Flowell

This past weekend, Cass and I were able to take the St George Swallow cousins and go up to Flowell to hear Grandma Carma and Caleb, a Flowell cousin, give their mission reports. We went up on Saturday so that we could have more time to spend with the family and had a great time! The cousins built a massive snowman while I visited with Grandma and we got dinner ready. We all had dinner together and then watched The Avengers. 

I actually ended up not watching the movie, baby makes it hard to get (and stay!) comfortable, so I went and read and move and stretched and fell asleep. :) 

Sunday morning Grandma Carma and Caleb gave their talks at church. They both did a great job & it was great to hear them speak! Afterwards we went to Kelby & MaryAnne's house to eat. There was lots of yummy treats and I ate way too much! After most everyone else left, we played Rook. It was fun. I didn't do to terrible at it! And then we drove home in the freezing cold! 

Savvy

One of Matthew's books, Savvy by Ingrid Law is a cute idea of a novel for the younger YA reader. It's sort of a fantasy, but not overly so.  it tells the story of Mibs and her siblings as they go on a coming-of-age road trip style adventure to "fix" Mibs's ill father. It's a cute book, but definitely more for the younger reader. It's not quite enough for an adult. I recommend as a read-with-your-child or for a younger YA reader. Read on, friends!

Family Fun: The Whitakers

Friday afternoon we met up with Morrell (who is not a Whitaker, but this happened on the same day!) who wanted to buy us a baby car seat/stroller combo for our Christmas present -- Love it! Thanks Morrell! He's going to be such a good grandpa! Then he took us to lunch at

 Noodles & Co. Pad Thai. Delicious.

Friday was also Chris's birthday, and we wanted to take her out to dinner. She and Carrie were working on remodeling the shower at McCoys, so we spent the afternoon there playing with the kids til dinner time. Dylan met up with us and we had Mexican. Yum! 

On Saturday we went sledding. Pyper had a blast! Though she still said her favorite thing that day was Chick-fil-a . . . 

Covering her eyes, just a little scary! 

awww, good big brother!

by herself, from halfway

On Sunday we went to church with Chris and Pyper and had a family dinner that night: Dylan came, as well as Madi and her boyfriend Colby. On Monday, Chris and Carrie had to work on the shower again, so Cassidy and I took the girls sledding. They had a blast and we wore them out!

Look at that smile!!

Cass got so far! 

Throwing Snowballs

Pyper the Sled Dog

The girls were about to crash, so Cass ran down to stop them.
When he realized they weren't going to crash, he slowed down and then fell!

Kaia & Mae

Rolling down the hill

Cold & Windy!

Family Fun: The Stones

We spent the first few days of our vacation with my parents and siblings. On the day after Christmas, those of us who were around went to see Rise of the Guardians at the discount theater. It was a pretty cute movie and everyone liked it. Turns out Hugh Jackman's in it too! I'm not sure if he used his regular accent or if he exaggerated it, but he was very Australian. I didn't even know it was him til it was over! After the movie, we we went to Two Jack's Pizza for delicious BBQ pizza and cheese sticks. Yummmmmm. . . is it too soon to go back? 

The 27th is Ammon's birthday, and Michael had the day off of work, so Mom got us these passes for a bunch of activities up in Salt Lake. First we went to the Clark Planetarium. They had some cool things to see and then we watched a silly little Christmas movie. 

Ammon, Jordyn, and Michael trying to steal the electricity from each other.
Michael kept winning!

Ammon and Mom watching

The passes included a free lunch at the Lion House. The rolls were really good, especially with the honey butter! After lunch we headed to the Leonardo Museum. It was really neat!

Adam the engineer loves tinkering with wires!
Jenn was less than pleased that I took her photo, though

Dad also found a fun toy to play with.
With which to play. haha

Cassidy likes building things!

It's a rocket!

Matthew joining in on the fun!

Green Screen!

Where'd they go? 

at one with the mountain

Jordyn making a stop-motion film with 3D objects

Cass and I made a stop-motion film too! 

Cassidy doing it Gangnam Style

You stand in front of the computer and it copies your movements!

When Hagrid teaches "Care of Magical Creatures" . . . 

I just thought this looked neat!

After seeing all the exhibits at The Leonardo, we headed back to the Planetarium to see if there were any other neat movies to see. Well, we picked one, but it was kind of boring. Jordyn thought it was amazing; pretty sure the rest of us fell asleep! Then we went to the moon and Mars! It was a super fun day!

Christmas

Because of our work schedules this year, Cassidy and I drove up north for the holiday on Christmas Eve. It was pretty snowy, but Cass is a good driver and we had no problems! 

Our first stop was in Flowell to visit Grandma Carma. We just dropped in for a quick visit, but it was great to see her. Next we met up with Chris, Nathan, and Pyper at Nathan's parents to see their Christmas Extravaganza display. They have trains and Christmas's villages set up all over. 

Afterwards we headed up to Grandma & Grandpa McCoy's for the family Christmas Eve party, where we worked on a service project. Cass cut fringe on fleece blankets. I helped Pyper make a necklace and bracelet then helped tie a baby quilt. 

Then we went down to my parents' house for Christmas Eve dinner with all my siblings, Grandpa, Uncle Scott, and his kids. And I finally got to meet baby William!! he is so squishy and adorable!! 

Awww! Tiny squishy baby! 

me & Cass in front of the tree

We spent the night at my parents's house. A very excited Jordyn woke us up at seven; I think that's a new late for my family! 

Jordyn loves Alpine, the boo-eyed reindeer I got her

After presents, we had breakfast. Mom made some great cinnamon rolls. I just love cinnamon rolls! Then we played Ticket to Ride. I got Dad the 1912 expansion and it was fun to play with the new routes. 

Later that afternoon, Cass and I headed up to Salt Lake to meet up with Morrell and Dylan. We saw Les Miserables. While I was mostly impressed, there were definitely things I liked better in the USF production. The movie was much more emotional and less power ballad than I like. It was also harder to connect with the characters. Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway were great, but stage is very different from screen. And Amanda Seyfried drove me nuts. Her voice was great, but I really didn't like her vibrato. It was excessive. As far as her role as Cosette . . . well, I don't like the character of Cosette, but Amanda Seyfried nailed the character. Overall, I thought it was a good production. Not the absolute best it could be, but certainly enjoyable. 

Cass and I had a great Christmas & I hope you did too! 

Ice Skating

Saturday we went ice skating. It was great to have almost everyone there, but we missed Dylan! We all had fun, I just wish my feet weren't getting so fat so I wouldn't've had to take a break so often! 

Brit, Pyper, Chris, and Nathan.
It was Brit's first time skating but he did great! 

Madi & Colby

Cass, Pyper, and Chris
Pyper loved skating, until she got tired.

Pyper was all done skating and ready to eat!
(also, I love her hat! Someone should make one for my baby!
*hint hint*)

The Living Planet Aquarium

Last Friday, we went to the Living Planet Aquarium.

We had a great time and I thought it was really neat!

cute napping otters!

I just really thought the otters were adorable. I wish I had gotten a better photo!

Nemo in his "ane-ma-nem-a-nee!"

upside down jellyfish!

it's alive! crazy!

the octopus has sensitive eyes, so I couldn't use flash. but it's such an interesting animal!

I told Cassidy, "I wish we were seahorses cuz then you'd carry the baby!"

Matthew petting the shark

Jordyn and Ammon with the shark

Jenn, Adam, and Dad

Rays are my favorite!

shark!!! aah!!!

fish face!

warrior face!

penguins! It was hard to get a good picture of them, too!

Penguins are tall!