A Very Utah Christmas and an Interesting New Year

Happy New Year!!!  I hope that 2011 ended well and that 2012 has been great for your all so far! 

Since the last Blog post, Seth and I had the chance to head to Utah for Christmas with the Odoyle clan and all of our Salt Lake friends...and my what a good time we had!  We flew in on Christmas night, just in time to see Andrew and his girlfriend, Stephanie, before they headed off to California to spend the holidays with her family.  After a little visiting, we got some shuteye (at the 5-star Ahern Inn of course!) and rested up for the busy week to come!

We spent most of our time visiting and relaxing with the fam...good times!  The day after Christmas we actually opened presents since we didn't get there in time to do it Christmas night.  On Wednesday, we headed to the Hogle Zoo to see the animals and "Zoo Lights."  The weather wasn't too cold (at least to begin with) and we enjoyed some hot cocoa while strolling through the Zoo.  Friday was Family Fun Day!  We started with a gourmet lunch from Little Caesar's (yum!) to give us energy for Boondock's.  What is Boondock's you ask?  It's a family fun center and has bowling, race cars, laser tag, etc... that kids enjoy.  But come to think about it, I think the adults might have even had more fun than the kids :) Of course, no family trip would be complete without a visit to La Puente for some smothered burritos, so we made sure to get dinner before heading back to Mindy's to play Dayton's Wii dance game and burn off some serious calories!

Jack loved her "Pamper Day" in a box!

Chrissy, Seth, Mindy, and the chillins opening presents.

Zoo Lights!!!

Seth outside the Tiger's den.

The tiger looked freaking possessed!

Dayton was so excited, he ran all around Boondocks!

To prove to Mom I broke 100!  118 to be exact...and no gutter guards!

See below for the next winner of So You Think You Can Dance!

Aside from family time, Christmas in Utah is always a good chance to catch up with our Utah friends, especially those who are away at school during the year!  Between lunches, dinners, and drinks, our schedule filled up pretty quickly :)  It was great to see everybody, and we even got to celebrate Emily and Ryan's engagement with a party in Park City!  Every time we get to spend time with our friends, we remember how blessed we are to have so many amazing people in our lives :)

Me & Victor at The Bayou.

Kody, Me, & Seth at The Spur.

The gang was dancing up a storm while a live band played!

Whit and I pre-Thursday night dancing!

Although our time in Utah was busy, it was so much fun that time flew by too quickly!  Before we knew it, Saturday morning had arrived and we were headed back to the airport to fly home.  Although goodbyes are always bittersweet, we had much to look forward to back in DC...starting with a New Year's Eve Party!  Little did we know, however, just how our New Year's Eve would turn out :)

Flying home, we had a two-segment flight: SLC to Detroit to Washington.  Although our flight was delayed by about 20 minutes pulling away from the gate, we figured we would have plenty of time to catch our connection...and we would have had Delta done their job!!!  First the plane stopped on the runway for about 20 minutes due to a miscalculation in the plane's weight.  We eventually took off and got to Detroit just in the nick of time to make our plane...that is, had the pilot not stopped 2 feet away from the gate...and had we not had to wait another 20 minutes for Delta to send someone to unlock the door on the other side of the gate!  Thus, long story short, we ended up missing our connection and had to wait until the next day for a flight home...but luckily my cousin Chrys lives in Toledo, Ohio, which is only about an hour away from Detroit!  So, after getting things squared away (and using my arguing skills to get some Delta vouchers), we rented a car and headed down to Toledo for Chrys' s spectacular New Year's Eve Party!

Me, Riley, & Seth ringing in 2012!

After an unexpected but fun New Year's Eve, and a few hours of sleep later, we headed back to the airport...and this time we actually made it home :)  Our first item of business: picking up Honey Child from the Pet Hotel and enjoying a wonderful first day of what will hopefully be an equally wonderful 2012!

Honey rockin her Pink puffy vest!

Well, that's about all  I have for this week...but much more coming up next time...including a last hoorah trip to Atlantic City before school starts again!  But I don't want to put the cart before the horse :)  So until then, lots of love and a wish for a happy and prosperous New Year to you all!  xo