December Activities

- This Christmas we decided on a Minecraft Lego advent calendar. It was a fun one to start and had lots of good characters. It's always so hard to stick with one (I remember them only being chocolate ones when I was a kid. It was amazing chocolate as a kid, but when I tried it as an adult it wasn't as good as I remembered). The kids really enjoy doing those each season.

-Larry decided to get a membership to a nearby spa because he loves massages and decided he'd like to get them more often. He also surprised me on the 4th with a facial. I haven't had one for so long and he knows that I've wanted to get on again, so it was a very nice surprise. I forgot how much I love them! This one started with telling them I get a lot of dry skin (so they made sure to focus on that) and a very warm bed. They put on lots of different creams and then very warm towels to wipe them off. The best part was the nice neck massage. Afterwards, I had VERY glowing skin and it's so soft now (the dry parts seemed to go away for a while). I decided I wanted to do those more so I asked him for another one for my birthday celebration day.

-The girls had their dance Christmas party on the 13th and they had SO much fun with this. They ate pizza, played games, got a shirt and took group photos. Cara loves to wear her shirt to dance class each week now.

-It really hasn't gotten too cold yet (unfortunately), so during my break times, when Pierce doesn't have school, we've been able to enjoy our neighborhood playground. He calls it "the one with the bumpy slide" haha. He asks to go all the time and it's kind of nice having it to ourselves for a bit. I love any 1 on 1 time I get with the kids!

-I did end up finishing the activity closet organization. It took a looong time and a LOT of motivation and it totally killed my cleaning spirit for a while, but it's done and it's much better than before.

-Lastly, my favorite kiddo pics this month:

2025 In Review

I KNOW a lot happened this year, normally it feels like nothing did, so lets see if I can keep this to a minimum:

 January

-January was such an eventful, but low key month. I started it off with my surgery (which means A LOT of down time spent healing). I'm very excited to say this year was the year that ALL girls were officially, fully potty trained (Gwen became night time trained this month). So that has been a super nice transition! We also found out that Cara passed her A.L.L. test so we got her prepared to start those classes this year.

February

- February always starts out fun with the Superbowl. I wasn't able to stand up straight, but I was still determined to have fun that day and I think I succeeded (which was a nice game to watch). We had a different, but very fun, Valentine's Day. I think I did good with not spoiling the kids too much with stuff. I started to get back into my normal stuff after my surgery (and I'm super happy to say I think I'm officially to the point where recovery is not my first though in the morning - yay!).

March

- March is normally one of our slowest months (the calm before birthday season is what we refer to it as), but this year it was SO busy and so much fun. We went to our very first Disney on Ice (first for ALL six of us and it was so exciting and fun and such a good memory maker event!). Clearly I was feeling a lot better at this point, because it was filled with Memory Maker Days: Color Me Mine, Dreamwalk Park, and a few Thanksgiving Point places (this membership has served us well!), all of which were a hit! 

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day, I got to see my first Hale Center Theater play, and I spent a good amount of time and money updating some house items (including our kitchen appliances!). Gwen went on her first field trip this month. We also started the swim lessons at Goldfish this month (which was SO nice!).

April

-April started off with the Kids' Spring Break, so you know it was filled with activities: Curiosity Museum, Little Beakers Lab (a first and the girls still talk about how much fun it was), The Treehouse Museum, and ended with the Minecraft Movie in theaters. We celebrated Pierce turning three (which included a fun "party" at Jurassic Jungle and Leatherby's dinner). We celebrated a very busy Easter Weekend, which included breakfast with the Easter Bunny. And more home updates, Spring Pics, plus surgery appointments/updates (I finally started feeling more normal this month)

May

- May started with Cara's birthday (and her party at home she really wanted and it turned out more fun than I expected). I celebrated an awesome (but busy) Mother's Day. Mom, Rachel, and I took the older girls to see Wicked (SO great!). We also marked the end of the school year with a fun art adventure.

My biggest thing was going to D.C. with Stace, which ended up being one of my most favorite trips with her (I went into it with very low expectations and it surprised me with how much fun it was).

