Christmas 2021 and vacation :)

 After Aspen and Colten went to their dad's, I started my break off right...by reading lol.  No, I think I did some cleaning but can't remember.  I just know that I have been reading a lot and it feels good to be able to do that again.  We had Zac's girls on Tuesday night and Wednesday night but did our Christmas Eve with them on Thursday.  Zac took us to get an Arby's milkshake and we drove around while looking at the Christmas lights.  It was a little hard since it was raining so didn't want to get too much water in the car.  But we still were able to see most of the lights.  I think the best one we saw was the house in Toquerville that has a big driveway and different Christmas story characters. 

Well, we got the two little girls off to bed, Zac had to run to Wal-Mart in hopes of getting some wrapping paper and I think a few last minute gifts.  Well, Wal-Mart had zero wrapping paper so he got Frozen paper since that was closest birthday wrapping paper to Christmas.  I agreed.  Our Christmas morning started early, a little before 7am.  Zac had given the girls a few presents through December (since he is horrible with surprises) so we didn't have much for them.  But I think Annika and Channing enjoyed the gifts they got.  Tashlee was there as well, but hasn't been coming over any other time (except for holidays) so Zac didn't get her anything.  The girls played with their toys for a little bit before heading off to their grandparents.

Zac and I got busy feeding the reptiles and packing for our Christmas get-away down to Vegas.  Back in May, I got a phone call to purchase like 4 vacations, including one cruise, for $500 so we cashed in on the first one.  The only location they had within driving distance was Las Vegas so that is what we did.  We got to stay at the Excalibur hotel and got tickets o the Bronco vs Raider game, lucky us :)  The drive down was uneventful but man the line was forever long to get checked in.  Luckily, there was a lady there who encouraged people to use the app, which I did.  She helped me with a few things but we got checked in within 10 minutes of getting to that lady.  The room was nice, king size bed and we were facing the strip.  The first night we were there we stayed around the hotel and checked out the shops they had upstairs.  We got a cheeseburger from Johnny Rockett's and split it.  It was a very flavorful burger but wouldn't pay that price again.

Christmas Day, Zac found us a nice little diner not too far from our hotel that was open.  Can I tell you how cute this diner was?  The name of it was Vickie's Diner and 50's style.  It was pink inside, had a pink Christmas tree and a pink payphone.  It was cute.  And man, the food from there was delicious!  I got a bacon and cheese omelette while Zac got a burger and fries.  They were both amazing and well-priced.  

After breakfast, the food coma set in and we headed back to our room.  We found the special that was done on John Madden and watch it until the football game came on.  (Crazy that John Madden actually passed away the following Tuesday)  Anyway, we just relaxed in our room watching football until the evening.  Then we went downstairs to check out the arcade and find the theater for Tournament of Kings.  Zac was in heaven while remembering his childhood with the more nostalgic games.  I played the minion bashing game lol.  After a little while, we hopped in line for the Tournament of Kings dinner.  Zac was in heaven.  We were seated in the Dragon section (basically we were the bad guys).  But the show was so fun.  They had adapted it to Christmas and we sang the 9 days of Christmas (cause there were only 9 sections).  They served the dinner and I said "we don't have any utensils" to which Zac replied "we are in the mideval times and they didn't have them" so I guess we were eating with our hands lol.  We had a game hen, corn on the cob, two sweet potato wedges and a dinner roll.  Pumpkin pie was served later on.  It was a fun night and I actually stayed awake for it all (we only started at 9pm Utah time).  Zac got into the show and just kept saying how happy he was that we went to it.  He even said "I got a little teary eyed".

Sunday came early but we got moving because Zac wanted to get a Crosby jersey before our required presentation before the game.  We stopped by Krispy Kreme for breakfast before heading over to the Raiders store at Mandalay Bay.  We had to wait about 30 minutes for them to open but Zac pulled the plug and got him a Maxx Crosby jersey.  He was excited because he was in Raider Nation with a Raiders jersey lol.  We did our presentation, which was required to unlock the rest of our trips.  It was a nice presentation and our saleswomen was nice but we didn't have the money to do it right then.  Plus we had a game to get to and they were already 30 minutes over their time.

