball. Dave was blown away at the complex the kids played in. It was a complex that had multiple baseball diamonds, each set up to look like famous ones, like Wrigley Field, or Yankee Stadium. It was pretty cool, and such a nice day. I think that was our hottest day there, and it got up to 80 degrees I think. Rough, I know.

Of course, we had to hit the park a few times, with the nice weather we had. Even Dave got into the spirit of things.:)

You still got it honey!:)

And what's a trip to CA without going to In N Out? (Although they have them in UT now too) We finally got Scott to try a cheeseburger--and he loved it. Got to start out with the best.:) Well, I will say "to be continued" to our vacation for a few days. More pictures to come!:)