Dart Wars

Sometimes we like to "surprise" (ambush) Jason with an activity when he comes home from work.  In the summer it is usually a squirt gun fight.  We had been having a rough few weeks at home - we were all kind of in a rut.  We needed some good, stress-free, fun.  Each person had a dart gun with bullets, we set the house up with barricades, hiding places, and "sniper stations".  We put "re-load" bullets in the hiding places and in random locations around the house.  We left a note and a gun with bullets for Jason in the garage.  And then...

We waited...

And waited...

Jason was longer than normal getting home that night, the kids waited with GREAT excitement and anticipation for about 20 minutes - just looking out the window wondering if each car was his.  

When his finally pulled in we all hid behind the first barricade facing the garage door just waiting, we heard the garage door open, and we cocked our guns.  And then... nothing.  

After a few minutes we let our guard down and wondered where he was... he had seen the note, got the gun, and decided to sneak around the house and go in through another door - he started shooting all of us from behind.  And the game began....

I didn't get many pictures... way to busy being shot at and defending my position.  The game lasted about a half hour and was exactly what we all needed.

2014 done

I guess you can tell how busy I am because it has taken me until February to finish up the last year!!  Only a couple of times I have had to go into the first week or so to finish blogging about Christmas - but NEVER FEBRUARY!!

But now... officially.... it is 2015 in my blog.  Hopefully this is not a new trend and my blog can stay more up to date.

Mapleton with the Herberts

So the plan was to spend the first part of our trip (Wedding and Christmas) with my family in Salt Lake and then the last part of the trip in Mapleton with Jason's family and do "Christmas" there (it was the 26th) - and then stay there a couple of days before heading back to Colorado.   But it didn't quite work out the way we intended... I will get to that at the end.

As soon as we got to the house the children found presents waiting for them under the Christmas tree.  They were thrilled to be opening presents again!

There are many wonderful things about being at the Herberts (food) - but one of the best is how relaxing and fun it is.  The kids just play... with everything.   There is always something to do and somewhere to go and someone to be with.  We spent the entire day of the 26 just relaxing around the house while the kids played with their new toys... and all of grandma's toys.

The girls got lots of great books.

Brock got some racing cars that he can paint.

And Noah got, of course, some more legos.

Debby loves to read to her grandchildren... and they love when she reads to them.

Then on Saturday we spent the morning just hanging out and taking it slow.  We put the girls down for a nap and I went to run some errands.  While I was out running errands I became aware of a major storm coming right down the Denver I-70 corridor starting at about 5 am.  I rushed back to the house to verify the information, and sure enough a huge storm was coming and was lasting for then next several days.  We knew that we did not want to get stuck in Grand Junction or Veil... and that with I-70 it was very likely - and Jason had to be back to work by Tuesday - so we couldn't just ride it out.  We made the sad decision to leave right then.  The children were heart broken and I felt so sad that we only got to stay with the Herbert's for barely 24 hours.  But Debby and Randy were so supportive and helped us get the kids ready, all packed up, and dinner in our tummys in under an hour.

Here we are just before we left.

And Randy took some pictures of us driving away.  Isn't their view beautiful?

By the way.... we did  miss the storm... and we did have friends that chose not to leave early that did get stuck.  Phew!

Christmas Day

I kept going back and forth about whether we should have Christmas in Utah or in Colorado. My sister, Katie, left a note for Santa to leave their presents in Las Vegas but bring their stockings to Utah - that sounded nice.  But in the end I thought, I don't want 2 Christmas' - so we told Santa just to bring it all!

We woke up to the most magical Christmas morning.  The whole month of December was green and warm - like 60 degrees warm - including Christmas Eve.  We woke up Christmas morning to a winter wonderland - I think it was like 6 inches of snow or more.  It was so perfect.  

The kids woke up at 7:00 am - not to bad.  I told my family that they didn't have to all wake up and watch the kids open presents - but they all wanted too - even the newly weds!

The opening of the stockings - one of the things they got that they loved were a bunch of Chuck E Cheese coins!