We had a lot going on with the end of school. AND we had Lucy's ballet recital (which influenced the older girls to try dance this year - most for the awards though, haha)

June

- June was our first official month for Summer. So, naturally, I took them out to Gardner Village for the petting zoo and a fairy hunt. We decided to end with a trip to the Chocolate Covered Wagon for funsies haha. We also hit up Tracy Aviary and finally did the Liberty Amusement rides, which ended up being really fun. Lucy turned five, so we had fun party at Uptown Jungle AND went to our first Fairy Tea Party at Gardner Village (I'm glad we finally got to try that out). We celebrated a more low key Father's Day. We checked out the new Imaginaria at Ashton Garden's. We had a SUPER fun family day at the Zoo and seeing How to Train Your Dragon (Pierce's first theater experience). We threw a really fun Summer Beach Party at home on Friday with the neighbor kids. We had an unfortunate first  Baseball game experience (but that was made up later, no worries). AND we took the kids to their first trip to Lagoon, which went as great as I had hoped!

We also did lot of Frazil Friday runs and the girls got to do a campout with dad. This might be the most fun month we had all year long! 

July

- July started with Larry's birthday (where he went to Wendover and I tried to take the kids on a fun adventure that didn't quite work out how I'd hoped). We had a fun, albeit a little lazier, Fourth of July. We got to have SO much fun at Monster Trucks this year (some hiccups, but overall a very memorable experience). We had a VERY fun day at Cowabunga Bay as a family (being at a water park when everyone else was at work and shutting the place down made it almost feel like a mini vacation). We attempted a day fishing as a family....hopefully we can fit more of these into next year because this didn't exactly wow them as much as we hoped. We hit up as many Thanksgiving Point activities as we could this month (and were very grateful for our membership, we used it up every chance we could this year). We did a lot of swimming! We did a lot of crafting, some other smaller adventures, and attempted another Bees game (which didn't work out) so it was a very busy month!

August

- In the beginning of August, we met up with Marie and Jim and had an amazing time at the Sundance Scenic Lift (something I would so do again!). I also took the girls to the Harry Potter Exhibit, which they seemed to enjoy (Cara still plays with her stuffed Phoenix). We hit up Imaginaria one last time before school started. Our 3rd attempt at a Bees game was successful (it wasn't too cold, the Bees won, AND we got to see the drone show, finally!). All the kids started school this month (Pierce's first year, Lucy was in her real school with Gwen, Gwen started her 1st real grade, and Cara moved to a new school where she is thriving!). The kids started soccer, we went to Thanksgiving Point more, and I got more into decluttering the house. It was a really great month!

September

- At the end of August/beginning of September we went on such a fun (first) family camping trip (this has gotten the camping bug in my system so I'm making it a goal to go more next year!). I had a lot of fun taking Cara to the Harry Potter Symphony (which she still remembers going to). We tested our social anxieties a lot this month, haha (but it was all fun so it was good). Larry and I got our first real date night this month, seeing Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin, which was SO much fun!! I took the kids to Red Butte Gardens, which was a quick visit (because I didn't realize how big it was), but it was very beautiful (pretty comparable to Ashton Gardens, but I prefer Ashton Gardens a tiny bit more)! We also switched the girls from gymnastics to dance, fit in one last swimming day, and started our prep for Halloween. Such a great month!

October

-I finally got to go on one of Gwen's field trips, and it was to the zoo (I love the zoo!). Mom and I tried a new Vintage Market Days spot this year (it was pretty good). I saw another play (I really, really enjoy going to see these now). We celebrated a fun Halloween. I got to have a fun volunteer opportunity during work, soccer finally ended (phew!), and we did more smaller house projects.

November

- In November, Lucy got to go on her first field trip (and I got to go with) to the aquarium (which was a lot more hectic than the last field trip there! We, of course, celebrated Gwen turning 7 (with a lot of 6-7 jokes). We did our first ever North Pole Express that was so magical and wonderful! We had two Thanksgivings (one had only okay food, one was amazing, but we got to see SO much family so it was great!). We also crossed off doing family pics, I did a lot of Christmas shopping, did our annual Santa picture, and saw even MORE family this month (it was a really good month)!

December 

- We started December off with Larry and I having ANOTHER date night (two in one year is going crazy for us haha). We had another food related Memory Maker doing Breakfast with Santa (which was a HIT). We threw something new in our December activities with a Jingle Bell Bubble Rave for the kids. The girls and I went with Nana to see the Nutcracker. We had an amazing, giving, and very messy Christmas. I had a very wonderful birthday. Larry got his spa membership he's been wanting and I got our activity closet cleaned up (and hopefully functioning better!). It was a great month.

I have to say it was a great and busy year! I think we definitely took advantage of all the things that we wouldn't normally do (and who needs a vacation when there are SO many good things nearby?). I think next year we'll definitely not go as hard, because this year seriously flew by, which I knew it would. I'm just glad at the end of it all we have so many fun moments to look back at. Now onto another exciting year, with LOTS of exciting plans. Happy end of 2025, bring on 2026!!

