Our Special Snowman

We were so lucky to have a white Christmas down in this part of the state.  I was a little worried we would never get any snow but it came just before Christmas and stayed well we still have the snow from before Christmas and it is January.  We got some really good snowman building snow so we thought we would take advantage of it.  

Christmas Eve Travis had the day off so this was the day he/we created the most unusual snowman.  The body started out normal but the additions were where Travis got a little, um lets say creative.  We had tennis balls for the eyes, a sprinkler for the mouth, a block for the nose- which had to be Aggie Blue to appease Sawyer, blocks for the buttons, antlers and ears for Travis, hot dog roasters for arms, and a pot for a hat.  Later that evening Travis wrapped our Christmas lights around the infamous snowman but I didn't ever get out there to get a picture of it unfortunately.  People kept driving by our house to see what in the world was lit up, we know this because we live at the end of a dead end street. 

While Travis was building the snowman I pulled the kids around the yard on the sled.  Sawyer kept saying "faster, faster", I had precious little cargo though so we tried to keep it smooth for the little one.  

We Survived Sledding

It finally snowed A LOT, enough to do a little sledding.  Travis found out where the locals go sledding and convinced my sisters and I it would be a good little outing.  I was a little skeptical, I have previously had some really bad experiences, but shoot what the hay lets give it a try. 

We all loaded up in the suburban and headed up to the gravel pit, which is where the best sledding is. We started out on a small hill to break us in.  That wasn't enough so after a few runs on the bunny hill we advanced to the big hill.  

Sawyer landed on his face. He thought it was great though. 

Aunt Nessy what a great babysitter.  She is like the baby whisperer. 

We convinced Krista to go down the hill first.  She is the youngest so she really had no choice.  Oh the joys of being the smallest.  She survived the first run so I decided, hey I can do that.  I went down but my tail bone is just not what it used to be after children.  We moved to a different run to avoid the bumps at the bottom.  The run didn't seem that bad but it was pretty steep.  Again, we sent Krista down first.  She made it! I decided hey I can do that. Just closed my eyes and yelled.  I made it too.  Travis decided he should climb half way up the hill and take a picture of our faces.  Good idea right?  Well, I was first up for the photo op.  You know how when you don't want to hit something and by not wanting to hit something you actually head right for it?  I started down the hill and my sled was veering towards Travis.  I leaned the other way but that just made me really head towards Travis.  Luckily, he jumped.  He cleared me but the sled hit his foot causing him to do a barrel roll in mid-air.  All I could think in my head is "This is really going to hurt."  I kept waiting for the impact of hitting Travis but it never came.  Thank goodness, instead I fell off the sled and rolled the rest of the way down the hill.  I wish he would have had the video camera going instead of the picture camera.  We all had a great ab workout laughing about that incident.   

I love Vanessa's face. Priceless

Sawyer even rode down the hill.  Well from a few feet up.  He would just lay down and yell because that is what we were all doing.  We kept saying just close your eyes and lay back. All in all  great fun was had by all. 

Hustle and Bustle

Christmas snuck up on us.  I had some Christmas shopping to do and the stores around these parts didn't have what I wanted so I convinced Travis to brave the Utah County crowds and head up north.  This was no small sacrifice for my anti-crowds husband.  He used to think Logan got crowded.  I told him though that is what you get when you move out of the city, you have to go to the city because sometime internet shopping just won't do. 

I picked the worst day to go up.  I didn't look at the weather forecast until the day we were going and it was supposed to be cold, snowy, and windy.  This time the weatherman was exactly right, that is a first right? 

Our first stop was in Spanish Fork.  We found out on the way up there my parents decided to brave the weather and go to Utah County as well.  We met up with them at the new Costco.  I love that store!  Surprisingly it was not as crowded as I thought it would be, thank goodness.  

We headed up to the University Mall afterwards.  I miss malls. It was so crowded though.  Even I started to doubt it was a good idea to go to the mall.  That mall is not very equipped to have strollers I decided.  A lot of the stores were too narrow.  I ran into countless people and knocked over a few things.  Oh well.  I couldn't believe it, I mean BYU is right there, the baby factory, and they don't set up the mall better for strollers.  The kids handled the crowds pretty well though.  We found a few of our items.  

After the mall we headed up to Salt Lake to Temple Square to look at the amazing lights.  We haven't been for a few years so  I was really excited.  The kids fell asleep on the way up thank goodness!! We walked out of the parking garage to snow.  It was really nice though.  It almost felt like we were in a snow globe.  Very magical if you ask me.  Sawyer liked the lights and he loved riding on Dad's shoulders.  Jaylee didn't get to see many lights because she was covered up. We always have a competition to see if we can find someone on Temple Square that we know but to no avail this year.  We didn't find anybody.  

