Christmas in Bountiful!

This year was our year to be in Utah for Christmas.  The weather across the pass was bad during the couple of days we were planning on going, so we finally decided to drive down through Vegas and come in the other direction.  It took another 4-5 hours, but we didn't have problems with snow.  (We did however have snow on the drive anyway! In a matter of a mile we saw 3 different accidents.)

We arrived to Bountiful on Tuesday evening and had dinner and concretes with the family.  Wednesday, we went sledding at the golf course near their house.  It was COLD!

They had gotten quite a bit of new snow so there was a lot of fresh powder which made it fly in your face when you were sledding down the hill.

I went down and crashed at the bottom.  I came up and couldn't see because there was snow covering the inside of my sunglasses!

Calissa and Dad

Conner and mom

A quick selfie in the car on our way back.

That night we went to a Christmas lights driving display called "Christmas in Color."  It was in Kearns.  It was a mile long (you wove back and forth through it).  They had a radio station that you listened to while you drove.  The lights were timed to the music.  It took us about 45 minutes to drive through and was so much cooler than I thought it would be.  So glad we were able to go.

Press play and turn up your volume!

Christmas Eve day Trav, Azure and RK went skiing.  They had a fun, but cold day!  The kids and I stayed around the house and hung out.  I actually relaxed and read for a while.

We had a yummy dinner of pork loin and a great program by Grandma and the grand-kids.  Everyone was gone by 8:30 pm.  I think it might be a record.  We had the kids go down to bed around 9:00 and enjoyed an early night on Christmas Eve!

Christmas morning we read the Christmas story, had family prayer and then came upstairs to see if Santa had come.  Calissa was SOOOO excited that Santa had brought her a Chromebook laptop!

Conner was excited that Santa brought him a new iPhone!

We were all excited to wake up and have a white Christmas!

It snowed Christmas morning.  It was so beautiful!

The best part of Christmas however, was being able to Skype with Parker!  He called us about 11:00 Utah time and we were able to talk with him for 1 1/2 hours.

He's so happy and doing so well.  He bore his testimony to us in Dutch.  I can't believe how great he speaks it ... or at least how well he fakes it!  :) We are so proud of him, his service and his positive attitude!

Conner and Calissa showing off their gifts later in the day!

Christmas night family came over and we had dinner and the kids and adults opened their presents from Grandma and Grandpa.  The kids got portable chargers and money with the Christmas story interspersed.

The adults got their usual bag/box of treats and these homemade tuffets. (You know ... Little Miss Muffet, sat on a tuffet ...)

Saturday we went to see my brother, Kevin's family and then to see my Grandpa and take him out to lunch.  Then, we all went over to MiQuelle and Jordan's for games and dinner.  We also watched the movie "Battleship."

Sunday, we went to church, had dinner, and played more games.  Monday, we hung out around the house, had dinner, and went to the movies that night.  Calissa and I saw the Chipmunks movie and Conner and Trav saw the final Hunger Games movie.

Tuesday morning we got up early and headed for home.  Conner said he wasn't asleep, but we did hear him breathing loud (snoring).

We had snow for the first 3-4 hours, but we made it home safe.  We listened to the latest Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites book and celebrated Christmas that night with my parents.

My dad retires!

 Last Thursday, my dad had his work Christmas party and they celebrated his retirement from the company.  He invited my mom, me, and my brother Drew to attend.  They had it at Hs Lordships in Berkeley.  Here is the company president, Mike Garmin talking about my dad.

 The beautiful view from the room.

 Matt, my dad, Mike Garmin

 They gave my dad a new milkshake machine as a gift.  (I think they were hoping to have him make milkshakes for the office before he retires!)

 He gave them 33 years of service.  Started off his career as an accountant and finished as CFO of the company.

 The family!

Drew, Mom, Dad, and me

Congratulations dad on your retirement!!

Choir Concerts!

Last Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights were the CHS Choir Concerts at DVC.  Conner performed for the first time with the Show Choir and his partner, Kylie Lambert.  They did great and we were so impressed with his moves!  :)

We're excited to see him perform in the Spring and on tour!

Parker's 19th Birthday!

 Parker's birthday was on Tuesday, December 1st and he turned 19!!  We had to mail out his birthday and Christmas package before we left on the cruise.  Transfers were going to be the week of December 14th and we were pretty sure he was heading to Suriname so there wasn't going to be time to send his Christmas package after he got there.  I spend one evening wrapping all his gifts only to find out that I couldn't wrap them because they would unwrap them in customs!  It was a sad day!

We found out on Monday of his birthday that he had gotten his package and he was all set to open it up on his birthday.  He told us that Chipotle sounded "amazing" so we went out to Chipotle to celebrate his birthday.  Victoria came with us too!

