Christmastime Trip to Utah

December 18, Wednesday

I'm so glad that Dad is here! Emily and I picked him up at the airport a little after 10 AM. We did some shopping at Kohl's and then we met the boys for lunch at Panera. We had a nice lunch with the boys and then they went home and we went to Deseret Book and did some shopping. We couldn't resist going to Twisted Sugar. Then we headed over to Ross. I couldn't find the suitcases I wanted, but Dad found gloves and a hat and Emily found a couple of tops. Then we headed home. Later, Dad and Emily and Jonny went to drop off Dad's dry cleaning and then they went to the Ross in Queen Creek and they found me a different set of suitcases, checked and a carry-on. Dad played Rummikub with Emily and Jonny. We had beef stroganoff for dinner. When Michael got home, he and Jonny went to deliver poppyseed bread to their ministering families, the Lawlors and the McAleavys. Both of the families sent them home with treats. When they got back, we read Moroni Chapter 10 and had a prayer. Dad went to bed after that. Emily and I watched The Masked Singer. 

December 19, Thursday

I got up with the boys this morning. It's their last day of finals. I sorted all of the Christmas gifts to prepare to wrap. Dad and Emily helped and did a great job. They had fun listening to music and wrapping. 

Daniel and Jonny got home around noon and everybody had some lunch and then Emily, Daniel, and Jonny all went shopping. Dad stayed home and he took a nap and I got ready for the day finally. Then we finished up the wrapping for Emily while they were still gone. I did laundry and a ton of other chores. We ordered Panda for dinner. Dad and Emily baked all the cookies. We spent the rest of the night packing and finishing up our chores. 

December 20, Friday

We had a bit of a slow start this morning because it took a long time to fit everything in the car. It was 9:35 AM when we pulled away from the house. We had a prayer and got on the road. We made it all the way to Flagstaff without stopping. We stopped again at the dam to use the bathroom. We took a quick picture and left. 

We stopped again in Panguitch to get gas and use the bathroom. Emily really wanted to go to the Beaver Creamery so we stopped there next. It was about 6:45 PM by the time we pulled up to there. Daniel got a chicken Caesar salad, Dad got grilled cheese and tomato soup, and the rest of us got ice cream. I tried the salted caramel nut and the birthday cake and they were amazing! 

Michael had been driving the whole day so far so Dad took over after that. He drove us for the final two hours to Provo. We went straight to the hotel and got checked in and went to our rooms and brought up all the stuff. We had to use a cart to get everything up here. We had a prayer together and then Michael and Jonny took Emily to her apartment and Dad went to his room for the night. We got all moved in and got ready for bed. 

December 21, Saturday

The plan for today was to go to Nathaniel and Audrey's for lunch. Dad and the boys loaded up all the gifts into the car and we left a little after 11:30 AM and headed over there. It was Papa's first time meeting Charlie.

I had sent a Walmart order to Nathaniel and Audrey's and to Emily's this morning. I'm guessing it was the same driver. It was shocking that there were no out of stock items and no substitutions for either order. I also ended up doing another order later and that was an express order and it came in like an hour and a half. Walmart had advertised that they were offering a free one of those so I was going to take advantage of that because I couldn't find my omeprazole. Anyway, we had salads, sandwiches, fruit, chips and dip, and Reese's trees for lunch. Everyone really enjoyed it. I also had chicken strips for them to put on the salad and I made myself a chicken wrap. I had the kids help me clean up and I did all their dishes. We had fun spending the afternoon holding Charlie and talking. It was wonderful because Charlie opened his eyes so much. In the past, he mostly just slept the whole time we were there so it was really fun to see his pretty blue eyes looking around and being curious. We played some of Nathaniel's movie games. We played the one where the card says an actor and the next person names a movie they are in and then the next person names another actor from that movie until no one else can name the next thing and the winner gets the card. Then we played another one where we read off the name of an actor and we keep listing movies they were in until we can't think of anymore and the winner gets the card. Nathaniel won both, of course. By about 5:30 PM, we stopped playing and got ready for our reservation at the Happy Sumo Sushi restaurant. We were concerned about sushi but they had a lot of other good entrées as well. Even Jonny loved it. He and Emily got noodles and shrimp. Everything on the menu looked great. We headed over to Happy Sumo at the shops at Riverwoods. That's a beautiful place! It reminds me a lot of San Tan village but even a little nicer. 

The lights were gorgeous! Nathaniel and Audrey were finishing up getting ready so we met them over there. We had a wonderful meal! After dinner, we got a picture together and then Nathaniel and Audrey wanted to go home. The rest of us went to the hotel. It was a wonderful day! 

