Monday, December 29, 2014

Christmas 2014 round 2

Ryan's family came in town for Christmas this year, and it was nice to be with them.  They all came in on Christmas Eve and left on Sunday, December 28th. 

Wednesday, December 24
Ryan and I worked until noon today, Jared helped out with Nolan.  Ashleigh's family arrived late afternoon from Denver.  We chatted for a bit at our house, a few people went to the store for Christmas dinner stuff and then we went to In-N-Out for dinner.  Nothing says Christmas Eve, like In-N-Out burger.  :)  Nolan and Ashleigh made cookies for Santa.  Nolan had 1 cookie, a banana and apple juice left for Santa to snack on.  He went to bed without any problems which surprised me, but i'll take it!  Craig and Dianna made it to town around 10:00 pm.  Ashleigh, James and Alec stayed at our house, Ezzi stayed with Kirsten, Craig and Dianna had a hotel in Murray booked. 

Thursday, December 25
Nolan slept in until 7:20 am.  He came in our room, asked for chocolate milk and sat on the couch by Alec who was sleeping.  I finally said, Nolan did you notice the presents under the tree from Santa?  He said, yes and wanted to open them up.  Nolan was so excited after every present he opened up.  He was even excited about his dinosaur jammies he received.  It was a lot of fun watching him open his presents. 




 Ashleigh and James came up around 8:30 am, Dianna and Craig were over around 8:00 am to make breakfast.  Kirsten, Ezzi  and Jared came over just after 9:00 am.  We had breakfast, opened presents and did our white elephant gift exchange.  


We had a nice turkey dinner with potatoes and asparagus for dinner.  Ryan, James, and Craig went to a movie about Steven Hocking; Dianna, Alec and Jared went to the Hobbit; Kirsten went to have Christmas with her boyfriend Dax; everyone else stayed around the house. 

Friday, December 26
Ashleigh and James' car wouldn't start, so they had to arrange for a tow and find a shop that would be able to work on their car that same day.  I was going to get my nails done with Collie who had arranged for that a couple of weeks ago.  While I was getting my nails done, they went to breakfast at the Little America and went swimming. 

Ryan, Dianna, Alec, Nolan and I went to the aquarium in the afternoon which was a lot of fun.  Nolan was busy running from exhibit to exhibit.  We went to a 4-D movie and since it was Nolan's first movie experience (ever) we were curious to see how he would do.  He did alright, but I'm not sure that a 2 hour movie would keep him occupied at this point in time.  The aquarium was so fun, and very nice.








Ashleigh had made soup when we got home.  The girls went to "Into the Woods" movie, the boys stayed home and played Settlers of Catan. 

Saturday, December 27
Ryan, Alec, Jared, and Kirsten went skiing up at Alta.  The high for the day was going to be 4 degrees, so Ryan opted not to take Nolan with him this time. 
 


Craig and Dianna went on errands, everyone else was at our house.  Craig took Ashleigh and Ezzi on some errands and to have Kirsten's car (their old jeep) inspected.  A few people went to In-N-Out, Nolan and I took a much needed nap.  Dianna took us to Lowe's where she bought us a new stove, which was very nice of her.  We went to Blue Iguana for dinner, went to Sigfried's, and went swimming at the Little America. 


Sunday, December 28
We met for breakfast at the Park before everyone left town.  There was a snow storm coming and they were trying to get out of town before the storm came in.  Annie got home from California late last night, so she came to breakfast and was able to see everyone for a bit.

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

On Wednesday, December 3rd we went to Nativity in the Glen with my parents.  We went to this for the first time when we lived on 15th east and thought it was really neat.  The line this year was wrapped around the block - must have been the good weather!  Nolan loved seeing the animals and it was a fun way to kick off Christmas.


 Thursday, December 11th the Arrhenius family texted us on their way to SLC letting us know they were going downtown to see the lights.  We went with them to see the lights and wander around City Creek, get pizza after the lights from Sbarro who gave us a killer deal on the pizza since they were closing.  The weather once again was perfect!  We haven't had much snow or cold this December, but i'm not complaining.


Saturday, December 13th we decorated our Christmas tree.  Ryan went out that morning to our backyard and cut down one of the pine trees from our yard.  We have 2 more of the same tree, so I guess we have the next 2 Christmas trees covered.  Nolan loved decorating the tree and I love that he clumped all of the ornaments together and keeps playing with them.  He loved sitting by the tree for the rest of the day. 