2025 Goals revisit

So I feel like I didn't take my yearly goals as seriously as I have in previous years because I have found I don't like to make goals just for the year anymore. If there's something I'd like to work on, I want to start right away rather than waiting until the end of the year to make a list for the next year. That being said, I did find thing I'd like to work on right away at the beginning of this year so let's see how we did:

-One screen free day per month: yeah, this one didn't go exactly as I saw it. I didn't pick a random day, I just decided that each day I'd actually just spend time with the kids and play with them however they wanted to play and that would happen anytime we had down time. I also told the kids, during the Summer, that anytime they caught me on my phone (when it was just random scrolling) they'd get a quarter. I only had to pay them out a few times, but it definitely made me keep my boredom scrolling in check. I did find, just playing together as a family, without a plan, were some of my favorite moments! So I'm definitely going to continue that part of this goal.

-Less snacking: I actually did decent with this. I do have moments where I snack more than I should. BUT I also have done more of the drinking water if I know I don't need to snack and that helps. I also decided to get less sugary snacks so that if I feel like I want to snack I tell myself I can only have those ones. Sometimes that changes my mind, but when it doesn't, it feels good knowing I'm having a healthier snack.

-Surgery recovery: this was my biggest one. And it was extremely difficult. I didn't rush it, but I sure got sick of how long it took at the same time. This was so much harder than I realized it would be (I would NOT recommend the surgery if you don't truly need it!), but now that I'm close to a year, I'm so excited I got this done and love my results!

-Take more pictures with Larry: I actually did pretty well on this. I did my best that if I was taking pictures of the kids or having him take pictures of me with them (or I was taking pictures with him and them), I'd stop and take one of just us. We also had a couple date nights this year that I got to take pictures with him. It was a good year of this one, and I hope it helps me do this more in the future.

-Memory Makers: we did EXCELLENT on this one! We had so much fun with our one off exciting adventures and it truly made me realize it can be just as fun doing new things closer to home as doing a vacation. It's good this happened because we are probably going to be doing similar things next year (reasons to come later). I absolutely loved using my PTO for weekdays off to take the kids out. I think Lagoon and Cowabunga Bay were some of the highlights of this part.

-Less Social Media around kids: yeah, this one went with my no screens. I did my whole "I owe you a quarter if you catch me on my phone" during the Summer, and that worked. But I would say this one I did the least amount of work on and could've done a lot better!

-Home Projects: well this one didn't work out as well as I had dreamed. Maybe this is the least amount of completed. We almost got a pergola for our back yard, but it was hard to find someone that would come out, so that got moved to next year. We did smaller projects (hanging baskets in our mud room for the kids' papers, a new light in our dining room, some storage areas for the kids toys and in the kids rooms) and we did a LOT more decluttering and organizing. But none of the big projects I listed on my goals got done (like even a little bit!). So I'm still dreaming.

-Game/Date Night Wednesdays: I stand corrected. This one I don't think got done at all. I just never really felt like I had time. We did kind of add in doing something a little more special a couple nights a week (so he'll give me back massages on Monday nights during our show, as an example), but I think it'd be good if we did more of this next year...maybe.

So I actually did decent, as the list went on I did less and less, but the ones I did do I feel like we rocked so it made it a pretty fun year. I'm excited for another chance next year!

My Birthday Celebration

My actual birthday was a good day. I chose a yummy French Toast breakfast, made at home with Texas Toast, strawberries, whip cream, and orange juice! I also wanted to go out to Brick Oven for dinner, I had heard so much about it and since the closest one is in Provo I figured I'd use it for my birthday dinner. Turns out it was a little over-hyped. The service was a little slow and chaotic, but the food was good (just not good enough to make that drive for it...there are things closer to us that are just as good - if not better). I also wanted to hit up Menchies for dessert, to check out other frozen yogurt (since it's our favorite type of treat), but that also wasn't the greatest (the kids were bummed they didn't have cotton candy flavor and the place was a bit dirty and had poor seating options). So that wasn't the greatest, but I'm glad I can at least say I tried them (and at least my breakfast was super yummy!)

Larry set up this surprise for me

For my celebration day, which was pushed to the 28th this year, I had planned to sleep in (I told Larry I wanted him to wake me up after going grocery shopping, if I wasn't up by then), but I ended up waking up early, but I used the time to finish the book I was reading, so that's a win right off the bat (I also watched the Packer's game recap, but that was depressing). I ended up going with the family grocery shopping, I figured I might be able to find more organizers for our home, but they didn't - oh well.

