WINTER TRIP HOME, Part UNO....

Months ago my mom called and said almost verbatim, "you're coming for the family Christmas party so when will it be convenient and we'll do it...". So after checking Brent's schedule and blocking out the time for it we got Thanksgiving weekend scheduled. Normally the party is the first weekend in December, but we killed muliple birds with one stone this trip. :) 

So to start out trip we waived good-bye to Yuma with the site of the Annual Balloon launch. It's always a beautiful site. The kids love it. The site of the green fields and nice weather couldn't have been FURTHER from what we were in for..

The kids LOVE Percy Jackson and the Olympians. And when we mentioned that we go through Las Vegas on the way to Grandma and Grandpa's they were soooooo excited because that is one of Percy's stops(in the movie). What a great idea, we thought....KEY WORD "THOUGHT"!! The city is great in so many ways, and NOT SO GREAT in SOOOOO many other ways.

 They loved the Everything M&M and the Coke Factory. We took them to see the Lions and MGM, and the Water of the Bellagio(that was Marcus and Brian's favorite BY FAR).

 PS...most of the "characters" out on the strip expect TIPS!! If you see a Spiderman that is there for pictures but his mid-section is spilling out over his spandex he is probably there JUST FOR THE TIPS.... :) RUUUUUN!!!

You know, the pics they take at Coke are totally cute, but SERIOUSLY $20 each. GIve me a break! I can see like $15 for the first and $10 for the second but REALLY!!! Call me cheap or call me realistic! How long are you REALLY gonna display a picture of you and a polar bear. :)

 An all-time favorite. I could watch for hours.

After Vegas we headed to Utah. We got there just in time for a winter storm warning for the next couple of days. But I had plenty of time to go see my "Those were the good ol' days" BFF, Julianne and her family. They have a wonderful home, a good looking family, and I hear(tho I was not able to witness first hand) that her hubby is quite the pie baker...One of these days I will find out :)

Thank you Bushman's, Ruchti's, and Worthen's for re-arranging your schedules for us as well. The annual Bushman Christmas party that is normally the Saturday of Thanksgiving, was pushed to Tuesday night. Unfortunately the "50 year storm" was coming in so we had to cancel. The "50 year storm" turned out to be a cold blizzard.

 This is a pic of the storm. To be fair to the storm, It came on QUICKLY, it blew hard, and made the roads quite wet. But it didn't drop alot of snow. That came later when we were trying to go home.  We got to see everyone, Cynthia and fam(thanks for the kids' sleepover), Kathy and Fam(thanks for breakfast), Melinda and Fam(thanks so much for letting us stay), Wayne and fam(thanks so much for Tallerina). And Michael we saw a bit later in the trip.

  Tallerina...what is Tallerina? It is an annual tradition Jen brought to her family and allows us all to be a part of it every year. Everything is tradition-same dinner, same desert, same activity(socks with 1/2 dollars), and I LOVE IT!!!!

After lunch at Wayne's we made the trip to Soda Springs. And we thought there was a lot of snow in Utah...Uh-hem...not even close! Thanks for a fantastic visit! We look forward to see ya'll next summer! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, Happy everything cuz lets face it...we'll miss it!! :) Love ya tons!