Utah Break, continued

this picture hangs in the laundry room at
Grammy Bee's. I'm always confused/amused when I see it.

Claire enjoying some "breakfast"

Christmas aftermath...toys, food, plates, trash everywhere haha. Boys having some raspberry toast, of course!

 We went to Ogden to see Austin's grandma (and his uncle, Sanford). It was a great afternoon! Our kids were curious about her basket of toys and managed not to break anything, if you can believe it.

 One of the best parts of our time in Utah was spending time with my sister. We don't see her enough now that she is in California for school, and we had a whole week laughing, lounging, and making fun of each other. It's fun to see my kids get to know her better too, and she and Austin are way closer now than they have had the chance to be in the past. Bootie time!

watching Descendants 3 for the 18th time, laying on the same couch that we've watched movies
on my whole life!

Stockton destroying Sam and the rest of us
immensely enjoying ourselves

My dad's brother and his family live in Los Angeles and they happened to be coming to Salt Lake for a ski trip the same time we were in town! It was so fun to hang out with them. I've always wished we could spend more time together; they are the best!

we ordered P.F. Changs takeout and I was very proud of my ordering prowess...we had a perfect amount of food for 15 adults
and a delicious smattering of options.

my cousin Bennet and my sister

my cousin Emily with Annie and Bennet

a FIERCE foosball competition! Sam and Aiden vs. Gibson and Austin

George absolutely destroying me at ping pong 

My brother Jack is a DJ and he needed to practice for a New Year's gig, so he brought his deck. It was so awesome! I am so proud of his hard work following his dream of bringing more of this kind of music to the Omaha scene. He is amazing. The kids LOVED "helping," especially Stockton.

Jack and Bennet built a "hot tub"

Sara is Jack's girlfriend and I love her SO much. She is so helpful and happy and down to earth
and I just am so happy she is with Jack! 

brothers! My dad and George

The next day a lot of the family went skiing with the CA Plumbs. My dad, Annie, Jack, Sara, and Austin all went for a day of powder and had an absolute blast. I was grateful that Sam, Kristy, and my mom stayed behind because I had company while I hung out with the kids! 

Austin was, of course, naturally an amazing skier (since he is automatically good at everything!!) 

The next day we all went bowling, which was also really fun. At this point in the trip our kids were finally hitting the wall a little bit...kind of grumpy, a little less obedient...just ready to go home and get back to routine. Stockton was thrilled about bowling though and had a total blast!

My beautiful Aunt Jill with her grand-niece! My dad and his brother both married a Jill, so there are two Jill Plumbs!

cousins! and second cousins once removed

It was definitely a highlight to be able to spend so much time with the CA Plumbs. I hope we get to see them more often! 

Claire slept in the laundry room (and with 10ish adults and 4 kids staying at the house there was ALWAYS laundry going on haha) so we had to put this sign up when she was asleep. My uncle Jason walked in, changed his laundry, and walked out once without even realizing Claire was in there, and she didn't even stir haha.

One really big fun part of the trip was having a huge ongoing discussion and appreciation for Star Wars! The latest Star Wars movie, Rise of Skywalker, came out the week before Christmas and it was so fun to ride the Star Wars wave together. One night we all watched A New Hope downstairs (which Annie had never seen!) which was just so fun. We are all completely obsessed with Adam Driver and spent much of our time discussing his many qualities, haha.

This is Austin with Steven Sharp Nelson, the famous cellist and member of The Piano Guys. He is my mom's cousin (his mom was my Grandpa's sister), and Austin has long hoped for the opportunity to claim familial ties with him. We have a Sanders family Christmas party every year and as soon as Austin saw Steve he knew this was his moment, and he dropped his fork and interrupted Steve at a different table and asked for a selfie. It was awesome haha. And I had a blast meeting and talking to Steve's wife, Julie! She told me a really cool story that I will probably butcher in its paraphrasing but I want to remember it, so here goes:
Neal A. Maxwell's daughter Jane married my Grandpa's brother, Marc, so our family has always had a special relationship with Elder Maxwell. Lynne is my Grandpa's sister (so Jane's sister-in-law). When Lynne was pregnant with Steven, her 6th child, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was not given long to live. Elder Maxwell gave her a special blessing and told her that she would live to see this unborn baby graduate high school. Julie said that Lynne never wavered and never doubted and had complete faith in this blessing from an Apostle and beloved family friend. What should have been medically impossible came to pass, and Lynne survived for 18 more years, finally passing away the same month that her baby graduated high school.

Natalie LOVED ice skating! Austin said she was
fearless and never gave up

 cozy bath baby 

teaching Natalie the ways of Pokemon on the DS

I took this picture with flash in the middle of the night...these dinosaurs (aka death traps) were
laying directly where I needed to be to get Claire's bottle ready, and they absolutely destroyed my feet haha

Another really fun part of our trip was getting together with the Wilburs! Makenzie is Austin's sister, and she and her family live in Bountiful. They came up to the house to have a waffle breakfast with us after church, and it was perfect. Katara and Claire are only a month apart, so it's always fun to see them together too.

while they were there we made Jack's volcano kit that he got for Christmas....I have to say it was a bit disappointing, but at least the kids enjoyed it!

Sunday dinner was a classic: homemade spaghetti and meatballs. It's such a "my dad" thing to be sitting at the counter, eating with the boys. I'm glad I got the picture.

We had such a fun time visiting all together. Some things that happened that aren't pictured:
-the girls going to see the new Little Women movie (it is so beautiful, highly recommend. also, don't worry Winona, I still worship your version.)
-going to Sam and Krispy's (that's her nickname...she probably doesn't like it buuut it stuck) cute home in Provo
-the 8 trips my mom and I made to Target, plus the one trip we made to IKEA to get new bedding for me!
-and just the general "hanging out" that only happens when we are in the same place for a long time... Cleaning the kitchen with Sara after dinner, watching tennis with Grammy Bee, waking my parents up in the morning, the air mattresses Austin and I slept on in the game room (they were unbelievably cozy!), the millions of jam toasts and just food in general that we all went through, 3 separate trips to Hires, grocery shopping at Deeen's, chatting with my dad about future plans, and laughing about anything and everything. It was a real shame that Max couldn't be there with us, but with each year it gets harder and harder to all be in the same place, so it's great that at least everyone else was there. (He was in Omaha with his girlfriend's family).

Ahh, finally home. We were so nasty from our 13 hour night drive, but there's always such a pleasantness about being HOME again. I am so glad we had this fun trip! It is always worth the effort to be with family.