Post-Christmas in Utah, Part 3-Fun to the Very End

I actually didn't take a whole lot of pictures this trip. And I didn't get a log, so I'm sure I'm missing a lot but I'll try to remember. What I remember doing most is shopping. We did a lot of shopping! Mostly to TJMaxx and Marshals.

On January 2nd, Lisa needed to go to Hobby Lobby for some art supplies. I'm glad we did, because they had just started their 90% off Christmas sale. Thats right--90%. Not 50%, or 75%, but 90%!! Like, cheap as free. I tried not to go too crazy since we had to fit everything in our van, but my mom sure did! Haha two carts of stuff! I really did get a lot of stuff, even though I tried not to. However, I'm regretting not getting that cool Christmas train picture for $5. But I got plenty of neat things for the next Christmas. We spent a good chunk of time in there and the lines were sure long, but for the deals it was worth it. It was fun too. 

My mom and her two cartloads of stuff in line

While we shopped, Erik took the boys out to Apollo Burger:

Eating yummy burgers

After we got back, I tried to get Snowy Toes with the silly cat mask I bought for me mom to harass her cats with. Snowy Toes is too smart to be fooled, though you can tell he did not like it. That mask was really, really hard to breath in!

Freaking the cat out with a silly cat mask

Later that evening, Erik had set up an escape room activity at All Star Bowling & Entertainment with his cousins Lindsay and Joel and their spouses. Linsday didn't play the escape room with us. We split into two teams, boys vs girls. It was just me and Joel's wife, and Elisa and Isabelle in one room. We made it out, but just barely. It got pretty stressful towards the end! I knew what to do, but my brain does not function well under stress. I am definitely not one of those adrenaline junkies! Luckily the room monitor helped us out. The guys were out already when we finished. But they had more people on their team to help figure out the puzzles! After the escape room, we all did laser tag. Except Lindsay and I--we stayed out and chatted. Isabelle gave Elisa a Christmas gift, but unfortunately Elisa accidentally left the gift behind.

We made it out! Barely!

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January 3rd. What else do I remember? Pretty much just what the pictures show. Going to the DI and finding a really nice and cute music stand for Elisa for $6. And then out to eat at Texas roadhouse. My mom and Michael love going there. This time me and mom and Elisa went. Elisa always says she's not hungry, but as soon as food is placed in front of her, she'll wolf it down.

The stand I found. It was dirty, but nothing a little hosing off couldn't fix. These are at least $65 online as I type this, not sure about shipping or tax. So, a good find.

Enjoying Texas Roadhouse. My mom and I always split a plate when we go out since we don't eat much. I also ordered a specialty drink. I usually don't order drinks, but I felt like it this time, so I did.

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January 3rd. Me, Lisa, and my mom went shopping at the DI again. Guess what I found? Another music stand! This one was more decorative (appears to be made out of iron) so I snatched it up and it now resides in my front room by my piano. Two music stands in one trip! And two separate DIs. Later, we took all the kids except Gabe to a jump place (Ninja Kidz) pretty close to Lisa's house. Aaliyah brought a friend along, thankfully Elisa didn't seem to mind too much. While they played, we went shopping (again) at a few nearby places, one being Ross, but I didn't purchase anything there. I think I was all shopped-out. Meanwhile, Erik took Gabe across the way to Red Robin.

I took some pictures of them just before we left--they seemed to be having the time of their lives.

Gabe enjoying yet another hamburger

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January 4th. Our last day in South Jordan for the time. Erik got bored and went golfing at Top Golf by himself. He should have forced Gabe to come. It snowed for a bit while he was there. I'm not sure what I did that morning. Probably went to the DI. Or hung out at Lisa's. 

