Christmas Trip to Arizona and Utah

We had such a fun trip this past December. We were originally going to start our trip on a Friday night but Ken asked his boss for an extra day off and thankfully he said yes. So around 5:00 pm we left and drove straight through to Ken's Mom's house in Arizona. It took about 20 hours but Katie did great as always. She is an amazing traveler!

Not sure how Katie managed to work her hair into a pretzel shaped knot but she did. Ken had a fun time getting it untangled.

We were really blessed to leave the day earlier because a huge snow storm came through Flagstaff. It had only just started when we drove through and it lasted for a few days. We would have gotten stuck if we had left on Friday as originally planed. What a huge blessing!

not a bad picture considering we were driving when I took it

We spent two days with Ken's Mom Terrie. It was great to see her. She was so excited to see Katie. We were just the means to get Katie to her. ;)

I love this picture!

Katie's first ATV ride. She loved it! (of course Ken was only going about 5 mph)

She passed out the first night there.

Next up we headed to Utah. It was beautiful driving through the Hoover Dam area. We took a little detour in Las Vegas to look at the area Ken grew up in. We saw his childhood home, elementary and middle schools. 

We had the opportunity to stay the night in Cedar City with Ken's old army buddies Chad and Carleigh. They have a little girl a year younger than Katie. The girls had a ball playing together. It was really fun watching them. They also have a little boy that was born just a few weeks earlier. They are the sweetest family! It was great to meet their kiddos and catch up! Thanks "C" family for letting us stay with you!

I can't get this picture to turn around.

Katie is still talking about her new friend and even named one of her babies after her.

Our next and final stop on our vacation was Lehi. We stayed at my best friend Jullian's house for the remainder of our trip. I think our favorite part of staying with her and her family is after the kids went to bed we would play darts. It was so much fun. I have never seen Ken get so excited to play any type of game. (I ended up buying him a dartboard for Christmas because he liked the game so much.)

One night we went to Thanksgiving Point to see Santa's reindeer's. It was FREEZING out so we didn't stay too long but we did enjoy hot chocolate with a scoop of ice cream in it... delicious!

She passed out within seconds of getting into the car.

We had the opportunity to visit with most of the family while in Utah. Here are some highlights:

playing superheros

I played with this same bird when I was little.

hehe her facial expressions kill me

I love this picture of my parents

My sister's family came down from Washington which was great except they the arrived the day before we had to go home. We only got to spend one day with them but we are thankfully for that one day! It was great to see them!

The snow was beautiful! Katie loved playing in it!

Hanging out with cousins in Salt Lake.

Here are some pictures from our visits with Katie's birth family. It's always fun to see the whole gang but we really enjoyed having K all to ourselves when we took her to breakfast. She looked great and is doing really good. She just works way too much!

Ken's best friend Ryan and his family came up from Las Vegas to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square.  We were so happy to meet up with them. We loved seeing our kids play together.

Look who was at Temple Square...Buddy and Santa!!!! Of course Buddy was giving away hugs. :)

Katie loved looking at all the different nativities.

Lots of brides take a picture in this exact spot. When I told Ken that he said, "Get her down right now." lol

On our last night there we celebrated my Grandpa's 90th birthday. (His birthday is on Christmas.) It was so much fun being all together celebrating a wonderful man!

bahaha love this!

She is such a ham!

Having all my nieces and nephews together in one place I couldn't resit the opportunity to get a picture with them. I love being their Aunt. They are all such smart, beautiful and amazing kids!

My Uncle Greg from Luminessence Photo took these great pictures of my Grandpa. Can you believe he is 90? He looks amazing!

I love this picture!

After a great vacation it was time to head home. We again decided to drive straight through so we could make it home in the afternoon on Christmas Eve. Again we were blessed on the timing of our traveling. The day after we left a huge snow storm hit Utah. We had some snow on the drive home and hit some freezing weather (10 degrees) but nothing too bad. Here are the last pictures of a very long bog post:

Somehow Katie managed to get her shirt half way off. Silly girl!

Kassie and Katie were so happy to be back together!