Sunday, December 14th we had some friends from the ward over for cookies and hot chocolate.  I didn't take any pictures, but we sure had a nice turnout.  We have been so blessed to have great neighbors and friends in the ward.  Everyone is so welcoming.


Monday, December 22, 2014

Christmas 2014 round 1

Since it is an "off" year for Christmas, we celebrated with my family last night (Sunday, December 21).  We had had and funeral potatoes for dinner, and lots of appetizers/snacks.  My parents always go all out for parties and this was no exception.  We played some "minute to win-it" games that Macy is always so good at putting together.  The boys all loved playing the keep the balloon in the air game, and throw the marshmallow into the mouth game.





After the games, we moved to the front room where we did our annual nativity scene, Corbin and Easton sang "When Joseph Went to Bethlehem", and we opened presents.  Ryan opened a few new dress shirts; an American flag shirt and Utah shirt from Collie and Zach; toiletries; and money.  I got a Costco membership renewal, money, scarves; a snowman picture; necklace; and toiletries.  Nolan opened a lot of clothes that he wasn't excited about opening because he just wanted toys; football; gloves and a flashlight; dinosaurs; cars; candy; and a santa book.  My dad got a smoker that he bought for himself.  It was such a fun night opening presents and being with family! 

Monday, December 15, 2014

This is what happens when you ask Nolan to smile.....

We went to dinner at the Dodo for Kirsten's 26th birthday on Wednesday, December 10th.  She asked Nolan to smile and this is the face he made.  Love him - at 3 1/2 he sure has quite the personality!

Monday, December 1, 2014

New Orleans, LA

Our annual conference for work was held in New Orleans this year and I was pretty excited to go.  I was 29 weeks pregnant, so I made sure to not push it too hard since I didn't want to have this baby across the country without Ryan.  Ryan was nervous about me going, but I assured him I would take it easy.  The weather was cooler than normal, but it was still warmer than SLC weather. 

Friday, November 14
Dropped Nolan off at school at the normal time.  Picked up Alicen on our way to the airport at 8:15 am.  We didn't have any trouble getting to the airport and made it through security in like 5 minutes - the airport was empty!  Our gate was the very last one, which always seems to happen.  Our plane took off at 10:30 am.  We had a long day of flying ahead - stopping in Phoenix, Dallas and then New Orleans.  Luckily we didn't have to change planes, but it still made for a long day on the plane.  We took a crazy taxi ride (seriously thought we were going to die) to our hotel.  Walked to Mulates for dinner which was 1 block from our hotel. 
Funny story - while we were waiting for our food to come out, the band was playing and there were some people dancing on the dance floor.  An elderly gentleman was walking around to each table trying to find his next lady to dance with.  He stopped at our table and Pam, and Alicen declined.  I felt bad, so I said sure - i'll dance with you.  So we danced and it was pretty fun.  He gave me a Cajun dancer card with his signature on it, and a lobster necklace.  I'm sure it was quite a scene to see, a pregnant lady dancing with an older gentleman.  The food was pretty good and we were all pretty tired from flying all day.




Saturday, November 15
We all got breakfast from the Starbucks in the hotel lobby before heading across the street to set up our booths.  One of my boxes got lost and was randomly replaced with another package.  The company was really nice and replaced the containers that were in the missing box.  The other things in the box were 2 bags of pens, and they wouldn't be able to replace those which wasn't the end of the world.  I'm just glad I took the papers out that were in there.  I finished setting up my booth, but Pam and Alicen still had quite a ways to go with theirs.  I helped them set their booth up. 
After booth set up, we parted ways.  Alicen's husband was on the trip as well, so she went with him.  Pam and I went on a bus tour that took us around the city and all over New Orleans.  We saw way more than we would have if we walked around and it was really fun.  The bus stopped at: Jackson Square; French Market; St. Louis Cemetery; Canal street; Harrah's casino; drove through the central business district; Louisiana Superdome; The National WWII museum; drove through the Garden District; Mardi Gras world; and the arts district.  The garden district was beautiful and the homes were just like you would think - traditional southern homes and they are very expensive to buy.  The bus made a long stop (15 minutes) that was within walking distance of a cemetery.  I hadn't seen an above ground cemetery before and it was so interesting to walk through.  They can't dig the graves below ground since the water table is so high.  Families are supposed to take care of the graves, but a lot of times the family will move away and the grave (little home as I like to call it) just deteriorates away.  The French market was my favorite place and so after taking a full loop on the tour we stopped back there on the next loop around. 














