Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Utah: Wedding and Reunion

The day after Christmas Danny and I packed like crazy for a week in Utah. We were in the car and on the road by about one o'clock-which was awesome except the trip from Benicia to Sacramento took two hours, twice as long as it should have because we sat in traffic the whole way. It was pretty frustrating, but luckily the girls were happy watching movies and Danny and I were happy chatting and listening to a book on tape.
We made it to Winnemucca for the night and took off the next morning. We really liked doing the trip in two days this time. I usually like leaving in the early morning and just getting there-but given the timing of the trip, two days worked perfectly. 
We drove into town and went straight to Bajio (my favorite place in all the world) for lunch. The kids were thrilled with this little snow mound outside.
After lunch we drove to Becca's house.  When we opened the door we were surprised to see a Frozen castle! I can't my pic of it-but Mom had told Becca to buy it if she ever saw it. We were shocked and TOTALLY excited. The girls spent the next hour playing with it. Before it got dark we went out on Becca's lawn to play in the snow/ice.  Naturally the fun was throwing snowballs at Aunt Becca.
That evening Becca babysat our girls while Danny and I went to Macaroni Grill for a family dinner with the Leiningers and Stewarts.
 It was fun to see Luke and Emily and meet some of Ariel's family.
Saturday was the big day!! Bryce and Ariel were married in the Mt. Timanogas temple. Danny and I arrived very early and were able to be Bryce and Ariel's escorts. It was so fun to be there with them and able to help in that small way. The Bride's room in that temple was gorgeous. It was so nice to be in the temple all together for their sealing.
After the sealing we took pictures outside. The big kids had a riot playing in the snow while we waited, the younger kids did not have as much fun.

Picture of the siblings:
 Picture of the in laws!
The reception was held at the Blue Lemon in Highland. I went a little early and had fun helping arrange flowers. It was a wonderful party and so fun to see friends and family.

Bryce and Ariel and Danny and I share an anniversary! It was our 9th anniversary and I can't think of a better way to celebrate it.
AT the end of the night we sent the newlyweds off on their honeymoon and we drove to the base of Little Cottonwood Canyon for a family reunion. My kids were in heaven playing with their cousins in the snow for a whole week.

While some of us went bowling, another group went skiing. Danny had a riot skiing with Marilyn, although they froze on a very snowy day.
We're lucky to have fun Dads and Uncles to play with.
The younger half of the cousins got new Frozen jammies-it was maybe the most exciting thing ever.

I didn't know if my babies would like it, but they LOVED it. It was compacted ice-so we flew down the mountain.
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New Year's Eve! Jason bought fireworks and put on the best fireworks show. We were all in awe! Love UT for its legal fireworks:)
We went sledding at Soldier's Hollow. It was more fun then I could have imagined. Lucy was really brave and loved it too. On our last run they let us form a group of 8 with Lucy and I in the back-we flew down that mountain-Lucy and I rarely touched the ground!
Adult date night to see Secret Life of Walter Mitty
After a fabulous week we headed back to Springville for one last night with Becca. We had my fave one last time.

Saying goodbye to our cousins is hard-luckily we knew we'd see them at Disneyland before too long!

We did the drive home in one day on the way home. We have awesome little travelers and had a fun trip.
Thrilled to see Aunt Katy again at last!!

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Christmas 2013

Christmas came so quickly this year! With the excitement of Bryce and Ariel's arrival and coming wedding, Christmas was a fun side note, but still deserves its own post because I took so many cute pictures:)
As per tradition this Christmas Eve we went ice skating on the Embarcadero. This year Grandma Marilyn, Grandpa Steve, Bryce and Ariel came with us. We always take the ferry over to the city-a highlight of the tradition. This year Grandma, Lydia and Lucy were up on the top when they we went underneath the Bay Bridge and Grandma said they almost flew off it was so windy up there!

We started this tradition four years ago when Lucy was three. She has always worn single blades-but this year tried the double blades and loved them. She was completely independent on the double blades which was really nice. The rink didn't carry ice skates small enough for the babies but the nice worker said we could skate them around a few times so they could enjoy the skating experience. They loved it too.




The almost marrieds!
This is the second year I've gotten on the ice! I did much better than last year and didn't even fall down (a big deal for me:)


After skating we went across the street to the ferry building to Gotts-a fun hamburger place. Nothing like outdoor dining in December!

Lucy claims she is allergic to candy canes, but Joycie certainty isn't!

After our fun morning in the city we went to Grandma Karen's house for an Anderson Christmas Eve. We watched A Muppet Christmas Carol, wrapped last minute gifts, did dinner prep and sang along to our favorite Christmas songs. That evening Grandma Kay and Grandpa Dee joined us for our special dinner.  Lucy was thrilled to eat on crystal like the adults.
Our program started with a family nativity. The cast:
Mary-Lucy
Joseph-Danny
Angels- Grandma Karen,  Lydia
Narrator- Greg
Shepherds: Christy, Katy
Sheep-Joyce
Herod-Grandpa Dee
Wise Men- Christy Grandma Kay and Joyce


Then the kids opened their presents from their great-grandparents-Hello Kitty toys!
After a couple carols, reading Pippin the Christmas Pig and obligatory rendition of"Hang up the Baby Stocking!", the kids were ready for bed.

This Christmas Eve was not my favorite. Danny woke me up around 1 AM feeling nauseated. Danny hates being nauseated and in fact has a phobia about vomiting, so this was a big deal. I stayed awake with him until about 4 AM. We tried some remedies and then just watched a horrible Christmas movie on late night Hallmark channel. Around 3AM I heard voices upstairs. When I went upstairs I found Lucy sitting straight up in bed, wide eyed and very awake. After chatting with mom I learned that Lucy had been awake for HOURS-too excited to sleep. Anyway-the point is that none of us were well rested when the babies woke us up at 7 talking about Santa Claus. 

From here on I took no good pics-Christmas is too much fun to force pictures. Needless to say we had a wonderful morning discovering gifts from Santa (Tinkerbell dolls for the babies, an Ariel jewelry/accessory set for Lucy) and opening presents from each other.


 Early that afternoon we headed to Leiningers to exchange gifts with them. This year we gave presents to Lindsay and Jason. We filled a box with packing peanuts and hid about 9 presents inside. Our favorite was a shirt Danny made for Jason. It had Jason's face on it with the words "Hi. I'm here for your placenta." referencing Jason's job. His reaction was priceless.

I was done taking pictures for the day but the girls were thrilled to receive Elsa and Anna dolls and even a talking Olaf! 

We had such a wonderful Christmas. This year I watched too many kid shows depicting how awful it would be if Christmas was every day..but I still secretly wish it was:)