When we got home, we did a quick bath time for the kids (since we normally do those Sunday nights, but I didn't want to at night). We then traveled to the Traverse Mountain Outlets to find me some new sneakers (I haven't actually bought shoes in a long time, my most recent ones I got a free coupon from my work so I picked them out online), but man shoes are so DAMN expensive! We went to the Sketchers store and I got some that were on clearance (but are easy slip on and off so that's nice). I also wanted to find a new windbreaker, but the ones at the Outlets were too expensive, so then we headed to Scheels, but those were even more expensive. I found one on Walmart's website, so we headed there to see if they had any to try on, but they didn't, but I ordered the online one in my best guess size and called it good. 

I planned to go see The Housemaid (since I loved that book), but I knew if I went to the theater I'd want to eat snacks and since I didn't work out all week and I knew I'd want to go out to dinner, so I skipped the movie. So instead, I spent a good chunk of time cuddling with Minnie upstairs. 

After that, we went to Applebee's for dinner, which had slower service than normal, but the waiter was really nice and the food was really good. So it was such a nice day. Larry kept telling me to do more, but I was very content with the day. I did have him schedule me a facial at his special spa for tomorrow morning, so that'll be nice (it's an hour long!). 

While some food things weren't as great as I wanted, the overall birthday celebrations (and gifts and treats) were awesome and I'm happy for the celebration I got. I've warned Larry that I plan to go big for my 40th so he has 2 years to prepare for that, haha. But so far, 38 is great!

Christmas 2025

Christmas, this year, was a HUGE success. For one, I got ALL my shopping done early. I wrapped a few presents each night, which was MUCH better than my usual "wrap here and there and then realize on the 24th that I have A TON to still wrap and then I'm scrambling to wrap and by Christmas morning I tell myself how annoying it is that I JUST wrapped all these and now it's a giant mess on the floor" M.O. I realized I was all done wrapping by the 18th, which was a surprise, but nice too. Because I had got it all done early, it made me really antsy for Christmas Day to get here for a while, plus today was filled with nice surprises when gifts were opened (I really did forget half of the things I got, haha).

When the kids woke up this morning, they were so antsy to get going they woke us up early claiming they were hungry. I did my usual "go downstairs, start music, turn on lights, and get ready to record their reactions" move. They were so excited to see everything (our couch is definitely getting more full each year with stocking items). We started with stockings, which were torn into, then we ate breakfast (we didn't have any eggs so we had to stick with pancakes and cereal), then we moved onto gifts under the tree. There were some screams while opening gifts, so I know they got good stuff, haha. I did good with making sure to get them 3-4 things that they specifically asked for (wrapped in Santa wrapping, of course), then the rest was clothing items they needed with a toy, book, or craft with it. I feel I did good, but Larry says I always go overboard with gifts (but he had depressing Christmases as a kid so he just doesn't get it).

I remember last year, after all the gifts were opened, we set the kids up with a gift while Larry and I cleaned things up. This year, I had NO motivation to clean. It was a huge mess and just felt overwhelming (it didn't help that I decided to clean out the activity closet on the 22nd and I still haven't finished it, so there were things ALL over the house already, probably a bad idea). I know future me will be mad I didn't clean, but I just didn't care. 

One thing we did different this year was I heard of other people who like to bring food to people who work on Christmas (like firefighters, hospital workers, etc.) since they have to be away from their families and I thought that was a fabulous idea. So we ordered some Papa Murphy's on the 24th and grabbed some Chomps and some Gatorades from the store this past weekend to take with it. Then after we were done with gifts, we got all dressed up and took it over to the closest fire station. They were so excited and surprised, it was such a good feeling (they even gave the kids some plastic firefighter hats as a thank you). 

After we got back from that, we put on the Cowboys Christmas game (however, they are already out of the playoffs so watching it felt a little weird since the outcome wouldn't matter whether they won or lost it), while waiting for Mom and Will to finish up at Andy and Rachel's to head to our home. Visiting with them was so fun. They always bring SO much for the kids (which they love) AND they gave me one of my other favorite gifts: my own Cheesehead to wear for the Packer's games! My mom had her boss grab it when he was near Lambeau recently and I absolutely LOVE it! 

After they left, we mostly just moved things off the couch so we could watch shows or movies together and not be sitting no little items. Again, future Jodi will be very upset with me, but I just don't care. 

