What a wonderful break we've had in Utah. We go home Monday and I think we will be lost as to what to do without all the wonderful company. It has been awesome to have Eric home with us for 2.5 weeks, not to mention visits with all of the cousins and in laws. Here are a few of our highlights...
Staying with Eric's sister's family... Here is Eric's nephew with Kara...
Going to the Nutcracker with Eric's niece Bre. It was Elia's first "ballet" and she had a great time watching the beautful ballerinas.
Visiting the lights on Temple Square... the cold pretty much sucked the life out of my battery and when I thought my camera was dead, it was hard for me to be able to enjoy the pretty lights without being able to take pictures of it! I'm not sure what that says about me, but I told myself that I could still enjoy it without taking pictures... I put the battery in my pocket and I was all the more glad when my battery did warm up enough for me to take two pictures...
Eric's sister and brother-in-law were kind enough to take Kara... It was fun to enjoy the lights with just Elia and Eric and I (Eric's parents had Ethan).
We met some friends on Temple Square a few days later so I could take pictures of their family (www.pettyphotography.blogspot.com). It was so great to see them. After we kept to our Cafe-Rio-after-the-temple tradition that we had started in Arizona and enjoyed catching up over sweet pork burritos.
Another few days of our trip were spent meeting Eric's brother's family (they live in Montana) at his mother-in-law's house in Idaho.
Everyone joined in on the sledding and playing games until midnight or later. All-in-all, we went sledding three or four times while we were in Utah.
Back in Logan we played with our cousins (some from Colorado Springs and some from Morgan, UT). 
All of the grandkids that were home for Christmas...
The ones in Colorado Springs have a girl a year older than Ethan and a boy a year older than Ethan. They LOVED playing together. The girls especially are like peas in a pod. Eric's cousin's wife had recently returned from a trip to India and bought the girls these matching dresses...
Christmas morning! Elia loved her "Build-a-bear" clothing sets
And Ethan loved the sword Elia picked out for him at the dollar store.
I made the kids church bags and put the new gospel art picture books in them. They love taking them to church and I don't have to pack all their stuff around. The bag I made is in the bottom right corner of the picture. I thought it turned out super cute.
Our little Santa baby. She got two teething toys... What else can a 4 month old want?! :)
We followed presents with the Petty tradition of fried chicken and biscuits. Supposedly it is a Texas tradition (his whole family is from Texas)... though I've never seen anyone there do that. Whatever its origins, it is a lot of fun.Eric's sweet grandma and Kara... Four generations...
Well, after two and a half weeks of vacation we will return to Texas totally exhausted. I guess that is what we get for playing games every night until 1, 2 or 3 in the morning :)! To come are also pictures from our great Thunderbird get together.Oh, I also forgot to mention that I had knee surgery a week ago so I could take advantage of all the extra help here. The surgery went well and, though I'm still hobbling around, the recovery should be less than a month.
I can't start the new year without some mention of our new year's resolutions. We've decided we won't watch TV shows during the week and we aren't going to eat dessert food this year. The TV show goal will help us go to bed earlier, get up earlier and accomplish everything else we want to do like read more, exercise more regularly, keep a cleaner house, etc. And the sweets goal will help us eat healthier and curb the sweet teeth of our family. Wish us luck! Here's to a new year!
6 comments:
YOU GUYS ARE JUST AWESOME!!. Too bad it's such a busy time of the year, we would have loved to see ya!. maybe next year huh?.
That Temple Square picture with the lights is amazing. You'll have to tell me which lense you used and what setting - see I need the D90! j/k! ;) It was so much fun to see you guys! Looks like your trip was a blast. I can't believe those are your two New Years Resolutions, those are really tough ones, good luck!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Petty's
Thanks again for all the fun pictures. I have really been enjoying them. I wish we could see you more often. We need to find Mark a airline job so we can get some free tickets. Even though it was fun, I am glad my vacation was only five days. I was so messed up from the staying up an playing those days, I got sick. Mark and I are going to try for no sugar this year. We are a little older and further down the road and feel we need to take more drastic measures. Have strep the last three days has really helped kick start it for me. After eating nothing but saltens and drinking herbal tea, juice and water, I am not craving sweets. We will see how long it last! (I heard a thud when Mark fell off to day when he found a chocolate orange someone left unfinished. He is starting again tomorrow, I guess.:)
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
Small world! I saw you guys at Cafe Rio that day, but when I had a second to go say hi you had already left. I'm glad you had such a great Christmas and I love the picture you took of the reflecting pond.
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