We headed back to Excalibur to park, luckily we had paid for hotel parking and could come and go as we pleased.  There were many people who were parking at hotels and walking over to the stadium.  Las Vegas shut down the bridge for pedestrian traffic and man we there a lot.  We had to go in the alternate screen testing line because Zac only had one of the COVID-19 vaccine shots.  I was super excited when I saw a guys dressed up as the Grinch and a Bronco jersey.  But he was like 4 lines away and I couldn't get a good picture of him.  Once we got the clearance for Zac and his wristband, we quickly got inside the stadium (although missed all the pre-game stuff) and started our ascend into the very top of the stadium.  Our seats weren't horrible other than really high and we had the jumbo TV's to watch replays.  Unfortunately for me, the Broncos didn't come out on top, although they should have.  Drew Lock was starting and didn't do too bad himself, just didn't have any protection and the receivers weren't catching and they had no running game.  The Raiders had 3 turnovers and the Broncos capitalized on 2 of them scoring 10 points but the Raiders ultimately made changes at the half and won 17-13.

After the game, we walked back to the car to go to The Cheesecake Factory.  We tried going to the Caesars Palace one but the valet parking was full and they wanted $30 for the self-parking.  We spent like 20 minutes in the parking garage trying to get out.  Then we tried the North Outlet and couldn't find any parking.  Finally, Zac got us to one about 10 minutes away.  We had to sit at the bar but that meant we could watch football.  Zac pooped out on me at like 9:30 that night, I wasn't too far behind him.  I had only clocked over 17,000 steps (a little over 7 miles) that day.  It was a fun day though...well worth it.

Monday morning I let Zac sleep in, I think he slept 11 hours.  But it was check-out day and so we got all ready and left.  We ran back over to Bass Pro Shop for Zac to return a few things and take a deeper look at all that was inside.  Then we went back to Vickie's Diner before heading out of Vegas.  I got the Philly Cheesesteak sandwich with fries and Zac got a different hamburger.  I only ate half the sandwich because I wanted to try their banana split.  All of it was DELICIOUS.  We will definitely go there the next time we are in Vegas!

We got held up after Mesquite with some construction but overall it was an uneventful trip back.  We stopped at a gun place in St. George before heading over to my parents.  We were picking up Aspen from the bus later that night and I had planned to watch the VoiceMale concert since my parents paid to do the streaming option.  I got Aspen and dinner and headed back to watch the concert.  I was a little after 7 but turns out that they were waiting for more people to show since it was snowing like crazy up in Logan.  Doug had introduced me to VoiceMale like 15 years ago and I always enjoyed their concerts, especially since they had had a few in St. George.  But last year, John Huff (the rubber duck song) guy passed away unexpectedly and they would do 2 final shows and call it quits.  It was fun to be able to see their final show and their tribute to John and the group.  But since they got a late start, we slept over at my parents.

The rest of the week has been filled with Aspen time.  She did have to work two nights so far of which Zac and I watched the Hobbit.  Annika was really sick so Brandi stayed home and watched the girls all week so we didn't get to see them much.  Aspen and I had spent Wednesday watching Tom Holland's 2 spider-man movies and on Thursday we went to see his newest one in theater.  Aspen saw it up in Ogden but loved it so much she wanted to see it again.  By far, the best spider-man movie.  We topped off our evening by watching the Hobbit movies 2 and 3.

Tonight is New Year's Eve...we have no plans unless Hollee wants to do something.  We'll see :)

Not sure what happened to November post

 I thought I had posted at least something about November but I see nothing!  I am not surprised though since I have not been good at posting these past few months. So, I'll do my best to update the month as best I can lol.

Well, November started off with Colten's football banquet. Since I was the team mom this year, I worked with Andee, last year's team mom, getting a poster of every boy in action. Well, Coach Matua's daughter took the pictures but we just got them printed.  I also got a collage of some of the action pictures of Colten.  It was a great banquet filled with lots of good food, swimming, basketball and conversations.  We were all sad to see the season end but have high hopes for next season.

I also had my commencement for graduating with my master's.  I just did the online option because they said they would recognize virtual attendants on the screen and announce the name.  I gave my parents the link to watch and Hollee came over to watch but there was no reading of names for virtual attendants.  I was a little disappointed.  SNHU did send me the link to listen to my name in a clip.  But Hollee gave me my own personalized commencement in our yard.

Colten finally surpassed Aspen in height and I am 99% sure she won't grown enough to pass him again.  Also, we finally were able to get the picture with Joe Duncan at physical therapy. Colten was pretty close to getting discharged so we were running out of opportunities.  Joe was really nice to come out and let us take a picture.