We also made a nice big ham dinner with stuffing, mashed potatoes, olives, and rolls, that turned out SO amazing (especially with deviled eggs...of course! I've decided next year we need to make those once a month because I'm obsessed with them!). I wanted a very low key Christmas Day, haha. And it was definitely one for the books!

Christmas Celebrations

We've had a VERY busy Christmas season this year. Busy, but so much fun. I love the excuse to see as much family and experience as many crazy holiday things as possible. This post is separate from all the shopping I did, the Santa visits/pics, and other holiday events we did this year/season.

On the 20th, Larry's family had their party. We did it at his Grandma's assisted living facility, which is nice. We brought fruit and cookies (we were only asked to bring some dessert, but then we were told there would only bee cheese, crackers, veggies, and cookies so we added the fruit), we found some fun "decorate your own cookies" kits at Lowe's when we went to do the workshop so we figured that would be fun. Luckily, we were a bit misled on the food, someone brought a crock pot with some yummy dip and chip and there were LOTS of dessert and then quite a bit of other snacks, all of it delicious! Normally, we play bingo for gifts, but they decided to setup a new fun game where they put a bunch of strings with bows on a table and you basically pulled a string through this tunnel and whichever bow you got, there was another table with the matching bow on a little gift. This was a fun new game for everyone (it's fun to switch it up once in a while). His grandma handed out her gifts to the families (she got us some body wash...such a practical shopper haha) and then we had lots of treats to eat too. We exchanged our gifts with his mom in a separate room, and the ones we got from Marie were SO great (Cara was excited that hers was the biggest). She go the kids some puzzles or books, an outfit, an activity book, and a character trinket. They loved all of it. Larry and I got lots of goodies from our wish lists (I make him pick out gifts for them and I really hope he got them some good stuff, because she really rocked it this year)! There was even another resident that was telling us how much she loves his Grandma and how sweet of a lady she is and it's so nice to hear those compliments! I love these little holiday meet ups.

how cute is this??

Tonight we had a fun day as well. We started it with breakfast at Mom and Will's, with Andy and Rachel as well. Unfortunately, mom forgot to prep the dough for scones, but the rest of the food was really good, but picky kids really wanted to scones. After eating, we did some gift exchanges (I brought Andy and Rachel's since Mom and Will are making the rounds tomorrow) and I got the absolute best gift ever. Andy and Rachel got me this cute cookie jar that says "Bradsby Cookie Monsters" and has pictures of each of the kids on it. I nearly teared up when I opened it!

We did LOTS of puzzles!

Once we got home, I made some cookies with the kids (we did chocolate chip and snickerdoodles. But I realized I didn't make sure we had ingredients super last minute so we just got the bags that have everything and you just need to add eggs and butter to it and then it's ready to bake).

One fun thing we did all day was put on the Santa Tracker so the kids could see where he was throughout the day (they really liked that).

 After dinner we did bingo for gifts (the girls each got pajamas with a book and Pierce just got a Paw Patrol book set with a reader tablet thing), which is always a favorite holiday tradition. After that we went to drive to see decorations. Normally we'd just do our neighborhood, but driving the kids to school I didn't see a ton in our neighborhood, so I found some good ones that were supposed to be in Lehi. However, when we drove to those areas it really wasn't as great as I had hoped and they weren't all together so it felt like we were driving around A LOT more than we usually do...bummer, but oh well. 

Once we got home, we put on a Muppet's Christmas Carol and after that we put out things for Santa, read our "Night Before Christmas" book, and then had the kids ring their bells on the tree and go to bed.

Now, to get things set up for the morning. It's going to be so exciting tomorrow! I'm excited to see how the kids react in the morning!! Happy Christmas Season to everyone out there!

Seeing the Nutcracker

Last year, my mom mentioned she wanted to take the kids to see The Nutcracker. Lucy really got into ballet so Mom thought it would be a really special thing to share with them. I was a tad nervous that they were a little too young for it. There aren't any words in it and it can be a little long so I wasn't sure they'd "get" it. We did show them the Broadway one that was on Hulu last year to see what they'd think. Cara and Gwen seemed to think it was okay, but Lucy fell asleep halfway through it, haha.

We decided to skip it last year, but Mom was pushing for it this year, so I figured we could give it a shot (she tugged at my heart strings when she told me she remembers going with her grandma growing up and it's one of her favorite memories). On the drive to the theater, while they ate their snacks (since the show was around lunch time so I let them grab a bunch of snacks to keep them happy until afterwards),  I explained the story to the girls and told them you'll see the story, not hear it, since it's a ballet. Luckily, we got there early enough to grab seat boosters, hit the bathrooms, and mom got a Nutcracker souvenir (she wanted to take Trax, but I convinced her we would be able to find parking fine enough, which we did).

