LLamas and Munchkins and Pancakes, Oh My!

The view from my Grandparents front window

Last weekend Ash and Pat were finally able to convince us to make the drive up to Montpelier with them to show the boys the town and hang out with the grandparents. We started up on Thursday, spent the night in Provo on Friday, and then made it into Montpelier Friday afternoon. Phew.

The grandparents may have loved that we took the longest way to get there. They also loved that Chad ordered 3 pancakes at the Ranch Hand. They loved showing off their beautiful home and Susie the vacuum. They loved taking us all on their house tour, showing us all the homes they had lived in. Grandpa gave us the extended tour that included a few more houses, property and the Mill. They loved that they boys were able to help out Uncle Stephen and get some yard work done and they loved that the girls could help with some handwriting. Grandpa loved teaching the boys to play snooker.

Ash and I loved wandering through Kings, watching the boys reaction as we passed cows, sheep and llamas on the way into town, and seeing the jankiest house with the junkiest trailer people ever... ever. We found out later that this was on the grandparents home tour, in fact grandpa found their landlord dead there. It was kinda fitting. Patrick almost died when we pulled up and stopped outside this trashpit house and grandpa told the story. We loved visiting with Aunt Peggy and Uncle Stephen into the wee hours of the morning. We loved trying to find something to eat for dinner and finally just going to every single fast food place in the town.... Subway and Arctic Circle.

We rounded out the trip with games of Munchkin, lots of sushi on the way home, and Chad and I almost running out of gas in the middle of nowhere in the middle of Utah. Next time we'll have to go up in the summer so we can take Grandpa out to the lake with us and wait 4 years to eat at the Bear Cave. I never did get my raspberry shake so we'll be back ;)

Christmas in the New Year

 We celebrated my dad's birthday on Thursday, I had to work.... boo. So after a strenuous day of chillin' at work answering a few phone calls my family picked me up and we headed out to eat. We decided to go where everyone could find something... Golden Corral! We had to accommodate 3 vegetarians, the grandparents and their meat loving tummys, and the rest of my family who is a little less particular :) A buffet was perfect!

We ate waaaay too much. And then we finished it off with cotton candy! Dad got sung to and then we headed back home to the grandparents.

Friday I only had to work half a day so we of course had to celebrate the birthday more with a second buffet! Chinese this time. It was a little bit of a drive to get there but it was my favorite. We ate soup and shrimp and noodles and loved every minute of it. This will have to be our dinner stop after Zion's National Park from now on!

Ash and Pat left us Friday afternoon. Jobs are the worst (ok, not really, but they are around the holidays). Then late Saturday night I got a phone call from Ashley.

"Are you alone"
"Uh, no"
"Ok, go into the bathroom so no one can hear!"
.....
"We are driving back down to St. George!!! BAH!!!"

Chad, Tay and Mom tried to get the secret out of me but I didn't tell! I'm a horrible liar though and couldn't stop smiling. They were convinced that she was pregnant. They got in around 2:30 Sunday morning. After church that morning all the kids headed over to the granparents. Everyone was very surprised to see Ash and Pat, we had just said goodbye!

The rest of the weekend we played cards until we couldn't play anymore! Mom and Dad took us grocery shopping, we almost had to get another cart! The boys played pool, grandpa whooped them all! Mom and I finished someone else's puzzle at the clubhouse in my grandparents neighborhood, and we swam soaked in the hot tub! We sneaked in a trip to Cafe Rio, bought goodies for half price at Kneaders and had the biggest shakes we could find! Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas to us!!!

Monday morning the parents and Tay headed back down to Vegas to catch their flight home. We said goodbye and did the ugly cry. It's always the worst to say goodbye. We had an awesome week with them and a great Christmas!

I'm Baaaack!

I had a wonderful, amazing, marvelous Christmas! My parents and brother flew out to St. George and my sister and her husband came down from Provo. Aaaand, my grandparents are spending the winter down here already. The last week I've spent all of my time with my family, and it's been the best!

We picked up my parents and Taylor at the airport Sunday afternoon. After driving the strip and a pit stop for some Mexican food we were back in St. George at the Grandparents house.

Christmas Eve we braved the store to go shopping for some last minute stocking stuffers and groceries for Christmas dinner. I took over Grandma's kitchen to make all of our favorite cookies and Chad started a new tradition of making his mom's cinnamon rolls. We had KFC for dinner, and a piece of fried chicken may or may not have found it's way on to my plate, whoops.... mmmmmm. We then dragged Grandma out into the cold to see all of the lights at the St. George temple. On the late drive home Chad, Taylor and I managed to avoid getting ran over by the biggest tumble weed of all time.

Then we played dress up with all the animals while Chad stayed up until the wee hours of the morning finishing his delicious cinnamon rolls.

Ash and Pat joined us Christmas night where we ate too much, opened presents, took naps and played Christmas bingo. Grandma even had prizes for us all, Taylor was the big cash winner. I got some jerky and Chad and Pat played with Pat's prize of "go fish" into the night.
 

 

Wednesday we headed to Kneaders for a french toast breakfast and then braved the snow(?!) to take some pictures up at Pioneer Park. It was just a tad bit chilly out. We were happy to join the grandparents back at the warm house for leftovers and more cookies :)

We spent the rest of the evening playing pool, playing the piano, swimming, working on a puzzle and playing hand and foot.

The rest of the week brought surprise 2am visitors and a buffet of buffets! But that can wait until tomorrow! I hope that you all had wonderful a wonderful Christmas!

Last Friday Night

We headed over to the grandparents Friday morning. They are headed back to Idaho today. We were able to send them off with peace of mind by letting them know that I got a part time job. They were very happy and looked very relieved. Chad was able to meet my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Cliff who were visiting and helping them pack. After some pizza and apple pie we said our goodbyes and headed out. Hopefully we can make it up to visit sometime this summer.

We ran home to clean our house before Holly, Alex, and baby Bri came by to visit. Chad took Rukia out running with him to hopefully wear her out so she wasn't so hyper. It was great to see Holly again and to meet her family. Bri was super cute and Alex was great, very funny. We had a great time catching up. Bri tried desperately to climb our stairs, we ate lots of pizza, and Rukia tried to lick up everyone's faces.

Some cute pics from BYU days, most of the pictures we took were pretty funny/awkward/not super flatering... I went with cute ones instead! :)

Cookies and Cards

My parents were here visiting last week and we had so much fun with them!

We did a lot of this...

The women won A LOT, and the men finally had to resort to cheating to get some wins. Chad however tells a different version of this story.

There was a lot of debating on where to eat. There always is when my grandparents are involved ;) They want to make sure we all get something we want. So the whole vegetarian thing made that debate even longer this time!

Fortunately there was a lot of these too...

In between the card playing and eating we swam in the very warm pool at my grandparents clubhouse, had a major grocery shopping excursion at WalMart, got awesome frozen yogurt, Cafe Rio shrimp tacos, and Kneaders French Toast (I guess that's still eating!), went to the DI, and just hung out and talked a lot. It was a great week that went by way too fast!