Christmas Trip to Utah

We had driven to Cheyenne, Wyoming on Christmas. The next morning we woke up and headed to Utah. We did make a small detour in Evanston, Wyoming for some fireworks.  We were lucky and didn’t hit too much snow during the drive. It did start snowing bad when we got into Ogden. Lilly was so good the whole drive. I was super impressed with her. Whenever she did get a little fussy we just popped in a movie. Thank heaven for portable DVD players.

The next morning we went sledding at Grandma Gloria’s house with the Dave Ballard family. I am glad we decided to do it in the backyard instead of going to a park. Lilly went down about 10 times and decided she was done. When she did go down she was adorable. She would say “weee” all the way down.

That night we went to the lights at Temple Square with Tyson’s family. On our way down to Salt Lake we stopped at the new Station Park Shopping Center in Farmington for dinner. It was such a cool shopping center. If you haven’t been there I would highly suggest taking a trip down. We eat at a yummy pizza place I can’t remember the name of.

The lights were so beautiful this year. We had a light snow that night so it made the experience a little better. We also had a chance to go over to the new City Creek Center. It is another cool new shopping center in Utah. I wish we had more time to spend there. It is something we will have to do our next trip. By the time we were done Lilly was cold, sleepy, and ornery.

 

The next afternoon was especially nice for Tyson and I. We spent the afternoon together while my mom and dad watched Lilly. We ate at Café Rio and went to the new James Bond movie, Sky Fall. We also had time to do a little shopping. It was nice hanging out together child free.

That night Tyson and Lilly went to a Thai restaurant with his Mom, Kathy while I spent the night with my friends. I had a fun night with my friends eating, exchanging Christmas presents, and talking, talking, talking.

In the morning we had a Ballard Breakfast party at Moore’s Restaurant. Lilly was especially partial to Uncle Steve during the breakfast. They became fast friends.

That afternoon we had the Harris Christmas party at Brett’s house. We had a yummy potato bar lunch. We played our $3 game (I am not sure what it is called) and Angie won. Good job Angie! We opened presents and the kids played. Lilly is finally at that age where she can play with the cousins all by herself. Although, she was a little shy.

 

The next day was church and the Ballard Christmas Party. The party was a lot of fun and my mom made Chicken Cordon Bleu. Fun and good food I didn’t have to cook….what can be better than that.

The next day was New Year’s Eve. Tyson and I thought it would be a lot of fun to start the day by taking Lilly on the train, Front Runner. Lilly loves trains. We started at the Ogden station and went down to Farmington. Lilly loved it. She chatted about the trains, the seats, the other people and said “Choo-Choo” about 100 times. She loved looking out the window and would get even more enthusiastic whenever she saw other trains passing us. It was one of the funniest parts of the trip.

 

That night we left Lilly with Leslie Ballard (thank you Leslie!!!) and went to a New Year’s Party at Chad and Angie Harris’. The party was a blast and we got to use the fireworks we bought in Evanston. Thank you Chad and Angie for continuously hosting this party.    

We slept in the next morning to recover from out late night. Then we went bowling with Grandma Gloria, the Mike Ballard family (minus Mike), and Layla. Lilly was so cute bowling. We let her have a turn and she would use the ball guide to roll her ball down the aisle. She wanted to push the ball all by herself and she wanted to bowl for everyone else too. She had so much fun. We also played some games at the arcade which she always enjoys.

After bowling we tried to find somewhere to eat. It was quite an adventure in itself. Our first stop was at Tony's but after a ridiculous long wait (and a scene from Tyson) we left and tried to go to Sonora Grill.  Unfortunately they also had a long wait so we then tried Chick-fil-A to find out they were closing. We booked it to the mall hoping the Chick-fil-A there would be open. We luckily made it right before they shut the gates and was able to order food.