We ate lunch at Market Cafe where I had a Po-boy sandwich and fries in the French Market and walked back to our hotel.  I took a little nap and walked to the convenient store on the corner for milk and cereal.  I worked for a couple of hours before going to bed.

Sunday, November 16
Pam and Alicen had meetings in the morning and the expo didn't start until 2:30 pm.  It was a nice day, windy and humid, but pleasant.  I walked over to the nearest bus stop since our ticket from yesterday was good for 3 days and took it to the French Market.  I wanted to have some beignets from Cafe Du Monde and they did not disappoint.  At first I was going to get them to go, but decided after waiting in that line for a few minutes that I wanted the full experience, so switched to the other line. 





I walked back to the hotel along the river walk.  The river wasn't very pretty, but the walk was enjoyable.  I walked through the outlet shops that are just across the street from the convention center and our hotel.  I picked up lunch and went back to the hotel to eat before heading over to the expo at 1;30 pm.  Set up the booth for the afternoon before they opened the halls for people to come in.  We only had to be there until 5:30 pm which wasn't too bad.  Went with Pam, Karen and Julie (from another department) to Mulate's again since it was close to the hotel.  We had alligator as an appetizer and it actually wasn't too bad.  I talked with Ryan and Nolan before heading to bed.



Monday, November 17
Happy birthday to me!!  I enjoyed by cereal while looking out the hotel window.  We expo'd from 9:00 am - 5:30 pm.  After breakfast I didn't feel very well which isn't the greatest on your birthday, or when you are on a trip.  Alicen was so sweet and bought pink cake pops for my birthday.  I started to feel a little better, went to Subway for lunch and ate a few bites in my hotel room and immediately didn't feel well again.  I tried to drink as much as possible, but I wasn't going to get any food down.  I laid down for a few minutes before heading back to the convention center for the afternoon.  When the exp ended, I went to the hotel and had a nap for about an hour before going to dinner with Alicen, her husband, Steve A., Pam and Juliana from Africa.  Alicen had made reservations at Emerils NOLA restaurant.  It was very fancy and very nice.  I had the grilled pork chop with glazed sweet potatoes and it was delicious.  Luckily, I was feeling better but didn't want to overdo it.  I had the Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cake for dessert.  It was very nice of my co-workers to take me to dinner on my birthday.  It was a great day, even if I wasn't feeling 100% and was away from family. 


Tuesday, November 18
We had expo today from 9:00 am - 5:30 pm.  I was feeling better, but again didn't want to overdo it.  For lunch I had a smoothie and salad which hit the spot. 

After expo was over it was our dinner reception that I was in charge of and had been planning for months.  It was at Maison Bourbon on Bourbon street and I was looking forward to it and hoping it went well.  There were 20 people that RSVP'd and the minumum order was for 35 people.  I planned on the 35 people coming but thought that might be a stretch.  As it turns out, there were 70 people that showed up and everyone had a great time.  There was a nice balcony that looked out on Bourbon street and I wish the weather was warmer so more people could enjoy the balcony.  I was so glad it went well and that so many people showed up.  Bourbon street at night it a sight to see.  We walked over to Cafe Du Monde and had some beignets with Kim, Steve A., Pam, Alicen and a few other people. Caught a taxi back to the hotel and went to bed. 


 

Wednesday, November 19
The expo was open from 8:30 am - 12:30 pm.  We took down the booth after that and made sure it was ready to be shipped back to Utah.  We went back to the hotel and since Pam had arranged for a late check out we were able to keep our bags in her room which was nice.  We still had some time to kill before heading to the airport, so we left the bags with the bellman and went to lunch.  We ate at Cochon which wasn't too far from our hotel.  The food was amazing and my meal was fantastic!  I ordered the special and it was some type of salad with braised short ribs and the meat was so tender and flavorful.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it!




After lunch we went back to the hotel, grabbed our bags, caught a taxi and headed to the airport.  It is a good thing we left extra early because traffic was crazy to the airport.  We had plenty of time to spare before boarding the plane.  We stopped in Denver, and then made it home around 11:45 pm.  It was a long day!  I was glad to be home and see Ryan and Nolan.  Nolan was fast asleep when we got home, when he came in our room the next morning he was extra happy to see me.