Utah Holiday Trip

We started this holiday with a trip to Utah in early December. We were a little worried about the flight but Baby B was a champ! She didn't even make a peep on the plane. She ate and slept almost the entire time. We were such proud parents!!!

Once we landed in Utah we had a wonderful evening with Grandma and Grandpa Pearson and the Sizzler (it was good to be full after a day of travel and eating like birds on the plane!) The next day was Grandpa Hawke's Christmas Dinner at the Maddox. It was Brooklyn's first time to meet most of daddy's family and she thoroughly enjoyed being the center of attention for awhile. We all enjoyed a wonderful dinner and time with family!

It was so cute to see that Mallory and Brooklyn have similar taste in style. They "accidentally" ended up in the same outfits a few times on this trip. Honestly it wasn't even planned, I think their mommies' both really like Carters.

We were able to do so many fun things on this trip!! I was able to see Forgotten Carols for the first time and really enjoyed it! It was a powerful story!! We also were able to spend time with John's Mission President, President Hill. In addition, my Aunt Jammey and her kids were able to watch Brooklyn while John and I attended the Draper temple for the first time since our sealing. It was so fun to see the excitement Allix, Shea, and Crawford had to be with the baby. We were also able to have a fun girlie craft day and make BYU wreaths! We always enjoy a game night or two while in town but this trip I especially enjoyed our game of screwy Louie while drinking Pom Pom's surprise milkshake and guessing the ingredients. To top off the trip, we found some steals at the local thrift and of course the outlet malls.

By far one of the highlights of the trip was our family dinner and the sibling gift x-change. We enjoyed a wonderful meal at the Spaghetti factory. Of course during dinner the babies needed naps so the awesome dads graciously volunteered to put them to sleep. The food was so yummy, as you can tell by the full bellies!!

Brooklyn was even able to get her picture with Santa! Thanks goodness her cousin Jordyn was with her so she wasn't scared of his beard!

We all had a blast with the sibling gift exchange. John got off easy this year because I made purses for Kristen and Janalyn, of course with the help of Momma Pearson. I recieved a beautiful homemade notebook from Elizabeth and John got a sweet Red Sox wallet. The best gift of the night was Grandma's cruise and bikini. It was hilarious to see her face when she opened the box!!! There was also another funny event! I was in charge of PomPom's gift which was a golf club. I was so proud of myself, well turns out it was left handed! So needless to say we all got some laughs from that as well!

To top off the evening we went to see the lights at Temple Square! It was a cold night and everyone was bundled to keep warm. The funniest thing though was that PomPom found a shopping cart and the kids all piled in. They looked like a homeless family walking down the side walk.

The lights at Temple Square were beautiful and reminded me of the beauty and purpose of this wonderful time of year!

The trip also ended with a bang, a BYU basketball game. Another first for Mommy and Baby B. Can you believe that Brooklyn slept? The stadium was almost packed so it was extremely loud! She was a good girl the whole time then got tired so she just closed her eyes and went to sleep. We were all impressed.

After the game, Brooklyn had a blowout in the car. I won the "Mother of the Year" award for not even having an extra pair of clothes in the diaper bag. We had to wrap her bottom half in a blanket and she only had her jacket on top. Can you believe she went to lunch like this? I was so embarrassed when John wrapped her up on the table for all to see. Luckily Janalyn let us borrow some of Mallory's clothes so B wasn't dressed like a homeless baby for too long. After lunch we went to Provo Beach Resort and had a blast!!! Dave, John, Roger, Cindy and I did the surfing simulation and man was it fun. I think we all had a few battle scars, but we got some sweet footage. It was a great end to our trip!