Christmas in Utah

Our Christmas adventure started off a littly rocky when the stretch of freeway we drive to get to Utah was closed. We wanted to leave on Tuesday, so we didn't want to wait to see if the freeway would open up for Wednesday driving. We decided to head out but had to drive over to Pocatello and then down to Utah. It turned out to be not that big of a deal. It only added an hour to the drive, the roads were pretty much clear, and Elsie was a champ! I think we have trained her for road trips very well. We've done enough, that's for sure!

Christmas was all about Elsie this year and it was a blast. Aaron and I didn't really do a whole lot for each other (I got him a game and an ipod shuffle. He got me photoshop.) Elsie, on the other hand, was spoiled rotten.

Aaron and I ran to the BYU bookstore to look around Christmas Eve day and found this little cheerleader outfit on a major sale. Aaron couldn't even wait to have her open it on Christmas, so this was her early gift. He made the mistake of telling her the gift was hers, and she wanted to open it. She thought she was pretty cool stuff in her new outfit.
Elsie's gift from Santa was a new play kitchen. It was all set up for her when she woke up. The only problem was that she didn't want to open any other presents. We finally had to convince her that she would like the other ones too.

Grandma and Grandpa got her a set of food for her kitchen, some finger paints and a big pad of paper, some puzzles, and some other little fun things...the chapstick was her favorite! She also got some books, a bubblemaker for the bath, some bristle blocks from Jared/Lindsay, and a coloring book and pens from Angie.

There was lots of snow in Orem. Elsie like to look at it, but wasn't very enthusiastic about actually playing in it.

Her face says it all. She couldn't even fake a smile for the camera. She didn't seem to love the sled ride.

She was really annoyed when some snow got on her sled. She's a bit of a neat freak.

Grandma and Grandpa made sure they had a full stock of coloring supplies for Elsie while we were there.

Aaron and I never get any pictures together anymore, so we had Gary take a couple.

What a fun trip! We saw lots of friends and family and ate lots of good food. I missed my family, especially this year, but I'm so grateful that I have another family that I love and enjoy being with. Now, on to another year...we're hoping for a better one!