Christmas 2008

Christmas 08

We had a very full Christmas this year. Lisa and Andrew came over Tuesday evening to have a Christmas with us. Roxy enjoyed all the goodies her Grandma brought her. Both Donovan and Roxy loved all the presents. Christmas Eve was our Christmas morning. Aaron had to wake up everyone so we could open everything, shower, and head out the door to catch our flight. We all had a great morning. We made it to our flight without any delays thanks to our friend Andrew. The flight was pretty easy, Donovan got restless halfway through but we made it to Ontario and were happy to be out of confined quarters. First thing we did was head to In-N-Out for our Lunch. I LOVE THAT PLACE!!!!! Roxy had her first meal all by herself. She ate it all so she must like it too. Kim and her family arrived soon after to help us celebrate Christmas Eve. Roxy's eyes lite up when Dillan came in the room. It was as if they were never separated. They had so much fun just being together.

We tried to sleep in Christmas morning but I was awakened by two little people coming into our room saying "we need to wake everyone up." So I jumped out of bed thinking that everyone was waiting on us! No...I got up and I was the only one up with the kids. What a mean trick. I guess Grandma had told them Not to wake anyone up and it got lost in translation. Oh well, at least I didn't miss anything. It was so much fun to have everyone there opening presents.

We finished up and went to get ready for Uncle Richard's house. Christmas Brunch is my favorite tradition. Don't get me wrong, turkey and ham are great, but Sticky Buns...better. And my Dad's hash browns are awesome. Oh man, that was a great meal. Having all my extended family there was icing on the cake. Seeing my aunts, uncles, cousins, and second cousins all in one place was great. I think the only other place that happens is Shaver Lake in the Summer. It's pretty funny because the topic this Christmas was Shaver Lake.

After a great day at Richard's house, we headed over to Grandma Mary's house for Christmas dinner. It was fun to see Roxy and Donovan play with Grandma Mary. Donovan was soooo tired that he actually napped at her house for most of the evening. We needed to head out to get back to my parent's house because the next day we were driving to Utah.

The drive was around 10 hours and we made it to Ruby's Inn in Bryce Canyon. When we got out of the car around 8:00pm it was -8 degrees. Yes, it was freezing and we were happy to get into the hotel. We all tried to eat dinner but we were all full from all the snacks we scarfed down in the car. Roxann was ill and slept during dinner. But in the morning, we were going to go play in the snow and try some sledding.

During the night Donovan wasn't feeling well and throw up all evening. So our room became the designated "puke" room. Aaron, Chad, Chris, and Papa went off the path to try and make a sled run. All the kids were miserable and decided they were done before any of them tried it. So we abandoned the run after the boys made it perfect. But Papa got an idea and he rented snow shoes from the hotel the next day to beat down a path for us to get to the hill a lot easier.

That night we got back to the hotel and decided that we would all rather swim and sit in the hot tub. It felt so nice to sit in the tub. Then we all got dressed and tried the restaurant again. Everyone ate a lot better this time.

The next morning we got up and went back to the sled run the boys made the day before. Now that we had some snow shoes, we made it to the hill and the kids ended up having a super day of sledding. Donovan got a few runs in with me. His face always got covered in snow, but he didn't seem to mind. We went back to the hotel and went in the pool again. Donovan has become quite a water baby. He refused to leave the spa but oh well, he left by force. We were all a little tired of the restaurant so we all got in the cars and drove toward town to find something open in the middle of nowhere Utah on a Sunday. We found a place off the highway and I think we were all happy to have found something other than the Ruby Inn restaurant. I had a great hamburger, Papa tried an Elk burger and the food wasn't the best in the world, but I think that we were happy for change. We put the kids to bed and played some card games. I actually won so I needed to comment on that. When I got back to our room, Roxann started to fuss and threw-up all over her bed. It was only a matter of time I guess.

The next morning we all headed out for Saint George to get some gas and say Goodbye to Kim and Chris who went to see his family who lived nearby. Aaron was sick in the backseat the whole way down from Bryce Canyon to Vegas. I was fine until we hit Vegas, then it was all disaster once we were in the airport. I had a rough flight. But because I was sick on the plane, both flight attendants served us first and were the sweetest ladies to us. Thankfully our flight was empty and I got to lay down in a row all by myself. Once we got in the car, Roxy looked at me and started crying saying, "Mommy, I just want to go home now PLEASE." I felt so bad for her, it was a long week of car rides and plane trips. I have never seen her so happy to go to bed.

All in all it was a fun trip. There were ups and downs but we were just happy to be with family. Maybe next Christmas we can convince everyone to come out here or at least stay in one place for the holidays. We had fun and can't thank Mom and Dad enough for making it possible.