Heidi and I made the decision to drive to Utah together with the four kids a few days before Jared and Adam. We did this because my dad was being made the bishop in the ward, and there was an Anderson Christmas party that we would also be able to go to. While we felt it was worth it, the drive was very long with four kids two and younger. Josie wasn't very good at taking a bottle which was hard, and the others were loud enough and kept each other up that it was a looooong drive. We busted it all out in one day though and were glad to get out of the car when the time came. Jared and Adam came a few days after in the other car. They had a much more peaceful drive than we did.
Grammie Heather's Christmas tree is always a favorite with the grandkids and Reese was no exception. She loved pulling every single character off the tree and playing with them. I got pretty sick of putting everything back on.
I can't say how glad I am that we were able to be at the Anderson Christmas party. I don't know how much longer Bobs will be around for, and seeing him do his Santa act and having my girls sit on his lap was priceless.
I got together with a group of my friends and we had a favorite things party. It was fun to see everyone and have an evening away from the kids.
Christmas eve we acted out the nativity with the Bodine family. Let's just say I wouldn't call it all the spiritual. But it was fun! Everyone dressed up in very random costumes and Reese was pretty much just confused what was going on. It was a good time.
We then ran over to the Robins house and did some of the gift exchanges there and ended up spending the night. We opened our presents Christmas morning with my family. We of course had to wait forever for Devin, Hailey, and Jace to actually wake up. Good thing my girls weren't itching to open presents.
We had a fun Robins family bowling excursion. We unfortunately got to the bowling alley at a bad time and had to wait for over an hour for a lane. By that time, toddlers were coming up on naptime and I knew it was going to be rough. They did pretty well for the first little bit. They of course fought over who got to roll the ball down the lane and didn't even watch how many got knocked over. By the end they were all in tears and super super tired. That's how things go with kids thought right? Reese had fun with her cousins.
Of course the highlight of Christmas season is focusing on Christ. I always love the church's push to do service and think of others during the Christmas season. I tried to think of fun little things we could do as a family with our kids to serve. One of the best was picking up trash around the neighborhood. Reese and Clark had a blast and we found lots of trash to pick up.
We were also able to focus on Christ as we visited temple square, all the beautiful lights, and saw the many nativities they have showing the baby Jesus.
Here are a few last pictures I love from our Utah trip.
Reese coloring with Grammy Tammy
