Gymnastics Meet

We went to a University of Utah gymnastics meet tonight and had a fun time. Kali gets to be a helper with the scoring during a meet next month so her coach wanted her to come watch a meet to get a feel for what she'll have to do. Unfortunately we were so high up that Kali was having trouble seeing, but it was still fun to go.

Emma had a blast because she spent the entire time walking along the seats. Sadie, on the other hand, was bored out of her mind. She didn't like the fact that she had to just sit there. She wanted to be down on the floor. She was, however, infatuated with the U sign. She wanted to know why everyone kept holding their hands in that position and decided to give it a try. Josh was pretty horrified to see what she was doing. What did he expect when we were at a University of Utah meet?!

And for some reason we always luck out at sporting events and end up near the mascot. The U's red-tailed hawk, Swoop, came up and gave the girls a high five. They were pretty stoked.

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

We have a tradition with our Family Home Evenings. The first song we sing every single time is "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" and it gets a little crazy. The girls run in circles and jump off couches and have a ton of fun. We've done it for a couple of years now and it's a great beginning to the evening. Not only is it a way to round everyone up, but it helps put everyone in a good mood and gets the attention of the little ones.

Snow Fun

Josh finally had a Saturday with nothing going on and spent the day outside in the snow with the girls. They had a blast. Especially because he built them a snow cave.

Had it not been for the fact that the following day was a Sunday, Josh said he would have slept in it. It was plenty big and warm.

Princess Camp

Sadie is doing a class called Princess Camp for this session of Discovery. She is learning how to be a princess and today they were focusing on how they talk and walk. Sadie did such a good job walking with a clipboard on her head. She was so proud that she was the only one to walk around the chair and back without dropping it a single time.

Sledding

The girls have been dying to go sledding and we finally got our chance. Unfortunately, Kali took Ashlyn out on her first run down the hill so there were a lot of tears and some pouting, but eventually everyone ended up having fun.

Frisbee Dodgeball

On New Year's Day we got together with the Smith side and played frisbee dodgeball. We gave Brady and Jordan soft frisbees for Christmas and wanted to show them how fun they were. Everyone had a blast, including the kids. And we were all super sore the following day.

New Year's Eve

Tonight was such a blast. Brady and Jordan volunteered to organize our New Year's Eve festivities this year. I'm so glad that someone took charge because it made it a ton of fun. They organized a bunch of minute to win it games that were challenging yet fun. After each couple had a chance to participate in a couple of the minute to win it challenges, we would sit down and play a longer game, all the while keeping track of the winners because the couple with the highest score in the end won a gift card to Cafe Rio. And guess who won...We did!!!

All the girls stayed awake until midnight but Ashlyn. I thought for sure Emma would crash, but she was a ball of energy, probably from all the sugary snacks she kept downing.

10 Year Anniversary

After ten years of marriage, Josh and I finally got to go on a trip together. We celebrated in San Francisco.

The first day we spent exploring Chinatown and ate at the best Chinese restaurant ever. We had to wait over a half an hour to be seated and paid $40 just for lunch, but it was so worth the wait and money. You know its authentic Chinese food when you're only given chopsticks to eat with and the waiter doesn't speak English (he only understands it).

Then we explored Pier 39 a bit.

The next morning we headed back to the Wharf and got to walk by Boudin. That place was packed morning, noon and night. Not only do they have a restaurant, but they have a big glass window where they make the bread for you to see. Check out the huge sourdough crocodile.

Then we did a little more exploring of Pier 39.

Next was our ferryboat ride around Alcatraz.

 

Brady and Jordan gave us tickets as a Christmas gift. We were super excited but even more so when we realized it was taking us under both the Golden Gate and Bay bridges. 

It was pretty cold and super windy but it was beautiful and I'm so glad we had the chance to go!

We even had a great view of the famous sea lions as we pulled into shore.

That evening we headed to the AT&T Ball Park for the BYU bowl game. This is the view from the stadium. I wish I could have gotten a picture looking the other way because the sunset was beautiful with vibrant pinks, oranges, and yellows.

Josh tweeted out these pictures of us at the game and we got on their jumbotron. I felt famous.

Our seats were pretty high up there. As a matter of fact no one was even behind us even though we were on the second to the last row, but at least we were directly above the fifty yard line. Unfortunately BYU didn't play well and lost the game.

Day three we got on a double decker tour bus and took a tour of the city. Our tour bus guide was fantastic. We couldn't have asked for better. He was super funny and was constantly telling us interesting facts. Our tour included a bus ride across the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito. Had we known we wouldn't be able to stop before the bridge on the way back, we would have gotten off and walked across the bridge.

From there we took a shuttle bus to Muir Woods, a redwood forest. We didn't know what to expect, but it was full of paths and trails and we could have easily spent another couple of hours there had we had the time. Unfortunately, when we arrived we only had an hour until it closed for the evening.

It was beautiful and the trees were huge.

That night we switched hotels. We wanted to be able to stay in a fancy one at least one night. Our new hotel was the Intercontinental near Union Square and this was our view.

I hadn't ever set foot in such a fancy hotel. Not only did we have a gorgeous view, we had a bench by the window, bathrobes, and a huge room. The hotel had a bellhop, a concierge and everything you touched cost money. It was super fun for one night. Josh and I walked to the mall that evening and ate out. We talked about how nice it would have been to have had another couple of days to explore more of Union Square and to see a broadway show. The next day we headed to the airport and flew home. Sadly, our trip was over. However, it was the best way to celebrate our 10 year anniversary and we will always carry those memories with us.

Christmas Goodies

You can always tell how spoiled you are when you look at the house after all the presents have been opened. Santa brought the girls new bedding--quilts, blankets, and pillows. Josh and I gave them a new wii game, a new movie, new dresses and shoes, and a few new toys

But my favorite part of the day was that the girls were so excited to give gifts this year. They bought gifts for each other and could hardly wait to give them. They also made some of the cutest homemade gifts for Josh and I. Kali gave us a cute card with a Christmas tree made out of scraps of paper. She also had Ashlyn tell her the words she wanted to tell us and wrote them in a little booklet with a string attached to it so that it was like an ornament. Sadie made us a cute bookmark. And all of them put on a little presentation for us. They explained that everything they did was because we had taught them the true meaning of Christmas. I was so proud of them.

Christmas Morning

Our Christmas morning traditions consist of eating muffins for breakfast while Dad reads an account of the Savior's birth from the scriptures. Each year he chooses a different account to read whether it's from the Bible or the Book of Mormon. Then I read a children's book about His birth for the younger ones. Then we open the small box which has some pictures of gifts our Heavenly Father and Savior have given to us and talk about them briefly. And last, we open the large box which is our gift to the Savior. We do a family home evening early in December about service and how that's the best gift we can give the Savior as we celebrate his birth. We challenge the girls to try and fill the box with warm fuzzies (to represent the acts of service they do) before December 25th. It's the perfect way to begin the day, remembering the most important reason for Christmas.