First stop was to get Liz. She was a bit slow coming down to the car, but she didn't dawdle too much. Next up with Angela. She also didn't dawdle and was awake at her pickup time of 6am. Yeah, I know, shocking, eh??
We got to the airport in good time, parked and got to the terminal - holy tons of people!!! There had to have been 200 in each of the terminal check-in places for bags.. there are something like 4 of them in the terminals for Delta and they were ALL packed.. the lines to security were also SUPER long!! So, I went on a walk to see if there were other options. There were some outdoor checkin folks. So we chose to stand out in the cold with something like 75-100 in front of us instead of 200. We finally got checked in with our bags and headed to security - they were wiggle waggled all the way through the airport and out around the outside to the check in area. VERY LONG lines to get in. So... we were all TSA-pre-checked and made it through the lines quicker than most and made it into the terminal in record time. We were able to even sit down for a good breakfast with a mimosa even :)
Off to Vegas!
Once we touched down in Vegas, got the rental car - with full discussions of the english language. My upgrade card said "upgrade TO a full size car" and the guy was telling me it meant upgrade to the next higher grade up TO a full size car. Nope, nothing about next step in there, just "up to a full size car" so I did end up with a full size car :) Yay for us since we had enough luggage that we had to play tetris to get them all in there without shoving and cram. So - yay!
We then took a few tours around town, first up was a stop for me to see the old Condo - so I drove out there - boy has the surrounding area gone downhill. The condo's looked like they were in decent shape, but the area around it wasn't so hot. Oh, well, I don't own it anymore! it was interesting to see what has grown up around the south side of town though - WOW has it grown!!
We took off from there driving south to go through the strip and show the kids all the fancy places and there were some HUGE ones down there now. So - we have agreed to meet Angela there for her 21st birthday. Wouldn't that be fun?
The next stop was for Butch to see where he lived while in Vegas. It was crack central and drive by shooting level places. Scary!! It did look good though, it looked like it had been upgraded a bit from when he lived in it. Then it was north toward Nellis and exiting town.
All those stops took quite a while and it was now dark, so the kids got to see the lights as we were driving out of town. Ah, nothing like Vegas lights at night, hum?
I then proceeded to drive to Cedar while the rest of the crew nodded on and off on the way up. Good thing I wasn't tired!! It was a good drive up and much shorter than I remembered. We had the added bonus of having the HUGE full moon coming up over the horizon as we were driving through the desert.
No-one was hungry until we hit Cedar, so we stopped at a FireHouse Sub and had a sandwich for dinner and then headed over to Linda's house. She was funny saying she would have fed us, not sure what, but she would have fed us. I know she would have, but it was much simpler to just stop and eat on the way and be done with it.
Sunday morning dawned with Butch and I actually going to church and listening to the nice Sunday service with Linda and Mike in the choir. It was nice and very Christmassy. Sunday evening Gail and Seth and kids came into town. It was fun to visit with them and hang out. We did a lot of games and visiting and napping and enjoying the down time. At one point - not sure what day - we went to see Christmas lights around town. It was very enjoyable and we had a good time driving through one neighborhood that goes all out and has the Christmas story on boards throughout the drive. Very nice large homes up there!
We also made it to Cedar Breaks. Well the canyon road to cedar breaks. For photos in the cold and snow.
How Liz gets in position to take pictures of the initials on a tree on the slope - too funny!
Christmas was met with vegan casserole. It's funny that Linda calls it that as it's eggs and meats and cheeses, nothing vegan about it. ha! Johnathan was very anxious to open presents, but the one tradition they insist on is to have breakfast before opening presents. We had a few presents to open - just little silly things for the girls and Butch. We got some yummy dried apples from Linda and Mike along with some candied pecans. I have LOVED the apples! They are great! AND it snowed! Ok, it just stuck a little, but it snowed!!
I had made the choice to stay in Cedar until the day after Christmas to drive north. Mostly it was the snow and the fact we would be driving up after dark. The other part was that I really wanted to stop at the Family Tree restaurant for scones. They are FAMOUS for their scones and have been since I went to college there.. probably before then. they are tasty with the honey butter! Everyone was hungry by the time we got there and ordered foods. They ordered different foods and I opted for the Indian Taco on a (you guessed it) a scone! We had heard from Linda and Mike that the food had gone down hill, but it wasn't so. They had good food when we were there, maybe they were there on a bad cooks day!
We got to Roberts and settled in. It was nice to sit and visit with them and we even got to enjoy getting to know Hobbs their big male mouser. He was a friendly one! Sadie warmed up by the time we left to some degree. She even let me pick her up and snuggle her a bit. Jinx was the other yellow tabby male, brother to Hobbs and he was friendly, but not as friendly and snuggly as Hobbs. I wanted to take Hobbs home in my suitcase!
Wednesday was just hanging out and visiting and eating and even playing games.
Thursday we went for a short hike up the canyon to Bridal Veil Falls - in the snow! Yep, it snowed quite a few times while we were up there... it was nice to adjust to snow a bit before heading to Germany. I got to test out my warm boots as well :)
Snow at Robs house on the way out... lots of snow!! Pretty!
We also went to the restaurant Sarah works at and enjoyed some sushi for lunch! Eric was able to join us for lunch, but Brittnee was working and wasn't able to join in.
After that we headed over to the Cabela's there in town for Butch to shop for some winter gear. Then back to the house to meet up with Katie and Casey and their kids of all people. They were headed down to Linda's that night and were able to stop by to say "hi" before they continued on! Very nice visit. Then we went to the movies to see the new Harry Potter movie about Magical Beasts. Good show.
Friday was spent seeing old friends in Ogden and nieces. We started out with Butch's friend on Base, then lunch, then off to Sue and Marks. The boys were there too, so that was a surprise - Jordan and Zack are all grown up - both married and doing good. It was fun to see them all.
Next up was Janette for just a second.
Then Jessica with Scarlette and her boyfriend.
Then off to the lights in Temple square with Mandy Colton and Onyx.
We did have a fun thing to do, we had some money from Linda to get things from the "Light the world" kiosks at the Temple. So we did...
We donated $100 worth of things that we hope will have the most impact on the world. The ones we chose were polio shots (for 100) and menstruation kits for 5 girls in third world countries, glasses with eye exams, chickens to produce eggs and babies, and fish to start farms. Here's hoping that this will have a positive impact on multiple people in the world who can use a leg up.
By that time it was too late to make it out to see Nick and Kaylee and kids. Sad!! It was a long fun day, however.
Saturday was our departure... it snowed overnight again... nice light airy snow. very pretty and fun for the girls to see. AND off to the airport and home... it was a LONG week.. a fun week... and we have discovered 5 days is enough. 6 days we start to get testy... then 7 days and are pure ill with each other. BUT overall we loved it and had a great time! We need to go back again and not in 17 years that it took for all of us to get back at the same time... but here's hoping we do it in the summer.... not a fan of snow!! ha!
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