When we got to our seats, I had mom sit at one end, I sat at another, and the girls sat on their booster seats between us (there was a lady in front of us that kept looking funny at Lucy and then finally told me that we needed to get another booster for her since she's so small. She was so insistent that she even offered to go grab one for us, but no one sat in front of me so I knew she could sit with me or trade me places). Throughout the play I noticed Lucy did have to shift back and forth some to see the stage, so I figured after intermission I'd switch for her. During Intermission we did bathroom runs and when we got back I told Lucy I was trading with her, but then someone was sitting in the seats, so I gave her my coat to boost her up just a little more.

Luckily, the show wasn't as long as I thought, but they did get a little antsy towards the end. However, when it was over they all said they LOVED it and wanted to see it again. I'm so glad they did like it, Mom definitely wants to do this more as a fun tradition, and it sounds like they'd like to. We probably wouldn't do it EVERY year, but every other or few years would be fun.

Jingle Bell Bubble Rave

Tonight we had such a fun experience. We normally save Friday nights for Family Movie Night, but luckily our kids are willing to put off the movie night when a fun event comes up. 

A couple weeks ago I had seen signs in our neighborhood about this Jingle Bell Bubble Rave and that it was a family fun event and thought it sounded like fun. So we looked it up (it was very underground...it was hard to find too many details about it) and got tickets.

We got there a tad late, I figured it would be be okay because everything seems to start late, but found out we missed a few fun things. They offered face painting, photo booth, and bracelet making, but we missed that. Cara and Lucy did end up getting some temporary tattoos and, luckily, there was LOTS of dancing and LOTS of snacking (cotton candy, popcorn, hot cocoa). The dancing room had blown up silver balloons to throw around and a bounce house. 

Eventually some lady came out to "perform" (turns out this was a church sponsored event) and Cara even went on stage to dance around with other kids. They ended up having bubbles come out then and the kids went wild. For a Friday night, it wasn't a super busy night, but it was still so much fun for the kids. If we do it again, we'll get there earlier to do more activities (but I'm not sure if it'll be a repeat). After the performance things started to shut down so we let the kids color for a minute before we left (and grabbed papers to take home). 

I will say the best part is the kids have fallen asleep super fast tonight! I'm so glad they enjoyed this night!

Memory Maker: Breakfast with Santa

So we have done many of these "breakfast with [character]" or food type thing this year (like the Fairy Tea Party at Gardner Village) so I feel I have a good idea of what to expect with these, but this Breakfast with Santa at Thanksgiving Point totally blew all of them out of the water and became my favorite of these sorts of things. The only negative parts were that it didn't start until 9 (so much later than we do breakfast and the kids were getting a tad hangry) and we got there a little early and had to stay outside until they opened the doors and it was a very cold morning (but they did have a reindeer outside so it that was cute. 

When we did get inside we saw there was TONS of food options, the set up was super cute, and they had lots of fun entertainment that even came to the table and didn't make it awkward (like the Grinch, Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Anna and Elsa, and Buddy the Elf). We sat at our table and grabbed our food coupons (they explained certain foods we could only go through once so they told us make sure to load up our plates. There was some food you could get as much as you wanted though, so that was nice). 

The way they did the Santa photos was really nice, they had a QR code on the table so you could put yourself in a digital queue and they'd let you know when to go up because the line wasn't as long. While you were in line they had an "elf" reading a story, they had a photo wall with some fun props to use, and then when you went and did the Santa part, they told you to go up, take your pics, and then while the kids tell Santa what they want, a parent can go get the print outs (because that can take a minute). The Santa was really fun too!

They did have a lot of fun activities for the kids, too. They had coloring pages on the tables, they had a "make your own snowglobe" kit, they had a mail box and letter paper to write a letter to Santa, and a decorate your own cookies kit that you could grab and bring home.

The food was REALLY good, they entertainment was great (I get awkward real quick, so it was nice they didn't let it get that way), and the overall atmosphere was really nice. Of all the ones we did this year, I would repeat this one again. I'm also glad our membership got us a discount on it (Thanksgiving  Point Membership wins again). The kids really seemed to enjoy it, once they got their food haha.

Another Date Night!

I have to say, I absolutely love having my mom live in the same state as us. I HATE asking anyone to watch the kiddos, but I know she loves doing it so every once in a while I'll find an excuse. Well a while ago I saw Nate Bargatze was coming to Utah and he's my favorite comedian. Now, we've done several comedy shows and more often than not they are just so-so (some laughs, but overall I'm not sure they are my preferred type of outing), but I've seen several of his specials and follow him on Netflix and I felt this was a very safe bet for a date night. I checked with Mom to see if she would be okay watching the kids, she said yes, and I got the tickets.

