Merry Christmas

 

O' Christmas Tree!

This is a little late but it is a favorite Christmas tradition of mine so I had to post it. At the beginning of December every year my family makes the annual trip down to Sanpete county where our family owns some land. Every year we get all the kids dressed in their winter clothes and hike up the mountain to find the perfect Christmas tree. Now we have done this since before I can remember so the perfect trees are getting low in numbers. This year I was very excited for a couple of reasons: first this would be Isabelle's first Christmas tree hunt and second the last two year when we lived in Las Vegas we didn't have a tree at all. Well this last weekend came and along came the first big snow storm of the winter. My family was all a little hesitant but I didn't care, I wanted a tree! Saturday morning came and there was a lot of snow on the ground and the roads were bad and it was still coming down. We made a family decision to wait until noon and then see what it looked like. All morning things weren't looking good and I was really not very happy. At noon my mom called and said be ready in 20 minutes we are heading down. We grabbed our stuff and headed out. For the hour and half drive down we were wondering if we had made the wrong decision as it was a blizzard out and the roads were not good. We finally all made it to the dirt road and good thing we have a four wheel drive truck which made it up the cabin. We got all the kids in their snow clothes and headed up the mountain. We walked and walked and hiked and hiked and had our eyes open for the five perfect trees. Todd found one for us right away and cut it down. Then I was super woman and carried/dragged it down the mountain all by myself (I was quite proud.) Then I headed back up to find the rest. After what seemed like along time and a lot of hiking in foot deep snow we had the trees. My feet were cold, my lungs were burning, my throat hurt from yelling from one ridge to the next and my arms hurt from me and my sister trying to saw down her tree with just the two of us....but we had the trees! We made it back to the cabin fed the kids some hot dogs and then jumped back in the truck to head out before it got too late and we got snowed in. Overall I think we were a little crazy but we made it out with five great looking trees. I was so excited as one of my favorite things is to smell a fresh cut Christmas tree when you walk in the house. So our tree is finally up and it might not be the perfect shape, or the tallest or the fullest but it is what I wanted!

Isabelle stayed in the cabin with grandma while we ventured out in the blizzard so this is when we got home! Next year she will get to hike with us!

Las Vegas, BABY!

This last week we had the chance to go back to Las Vegas. We lived there for two years and haven't been back since we moved away. It was really weird going back. For two years we called that home and then to go back and see where we lived was really weird. When we first moved down to Las Vegas I was not excited. I was happy that Todd was going to school and I tried my hardest to be supportive but moving away was not easy. We found a great place to live and had heard great things about living in Henderson/ Las Vegas. Everyone told me that it would be great experience and that the time would go by quickly. I didn't believe them. I will have to admit now that it was a great experience and time really did go by fast. It was great for our family and I learned and grew a lot. I was actually really sad when we moved, mostly because of the great friends that we had made. So I was so excited when we decided to go back for a quick visit. Todd had a conference this last week and so we went along for the ride.
We had such a great time, after the 6 hour drive. Isabelle actually did great on the ride. We visited our buddies that we use to see and play with everyday and had fun going to McDonalds and just letting the girls play. We had dinner with some old friends and stayed up late every night. Vegas is known for the great shopping so of course we had to go to the outlets and spend some money. We went to the chocolate factory and then saw the Christmas lights at the cactus garden with some more great friends. It was so fun to meet back up with good friends. When we lived down in Vegas we didn't have family around but I feel like we made friends that became our families. We had a quick fast trip but it was well worth it.


Isabelle and Jalena playing on the slide!

Isabelle at the cactus gardens

Isabelle- Leah- Addie