Goodbye, Old Year

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As I sit here staring at my Christmas decorations, I think to myself, "I really should take those down now that we're back..." And yet I sit here. And I stare at them. And I think.

I feel sad when I take my Christmas tree down. My first memory of feeling the Spirit happened while I was staring at my family's Christmas tree 15 Christmases ago. And even though my dinky little tree with cheap ornaments resembles almost nothing of that family tree, it still has the ability to rekindle those warm memories.

But I suppose it's time.

So, with fondness, I'll share bits and pieces of my vacation with you, take my decorations down, and gently tuck Christmas away for the next ten and a half months.

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Flying to Utah
Have you ever had the privilege to ride on a plane with a service dog? Well. On the first leg of our flight, we were accompanied by a dog so big, it seriously looked like a bear. It's white hair was shiny, beautiful and at least three inches long. After about 20 minutes of our hour long flight, we hit some turbulence which was soon accompanied by a sharp, eye-watering, nose crinkling smell...and I knew before I looked...dog poo. "EWWWWWWWW!!!!!" McKenzie yelled, "What is that yucky, yucky smell?!!!" I slowly tilted my head into the isle to see the hairy beast pacing back and forth and squirting diarrhea all over the front of the plane. Thick tufts of long, white hair were floating in the air, covering the floor, and sticking in the runny, stinky mess. We were lucky enough to be sitting just 2 rows behind this fiasco. The row in front of us evacuated their seats - the smell made one poor lady lose her lunch once...and almost again. The flight attendants did their best to clean it up and spray air freshener in their wake - but the smell was unmaskable.

Brian had an optimistic attitude, however. When our kids were slightly fussy and loud, he smiled and said, "Well, at least we're not the most hated people on the plane anymore!"


It's Beginning To FEEL a lot Like Christmas!
Carson couldn't get enough of the snow. Every time he stuck his finger in it, he'd stomp his feet in excitement and laugh uncontrollably. Each time we walked outside, he'd point and grunt with enthusiasm until we said, "Yeah, Carson. Snow!" He'd look at us with wide eyes as if to say, "Have you ever seen this stuff?!! This is awesome!!"

When we first arrived, we stepped out into the 28 degree Fahrenheit airport parking lot and after a short minute we heard McKenzie exclaim, "LOOK, Dad! I can do it TOO!!!!" We turned around and saw McKenzie's thrilled face. "WATCH!!" she said. She blew out a puff of air and said, "I CAN BLOW SMOKE!!!!!"



























McKenzie didn't like the cold much (as you can see from her face in the snowman picture), but she still helped build a stellar snowman!


Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
Enjoy these 21 pictures of our celebrations!

Bear Lake
















After Christmas, we took a little family vacation up to Bear Lake where we'd rented a cabin for two nights. McKenzie had her first sledding experience... in -2 degree F! The cold bit our faces and froze our nose goobers, but it was well worth it!

Brian's parents took the kids back to Farmington with them and let Brian and I have a couple days to ourselves. It was so good to reconnect and catch up on each others lives a little bit since Brian's been gone so much this month. We went snowshoeing, got our car stuck in the snow, watched movies, went out to eat and saw Enchanted - cute show!





























Happy New Year!
And finally, we brought in the new year with the kids at about 6:00 - Grandma had poppers and noise makers that the kids loved! (Well, McKenzie didn't much like the noise makers...every time her cousin Samuel would pop one she'd cover her ears...) Then we played Don't Eat Pete, and I Spy - what a great new year's eve!

Here are 11 pictures of us all ringing in the new year!

Happy 2008!
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