The plan for the night was that since the show started at 3, I figured it would end around 4 and then we could head over to Brio (at  City Creek) for dinner around 4:30 and then come home. I had been wanting to go to Brio so I figured this would be the best opportunity. Since it was a Saturday night I figured 4:30 would help us avoid the crazy dinner crowd so we wouldn't be out too late.

Unfortunately, even though we left pretty early to avoid a stressful rush, there was still a stressful rush. We parked over by the restaurant and then it took us until 2:50 to get to the venue and it took until 3:15 to FINALLY find our seats (we were in section 10, row q, but section 10 seemed to only have numbered rows so we were running  upstairs, which only had a section 110, not 10. We ran back downstairs to section 10 where we found out that letters are closer to the front...turns out we were in the 3rd row. I didn't realize I got tickets so close).

The show, itself, didn't start until 3:30 and he had THREE openers PLUS a host that came out between each opener. They were all really funny so that was a plus, but Nate himself didn't come on until 4:30 (so much later than I planned, but at least we didn't miss anything). He was really funny, had lots of good stuff (but his closing bit wasn't as funny as it could've been). His set ended about 5:30 so we rushed out and headed over to Brio. Unfortunately, they were only serving reservation, no walk ins were allowed (and they didn't have any reservations available). It took us until 6:30 to get to the car and get out of the parking garage (so A LOT of time spent just leaving).

Sitting SO close

Since it took so long, we decided to head home and hit up something closer to home that would be a bit faster so we hit up Red 8 (our favorite, but the kids make such a mess out of it). I was SO hungry by this point and all the food was so great. We ate what we could and took the rest home for leftover and didn't get home until 8. The kids were still up having so much fun with their Nana, but they were so happy to see us.

Overall, it was a good night out. I wish dinner would've worked out, but Red 8 was SO delicious, I'm not mad that's where we ended up. Plus, one of the openers had such a funny joke about being a house painter and painting the wrong house that I'm still laughing about, so that's always a sign of a nice night. I'm glad we get to have these once in a while!

Thanksgivings Part 1 and 2

Thanksgiving this year was different, but oh so fun! To start, after our Bubble Run earlier this year I had decided I'd like to do more 5K fun run things, but I didn't want to pay so much for them. I knew our city had a Thanksgiving one, but when I found out it was at 8 AM and that's prime parade time I knew I wasn't going to do that, but I wanted to run so I opted to do it on our treadmill at home.

We started the actual day with a big breakfast (French Toast) for fun and then turned on the parade. Larry got up and started cooking right away while I cleaned with the parade on. Unfortunately, we hit our first big snag of the day when I started smelling something off and then Larry noticed it and opened the oven saying "OH CRAP!" and that's when we realized we had left some tupperware in the oven the night before (the kids didn't finish their dinner so I put it in there so the cats didn't eat it while we were out) and it had ALL melted all over the oven. This took about an hour out of our day to clean (I was going to have Larry clean floors that morning since I did all the other cleaning, but since he was busy cleaning the oven I did the floors real quick), luckily Larry doesn't get as crazy stressed out as me so he just got it cleaned and moved on with the morning.

For our dinner, we decided to do Costco's dinner (we've tried a few different places that offer the premade dinners that we just cook up and have really liked them) so we were excited to try theirs since it had all the things - Larry just wanted to make deviled eggs and cornbread separate. 

While dinner was cooking, I was watching the Packers game (they won and it was awesome!) and then we put on the Cowboys game (I told Larry even if the Packers lost, as long as the Cowboys beat the Chiefs it'd be a good day of football), I didn't have high hopes for them to win, but when they did it was AMAZING! We were all rooting real hard for that game, it was a great day for football! 

Unfortunately, the dinner wasn't as great as we were hoping. Some of it the taste was just a little different. Some of it was a weird consistency (The turkey was sweet, the stuffing was over seasoned, the gravy looked like apple sauce, and the rolls were VERY white, like they were ALL flour). It was edible, but it wasn't my favorite dinner we tried, so that was a bummer. Luckily, the eggs were amazing! The desserts (apple cobbler and pumpkin pie) were all good too, so that was nice.

