Christmas in Logan

Last week we celebrated Christmas in Idaho. This weekend we celebrated in Logan. Paul and I headed to Logan on Christmas Eve. We started with the Watson tradition of making mini pizza's and eating garlic bread from Fredrico's. After we were done stuffing our faces, we started a new tradition where the little kids acted out The Christmas Story (the actual story, not the one that plays on TBS for 24 hours every Christmas). Ethan was Joseph, Charlotte was Mary, Mason was Baby Jesus and Alice was the angel (so stinking cute!).
Jake even got to play a part as the donkey. He did an excellent job. After The Christmas Story, Tanner read us a Santa Claus story.

It was a fun time with the family. Paul and I spent the night at Lyn and Dave's so we got to spend Christmas morning with them. That afternoon I met my Dad and Carma at Burger King to say hi. They were just passing through on their way to SLC to pick up Carma's grandaughter. I made them take a slight detour so I could see them. I'm so happy they decided to make the stop! I loved seeing them. After they left, Paul and I went up to see what Santa had brought the boys (Kaden, Ethan and Tanner) and to play a little Halo. I have to say, I kicked some serious trash. The rest of the Watson clan came up around 2:00 so we could eat lunch and open presents. We also had a little dance off with the Wii games, Just Dance and Michael Jackson. Those Watson kids can dance!!! No competing with them. Christmas was so wonderful and I am so thankful I have two wonderful families to celebrate with. I am one lucky girl!

An Idaho Christmas

Last weekend Paul and I headed to Idaho to celebrate Christmas with my family. It was a snowy morning when we left and it took us an extra 45 minutes to get there, but it was worth it. We got there around 2:00 and then July, Cory, Cayman and Cooper got there shortly after. We spent the afternoon visiting, playing with the kids and singing a little Disney Karaoke. We decided to not draw names this year, but instead to choose a tag off the giving tree and buy a family in need presents. We all went to Wal-Mart where we spent an hour picking out things this family needed.....including a couple fun games as well. After we delivered the presents, we picked up pizza and went back to Dad's. We ate and then opened presents. Dad & Carma gave us the best present.......the 24 Days of Christmas. This is a book that has a Christmas story to read for every day in December leading up to Christmas. We all loved this book growing up and it was special for each of us to have one of our own now. I think Ryan's face says it all.




After presents, the boys went to play basketball and the rest of us watched Home Alone.
The next day we did a big breakfast. While everyone was getting ready, Cayman and I decided to make Cayman be Giant Girl (GG for short). She is giant!! :) Cayman also discovered my dad's Three Stooges ornaments and she took a picture with me and each of the different stooges. She is so funny. We ate a yummy breakfast of cinnamon french toast, bacon, sausage, blueberry muffins and scrambled eggs. Mmmmmmm. Have I mentioned how much I love my dad's cooking? Unfortunately, it was time to leave. Paul and I stopped by to see my Grandma Betty on our way home. I loved seeing my family! I wish we could get together more often. It's always fun and I am so thankful for them!

Family

The 2nd week of November we went to Idaho to watch my brother be ordained an Elder. It was a great weekend! Paul and I got up there early Saturday afternoon. We ate lunch at Sammy's, hung out at Ryan's apartment and then went bowling that night. I love spending time with Mel, Phil, Ryan, Dad & Carma. We don't get to see them as much as I would like, so every minute counts! The next day July, Cory, Cayman and Cooper came up and they stopped to bring Grandma with them. She was surprising Ryan. It was such an amazing experience to be able to watch my brother receive the office of Elder. I know my mom was proud of him and so was I!!! It's hard to get our entire family together and I love this picture because everyone is in it.

After the ordination, we had dinner where my Dad made his famous roast. MMMMMM......no one can make gravy like him. We played foosball and even Grandma got in on it. Looks like she's having a great time. I love my family and can't wait to see them all for Christmas!!!

Cutest Blog & Giveaway

I love this blog! She is the cutest! She also has a lot of fun giveaways so go ahead and enter to win.........maybe you'll think about sharing if you're the winner. :)
http://tandsdaybook.blogspot.com/2010/12/i-told-you-thered-be-more-stocking.html

ROOMIES!!!!!

THEN and.......
NOW

On November 5th, I got together with my old roommates from USU: Amanda, Amber, Chanel, and Jamie. We were just missing Janice. A lot has happened in the past 12 years ....marriages, divorces, remarriages, kids and stepkids to name a few! But we were able to pick up just like old times. We looked through photo albums and reminisced, we ate lots of food and reacquainted ourselves with each other, and most of all we just listened and enjoyed each other's company. I love you girls!!!

We decided to recreate this famous picture (ok, it's only famous to us):
And here was the result:


P.S. Why am I always on the bottom????

