Christmas with Gma & Gpa

Mom and dad came to our house on Dec. 15,16,17 to see the grand kids and deliver presents. On Saturday night we met at Chevy's for dinner. On Sunday Gma & Gpa showed up early and went to church with us. After church we had lunch then Eli told the kids that they could open their presents. I don't think Gma & Gpa were thrilled with that idea. They wanted the kids to wait till Christmas morning. 

 Kayla went first and got a pez dispenser, a wallet with a movie pass inside. And a box filled with nail polish, a scarf, Taylor Swift cd, pens, a bracelet that Gma made along with extra beads so she can change them out.

                         Garrett was next and was thrilled with his movie pass as well...as you can see.

 He got a Home Depot wood kit to make 4 different models. Garrett loves to construct things, he loved his gift....again as you can see.

 Gavin loved the pez dispenser. He also got a movie pass and a cop kit. It included a vest, 2 guns, badge, wistle, handcuffs, and gun belt.

 Poor Mason was so good at waiting to be last. He seemed to like everything, but didn't really react to any of it.

             Mason got a camo kit that included a vest, mask, binoculars, 2 guns and dog tags.

 Gma &Gpa also bought the baby a gift, this cute and soft blanket. I'm so glad cause this baby has nothing.

 After presents we decorated sugar cookies that Gma made and then ate 3 of them before dinner. It was so nice to sit and visit with mom and dad Sunday night. On Monday Dad had work, so I didn't get to see him much, but mom and I went to the store, made Christmas treats, and just hung out. I really miss my mom and dad and love every minute we get together. They left Monday night to drive back home to UT. Love you Mom and Dad!!

Wednesday 12.26.12

This was our last day in Tahoe. We didn't have to be home early so we decided to take the kids sledding one more time before we left. We drove back to the parking lot where the cops were called on us and because it snowed 10 inches during the night the parking lot was no longer plowed and full of snow. There was some great hills for the kids. This is what the kids looked like on the way to the mountain.

 This was the hotel we stayed in for 4 days. The online reviews were fine, but the inside was a little bit of a shock for me. It was very small, and that's not a big deal, I was just surprised. The bathroom was blue...like the toilet and the shower were blue. they had a little antique chair in front of this mirror where the coffee maker sat. I wish I would have taken a picture.

 We got to stay really close to the Heavenly resort. This place was packed with people every single day.

                                                  The beautiful Lake Tahoe.

 This was the best spot for our family to go sledding. The hill wasn't to high so the kids could climb up it easily. Yet it was steep enough to push them all the way across the parking lot as they came down the hill.

                                              I love Kayla's face in this picture.

 An older couple showed up to go snow shoeing and we asked them to take our picture, Mason was kind enough to get out of the car and be in our picture.

 Then we decided to take our own family picture. It was hard work trying to set the camera up on the edge of the car window, set the timer and then run my butt across the parking lot and sit before the timer went off. They're all holding snowballs.

 You can't tell, but my whole family is under that tree. Eli was putting them under the trees and shaking them to death. He'd then scream "it's snowing". Just so you all know it snowed 3 out of the 4 days we were in Tahoe....we had no shortage of snow for the kids.

 After everyone was tired from sledding and we stripped everyone out of their snow gear we headed home. Just as we were leaving, it stopped snowing. We took the 80 on the way home for the scenic route and the lake was so beautiful!!! I made Eli stop and pull over in one of the scenic points so I could get a picture.

 This has been the greatest vacation with my family and hopefully one the kids will remember for a long time. I thing we are going to try and make this a yearly tradition.