After dinner, we played Bingo with Marie for mini gifts she brought that the kids all loved. It's so fun to add that to our Thanksgiving traditions. And once that was done, we got the girls ready for their sleep over at the hotel Marie and Jim got for the weekend. They had an indoor pool so they got to go swimming that night and they loved it.

On Friday, we met up with them at Thanksgiving Point, we got tickets for the Carousel, The Museum of Natural Curiosity, and then had some snacks on our way over to the Jurassic Jungle. It was SUCH a busy day (and my legs were very tired from my run the day before), but we all had so much fun! After we finished all that we went home to relax.

Today, we had Thanksgiving part 2 with Mom. It is Will's birthday (so I was already planning on going over at some point this weekend) and since Mom didn't get to see any of her kids she wanted to have us all over for a dinner. She made all the yummy sides and a MUCH better turkey than the one we got. Andy and Rachel came over, we ate, we visited and laughed, we gave gifts. It was nice. We even brought some deviled eggs, because we ate all ours quickly and wanted an excuse to make more, haha.

The only down side is Pierce woke up feeling icky today so he's been VERY docile and sleepy (he says his head and throat feel sick). He even fell asleep on Mom's tile floor (not the carpet floor, not the couch, not the ultra comfy chair, but the hard, tile floor). So hopefully he'll feel better soon. Other than that,  it's been a very nice Thanksgiving weekend.  I think the kids are all ready to go back to school now, haha.

Memory Maker: North Pole Express

Today has been one of the greatest Memory Maker moments we've had this year. I've been wanting to do this North Pole Express train ride for a while, but we've always had little babies that I wasn't sure would be able to handle the LONG drive out to it or I wondered if it would be worth how much it cost to go or it was booked up (because it books so so quickly). This year, it felt like the right time to go and I got tickets back in June so it was great timing!

As a note, the kids talk a lot about if the Santa's they visit are the real one. We talk a lot about how they feel about it (because I want to keep the magic alive as long as possible so I'm not about to tell them what to think or feel, but I will encourage more fun, magical thinking whenever they ask) and when we did our Santa picture this year, we stayed nearby for a while so the kids could color the fun coloring pages they had, but I noticed Lucy was watching the Santa a lot while he talked to the photographers (I tried to distract her, but she was being SUPER observant) and later she mentioned she didn't think it was the real Santa because he was so fat, haha (I did tell her Santa is supposed to be fat according to the stories)

So we tell the kids we're going to this North Pole Express ride and get them all hyped up, we even read what the ride includes (it said cookie, hot chocolate, a mug, and a gift from Santa - which I told them would probably be a candy cane so don't get too excited) and everyone was pretty excited to go. The car ride there didn't even take too long, but maybe that was because most of the kids slept and Cara read her Harry Potter book, so it was nice. 

We got there just in time to get our (very ornate and beautiful) tickets and they immediately started loading our car (which was very close to the front) and we got to have 3 benches to ourselves (though we really only needed 2, but we traded off who got to sit on the 3rd one) and we got visits with the elves on the car and the lady who was "hosting" our car was nice. We had perfect seats, they were always stopping by us to talk and announce things, so that was nice.

We got to sing and dance in the aisles, which our kids didn't do much of, but they still tried to make it fun. The cookies were really good (I got Larry's since it was chocolate chip) and the hot chocolate was good (after it cooled down a bit, which took some time). Then we got to the "North Pole" where Santa was out waving at our train. I will say I wish I had gotten tickets for a day that had snow, but there's no way to know which day will be best when you have to book so early. 

After the North Pole, we stopped and Santa came on the train to tell us about our gifts, which was NOT candy canes, but a bell from his sleigh. He mentioned we need to put it on our tree, and then ring it right before bedtime on Christmas Eve, which signals him to start loading up our gifts, and then immediately go to bed so he can stop by our house. He looked so legit I mentioned to the kids "I'm not sure, but he seems pretty real" and they ALL lit up and felt like he must have been real. Lucy even said "yeah, because he has a real beard!" haha. Gwen mentioned she can't wait to go back to school to tell her friends she saw the real Santa. The bell was really cold so I told Cara it had to be cold, it came all the way from the North Pole! She was so excited.

After we got the gifts, Santa came by for us all to get some pictures with him, and it was just so memorable and sweet. The kids all loved it and I loved that it really ignited the magic in their minds. They all said they want to do it again, but in pajamas next time. I felt it was SO special I don't know that I'd want to do it again. Maybe when Pierce and Lucy are a bit older so it can be magical for them to (it was for Lucy, but I'm sure Pierce didn't really understand what was going on). 

This has been a very great Christmas Season already and we're not even in December yet!