The next morning we drove to Salt Lake and I took Lilly into my office to show her off. She was acting very shy and wouldn’t show off at all. However, the people in the office enjoyed seeing her. We then went over to the aquarium in Sandy. Lilly also loves fish so the aquarium was a great adventure for her. I was very impressed with the aquarium and Lilly had a blast. I think her favorite thing was the boat she could sit in with daddy and seeing the seals.

That night we went to dinner with the Ballard family to Sonora Grill and then the movie Jack Reacher. It was not my first choice but I am glad all the boys wanted to go because it was a fun movie. It was a great way to spend our last night in Utah.

We had such a good time in Utah. Just like we always do. Lilly loves seeing everyone and having more people to hold her. Thank you to everyone who makes our Utah trips possible and fun! 

Christmas 2012

We had a great Christmas here in Bettendorf. Christmas Eve was spent at home with the family. As tradition we went out for a Christmas Eve dinner. We found out really fast though that everything is closed on Christmas Eve here in Iowa. We tried going to a fancy restaurant since a couple of our other choices were closed but the fancy restaurant said they were only seating reservations since they were so busy. That left us with TGI Fridays. TGI Fridays is not a preferred restaurant for either Tyson or I. However, they were open, warm and we were hungry. The food was pretty yummy so we were happy with our decision.

When we got home we opened our Christmas Eve present (Lilly’s P.J’s). Then I got Lilly ready for bed while Tyson made a fire. Once Lilly was dressed in her cute Christmas P.J’s Tyson read her Twas the Night Before Christmas. She was very cute during the book and was excited about seeing Santa in the book. Lilly went right to bed and slept until 9:00 am in the morning.

 

On Christmas morning Lilly woke up to a brand new rocking horse. I was so sure she was going to see it and get so excited but she really didn’t know what to think of it and didn’t want to sit on it. So we put it aside and let her tear into everything else. She had so much fun and got spoiled as usual. Tyson got some new clothes and shoes, I got a photo album and a nice robe, and Lilly got new toys.

The traditional Ballard picture on the stairs

 

Lilly's Christmas

Lilly couldn't stand not being next to her presents while I took pictures

Karen's Christmas

Tyson's Christmas - minus one pair of shoes

For Christmas breakfast we had crepes. We usually have a bigger breakfast but with Tyson’s diet he wouldn’t eat anything else and it would have been a lot of food for me to eat. A lot of it would have gone to waste since we were leaving for Utah.

After Christmas was cleaned up I (by myself) finished packing Lilly, Herbie, and me, cleaned the house, and packed the car. I don’t know how I got stuck doing all of that on my own. Lilly used this time to finally play on her rocking horse. We left for Utah about 12:00 on Christmas and drove straight through to Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was a long drive but I am glad we waited to leave on Christmas day.

Merry Christmas

We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. Here are some Christmas pictures from the Harris family.  

Before it snowed

 

Lilly is giving the reindeer a kiss

 

Getting ready to go out in the first snow

 

Lilly learned the word 'Snow' just for this occasion

 

Lilly loves the snow so much she now asks to go out every day. She also walks around the house in her snow pants

Lilly's pink cheeks after she was done

The Santa at our Ward Party

Lilly does NOT like Santa. This was the second Santa of the season we tried. She did this both times. 

Lilly in her Christmas dress

Lilly really wanted Herbie in the picture but then she couldn't keep her eyes off of him

The Cat

We had a stray cat come and stay at our house for a couple of days. She was living in our front yard behind the bushes. She was very pretty and a nice kitten. I gave her some milk and dog food and she kept trying to sneak in the house. Since she wanted to be with the family I decided I should bring her to the animal shelter for adoption. I called the shelter and got it all set up,  checked on the kitty to make sure she was there, then ran inside and got Lilly ready but by the time I went back outside she was gone. We haven’t seen her since. It was like she knew we were going to take her to the animal shelter and wasn’t going to have any of that.

Lilly especially liked the kitty. She liked coming with me to feed it and wanted to check on it anytime we went outside.  

I found out later that our neighbors brought a cat to the animal shelter. I am sure it was the same one.