Utah!

Our trip to Utah:

We drove to UT and got in Thursday night (Jan's Bday) and met them at a restaraunt for the celebration, everyone was there!

The next day, we spent the whole day visiting with Gpa and Gma and then went to Chuck O'Rama (I was hoping deep down inside that that is where they would want to go, since that is a Gpa and Gma Smith staple!)

That night, a hockey game with the cousins, Marsha, Craighten and Claire.




The next day, skiing at Alta with Jan and Ralph

It was pretty much a perfect day!

Jan and Ralph



The whole crew

Adam and Ralph

Yes we actually skiied, not just took pictures all day


On Sunday morning we went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with Jan and Ralph

Adam and I later that afternoon walked around temple square

And parts of downtown SLC to admire the beautiful buildings


That night was the Petty Family's famous waffel dinner

And a late bday celebration for Jan

The fam

Grandma convinced Craighten to play 1 song for us, then it became 2 and 3 and 4 songs. He is an excellent pianist

Since Monday was a work day for most, Adam and I headed to Park City to ski with our old boss at the Crab House, Nancy, who owns a cabin in the area.

We got an incredible deal on tickets and skiied at Deer Valley- Very posh!

Heres what Adam did most of the day! haha. I love skiing with him, he is better than me, but is so patient. We started skiing to have a hobby we could do together, and we have a blast!

Nanc and Adam



Our trip was amazing! And it was wonderful to see family and friends. We couldn't have asked for a more phenomenal time.

My 25th Birthday

Sorry for the late post on the birthday weekend. I have been working a lot of OT!!!! But finally a few days off and I'm catching up with the blog, cleaning and even doing a few fun things like skiing and going to see Avatar! (if I can get Adam to quit working)

On Jan. 9th it was my birthday, and unexpectedly we went and stayed in Lake Tahoe with Adam's friend Charlie and his friend Angela. We stayed in a great private cabin on the lake at the Hyatt. Charlie works for the Hyatt so the whole weekend we got hooked up like you wouldn't believe!

This is from the porch of the cabin, with Lake Tahoe right in front of us

The boys liked feeling like they were rich old men, lounging in robes.

On Friday, we went skiing at Diamond Peak in Incline Village, only about 2miles from the cabin!

Adam and Andrew (a GBA agent)

So pretty but I almost crashed many times because I would be site seeing and not paying attention!

On Saturday, the day of my birthday, the boys got me and Angela a full day spa treatment, pedi, mani, and sweedish massage! We lounged around and sat in the steam room drinking green tea with cucumbers over our eyes, it was wonderful! That night we went out to a very fancy dinner on the Lake. There was a live guitarist who came to our table, sang me Happy Birthday, and by request from Charlie, James Taylor's Handyman. I love James Taylor. It was a great dinner, I had buffalo tenderloin that was amazing. Adam and Charlie got steak that seriosly had the texture of ice-cream! It was an unforgettable birthday!

A Smith Family New Years!

Adam and I went to WA for New Years. to see my family. My brother Jordan had just gotten home a few weeks earlier from two years in Chili! I was very excited to see him. He brought me back black coral earrings!!! Very cool. Danielle had just had her twins and I got to see them as well, although they were not able to come to the cabin with us all to celebrate the New Year, I made sure and got in my time with her and the babies (wish I had pictures of that). We stayed in a beatuiful big cabin in the woods in Mossy Rock.

My mom had wrapped up 5 large boxes and told us each to pick one out.

Inside we each found a Christmas quilt she made with fabric from my Grandma who passed away about two years ago. It was such a special present. In the quilt we found fabric that our childhood stockings were made out of and fabric we had grown up seeing at our house and our grandma's.


A very special gift!

We (9 adults and 8 children under 10years old)
went to the fish hatchery in Mossy Rock


The man working there was kind enough to give us a tour and let the little ones feed the fish.



Most of the time was spent lounging and playing games. We had so much fun with games!


Being the Aunt without kids, I made sure and caused trouble with my ideas for fun with all the kids. We created a mattress room, where all the walls, except the one in the back there, were covered with mattress's, so ultimatley being a safe room to jump and bounce in. (I wanted one of this when I was a kid) This "safe" room lasted maybe 4 minutes until someone was crying. I had a blast running, tackeling and playing games all my nieces and nephews!