Snowing at Top Golf

Guess who I finally got a text from? Tootsie! After 2 years she finally texted me. Her and Mark wanted to meet up with us for dinner, for her birthday Erik already had plans to hang out with his high school friends that evening, but we made it work. I was made to attend Erik's get-together which I was not happy about. But it was nice catching up with Tootsie and Mark. We went to eat at The Bombay House. They acted as if they hadn't ignored us for the last two years, haha. We paid for their dinner as a gift to Tootsie. After dinner we went to his friend's house and a couple other friends showed up too. It was a little boring for me. We played a game (Cards Against Humanity? Something liked that) and there were some treats and snacks there. I was stuffed from Indian food, but I did try a chocolate chip cookie that was pretty good. I'm glad that Erik enjoyed getting together with his friends. Erik's friend's house was surprisingly close to Tootsie's house (like 5 minutes away) so I told her we would meet her at her house after the get-together. I was hoping to get out of there sooner. I really was excited to see her new Siamese kitties! They were so cute. We didn't stay too long. Mark didn't even bother to come downstairs to say hi. Maybe he went to sleep early. Tootsie gave us a Christmas present, a basket of pancake mix and some nice syrups.

Tootsie and one of her kitties. I will admit to being a little jealous of her cute kittes.

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The next day, January 5th, Sunday. We went to just the first hour of church in Lisa's ward. I wanted to go to Lisa's ward because I don't like my parents' ward that much, and I needed to go through the Blaylocks house afterwards to collect any items that belonged to my children. They always end up scattered all over her house. So that took a while. I thought we would visit more with Lisa and Eric, but they stayed for 2nd hour and Erik wanted to get going asap--we still had to pack up all of our stuff that was at my parents' house. And it was A LOT of stuff! We had to rush in order to make the 4-hour drive down to St. George. It was a lot to pack as usual, but with Erik's help, it didn't take too long. The drive down to St. George was uneventful, which is always good. Someone made us chicken broccoli and rice for dinner--not sure if it was Makayla or Grandma. But it was yummy. 

Elisa loved taking care of her little baby cousin, Zetta

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The next day, Monday January 6th was our drive back home to Phoenix. But first, lunch at Angelica's before we hit the road for another (thankfully uneventful) long drive.

We all enjoy eating at Angelicas!

Zetta is always the center of attention. Thats what happens when you're cute.

And that is that for our very fun, awesome, amazing post-Christmas trip to Utah!!

Post-Christmas in Utah, Part 2-Christmas #3/New Years Day

We had made the kids wait long enough for their 3rd Christmas, so on New Years Day we had the Blaylocks come over to open presents with everyone else. As usual, we went in order of youngest to oldest. It was fun! Gabe was grumpy with a gift from Lisa that I thought was nice (a train clock) but liked the gummy maker she got him. The girls gave each other silly gag gifts, with a couple of nice gifts in between from the rest of us. Michael liked his soap and gift cards. My dad had the most gifts to open--mostly because I wrapped up the shirts that he picked out for himself way back in November, so I'm not sure if they counted or not. As an adult, it's just as fun to watch people open gifts as it is to open your own gifts. It would take too long to list all the gifts everyone got and gave even if I do remember all of that, but I have to say--I got the best gift. My parents bought me a KitchenAid mixer, and my dad wrapped it in wedding paper, so maybe its actually a wedding gift, 20 years late! Finally, I have a KitchenAid. Yay. Everyone had fun opening gifts. 

After unwrapping everything and cleaning up, we took the kids to McDonalds. The boys played in the playplace and I shared a couple of bites of fish sandwich with my mom and a drink with Lisa. I'm not really into McDonalds. The rest of the day I spent making lasagna and a few other side dishes for dinner that night at the Blaylock's. After dinner we played a game called Cover Your Assets. I do believe I won the game! Overall, a very fun 3rd Christmas/New Years Day! 

A view from the top of the stairs, just before we started

Calvin went first

Lisa gave Elisa pink hot chocolate

Gabe was unhappy with his gift, I'm not sure why. Its cute and it works just fine

I got my dad lots of snacks from World Market

Gabe liked his gummy-making kit

Lisa being silly with her gift from Elisa

These girls are so silly

Opening presents is messy!

