Christmas 2010

This year we were soooooo excited we got to go home to Utah to spend Christmas with our family!

I felt grateful not only that we were able to go home but just the fact that we actually made it home was a miracle! Me and Beck flew out a few days before Dane, and I was a little worried about making our connection flight in Chicago because we only had a 40 min layover but luckily we were on the same flight from Chicago to Salt Lake as one of our friends so he said he would wait for us outside the terminal so he could help us rush to the next flight, so I felt totally relieved until after we boarded our flight in Virginia and it ended up leaving 30 min late! So obviously we were 30 min late getting into Chicago, so as soon as we landed I checked my phone and our poor friend knew we were going to miss our flight so after waiting for us as long as he could he had to board the flight but he told me that the flight still hadn't taken off and I had a message from my dad saying that he had called the airline and they would probably wait for us knowing we were so close. So I grabbed both my what-seemed-like 80 pound carry on bags with one arm and carried Beck in the other and with my awesome completely out-of-shape 6 month pregnant body booked it through the gigantic O'Hare airport to try to make my connection, oh and don't worry my connection gate was literally the farthest gate away from the gate we flew into. I felt like everytime I made eye contact with anyone they would mouth something like "bless your heart" or "I am so sorry", after I had been running for quite awhile I knew I had no other choice than to either put Beck down for awhile or just pass out in the middle of the airport so I decided to put Beck down for a sec and I just said "buddy I am so sorry but you gotta run with mom!" and that little angel grabbed onto my hand and took of running beside me and didn't stop until I felt too bad for him and picked him up again. Anyways, I finally made it to the gate and low and behold the flight had left! So I went to customer service and they had no flights to Salt Lake until the next morning at 11!! I had no idea what to do, I thought I was going to have to sleep at the airport, but luckily I met the nicest people in the world who had also missed the flight to SLC and as I was talking to customer service they jumped in and let me know that the airline would pay to put us up in a hotel...so the guy booked me and Beck in a hotel and gave us a meal voucher and those nice nice people helped me find the shuttle to the airport AND carried my bags for me. Then when I got to the hotel a lady that had been riding on the shuttle with me ran up to me and told me that she saw I was alone with a 2 year old and she was going to be my right hand man. She asked me if me and Beck had eaten dinner and had money for breakfast (I hope I didn't look like a homeless girl at that point haha) and helped me watch Beck while I checked in. And then offered to go to the grociery store for me when I told her that I only had 2 diapers left for Beck...don't worry I did not send her on any errands for me but I could not believe all the incredibly nice people that helped me out that night!! It was kind of fun to stay in a hotel just me and Beck and by that point my only fear was the diaper situation, it ended up that the gift shop at the hotel sold diapers for $7 for ONE diaper and it wasn't even close to his size to being the cheapo that I am I risked it and actually made it with only 2 diapers! Because of lack of sleep Beck had a rough flight to Salt Lake and when we landed and I saw my family I almost broke down in tears I was so happy to FINALLY be there!

Anyways...on to the good part!!

Bet you can't guess who built this ginormous Frosty the first day he got to Utah
I had nothing to do with it I just like to take credit by posing for the pictures in front of it.
Dane and Dayne get all the credit!

Getting ready to go build his snowman...scary sight, these snowpants barely fit me when I'm not pregnant!

Too cute - This was only Beck suited up to play in the front yard, he looked so funny when we bundled him up to go tubing at Soldier Hollow...everytime you would look at him all you could think was A Christmas Story "Ralphie, I can't put my arms down"

Beck and uncle Brandon

My brothers (and Trevor) are the cutest uncles ever to Beck it's so fun and cute to watch them play with him and try to trick him into letting them hold him.

Beck loved Shelby this trip

He preferred either Shelby or my mom and dad way over me and Dane...Dane was quite offended by it

Christmas Eve we built gingerbread houses and went to see a movie, then we went to the cemetery which may sound a bit wierd haha but Spanish Fork has an awesome tradition that everyone goes and lights candles next to their family and friend's headstones every Christmas Eve and it looks beautiful! Then my mom made us a big Christmas Eve feast and we all watched the "Joy to the World" movie and read Christmas stories I really loved that we spent a lot of time on Christmas Eve focusing on Christ.

My dad rocking my mom's reading glasses

Christmas Morning!!

It was so fun to watch Beck get so excited over presents this year!

LOVE this snow hat my mom got Beck

We also did a lot of fun activities with the Church side of the family while we were there.

Dane's sister Ashlee, her husband Joel and their 6 kids were able to come from Nebraska for Christmas. It was so fun to see and spend time with them and we loved watching Beck hang out with his cousins Ty is a year older and Bennett is a few months younger than Beck and it was fun to watch them all interact together

We went to Kangaroo Zoo (twice cause we loved it so much). They had some enormous inflatable slides that Beck LOVED he wanted to go upside down and backwards down all of the biggest ones.

He also was introduced to Chuck-E-Cheese for the first time

We went bowling...Beck loved the attention he got everytime he took a turn

Beck with Abby and Briton

We had a really fun New Years Eve, Dane's mom got us all rooms at a hotel so that the kids could go swimming and then we played games and watched a movie.

I was so sad to see our trip come to an end...I was crying before me and my dad even left for the airport. 3 weeks with our family didn't feel nearly long enough for me I so wish they lived closer so I could see them as much as I wanted because a couple times a year is not cuttin it!! Also it was SO SO good to get to spend time with some of our best friends while we were there, I wish we could have spent a lot more time hanging out with friends too but gosh, like I said 3 weeks is just not long enough! I don't feel like I got to spend half has much time as I wanted to with ANYBODY. And as always I can't thank our parents enough for everything they did to make our Christmas so memorable and special!!