Christmas in Utah #1 - Fun in the Snow

For Christmas 2009, we went to Utah to spend it with all of Geoff's family. Everyone was super excited for the trip and it definitely didn't disappoint. We got lots of quality family time in, some fun outings and lots of snow time. And we even got to sneak in a little visit with Mart & Em and their kids who were in town visiting Emily's family and Wendy and Ellie who were visiting with Blair's family.

The pictures show how we arrived around 9:00 pm, after driving through lots of snowstorms, and the kids were so excited by all of the snow that we had to get them dressed in all their snow clothes and boots and let them play in the front yard. They just had to have a little snowball fight and it was so good for them to get some energy out after the long long day in the car.





The next morning they woke up still so enamored by the snow so we ate a quick breakfast, got our snow clothes on and headed to the nearest park with our sleds. They had so much fun running around in the snow, sledding down the hills, swinging in the snow covered swings, making snow angels. The cold wasn't even bothering them one bit which shows just how much fun they were having!






On Christmas Eve, we met up with Marty & Emily and Madelyn and Wendy at Sundance. Eliza and Madelyn were able to take a ski school class together. They did really well, all things considered. They did get down the mountain by the end and i think they had so much fun doing such a big kid thing. Kolby didn't want to take ski lessons...he was determined to learn how to snowboard so his Dad was his instructor, since he was too young to take real lessons. It was a semi-painful experience for him but he improved so much by the end of the day. It was great. You can see in the photo below that he actually looks like he knows what he is doing and if you ask him about it, he will tell you that he does know exactly what he is doing and can jump and everything. :-) Carson and I tried to enjoy the scenery but that proved difficult since he didn't like being a marshmallow in all of his layers. I tried to get a cute picture of him on the bridge, but that didn't work either. He didn't get really happy until I took him into the lodge, stripped off his layers and bought him a package of Skittles. then the fun began as Santa and Mrs. Claus came in and then Emily and Wendy showed up too. Emily was nice enough to watch Carson and let me do a couple of runs, which was a little nervewracking since I hadn't been skiing in forever, but I actually did just fine and made it down and got to stop along the way and see Kolby and Geoff. It was so fun. While Kolby and Geoff kept snowboarding, Carson, Eliza and I went to Wendy's cabin at Sundance to spend time with her and Ellie. It was a little scary driving in the minivan on the hilly roads back where they weren't plowed so well. We were doing a lot of sliding, but happily, we made it in and out safely. It was a very fun Christmas eve and everybody was nice and tired from the day, until they realized Santa was coming that night and then an extra burst of energy engulfed their bodies!
















One of our last days in Utah had to be spent sledding again. We headed over to Rock Creek Canyon Park and enjoyed some crazy rides with Uncle Mike, Dad, and even I went for a crazy ride with Kolby that didn't end so well. We went off a jump and got a little hurt. It was a FREEZING day so we were glad to get back to the car and turn the heater on. Everyone except Eliza, that is. She loved the cold and snow and made a few friends in a "snow cave". She was perfectly content there, but the rest of us agreed it was time to warm up and get some hot cocoa.