Happy birthday Parker!  Wish we could have spent it with you, but we'd rather have you no other place than where you are!

Saturday - Heading home ... or are we?

 Saturday is always a sad day aboard the ship ... since we have to get off!  We had breakfast at 8:00 am and then headed off the ship.  Hope to see you real soon!

 We took the shuttle back to the airport hotel and everyone (except us) tried to check into their rooms but it was still too early.  We were flying out at 5:30 that night so we were just going to hang out with my parents and relax until our flight.  We hung out in the lobby for about 30 minutes and them their room was ready.  We relaxed for a while and then headed down to do some window shopping (in the mall at the airport) and then met my parents for lunch.  While we were eating we got a text that said our flight was delayed 2 hours.  That was OK until we realized that we had a connection in Denver that we were going to miss with that later flight. So, Trav and Conner got in the Southwest line to try and figure out what we could do.  Flights were filling up fast and we had two options.  One, fly to Denver and spend the night there and take a noon flight to SFO the next day.  Or, two, fly to SFO the next day at 6:00 pm!  There were only 4 more seats left on that flight, so we decided to take it, wondering what we'd do all day on Sunday waiting for our flight.  We headed back to the hotel to get a room for the night since we had to stay.  Then, we started thinking about flying into Oakland.  There weren't any flights on Saturday, but there were a couple on Sunday morning.  So, Trav went back to stand in line to change our flight to Oakland.  

 That night we went to dinner, got some ice cream, watched "Inside Out" and watched them build this Christmas tree in the lobby.  

 We got to bed early, and then got up the next morning, had breakfast, and then headed home! 

We had a great, memorable trip!  It was strange not having Parker there and was a little crazy with 17 people, but we'd do it again in a heartbeat!

We sure love Disney!

Disney Cruise - Friday - Castaway Cay!

Friday, we arrived at Castaway Cay.  It's usually our favorite day of the cruise.  However, this year we had a bit of rain.

I was up early so I got to watch as the captain backed our ship into the dock.  It was pretty cool! 

 Castaway Cay on a warm and overcast day.

We had breakfast that morning at the buffet. Conner and Calissa were getting along soooo well!

Smile for the camera!

 We got off the ship pretty early to get a good spot on the beach.  Of course, we had to stop for a picture in front of the huge Christmas tree on the island!

 There were Christmas decorations wherever we went.

Dumbo taking care of some painting on the ship while we were docked.

 We found some beach chairs and staked our claim!

Conner looks happy, right?

 Dad and Calissa about to get into the water.

 Calissa and I

 The ship from the beach.

 The not crowded beach. 

Calissa happy to be in the water! 

 Sisters-in-law!

 Calissa and Grandma swimming in the ocean.

 The boys playing football.

(Love the dark clouds in the distance?)

Then it started to sprinkle ... then it started to rain.

 Drew's family! 

 Who cares about the rain?  It was warm and we were in the water anyway.

Then, we decided to head over to the water slide.  Here we are getting ready to climb onto the platform. 

 Then, climbing down the platform.  We got up to the top of the slide and the lifeguards saw lightning ... so we all had to evacuate the water!  (We thought it would  have been faster to go down the slide, instead of the stairs, but they said no.

So, we hiked back (in the pouring rain) to our beach chairs to get our stuff out of the rain.

 Then we took shelter at the eating pavilion while it POURED!!

 Drew's family walking back to the ship (about a mile) in the pouring rain! 

 We decided while we were waiting to see if the storm would blow over, we might as well eat. 

 It was crazy since everything was soaking wet.  Once we were done and looked at the sky it didn't seem like it would let up anytime soon, so we decided to hike back to the ship.  We used out towels to protect our bags, but they still got pretty wet.  My flip flops are memory foam and foamed between my toes every step I took.  Finally, I just took them off and walked back bare foot.

 One we got back to the ship we had to stand in a huge line to get back on the ship.  Everything was dripping! Our bags and hats took 2 days to dry!  However, we dumped our towels as we got on the ship and the greeted us with warm, dry towels ... it was heaven!   We climbed back up to the 8th floor laughing all the way about our adventure and then took a "selfie" on the balcony. Fun memories for the day!

 After showers, we headed to the deck to relax on a recliner and read.  The skies cleared up, but by that time most everyone was back on the ship out of the rain. 

 It was another beautiful sunset! 

 Gorgeous! 

That night we had the good-bye show ... "See Ya' Real Soon!" Charlie and Sam made it into the show with one of their pictures from the trip. We had dinner tonight in the Royal Court and packed up our bags to put them outside our door ... sad that our vacation was drawing to an end!

 Calissa with our final towel art for the trip.