Silly girls and their matching purses and goofy dolls they gave each other

We took the kids to McDonalds for lunch, where the boys played on the playplace and the girls sat together. 

I found another gift for Gabe from my mom that I picked out. She couldn't find it, but I easily found it on her closet floor. He thankfully liked this gift. A Christmas train full of candy!

The lasagna turned out great this year--I didn't forget the eggs!

Playing Cover Your Assets card game

Post-Christmas in Utah, Part 1-New Year's

Erik had to work the couple days after Christmas, so we drove up Saturday December 28th. We left the house around 8 am and got to St. George in the afternoon. I have zero recollection of the drive, but that is a good thing. We unpacked the van and all the gifts, only to realize that Elisa had left Aaliyah's huge present box behind--and she had been working on her gift for quite some time. I told her she'd have to get it to Aaliyah another time. Bryce and Makayla wanted to go out for a late lunch/early dinner at a new pizza place, Sandtown Pizza. It was pretty yummy. They wood-fire their pizzas (which most of the time means it will be good) and the wings were good too. It was nice to go out with just Makayla and Bryce (of course baby Zetta too) and chat with them. Most of the time when we go to St. George, we only see them briefly in passing. Later that evening, we all opened gifts. Baby Zetta got the most gifts by far! So many, that she tired out before she could get through them all! Most all of the gifts were ordered off of people's Amazon wish list, which makes present buying so much easier. 

Yummy pizza!

Zetta opening her gift

Erik got Bryce a ginormous cutting board. It looks like a TV screen it's so big.

The next day was Sunday. We went to sacrament meeting, and then me and kids went back to the house. I can't remember if Erik stayed for 2nd hour or not. We packed up our things at left after eating lunch. Erik and his parents had a flight out of St. George to Kansas for his cousin's funeral. I drove up with the kids and arrived at my parent's house in South Jordan around 4pm. I didn't take a log of the week that we were staying in Utah, so a lot of the details are fuzzy. Erik was only in Kansas for a day, so I picked him up the next night (Monday) from the SLC airport. The next day (New Year's Eve) was mostly spent planning the dinner that night. The kids (mostly Ian) really wanted the multi-course NYE meal that we did a few years back. It didn't quite work the same with so many people--and lots of those people had neither the attention span nor the manners to do a sit-down multi-course meal, so Erik and I ended up serving most everyone while they sat and watched the movie that I brought up, Journey to Bethlehem. We didn't bother staying up until midnight, those days are long gone. I put earplugs in and went to bed.

All the gifts we brought up for my family

Making the list for our New Year's dinner. We saved the lasagna for later and decided against the jalapeno poppers.

Watching Journey to Bethlehem and trying all the different courses.

Christmas 2025

We spent Christmas by ourselves this year. Not to worry, since we had plans to drive up to Utah after Christmas. It was simple and relatively quiet. It was nice to have all the stressful things like recitals and church stuff out of the way and be able to just focus on having a good time as a family. I tried not to go overboard with the gifts this year, but of course the kids got plenty of gifts anyway. And this was only one of three Christmas's--the other two were waiting for us in Utah!

Ian's Christmas list

Santa came!

Elisa picked out this silly wearable turtle pillow for Ian. I had to make a few repairs on it not long after and it is a bit big on him, but he sure was happy to get it!

Elisa opening her stocking--lots of goodies in there for her!

I made sure that Erik got a stocking full of goodies too!

Gabe got exactly what he asked for!

Yet another Super Mario game. The boys always seem to be wanting the latest; they all seem the same game to me.

Journals and Super Mario pens for Ian.

After opening gifts, we got to work on Christmas dinner. I bought prime rib, and Erik prepared and smoked it. He made acini fruit salad and the horseradish sauce to go with the prime rib. I threw some rolls in the oven and slapped a garden salad together. So, I guess Erik did most of the work for our Christmas dinner. It sure was yummy!

Prime rib, ready to be smoked!