Hollee and Jonah had an opportunity to go see the movie The Eternals so that gave me and the girls an opportunity to watch Raven and Oaklee. Annika and Channing had lots of fun playing. 

The Saturday we went up to Virgin to see the shop and petting zoo that is up there.  Well, Channing wouldn't put on regular, clean pants so she went to her mom's house while we went up there.  Colten was playing with friends so he wasn't there.  We were sad that the ice cream shop wasn't open but still had fun looking through the shop and checking out the zoo.

We were also able to get Aspen a better bow that she was so excited to get.  We have targets out in the front yard that she can just go out and shoot to release some steam.

Zac needed Aspen and Colten to help him at the shop so I got Annika and Channing to go for a walk with me down to Confluence Park.  Channing was super excited that she found a walking stick for her dad (even was taller than him).  By the end of the walk, the girls were tired and jus wanted to sit down. So, I consider the walk goal met.

Aspen and Colten were staying for the holiday...yay :) But Zac kept up with the tradition of doing a morning breakfast feast with his girls and then send them to their mom's.  The breakfast feast consisted of all the food items that the kids wanted to eat.  We had pancakes, bacon, sausage, muffins, hash browns, chocolate milk and apple juice.  I think the kids were happy.  Zac has the pictures of that morning so not sure if I'll ever get them lol.

Thanksgiving at the Grandparents was fun.  We had the football games on through the whole thing (well except the dinner part) but my most favorite part of the day was when I got to eat the caramel popcorn.  She makes the best!  We kind of teased Hollee (since she wasn't there) about the caramel popcorn lol.  We had decided to spend the night so we weren't driving back after the last game.  But what we weren't planning to do is to drive back at 8am so Aspen could fill out papers for her new job!  She got called on Wednesday that Davis food store wanted to hire her..yay :) She was so excited to get the job.  We spent the rest of the weekend watching football and possibly some shooting, not sure. But the holiday was awesome :)

And we enter the busy month

​Well no surprise I’m behind in my blogging but that’s OK I’ll catch up now. 

Aspen has started working at Davis and she loves it. She gets to be a cashier occasionally, which makes me super jealous, but usually spends most her time bagging and collect carts. She enjoys saying hi to the people that she knows. She is working hard in school and plans to dabble in an online course from UTVA next semester. She will be taking foods 1 first block and if that goes well, she will take foods 2 second block. I am hoping she will take at least one online core class next year so she will be able to take more art classes. 

In November, Colten got a bad case of hand, foot, mouth virus.  He missed an entire week of school, which he still kind of did online but once we got the itching under control he was absolutely bored.  He went on a few walks with me to help pass time but he did get a little more screen time than normal.  In December, Colten is still getting over his hand, foot, mouth virus. Apparently, it is possible for his skin to peel and it has on his hands and feet for a couple of weeks now. He has been helping Zac at work but also gets to go play with friends. 

Our December has been busy, well at least the weekend we’ve had so far. Grandma Chris had gotten us tickets to see A Christmas Story, the musical on Dec 2nd. I was taking all the kids except Aspen, who was working. Well, I had to pick up the girls from their mom’s and Channing was being a stinker. It took everyone to get her out to the car and buckled. But we finally got going and Tashlee got Channing calmed down. We were like 10 minutes early only have them tell us that the show was canceled due to health concerns. So, I took the kids to Dollar Tree to pick up some treats (Brandi had given money for concessions) and came home. The kids watch The Christmas Story movie. 

Saturday ended up being busier than planned. Doug, Melissa and Parker stopped by between volleyball games. Melissa just loved all the lizards (not) but did like the hedgehogs. Zac took them up to the gun range to show the guns he had built. They had fun doing that before heading back for Parker's games. Aspen went to work while Zac and I took the girls to Winterfest.  Zac had told Annika he would take her and a friend to lunch and to Winterfest.  So, we took the girls to McDonald's and waited 30 minutes for our food :( and then went over to La Verkin Winterfest.  It was a fun little vendor location and had quite a few food trucks.  We had the girls do the fun activities while we went shopping.  I invited Hollee to come over for the electric parade. It was fun having everyone there.  Zac and I got some food before heading to Hollee's for the evening.  Colten kept himself busy with a friend birthday party and hanging out with some friends at Winterfest.