Girls Weekend

The weekend of August 12-15th, I met Katie, Tara and Alesha in Las Vegas for a Girls Weekend!!! We all got to Vegas around 9:00 the night of the 12th. It was quite the reunion. I hadn't seen Alesha in probably 4 years!!! It was so great to see everyone again. We chatted for a little while, but of course we were starving, so we headed out to find something to eat. We were staying at The Paris and it is connected to Bally's so we found a little Mexican Restaurant where we could eat. The food was not great, but the conversation was. There was so much to catch up on. We just at sat and talked and ate and it was wonderful. We stayed up talking until late that night. The next day we ate breakfast at La Creperie which was absolutely delicious. If you are in Vegas, you have to try it. After we ate we wanted to lay out at the pool, but it was so stinking hot!!! We got down there at high noon and after some strawberry pina coloda's and an hour later, we couldn't handle the heat anymore. So we decided to get ready and do some shopping. I cannot go to Vegas without hitting H & M, so that was our destination. We got quite a bit of shopping done and I came home with some great finds. We were once again starving, so we decided to get the 24 hour Buffet Pass. I mean, really, it was the best deal! We ate at the Buffet at the Paris and then we went back to the room for some more late night chatting.

The next day we walked around the shops in the hotels, we stopped at the flower gardens at the Bellagio (where Tara had to practice her sexy look and tried to teach us) and we just stayed on the strip most of the day taking in the sights and doing some more shopping.




One of the funnest things we did was stop at the Coca-Cola factory. We tried almost everything they had. We tried 32 flavors from around the world, 8 of their floats and 8 of their unique creations. And I also had to get a 32 oz. Diet Coke because everywhere you turned it was PEPSI!!!! I know that might seem crazy to get a 32 oz one when I had 48 other drinks in front of me, but I was dying for one. I'm not sure how I became the first one to test drink everything since I am the pickiest one, but I did and I made a lot of gross faces. I didn't like alot of what I was drinking. Lesha, Tara and Katie started making fun of me and decided it was time for one of them to be the first taste tester. Katie reaches for The Beverly from France and she almost pukes. We all thought she was just making fun of me, so we all grab to taste it and were expecting it to be delicious, but she wasn't joking. That was the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted!!! We were laughing pretty hard.



That night we went to the Planet Hollywood Buffet for dinner. It was a long wait, but totally worth it. They had the best dessert ever!!! Cotton Candy!!! Are you serious? All you can eat Cotton Candy. I was in heaven. Most people get drunk off liquor, but we have always been able to get drunk off large quantities of food. We were laughing pretty hard and everyone around us was looking at us like we needed to sober up. Dinner that night was so much fun.


It wasn't such a late night since we were all leaving in the morning. It was sad to see everyone go, but we are going to try to make it an annual thing. Love you girls!!!

Skidmore Fun

On August 8th, my family came to SLC for my nephew Cooper's 1 year birthday. We decided to go to Park City and ride the Alpine Slides. I'd never ridden them before and I was kind of nervous, but it turns out I didn't have anything to be nervous about. They weren't scary at all. My niece, Cayman, loves taking pictures and she does a really good job. Here is one she took: Last weekend my family decided to do a mini vacation. We went up to Badger Creek (close to Driggs, ID) and Phil's brother, Brian helped us do a portion of the ropes course they have. They hook you in and then everyone helps pull you to the top of the course. Then you actually have to let go and you become a giant swing. Now that was scary!!! I was quite terrified as you can tell from this video. It doesn't look nearly as high as it actually was.

After Badger creek we ate at Big Jud's in Ashton (home of the 1 pound burger) and then of course we had to get an ice cream cone at The Frostop! Yum, yum! Our sweet cousin's let us stay at their cabin, so we headed to Island Park. That night we played games and pool and visited. It was a great night. The next day we got up to go to Yellowstone. We were able to stop by Firehole Lake and see where Ryan fell in when he was a toddler, we saw some Falls and we were able to see Old Faithful. We had walkie-talkie's with us and Paul's favorite part was pretending to be a Park Ranger and make announcements over the walkie talkie. Because it sounded like a microphone, people all around us would turn to listen to what announcement he had to make. It was hilarious. Unfortunately, after we saw Old Faithful, it began downpouring. We were headed to the Fountain Paint Pots next, which is one of our favorite things to see, and we sat there for a half hour hoping the rain would stop, but it didn't. So we decided to head back to West Yellowstone. We ate at The Gusher and then finally it stopped raining. However, it was too late to go back to Yellowstone, so we went back to the cabin. We sat in the hot tub and played more games. Cayman also entertained us with singing and dancing. She is so cute and quite the little performer. The next day we cleaned up and headed home. It was a fun weekend. Thanks to everyone who helped make it fun.