Tahoe Tuesday 12.25.12

On Christmas day, (well our's was technically Sunday) I was pretty sick and tired of sitting outside in the cold for hours while everyone went sledding so instead we went out for a warm breakfast and I bought myself a Tahoe sweatshirt. Afterwards we went driving around again and we ended up back at the snow park from our first day of sledding and our little play area had been plowed. We were kind of bummed until Eli found out he could do lots of doughnuts. We screwed around in the giant oval parking lot because no one else was around. After awhile a car came in but was parked at the other end of the lot. He had a dog and was throwing a ball around and kept staring at us. He even walked toward us and motioned with his hand for us to leave, well we were there first so he was just going to have to deal with it. He ended up leaving 10 minutes later. Once no one else was around Eli let each of the kids take a turn driving around the parking lot and doing doughnuts themselves. It was really fun and I got some great video of the kids. About 30 minutes later the CHP shows up and comes right for us. "Oh man, we're in for it, that stupid old man called the COPS on us!" I immediately pulled Eli's CHP ID out, cause there is no way we're gettin' a ticket just because some Old man doesn't like us young kids. The cop comes to the window and asks for the typical 3 things and out of the blue one of the kids from the back of the car yells "My dad's a cop!" "Thank you Jesus, maybe this will save our butts". The cop asks what department Eli works with and when he says "CHP" the cop just starts to laugh. Eli and the officer end up talking for about 30 minutes and we got off with a "probably should do anymore doughnuts".  I was so glad that the officer was cool and let us go, but ticked at the old man. Oh well, it has left us with a GREAT story for Christmas day. That night we went to a buffet at one of the casino's and the night was going great until Eli found a cockroach on the plates and by the food.
   He went and got the head chef and the chef didn't care, Eli then went to the Manager and he didn't care either. We were appalled that no one saw this as a problem. Eli told the manager that if he didn't do something, he was going to go to every single table and let them know we found a cockroach. The manager then threatened Eli and told him he would comp our whole meal if we left. I was worried that one of us would get sick the next day, but luckily we all were fine.
    Our Christmas was a little different then normal, but Christmas is only what you make of it, right?

Tahoe Monday 12.24.12

On Monday we drove up to a snow park that was so epic only videos did it justice, (but they're all on Eli's phone and he's at work) (I'll post later)

Before we took the kids sledding we walked around the ski resort and the shops. Eli took the kids to the Rocky Mountain chocolate shop and let them all pick out a treat of their own. Santa was in the town center in a giant snow globe and was taking pictures, we forked out the $15 for a 4x6. All of the kids walked out of the snow globe convinced that he was the "real" santa. :) We took the kids to one of the museums and when we left Mason threw the biggest fit, everyone in Tahoe was starring at us, kind of embarrassing.

 After sledding we drove around for awhile and stopped at a boat dock. I made the kids get out of the car and take a family picture, they were NOT so happy with me since they're jackets were off. See Gavin, yup wouldn't even look at the camera, but I love the picture anyway.

 After the picture, the kids ran as fast as they could back to the car and Eli started doing doughnuts in the parking lot.

 That night we gave the kids their Christmas pj's and told them all to go to bed so Santa could bring their stockings. Surprisingly it didn't take them that long to fall asleep, because sledding wore them out. Although when "Santa" tried to come Kayla kept waking up and it took "Santa" 2 hours to get everything set out without being heard. There were a bunch of people outside the hotel having a party and at 12:00am I asked Eli to go out and yell at them to shut up, he didn't. BUT at 1:00am he went crazy nuts and screamed his head off....the party ended then and there, we didn't hear another peep.

Tahoe trip for Christmas

On Sunday Dec. 23, 2012 we woke up in Lake Tahoe for our Christmas trip. Our drive up on Saturday was supposed to be 2 1/2 hours, but ended up being 7 hours long. It snowed the whole time and the rode kept getting shut down due to car crashes and buses sliding down the rode sideways. Santa came to our hotel on Sunday morning and brought the kids their sleds for Christmas. 

 After breakfast we dressed the kids up in their snow gear and headed for the mountains. While Eli was cleaning the snow off the car the kids played in the snow in the parking lot.

 I love this picture of my 4 kids. This was in the middle of the parking lot and covered in snow. Right after I took this picture they all threw snow at me.

 Highway 89 was shut down and barley plowed but we slowly made our way up the mountain and found a little snow park off the side of the road. The snow park was not plowed so we couldn't get in very far. We parked the car at the end of the road and went sledding. Some people showed up where we were and took our picture.

 Mason mostly hung out with me down by the car while the rest of the kids went sledding. Mason was freezing cold and didn't want to do anything. Eli put the two little boys in the sled by the car and pushed them down the hill, but they ended up getting buried instead.

                                 Look at the air Garrett got. They did a lot of crashing.

 After an 1 1/2 hours Mason asked to be put in the car because he was cold. 30 minutes later when we were all packing up to go back to the hotel, I opened the back of the car and found Mason like this...asleep. I moved him to his car seat and we drove around the mountain for awhile to see how far up the mountain we could get. We came upon a car stuck in the snow without snow chains and Eli was the hero and spent an hour in a blizzard pushing them out.

When we finally got back to the hotel Mason was still asleep, we pulled him out and took him inside where he slept just like this for the next 2 1/2 hours. We all wanted to go eat dinner but none of us wanted to wake him and deal with a grumpy boy, so I took a nap as well.