We had sooooo much fun and were really excited to see the family! It was priceless. When we got back to Vancouver we were able to spend the birthday day with one of my best friends Terra, and see another friend of mine expecting her first baby. The whole trip was great and we enjoyed spending so much time with the fam. Love you guys!!!
Sometimes the best moments don't have pictures. Check out Kara's blog shes a bit better at this

Our Christmas Decorations

The day before Christmas Eve is apparentley a great time to buy Christmas decorations. These are a few of our good steals.

Frosty and Santa stockings (50% off)

A tree train (75% off)

A blow-up Frosty (75% off, Adam's personal Favorite)

Neighbor Daves First Christmas Story

Merry Christmas

Dave and I got into a 1hour plus conversation about God, faith and religion. He is so fun to talk to because he has no foundation whats so ever and has sincere questioning. He kept calling the crucifiction the crossifiction. So he comes over a few days later and asks Adam and I if our cats have souls. We tell him no, when they die, they just die. He thought that this should make us sad. So we got into a conversation about what happens to your soul after you die, we said some go to heaven some go to hell, depending upon your acceptance of Christ. His take on things is so interesting, he says so if your "bad", you really don't want a soul cause then you just rot in the ground and dont have to suffer hell?
That same night we were going to a live nativity scene at a local lutheran church and asked him if he wanted to go. We had to explain what the nativity scene was, which included explaining Jesus's birth and what a manger is. After the little nativity presentation that was put on we get in the car and Dave says "so that's it?". This allowed Adam and I to explain and elaborate on the whole story. Dave thought that because it ended with the three wise men bringing gifts, that Jesus and his family were then rich, hence the point of the story. As much as this story makes you chuckel at Dave it really was cool to explain to him for the first time the story of Christmas and Jesus's birth.

But here is a story simply for chuckeling at Dave (as a disclaimer he is aware and okay with our occassional chuckels at his expense)
Daves says while having a discussion about his bad driving: "It's not that I'm a bad driver, I'm just too cheap to get my breaks fixed!"

Brittany's Visit

My best friend from home came to visit me this last weekend. Her, Adam and I had lots of fun. The fun started with my work Christmas party.....what a blast! I love the people I work with!!!

There was plenty of dancing of course. One of my bosses and a respiratory therapist won the hola competition

But Adam and I won this competition! I was blind folded and had to wrap his head as if he got a craniotomy and then restrain his hands.


So.....this is a real picture. We were all dancing and Matt (the green man) comes out of no where dressed like this and starts dancing with our boss. Halarious!!! Although in retrospect it looks more creepy than funny. Guess you had to be there

The next day was sledding on Mount Rose!

Downtown this time of year is a giant Christmas party with over 5,000 people

Most people just dress like Santa, but we chose 1Santa(me), a snowman (Adam), a Christmas tree(Britt) and a reindeer(Dave)

Adam was sooooo excited that he actually found a genuine "corn-cob pipe"

We found this shopping cart and thought Blitzen should pull Santa's sleigh!


Afterwards errupted a HUGE snowball fight. The main road was blocked off for the party, so on either side of the road, giant snowballs were being thrown, the street being the danger zone. Seriously a very cool thing to see, there were thousands of people involved in this.

Dave got hit! So here he is showing Adam who to go after. If you look at his clothes you can see exactly where he got hit......he was down for awhile.

Adam preparing a snowball and eyeing the enemy

Bob the Beast

Bob is our 2008 Subaru Outback, now I know the things that are said about subarus and the stereotypes they carry about the people that drive them, but I must say we love our Bob! The other weekend we drove to Sacramento for the California International Marathon. The Marathon Relay went well, our chip didn't register though so our team lost out on second place in the Coed division, but what can you do. Really though Bob was the champion! On our way home I-80 was closed due to zero visibility going across the pass. Theres really no other way home so we just waited. It took us over 5 hrs to get home, when it usually takes just over 2! But Bob was riding the ice and cuting through fog and snow like nobodys business! We were passing trucks, cars with snow tires and well, pretty much everyone. He did the same on my way to work the next morning. He may be grey, boring and super practical but he's a beast!