Youth Retreat

While the Youth were still out of school, our ward put on a youth retreat up in the mountains. Since I work with the Beehives, I got to go. I had my first experience driving a minivan full of kids (first time driving one in general, too). I jokingly told Jeff, I can officially be a mom now. Hah. And no, I am NOT pregnant. The kids played some games and we had a great fireside by the Stake Patriarch, the bishop, and each of the classes. I played “The Game of Things” for the first time and decided I love it. It was so beautiful up there. Last year they had a bunch of snow, but this year it was in the 60’s and beautiful. I only got a couple pictures from up there, but it was nice to be away from the city and the kids had a blast.
A view from the cabin door:

New Year's Eve

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We went to our friends The Durr’s for New Year’s Eve festivities. We played some games and ate lots of snacks and chatted with friends. At midnight I got a sweet kiss from my hubby. Then we lit a lantern and let it fly into the sky, making lots of jokes about it crashing and burning…but it didn’t. We played Fruit Ninja on the Kinect into the morning and brought in another promising year: 2012.

The lantern being lit:

All the girls:

Christmas in Seattle

Three days after coming home from MO, we hopped on a plane and flew up to Seattle. This was the first time all of Jeff’s siblings had been together in over 2 years and will be the only Christmas together for another 2 years to come since the twins will be leaving on missions this summer. It was a very full house but good for me to get to know everyone better since 2 of the siblings were on missions last year when we got married. We got to relax for a couple days while everyone got their presents ready.
On Christmas Eve we went up to Jeff’s uncle Scott’s house, per tradition in their family. We had an amazing dinner and then the cousins all act out the Nativity. Jeff’s family also started a new tradition of making ugly sweaters for each other. We each drew a name and “created” an ugly sweater. We opened them at Scott’s house, so we had an audience. It was so funny (see pictures below). When we got home, Santa came and we stayed up late opening presents. We took some family pictures on Monday and I flew out that night. It sucks having a job sometimes… Jeff returned to me on Wednesday. Another successful Christmas.

Christmas in Missouri

Long time, no post! It has been a very busy past month. We were very lucky this year to make it to both Missouri and Seattle around Christmas. We went to MO the weekend before Christmas. It was a very quick trip but so much fun! We flew to Salt Lake and got on the same plane as my brother, David. Our plane didn’t land until after 11pm, but I really wanted to go to Branson while were visiting. So my parents picked us up and we just started driving down. We spent the night in Springfield so that we could start our day at one of my favorite restaurants, Lambert’s. It was just as great as I remembered it and Jeff got his first experience with “thrown rolls.” Then we went to Silver Dollar City to see the beautiful Christmas lights and get in a bunch of rides with no lines! We drove home that same night.
Saturday we went and visited my grandparents and opened our Christmas presents since we wouldn’t be there on Christmas. I got to see a couple of my church friends that night and catch up.
Sunday we went to church and then had an open house for our 1 year anniversary!! We got to eat the top of our cake and Dave finally felt like he got to be a part of the wedding by eating some as well. My friend Rachael drove 4 hours to come visit me that night and catch up too. It was a great trip! We left MO at 4 in the morning on Monday and I went straight from the airport to work… Needless to say, it was a very long day but so worth it to go visit my friends and family.