I am grateful that Travis braved the crowds for me and we got to go to the "BIG" city.  

Lady Luck

The end of November was an exciting time for our little family.  Travis had the opportunity to go to a conference in Las Vegas, wahoo!!! Jaylee and I accompanied Travis while Sawyer went to Grandma Jennifer's, a huge Thank You Mom. We were so excited to head down for a little vacation, well for me and the baby anyways, Travis was in class a lot. 

Monday Grandma took Sawyer and we headed down the road to Mesquite to meet up with Vanessa for dinner.  We got to see her house for the first time.  We were impressed.  We went to sushi for the first time in a very long time.  It was fun to visit with Vanessa but she had to go to work and we had to go check into our hotel, Mandalay Bay.  

Mandalay Bay has a huge convention center that the Auto CAD conference was in.  We walked forever to find the area where you checked into the conference.  

Tuesday morning Travis had to report at like 7 in the morning for breakfast but he still found time to bring me some breakfast.  Such a great husband. I had mapped out a whole day of traveling around the city to check things out.  Let's face it, I have never really been off the strip.  Vegas to me is only shiny lights and scantily clad people on billboards, I wanted to know what the appeal of living in Vegas was.  We hit up a Target, a Cafe Rio for lunch, the temple, and an Albertson's.  We drove all over didn't even get lost but I think we drove though little Mexico.  There were times when everything was in Spanish. Kind of scary.

  Tuesday evening we met up with Travis and a couple of people from his work to go to Pho.  I love Pho.  This place was so much better than the place we ate at in Provo.  I felt bad because Jaylee was a little loud but we managed.  We went over to the Bellagio afterwards to see the chocolate fountain and the Christmas display they put up.  

Wednesday morning we just chilled in the hotel room and slept in.  I haven't slept in in a very long time because of my adorable 2 year old.  I had made plans to utilize my Costco card that I just barely got.  I googled Costco and there was one not too far away and it had 4 out of 5 stars.  Score right.  Well I got lost on the way there so much for my stellar driving directions.  The Costco ended up being a business Costco and I don't have a smart phone to look up another one.  I was ticked.  It did not say that this one would not have a food area which I had counted on for lunch so I was pretty cranky because I had been lost and I was in hunger mode.  Jaylee and I made it back to the hotel and headed over to the Luxor to eat and then over to the Excaliber to their food court for a treat. 

Wednesday night we met up with Travis' cousin Bryson and Sara and their adorable little girl for dinner.  They live in a pretty nice area of Henderson.  We ate at the Cheesecake factory, yum.  Their menu is entirely too large though, I have the toughest time choosing what to eat. We got some pumpkin cheesecake to take with us.  We went back to their house and visited for a while afterwards, it was fun to catch up with them.  We haven't seen them for a really long time. 

Thursday Vanessa came and met me to go shopping.  I was so excited to have a shopping partner that could talk. We went to the outlet mall on the northend of the strip.  That place had all my favorite stores.  I had a hard time not spending all the money on myself.  I did end up with some amazing boots though. We were both hungry afterwards so we grabbed a bit and headed to the otherside of town to finish up our shopping list.  I really liked it out there.  I think it was the northwest area.  We had to head back to be able to meet Travis for dinner with his company. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe.  It was good but Jaylee was being pretty loud.  

After dinner Vanessa decided to stay and hit up Serendipity with us down by the Caesar's Palace.  We walked down the Strip to get a little exercise and it was actually really warm out.  It did not disappoint.  We got some Frozen Hot Chocolate and a Black and White Sundae.  Oh my goodness.  If that place were not so expensive and far away I would visit every day. I would also weigh 500 lbs. It was fun to hang out with Vanessa all day.  I never get to see her and we always have a great time together.  

Friday morning we had to wake up really early to be back to Monroe in time to meet my mom so she could make it to the temple.  I really wanted to eat at the Black Bear dinner for their amazing breakfast too.  It was so worth waking up at the crack of dawn to eat their pancakes and that is saying something because I don't really like pancakes. We were so excited to see our little Sawyer the Warrior but when he got home he told us he wanted to go to Poppa's house.  Sad.  He eventually warmed up to us.  He had a great time golfing and shopping with grandma all week.  He asks to go back all the time.  Thanks so much for all that made this amazing week happen. 

Happy Girl at the temple

After the Rainforest Cafe

The Black and White Sundae

The Frozen Hot Chocolate

Done and Done

We hit up the Bellagio again with Vanessa to see the completed Christmas display 

Pumpkins Demise

Since it was after Thanksgiving we decided we should finally get rid of our rapidly decaying pumpkins that were still decorating our porch.  We couldn't just get rid of the pumpkins in the garbage can , NOPE, we had to have a little target practice. We loaded everything up and headed to the hills.  I was a little worried because the pumpkins were really old and sometimes they seem to melt from the inside out and spew nastiness all over.  