It was definitely a Frozen Christmas at our house.  We got the Frozen dolls - in large size and small size, Frozen dress-ups, Frozen puzzles, Frozen lunch boxes, and several other small Frozen themed toys.  It was a little exsessive - but the girls were in heaven!

Notice the "squishy ball" in Madison's hand.  She loves squishy balls.  She got one for her first Christmas and has loved them ever since.  When all else fails - get Maddie and squishy ball.

Brock got his first "Nintendo" game.

Noah of course got Lego's - that was ALL he wanted.



We got lots of family games.


We had a wonderful brunch - we eat Ebleskivers - they are like pancake golf balls - they are also a Scandinavian tradition. 


It was such a wonderful Christmas and I am so glad we came!  My mother worked so hard to pull it all off - between the wedding and Christmas she literally worked around the clock.  And I never even mentioned that everyone was sick almost the whole time including me, Jason, my mom, and the Bride and Groom.  That is how great Christmas was - I forgot that everyone was sick.

Christmas Eve

It was so wonderful being at my grandparents house for Christmas Eve this  year.  As I stated in an earlier post, we never knew that the Christmas of 2012 would be our "last Christmas" in Utah.  So it was so great to spend a "last Christmas" (potentially).

My extended family is steeped in tradition - especially at Christmas time.  My ancestors came from Norway 5 generations ago and my Great Grandparents served as mission presidents in Denmark - the Scandinavian traditions have held on for 5 generations - and I love it.  I have been spending Christmas eve at my grandparents house every year since I was born (minus the years after I got married and we spent with my in-laws) and for all those years not much has ever changed - from the food, entertainment, and especially the decorations.  I took the opportunity and took pictures of some of my favorite decorations.

This is (one) of the Christmas tables.  Being one of the oldest grandchildren - I remember when we all sat around this table - now there are 4 or 5.

This is a Scandinavian decoration of people dancing around the Christmas tree.  This will be important later in the post.

Another table, and the tree.

My Grandma has put pictures of her grandchildren on her tree.  I love it.

The girl kid table.

The boy kid table.

The food.

K - so I know this is weird - but it was so special to me.  Remember how I said that the Scandinavian traditions have held on for 5 generations?  Well it is not just our family.  My great grandparents had 8 children and of those 8 that lived to adulthood (7) - all of their families still dance around the Christmas tree on Christmas eve.  Behind my grandparents house is my great aunt and uncles house.  Most of their 5 children were over at their house for Christmas eve - at one point in the evening we glanced out back and saw that they were dancing around the Christmas tree.  I was so touched - maybe it was because I have been getting into genealogy lately - but I just stood there and watched my great aunt and uncle and my second cousins (whose names I know) participate in a tradition what we would be doing in just a little while.  Most people don't know who their second cousins are, let alone do something that unites us all.  I know I am getting cheesy - but I thought it was beautiful and meant a lot to me.

You can't really tell that they are dancing around a tree in the pictures - but we could tell. 

After dinner we go downstairs.  This is a decoration that I vividly remember from being a little girl.  One of my aunts or uncles made it when they were in elementary school.  I remember always loving it - it is a felt Santa made from a toilet paper roll.

These are the decorations on the downstairs tree that we dance around.  A lot of yarn ornaments.

And a silly three year old.

Then we dance around the tree.  We make an inner circle and an outer circle.  We sing Christmas Carols as we "dance" aka - walk in a circle.

We typically sing, Up on the House Top, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, Santa Clause is Coming to Town, Silent Night, Away in a Manger, and a couple others that vary over the years.

Then we sing a Norwegian Song called "O Jul Med Din Glede"  We don't really know the words but we mutter Norwegian sounding words to the tune, and then we sing the chorus in English.

Then we all try to cram onto the  couch and open presents - one from our grandparents (they seriously buy one for everyone - if everyone came there are 52) and one from another member of the family - we draw names.

My cute Grandpa hands them all out

Noah and Eddie

My kids with their Great Grandma and Grandpa Brown.