January Wedding in Salt Lake

We enjoyed a quick trip to Salt Lake for Matt and Tori's wedding at the beginning of January. We got back from our 10 day, Christmas trip to Olympia on Sunday, and left for Salt Lake on Wednesday. It was a little bit of a tornado, and probably would have been easier to leave the kids in Olympia with my parents, but we didn't want them to miss out on seeing Grandma Andrea and Papa Tom back from Hungary. It was such a treat for the kids (and us) to spend time with their grandparents.

Seeing Matt and Tori in the sealing room in the Salt Lake Temple, made all the craziness of the trip worth it. What a fantastic girl Matt found. They just glowed together the entire day. I'm so thankful we were there.

Matt and Tori with the nieces and nephews

I just love this picture! Matt's wedding is one of the many beautiful blessings of having parents serving in the mission field.

No snow, but very cold. Amelia lost it after this picture and cried all the way back to the hotel room saying, "go home, go home" over and over again.

Back at our hotel you can still see the tears in Amelia's eyes from her melt down.

A little happier playing with my bouquet at the reception.

Simon and Russell eating their cheese cake and wedding mints:)

The brothers working on the car.

Next morning in the parking lot of In-N-Out

At the church doing our family Christmas gift exchange.

The boys playing with their Hungarian puppets.

At the Bean Science Museum at BYU

Our last night we spent with Chelsea and Spencer (thanks a million for the room and car). Carson, Jenna and Court came and visited us in the morning before Chelsea drove us to the airport.

Thumbs up to Court for reading Russell's Star Wars encyclopedia for at least 45 minutes.

Just outside the temple, waiting for Matt and Tori to come out.

Olympia Christmas

We spent Christmas in Olympia with family. It was a little quieter than Thanksgiving:) but we missed having the entire family home. We were grateful to see so much of Carson and Jenna. We were glad Beth, Wes and Oliver came Christmas day to spend the rest of the week with us. We spent a few of those days out at the beach house and enjoyed the new pool there.

We made Gingerbread houses with Grandma and Jenna (can you spot Santa?)

This is just easier:)

Making Gingerbread girls with Grandma

Believe it or not this was Christmas Eve (granted the boys had been running around a lot).

Santa's Christmas Eve visit

The Nativity Story

Christmas Morning

The Darth Vader flashlight key chain is Trevor's gift not Russells:)

Papa and Amelia playing Christmas carols (or princess songs)

Out at the Beach House

December Outings

Here are a few pictures of our pre-Christmas outings.

Out on the Town for our 13th Anniversary

Dinner at Jake's (Trevor surprised me with pearl earrings)

The Grotto in Portland

The Nativity was inside a rock cave.

Carol got the kids PJ's for Christmas