December 22, Sunday

It's been such a wonderful day! We got to Nathaniel's ward at 8:45 AM and we were early enough to get an entire row to ourselves and Nathaniel and Audrey sat with us. The Eldredges arrived after we did and sat behind us. They skipped doing Charlie's baby blessing during the ward business and started the Sacrament. We were all looking around wondering what was happening. Nathaniel texted one of the counselors and we could see him talking to the bishop so we knew that he got the message. So, they did his blessing right after the Sacrament. He blessed Charlie to always be good to others and serve them. He blessed him with intelligence. He blessed him to be worthy to serve a mission someday and he blessed him with health. They had a really nice Christmas program. 

We got our picture and went back to the hotel and changed and then we met Nathaniel and Audrey and Emily at the Eldredges' at 11:30 AM. I brought juice and fruit trays that had been delivered to Emily so she brought those and also a bunch of muffins that were delivered to Nathaniel and Audrey's but hardly anybody ate the muffins. The fruit trays were popular, though. Karen had some quiches and a breakfast casserole and bacon and it was delicious. We had fun hanging out with them again. We had a nice meal and then sat and talked for a little while while Audrey fed Charlie. Brittney wanted to tell me how much she enjoyed the Herd Mentality game that I got them and that she got one for her family as well and that she really loved it. Then we played a game called Codenames where it was us against the Eldredges. Nathaniel was giving us clues and Audrey was giving them clues. We've never played it before but we got the hang of it and we almost won, actually. They only beat us by one word. After that, Nathaniel and Audrey started getting ready to go so we said our goodbyes and left as well. 

We headed over to Emily's but first we had to stop at the hotel to get the cookies and some of the supplies I needed. Thankfully, we had everything we needed. I had Michael and Dad and the boys put the drop cloth down under her kitchen table and we gathered as many chairs as we could. I spent about half an hour making all the icing and getting it colored. By about that time, Nathaniel and Audrey arrived. Michael held the baby while the rest of us decorated cookies. Then at one point Nathaniel was holding Charlie and I offered to hold him so they could decorate cookies. It didn't take us too long to get them done. 

We talked about going to Temple Square afterwards and that was the plan but we ended up changing it. Andrew called us so we started talking to him and then we talked to him on the drive over to Nathaniel Audrey's house. Jonny had a good idea that we should open gifts with them tonight and they thought that would work so that's what we did while we were on the phone with Andrew. First, however, I had Michael give us a lesson about Moroni chapter 10. He talked about verses three through five and 32 to 33. We had a closing prayer and Nathaniel asked Andrew to say it. Then they opened all the gifts. They were very grateful. We opened the gifts that Nathaniel and Audrey gave us. They got us a really pretty light up picture of the Mesa temple. They gave me a book that they like and gave Michael the game Gran Turismo. Then we all said our goodbyes to Andrew. We decided to get food at Cane's and Don Joaquin's. We had everybody come with us to give Nathaniel and Audrey a little quiet break from us. Then we came back and ate. Michael held the baby while I ate and then I held the baby while he ate. Then we played one of the gifts that I got for Nathaniel which was a game called Soundtrack Trivia. It was a pretty cool game and you use a phone to help you with all the questions and the clues. It was really fun. It was getting pretty late, though. Audrey was getting tired and she needed to feed Charlie again and he was being pretty fussy and I was concerned that we were distracting them so we declared Nathaniel the winner because he was the closest to the end. 

We helped gather their trash and clean up and then we said our goodbyes. We stopped at Emily's apartment to get all the supplies and cookies. We had a prayer with Emily and said good night and went back to the hotel. By then it was close to 11 PM so we had a couple cookies and got ready for bed. 

December 23, Monday

Dad came to our room and Emily came over and we left a little after 11 AM to head over to campus. Michael dropped us off and then parked at the Wilkinson Center. Dad waited in the car because he got a message that the weather was going to be bad in Dallas so he wanted to get a new plane ticket. We walked around to try to find a nice hoodie for Jonny. He finally picked out a nice one. We headed back out to the car and drove over to the Hinckley Center for the tour. Our tour guide's name was Riku. He is from Japan and he says he just joined the church in March. He's been in the US a couple of years and just started at BYU in the winter. He had so many nice things to say about BYU and all the people who have helped him like professors and friends. We stopped at the Maeser building and he showed us a video with Elder Holland speaking about the history of BYU. He told us some interesting things that I didn't know. Like in that fountain at the Joseph Smith building, the boulders represent Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. 

