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Dec 30, 2010

Our Christmas

Christmas this year was..beyond wonderful! I really got into it this year and wanted to make sure I got really good gifts for everyone, I think I did a pretty good job (although Larry did remind me of something he asked for months ago and I completely spaced, but just another thing to add to our list of new things to get still). I finally broke down and asked for a snuggie, and sad to admit it's amazing! ha ha.
Our Christmas day was planned so differently than how it played out I wish I would've slept in a little longer ;) We were going to get up, go to breakfast at my grandma's, then head to my mom's for our Christmas there, then come home to unpack, head to Larry's grandparents (for our usual ribs and poker fun) and then come home and do our private Christmas (I decided we'd wait to open our gifts to each other last because I wanted to make it last all day). What ended up happening is I set my alarm to 8 (I know, you're not supposed to set any alarms on Christmas, I just wanted to soak it all up as long as possible!). I got a text from my mom saying she had to take her poor dog to the vet because she ate turkey bones from our dinner at her house the night before. After finding out most of the family wasn't going to breakfast at my Grandma's Larry and I decided to just stay at our house and eat the breakfast being cooked there (Grandma-if you're reading this, sorry! I know it would have been awesome in your lovely new kitchen). Well my mom then informed me they were heading to Heber to pick up my brothers so we could have a full Christmas at her house, which I was a bit happy to hear because I wanted to see what all they got and be there when they opened our gifts, so we decided to stay in for a bit longer. So what was supposed to start at 9 started at 1 (ya see now why I wish we would've just slept in-Larry wasn't too pleased with me at that). But I'm glad we did end up waiting because we did our Christmas at my mom's then headed to my Grandma's and did that Christmas. It's so exciting to see everyone's face light up when they see what they're opening! I think I am to the point where I can appreciate that more than actually getting anything (am I actually growing up here??) It was fantastic! After all that fun stuff, we went back to my mom's to pack our stuff up and bring it home. It was really perfect timing because right after that we headed to Larry's grandparents. Even though they don't do quite the display as my family, I always enjoy going. His grandma got him a bat (they are now known as Louisville sluggers, but before it was Hillerich & Brasby-one of Larry's very very very old relatives), it was the coolest thing ever. Usually they just give him $20 cash so to see they got him something and something we could show our future possible children, it even has Larry's name engraved, it really was a great gift! We soon chowed down on some delicious ribs his uncles had cooked and then quickly started our poker game. We always play one fun hand with a lot of chips then a hand with real cash, I was about spent with the fun hand so I didn't feel like playing with the real cash one, but Larry has been practicing his poker skills night and day since we got back from Vegas, I wanted to be his sideline cheerleader ha ha. He played very well and was very intimidating, but ultimately his brother won all the money.
It was still a very fun night, I always look forward to these holidays where I can be around family. I have to admit I didn't wait until the end of the night to open our gifts, we opened some in the morning and then between my mom's and his grandparent's we opened the rest, but it was worth it to wait as long as possible! Now we get to clean the house and start our new years; I can feel in my gut that 2011 is going to be a great year for us, I'm so looking forward to starting it.

Some pics from our Christmas:
Before opening gifts-our lovely tree :)

Totally had to take the holiday picture!

Larry and Shawn opening gifts

Mom and Colby opening gifts

And Will opening gifts
The only thing missing would have been to have my brother, Andy, there. He is currently stationed in Hawaii serving our country, I miss him so much, but I know he's doing a great job where he is. Maybe next year we'll finally be all together again! Love you Andy!

Dec 23, 2010

Pics from our trip


View outside our room, yes that's Hooters to the right

Larry asleep once he didn't have to drive anymore :P

The open part of our room (I loved the couch) and part of Larry's leg

Our hotel sign, so awesome!


Yeah, everyone and their cousin were taking pics in front of this, I couldn't get a clear shot, but this was the first thing you saw when entering. It was so pretty.

The front desk decorations. They also had little trees everywhere.

First of the many lion habitat pictures


They played with all the half balls/full balls, they loved it.

Just like cats, they picked on each other too :)

They would rub their heads with the trainers, it was so adorable.

Yeah, okay, I'm a BIG cat person lol

This was what we saw while driving home.

This was outside my window. The snow was not pleasing!