Hollee and Jonah are buying a house half a mile away from our house...I'm so excited.  Hollee was doing a final walk through so I walked over to participate.  Well, Hollee was driving around to waste some time when she saw me walking and Oaklee wanted to join me :) 

This month I have just gotten Aspen and Colten presents for Christmas and just give it to them right away.  I happened to go food shopping on black Friday and found Colten two video games he really wanted.  Well we went back later that evening as a family and Zac saw some movies and a laptop he wanted.  We just aren't the surprise kind of people lol.  Got Aspen her Maurader's map poster she has been wanting.

Hollee went to a Grinch thing in St. George with her girls and my parents joined her.  She got a picture of dad with the Grinch with his Grinch shirt on.  I love the Grinch tradition we have had with him and hope to continue it for many more years.

The next week we were finally able to go see A Christmas Story at Tuacahn but I didn't have the littles come.  Aspen was able to attend this time, Tashlee came and then Colten invited his friend Beckham.  The girls liked the play and the boys and I were indifferent about it.  Tuacahn did a great job with the production.  I am just not a fan of the story.

At Winterfest, Hollee found a Grinch wreath for my parents so we gave it to them early so they could enjoy it this holiday season.

I like to come out while working to look at Ivy and Iris, the female chameleons for 2 reasons.  The first is to make sure they are staying in the enclosure.  And the second is to see the awesome colors they turn.  Aspen likes to pull out animals and just hold them for a minute.

Our ward had their Christmas party and since she will be in our ward soon, I invited Hollee.  She came and we got the girls to sit on Santa's lap. At Santa's (Brother Prince) urging, I got a picture of Colten with Santa, Mrs. Claus and the elf.  Hollee also came over to watch the Broncos game that week.  Demaryius Thomas, a former Bronco player, had unexpectedly passed away just a few days before the game and they were doing a tribute to him.  I loved watch DT play and am so sad to hear of his passing at 33 years old.  The Broncos did an awesome tribute to him and even won the game (although it was against the Lions).  I had fun watching with Hollee and hope there are many more Sundays together real soon.

Aspen and Colten went to a combined younger youth activity where they played games and decorated gingerbread men.  I could almost tell which one was Aspen's when I went into the kitchen, just couldn't tell between Aspen's and Lizzy's but her's was probably the cutest and Colten's was the best without using all the frosting and candy lol.

This past Saturday, I had arrange to do a family shoot.  I didn't get into the photographer really well, just liked the price and booked it.  We did it at a Hurricane park and got a few good shots.  I edited a few after she sent me her edits but I think they turned out pretty good.  I am glad that I was able to help the photographer out providing her own Christmas.

After pictures, I went to Oaklee and Raven's dance recital.  As always, they were so cute.  Oaklee has come a long way from her days of just standing there.  Raven was cute only doing moves she wanted to.  After the recital, we went out to dinner at Dairy Queen.  Aspen had been cooking food at the house but as soon as Zac heard Dairy Queen he was coming lol.

Then on Sunday we had the Chris family Christmas party.  We got everyone there, including an extra!  Grandma Chris started with talking about traditions and some of the traditions she had while growing up and ones that were started with her own family.  She talked about popcorn balls (and yes, I was upset I did get one cause it was caramel popcorn!), the ornaments, her angle on top of her tree and the cereal tradition that was started in our family.  Every person got their favorite cereal to eat for dinner! Hollee, Darcee and I got into a fight over the caramel popcorn bowl unbeknownst to my mom and almost everyone else lol.  All the kids got a copy of the book Paula had written that was at Bear Lake (a little jealous). But it was a fun night of talking, playing with cousins and conversations.  Oh and the grandkids and Jay put together a Broncos puzzle for my dad.  He came to help them a little later and brought his big light lol.

The kids and I had two more days before winter break.  Aspen had a guitar concert for her class.  I was able to go watch.  I was surprised to see her sitting on the front row, later learned that it was because she was sitting next to her crush.  She did a good job though.

Colten spent Monday evening feeding the reptiles and helping me make some fudge for their friends and neighbor gifts.

Zac and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary on Tuesday but we are really celebrating this weekend with a trip to Vegas.  I also got a gift card from a student and parent with the sweetest card.  On Tuesday we dropped Aspen and Colten off to the bus for their Christmas time.  Aspen will be coming back on Monday so she can work.

And I'm caught up :) for the moment.