We set the pumpkins at lots of different distances and took fire.  Travis took the shotgun to one that I threw up for him. He is pretty talented because I threw it awful but he still hit it.  I took aim at my first one and hit it right in the middle- Dead Eye, that is what they call me. Sawyer wanted in on the action so Travis helped him shoot a pumpkin too.  Travis had me shoot one with a 3in double buck shot.  He told me it would kick but ....... DANG I was not expecting that.  I almost dropped the gun.  It was a fun night out with the family though. 

Aggie Blue

Way back in the summer Travis bought tickets to the USU v. Texas game that happened to be the first weekend of Nov.  I thought he was nuts thinking we would take our two kids to a football game in Cache Valley in Nov.  Last year on that weekend it snowed, I know this because I ran the First Dam Run and I froze my tail end off.  This year the weather has been crazy so we decided to brave the 60 degree weather and go to the game. We were just making a fast trip because we really should have been putting our house in order but the Aggie's have been so great this year we didn't want to miss the opportunity to see them play again.  

We drove up on Friday after work and made a brief stop at the new Scheel's Store.  I was all excited to ride the Feris Wheel but Sawyer wasn't tall enough and I didn't want to ride alone.  Bummer, maybe in a few months.  We grabbed some dinner and made our way to Travis' cousins Kiffen's.  He is a great host, always willing to do whatever we need. We stayed up pretty late that night catching up with Kiffen and Krista stopped by.

Saturday morning we headed to Kneader's to get their All-You-Can-Eat French Toast.  Krista came with us to share in the goodness.  I don't know why they have all-you-can-eat because after the first plate you are so full there isn't much room for another plate.  I miss Kneader's, who I am kidding, I miss Logan. We had to go get ready for the game after breakfast because we needed to get some good seats and I still had errands to run since we were in the "big" city. 

I dropped the guys off at the game and I did a little shopping for a craft I want to do.  I miss Hobby Lobby.  I love that store so many great ideas and great projects. Jaylee came with me and we ran into an old friend from Beaver, Steph Brown.  

Jaylee and I were a little late to the game because she demanded food.  Ya gotta do what the baby tells ya right?  Travis got us some great seats next to his cousin's Kyle, Charelle, Rachelle, and Toby.  It was so warm that day we hardly needed jackets.  I took Sawyer to go get a treat to calm his restlessness and hunger and where do you think he ran to first, the Snow Cone Place.  I think he was the only kid that was eating a snow cone.  It was warm but it wasn't summer for heaven sakes.  He had his mind made up though.  

During the game Sawyer entertained us by trying to make friends with a boy sitting across the aisle from us.  He went and sat by the boy but the boy looked at him like he was a crazy person.  The boy moved and Sawyer tried to follow him.  Poor Sawyer all he wanted was a friend.  We were also entertained by people going up and down the steps.  Right by us one of the steps was slightly higher than the other stairs.  I think about 90% of the people going up the stairs tripped on it.  Fortunately, nobody fell.  USU you need to do something about that.  

After the game we ran into a bunch of people from our Ward up there.  It was fun to catch up even if it wasn't for very long.  We were supposed to go meet up with our old neighbors after the game but Travis' aunt and uncle were in town and were leaving that night so we had to go see them for a bit.  We haven't seen this Neil and JoDene for a long time so it was good to catch up.  We missed seeing the Rowley's though, I was pretty bummed, so was Sawyer he wanted to see Brayden. 

We met up with Krista again to go to Aggie Ice Cream.  What is a visit to Cache Valley without it?  We even bought a stand of Caramel Cashew, my favorite.  I was really excited about that at the time but now my pants and I are not very happy about that decision. 

On Sunday we woke up and headed back home.  We were going to leave on Saturday night but we were both so exhausted that I know I wouldn't even make it out of the valley before I was asleep. We wanted to go to our new ward since everybody was so excited we moved into it.  We had a great weekend even if it wasn't very long. 

Snow White

We finally had our first snow storm of the season not too long ago- sometime in early Nov.  I was really worried we wouldn't see snow this year since we are still averaging 60 degree weather and it is December.  So crazy.  

We really enjoyed our little snow day.  Fortunately for us it was a weekend and we were able to have Travis home with us. Sawyer was especially thankful because this Mamma doesn't like to be cold and neither does the baby.  We just let Sawyer roam in the yard for a bit but all he really wanted to do was eat snow.  

We decided for dinner we would make some tin foil dinners and cook them outside in the fire pit.  Sawyer started helping Travis but then got so tired he just fell right asleep.  Baby J and I went and kept Travis company while the food cooked.  Unfortunately, we got caught up in the fire and we burned our dinners.