Quick little trip to Utah

I flew out to Utah last Thursday night for a quick little trip to Utah to see these guys get married!  My cousin, Robert, and the gorgeous Tawni.  The wedding was Friday in the Salt Lake Temple.  It was my first time ever going inside the Salt Lake Temple . . . . I was excited to go in!  What I saw was beautiful, but I wish I could have seen more of the interior.  Someday I’ll have to go do a session there.  Anyway, here is the awesome Brinton clan (minus baby Noah).

And here is all of my family.  (Everyone was there from my family except for Dan and the girls.  Dan had to work, so I decided to just take James, which was pretty nice!  I missed the girls of course, but it was nice not to have to worry about them when I was in the temple and stuff.)  It was fun being able to have a little time with all of my family right before Christmas.

It was so cold outside, so while the bride and groom were taking pictures, we went and waited in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building where the luncheon was going to be.  Again, so fun to be there during the Christmas season!  The huge tree in the middle of the building was beautiful, and there was a high school choir singing Christmas songs from the second floor balcony.

I always love some good sister time!

The luncheon was great and then the reception that night at the Sleepy Ridge Country Club was really fun as well.  I probably packed on a few pounds with all the good food I had all weekend.  On Saturday I met up with one of my friends from Ohio, Joni and her baby James.  We went out to lunch at Cafe Rio and had a great time catching up.  And then out to dinner with the whole extended family on Saturday night at Toucano’s . . . . a family favorite:)  I also got in some good shopping time with my mom on Saturday while the others were having a ski day.  I flew home Saturday night at 10:30, and arrived home about the same time because of the time change.  So, it was a quick 48 hour trip, but so fun!  Thanks to Dan and to my Reno friends for taking good care of the girls while I was gone!

The 2010 Walton Family Christmas Tree

I think this is our best tree yet.  I love that we go out as a family every year in search of our “perfect tree.”  We found this beauty at Home Depot:)  It has fullness and a great shape.  Also this year, I finally decided what color scheme to go with.  Up until now, our tree has just been a hodge podge of random ornaments.  I chose gold and red and we bought some sparkly gold ornaments that I love.  Also some bigger gold and red balls.  It still has a long way to come and we still need a tree skirt, but it’s a good start.   One of my favorite things to do on a cold December night is to get cozy on the couch with only the tree lights on and just kind of soak it all in.  I think I’m actually going to be a little sad to take this one down.

Leah’s Gymnastics Recital

Leah has been taking gymnastics for a few months now and she absolutely loves it.  I take her every Wednesday morning and she is always so excited to go.  Annie, James, and I watch her from the sidelines, and she proudly goes through her rotations and waves to us every so often.  She was especially excited for the winter recital because finally Daddy could come to the gym and watch her!

2008 Walton Family Georgia Christmas Vacation of a Lifetime

Two years ago the Walton family spent Christmas at the Johnson’s house in Georgia.  Nothing gets you into the Christmas spirit like reliving past Christmases, and what better way to relive those events than a three minute compilation of all of the most exciting moments put to a teeny-bopper Christmas song.  Everything looks more fun when it’s put to music.  If you’re interested, feel free to relive it with us.

Gingerbread Houses

For FHE we invited the Lee’s, Bower’s, and Jurgaitis’s over to decorate gingerbread houses!  This is an activity that I think is always more fun when you do it with friends.  Everyone brought a few different kinds of candy, so we had a good selection to choose from.  The kids had so much fun, in fact when we closed the door after the last family left, Annie immediately said, “That was fun!!!”   Good.  Then it was all worth it.  

James Meets Santa

 

                                     pictures from our ward Christmas party

Thanksgiving 2010

2 days after David and Mary left our place, the kids and I took off for California.  Annie was off track, so it was fun to be able to go and spend almost 2 whole weeks with the fam.  Dan still had to work, so he wasn’t able to come until the night before Thanksgiving, but my sisters came home early too, so it was fun to have some good sister time before all the menfolk showed up:)  We ended up only taking pictures of the actual Thanksgiving feast, so I’ll just include some of those.  Dinner was at my Grandpa and Grandma’s house, where it is every year:)  And of course, the food was amazing!  Why do we only have Thanksgiving dinner once a year?  After dinner, we all went and saw Tangled, the new Disney movie.  We loved it!