It was cute because Emily had said before the tour, she wanted us all to pretend that she wasn't a student so that he wouldn't ask her a bunch of questions. I kept looking back at her and chuckling while she looked at me innocently. At the end I told him that she was a student and he asked her major and she told him and I said that she worked for the BYU Universe and he thought that was cool. His major is cyber security. Anyway, he took a picture and I gave him a tip because he said it was allowed and we headed over to La Jolla Groves for our lunch. 

They led us to our alpenglobe and we got situated. It was actually a pretty tight fit in there. We were all kind of scrunched together and there wasn't much room once Nathaniel and Audrey got there for their baby seat and backpack diaper bag. Audrey put the stroller under the table so that worked. We enjoyed all of the food! First, she brought out a palate cleanser which was Cajun cheese with fig and honey. We got three different appetizers: some kind of cheese meatball thing where they only gave us three small ones but we shared. We also got some bruschetta and a big pretzel with cheese sauce. They also later brought us rolls. I got the tenderloin medallions and so did Jonny. Dad and Michael both got a Reuben. Daniel got a pastrami burger. Emily got carbonara, Nathaniel got halibut, and Audrey got a salmon salad. All the food was really good. The servers did a good job, but the only problem was that it was pretty much impossible to get their attention because they were inside and they'd have to come out to serve us. The setting outside was really cool but it was also kind of weird because people would kind of cut through past our globe instead of going on the main path so they were walking right outside the window and staring at us so it was a little bit awkward but it was still cool. 

They went home to feed him and the rest of us went to University Mall to go to the Giving Machines. It was insane there! It was hard to get around the parking lot and we're lucky we found a spot. We had enough time so we went in and donated at the Giving Machines and got a picture and that was nice. 

Then we drove over to the mall to go to the movies to see Sonic 3. The movie got a little boring in the middle but it was pretty funny and I enjoyed it overall. Daniel loved it and so did Jonny. Jonny said it was “peak” so that's high praise. We picked up Panda Express and went over to Nathaniel and Audrey's house to eat. Audrey was finishing up feeding him and Michael held him while we started eating. Then everybody got a turn holding him for a little while and I got some more pictures and video. Then it was time to say good night. By then it was about 8:30 PM. Dad needed to get back because he has to leave at 4 AM and Nathaniel still needed to finish his grading. He had told us that earlier today so we knew that we needed to leave their house early. I was sad we didn't have more time with them and Charlie today but it's been a wonderful visit overall and I'm so glad we were able to come here and spend time with them. I know Dad was really pleased with the trip and grateful to have that time with Charlie. We said our goodbyes and headed over to the hotel. We said our goodbyes to Dad. Emily drove back to her apartment. Michael and the boys and I just chilled for a little while and then got ready for bed. It was nice to have a little time to relax but we need to get up early to start our trip.

December 24, Tuesday

This morning, Michael showed me a sweet text from my dad. When Dad asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he said, “your daughter is the best gift you could have given me.” That was about a week ago. Well, Dad responded this morning and said Michael was the best son-in-law ever. He said that we have an incredible family and that “he couldn’t have picked anyone better for his daughter” and since Michael has a daughter, he will understand how important that is. Michael was so touched that he was moved to tears and responded to him later in the day. We had a great drive home. Michael did almost all the driving. I drove from Kanab to Page. It looked like the visitor center at the dam was open but there were just a lot of people milling around. We picked up Emily and left her apartment around 8:30 AM and we made it to Safeway at 8:07 PM and that included a stop to Taco Bell, so that was pretty good time. We drove all the way to Beaver and took a bathroom break and then we drove all the way to Kanab for lunch. 

We tried to convince the kids that we should go to a Mexican restaurant for dinner but the kids weren't interested. So that's why we went to Taco Bell. Emily and I went into Safeway to get milk, salads, fruit, eggs, and some treats. Oh, and of course, some Coke zero. Then we came home and brought everything in and ate our food. We cleaned up the kitchen so I could help Daniel wrap Michael's present and he put the other gifts in gift bags. I did the dishes and got a lot of our supplies put away. Michael and Emily watched It's a Wonderful Life so I was able to watch some of that while I did my chores. My cousin Ben sent me a Snapchat of them watching the same movie at the exact same time so I sent him a message back. I wrapped the presents that came today. We finally got the kids to go to bed a little before midnight and I got the stockings together. It was a fantastic trip and we had a wonderful time!