Hi everyone! I bet you've been wondering what happened to those silly Smith folks. We've been around, just ultra busy! We had a great Christmas break, and I wanted to highlight it here.
To start out, Natalie and I discovered that I had not taken a block of time off as long as the one this Christmas season since right before we were married! That means the 11 day break was the longest in our 7+ years of marraige. Sounds like I need to better manage my vacation time! Fortunately I still have 5+ weeks saved up, so our options are many.
For the first half of the break we hung around Utah Valley, spending time with the kids and the Smith clan. The weekend zoomed by, and then Christmas Eve arrived Monday. I'm sorry to say that both Natalie and I went shopping to finish our Christmas shopping. What a mess! Seems like the whole city came out to shop this year. It was fun since I was able to take the boys to the dollar store to buy each other presents. What I should have done is let them pick, then just give what they picked to the other. They ended up choosing what they wanted, not necessarily what the other brother wanted.
Christmas eve we spend the time at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house! We sang hymns, ate pizza (it was super tasty!) and opened presents! The kids got the most since they're easy to shop for and you don't have to spend a lot of money to give a good present :). Taking the haul back to our house took some cargo space and effort!
On Christmas day the kids snuck down before it was time and got in trouble. We ended up spending some time contemplating obeying the rules while the kids just about ate their pajamas in anticipation for the Santa-haul downstairs! Finally the time came and we headed on down. Silly old Dad (me) kept forgetting what presents came from Nat and I, and which ones Santa brought. Natalie kept giving me warning looks and saying 'Shhh!'. One of these days I'll get it all straight so I don't confuse the kids :-) We had Christmas dinner with the Smith clan at our house, and we also opened some presents for Parker (his birthday's the 26th). When everyone had gone home Natalie and I lamented the short celebration, so we decided to go carolling! We stopped by Kevin and Melissa's, and Grandma and Grandpa's houses to sing a few hymns! We also hit the Boston Gentiles over the phone. Parker cried through much of the singing (I wonder if he'd had too much sugar and excitement, and not enough sleep?), but we still had a good time.
The next day we had the official party for Parker, with Kevin as our guest of honor (he's the only one from both sides of the family who could make it). We'd just gotten back from a short hike when we sang songs and Parker opened his presents. This brings me to my experience that morning. We still hadn't shopped for Parker's presents, so I went to Wal-Mart (yes, I went toy shopping the day after Christmas. What was I thinking??!). We had three things we wanted to get Parker (at least 2 of the three), including:
- Legos
- Cars toys, possibly Lightning McQueen
- A semi-truck.
So I started perusing the toy section. It felt like a tornado had ripped through, scattering the toys and carrying most of them away! I couldn't find any of the 3 things to save my life. After an hour of searching I finally had die-cast metal cars of Lightning McQueen and Sally (8 bucks for two dinky cars... man that's steep), and I found a semi... sort of.... itwas a wierd looking semi that you'd shake, which would start its engine, and then it's trailer transformed into an off-road hill the truck could drive across. I wasn't happy with either toy. The lego section was filled with the dregs and outcasts of lego society. I had a few alien-mars thingys, some fish-like constructs that looked like insect-transformers, and a few odds and ends of random collections no one's heard of. They did have a really cool starwars ship, but it was $100, so that wasn't an option! At that point I was thoroughly depressed, and then I walked by the megablocks section. Most of it was for the really little kids; huge blocks and dull looking figures. It was then that I saw the side of a red package. I reached up and pulled it down. Eureka! It was a megablocks version of Lightning McQueen and Mack, his semi! In one fell swoop all 3 present goals were met. He had a building set (40 pieces to put the two together), all of it Cars based toys, and a Semi that happens to be the boy's favorite semi truck! Woohoo! And the best part was it was only $20. So we got him a companion Thomas the Train set to go with the one Smith Grandparents gave him. Parker really got what he wanted this year!
So Friday we headed up to Evanston to the Baird Grandparents finish out the second half of the vacation. The drive up was uneventful, and we arrived in good health. Each day the kids got to open a present, which really drew Christmas out this year for them. We waited until New Year's day to have the Baird Christmas. Christmas 2!
On Saturday I and Natalie packed up the kids in the van, with Trevor along for the ride (for those who don't know, Trevor is Nick (Nat's brother) and Audrey's oldest son who is near Stewart's age), and we drove to visit Grandpa Baird at the mill. Audrey wisely took the main entrance, but during the summer the boys liked to take the back entrance because you drive by the front of the mill to reach it. We took the back way, and the first part of the road was fine, but the cross road separating the area from the mill wasn't plowed. Since the wind blows incessantly there it was simply a white expanse. We hit the unplowed part and high-centered the van. I spent almost an hour an d a half with Grandpa trying to dig the van out. He brought out a front end loader and created a trail we could drive on, but we still had to get the van unstuck. So much snow had packed up that it was tough work, and we never actually managed to get it free enough to drive out. Eventually Grandpa found some good rope and tied it to the front-end loader and our axle, and pulled us on to the plowed part he'd created. We were then free! Let me just say that standing on the high Wyoming plateau with the wind howling like banshees around us, wearing only a coat and typical shoes, is a very cold experience (brrrrr!). Luckily I was able to warm up and unwind in the hot tub!
New Year's Eve was celebrated and we watched some fool break the world's record for the longest motorcycle jump. They, of course, described what would happen if he crashed (He could die, or break every bone in his body...). They sure hyped it up, and that made it anti-climatic. But we endured and watched the Evanston fireworks show (really beautiful!). We then retired to our beds and slept till the morrow, into 2008!
New Year's Day dawned bright, and we held the present-opening (Christmas 2). The kids got a lot of stuff, and the rest of us had fun watching them. It was a fun time, just in time to pack everyone in the car for the trip home. On the way home Parker spewed, starting an afternoon, evening, and night of sick little boys. We were fortunate that it came at the very tail end of our holiday!
So now I sign off after this massive post. Hopefully it didn't bore you to tears!
Love,
The Smiths
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