utah

Sometime in September we were looking at Paul's schedule and realized he had Thanksgiving and the whole weekend after off.  I suggested that Paul take the first week in December off because that would give him 11 days off (totally  unheard of in residency).  We both didn't think he would get it especially since there was other people that had requested some of those days off too.  By some miracle his request was approved and so we started talking about going to Utah.  Its really risky driving to Utah in the winter, the weather can cause lots of problems.  We decided to plan to go but not tell the kids in case the weather ruined our plans.  When we were about a week out we knew the drive would be OK but I decided to still keep it a secret from the kids.  Paul was working nights all of November so he had to work Wednesday night and our plan was for me to pick him up at the hospital on Thursday morning and we would start driving from there.  Trying to pack and get everything ready in secret is no easy task but it was so fun to wake the kids up Thursday morning and tell them to hurry and get in the car because we were going to Utah!!!  They were shocked and so excited!  The drive was pretty uneventful,  Paul drove a little at the beginning and then I took over so he could sleep.  Since we were traveling on Thanksgiving there was not much traffic,  we would go miles and miles without seeing another car or truck.  It was a little sad to not have a big Thanksgiving meal but we did stop at a Perkins and ordered Thanksgiving lunch there.  I was totally shocked at how delicious our meal was.  The wait for our food took forever but in the end it was totally worth it.

waiting for our lunch

Our time in Utah was pretty laid back, we just wanted to enjoy time with our families and the holiday season.  I really didn't take very many pictures because I was just trying to enjoy the moment.  But here are a few things from our trip.   

We got to spend some time in Midway with my family.  We watched movies, got in the hot tub, had a delicious dinner prepared by my mom, and celebrated my moms birthday. 

We went out to eat with Paul's dad and his family.  Asher especially loved the chocolate fountain.

We went to Temple Square

We made ornaments and played with cousins

The kids got haircuts

We went to the festival of trees

I got to meet up with some friends from Henderson who have all moved to Utah. Allyson always says this and I totally believe it, "Henderson is the best place to make friends."

We hung out with friends.  One night we hung out with Seth and Jenn and Colin and Kara and all our kids.  And then on another night we went out to eat with Seth and Jenn at the Red Iguana.  

We went to Classic skating

We did so many other things too, like going out to eat, watching football games, visiting with family, going to movies (Hunger games and Frozen), sewing Christmas presents, and making chocolates.  We had such a fun trip and many  tears were shed when it was time to leave.  How I love our adventures of living away from Utah but how I hate living away from family and friends.  

We ended up needing to leave early because of bad weather, we still had yucky weather but not as bad as it could have been.  We drove through the night on Saturday and arrived home Sunday morning.

This was in the middle of the night, in the middle of Nebraska during the snow storm.  We had some scary moments but made it home safe and sound.