Vegas 2010 pt 2

So Larry and I headed to Vegas back in February this year for Valentine's Day, he had come home for a visit from his military training and I, for once, didn't work the Saturday so we had decided to head out last minute. We had a lot of fun, but because it was last minute we felt we didn't spend enough time there and didn't really get to enjoy Vegas the way it was meant to be enjoyed :)
Well I just happened to request a few days off at work this month for the end of the semester/my birthday just so I could relax, I had no real intentions of going anywhere, in fact my only real plan was to organize my music (yes I'm a total dork when it comes to organization that I'd actually spend time off doing that, but that's a whole other topic ha ha). Anyways, Larry had already requested the Friday and Monday off so we thought why not take another trip down? We wanted to spend as much time as possible, so we left REALLY early on Saturday (like 3 A.M. early!) and drove through the rain all the way to Vegas, it was a tad scary, but when we got there I was SO happy to be in the 60 degree weather. As one of my friends pointed out, I'd finally get birthday weather I'd always wanted! Larry had been practicing his gambling online so he was just so psyched to start the Texas Hold 'Em tournaments they had going (which is why we had to leave so early since the Saturday ones start at 11). Well we got there so early we decided to stop at Circus Circus for some breakfast-Larry said it was the best buffet he remembered from being a kid, turns out when you're a kid, it doesn't take a whole lot to please ya! It wasn't the best, I'll say that, but was pretty cheap and we didn't care that we looked like we'd been up all night driving compared to the other patrons. Funny part was when we left, our car was locked in the parking garage (it SAID self park, how were we to know we couldn't actually park there??) So we had to be sneaky and I had to slip through some bars to get the car out-the perks of being a smaller person for those of you who made fun of me!
It was a pretty cool birthday though, after that was figured out. We went and checked into our hotel, they had THE PRETTIEST decorations for Christmas, it made me so happy to see it. Then I found out they had a lion habitat that they fed them twice a day at and I was so excited to check that out, so while Larry was doing his tournament I went to go see that (they said the feeding would be at 11:30 and I ended up waiting and watching till 11:45 and never saw anything-bummer). I ended up taking like a billion pictures with my phone, they were SO FREAKING CUTE! I also found out they do pictures with the cub, I SO had to get in on that, but had to shower before doing anything like that.
After Larry's tournament we decided to check in and go see our room, it was so pretty! We stayed at the MGM this time (last time was Planet Hollywood-of the two I'd recommend Planet Hollywood because it has a million shops, but if you prefer gambling over shopping MGM is MUCH better!). The only negative was the walls being super thin! There was also some sort of cheerleading competition (cheerleaders were EVERYWHERE!) so they would run up and down the halls yelling because they were just so flippin perky! I just wish they would've posted signs of what was going on and where, I probably would've gone to watch while Larry did his gaming. The only bad part is I'm so not used to the smoking and lights and loud noises so that night I ended up with a terrible headache, so we ended up going to bed early.
Sunday we went to the absolute best buffet at our hotel, it was a bit pricey, but so worth it. The service was nice, the fellow people were pretty nice, and they seated us next to the holy grail of dessert selections! It was simply amazing, I tried just about everything! Then we went and got our picture with the lion cub and then over to the casino where I tried some of the games they had and found out I LOVE electronic black jack, I only played the 25 cent games, but man oh man, you couldn't pry me away from those things. I literally sat at one machine for 3-4 hours until my money ran out because it was so much fun! Larry had another tournament that night so while he played I played and would go get a bite to eat and just come back to the machines, it was oddly one of the funnest things I've done (I say oddly because I literally played till I lost all my money, I didn't care if I was winning or not, I just kept going). After Larry's tournament we walked around a bit and he decided to get into this kind of practice tournament, it was a money game and you could just go until you go sick of it, Larry didn't get sick of it till 3 in the morning, but only because (as he informed me at that time) he lost $300! So needless to say he didn't feel like playing at all from that point on.
Monday we had plans to go to AdventureDome to ride their rides, but Larry seemed way too ready to go so we ended up checking out early and taking off. Turns out this was smart because we ran into really bad weather on our way home and it took us a bit longer than we expected to get home. I found out the next day there was a bad flood in Southern Utah that we just missed so we really lucked out! All in all it was a very fun trip, but I'm excited to go again soon so I can do more fun things, we didn't do any of the things I planned on doing, so I'd like to go out maybe for a bit longer next time ha ha.
And now I can't believe it's 2 days till Christmas! I'm so excited, but so not ready for it to be over with, but I will say I'm SO looking forward to the new year!!!

Dec 4, 2010

Oh how I love the holidays

Is it just me or can you just not be unhappy during the holidays? I mean everything is just so cheerful it's almost painful to keep smiling :) I just love it. Here's just a few pics from putting up our Christmas!


Building the tree

Decorating the tree

Didn't say these were recent ha ha!

All lit up, yes our star is NEXT to the tree instead of on top, it is too heavy :(

All those living in the basement's stockings!


Larry decorating the tree

Hope everyone is having as much fun as I am with these times! Before you know it they are over and we are starting another year.