January Was Fun

We started out January with a big game of real life Hungy Hippos with our youth in our ward.  It was super fun!

Dustin even got in on the action.

Maren asked and got answered for the Winter's Dance.  She asked her friend, Parker, from our ward.

Our niece Addie, got baptized.  She is Jen and Jeff's youngest.

We face timed my parents in for the baptism.  My dad is still recovering from his quadruple bypass in October and they aren't doing big groups yet.  Thank goodness for technology!

This is what our scripture study turned into one night.

Maren and Ryan had their first indoor track meet, down at BYU.  We made a day of it and went to lunch with friends, got BYU Creamery ice cream, walked around the Bean Museum, and then went to a men's volleyball game.  It was a fun day at our Alma Matter.

That is the elusive gummy bear behind the kids.

We were sitting next to some cute little kids, so we got a Cosmo bonus!

The next day our Ward and Stake got to participate in a Face to Face with Elder Gerritt W. Gong, President Cordon and President Lund (from the Young Men and Young Women General Presidencies).  It was really fun to be there in person!

Ryan got a tooth filled and thought he looked pretty sweet so he took a selfie.

Maren is working a ton, has some hard classes and a busy Senior year.  She's tired!

The last weekend in January, I took a quick flight to Las Vegas and met my sisters for a Sister's Weekend (all but Jen, and we added our sister-in-law, Val).  I actually hate Vegas; it makes me mad even to drive past it on the freeway.  But when life gives you $48 round trip tickets to Vegas, you make a Vegas lemonade Getaway out of it!  And, it was sunny and warm and we had so much fun!  I needed some Vitamin D and I feel replenished now for the rest of our snowy winter!

We walked around the Bellagio Hotel.  It was decorated for the Chinese New Year and it was beautiful.

Nicole's husband, Matt, sent some money so we could find some fancy desserts and take Nicole out for her upcoming birthday.  The Bellagio desserts were amazing!

We did a little free mini manicure at a cute soap shop.

The next day we found a fun hike at the Valley of Fire State Park.  It was beautiful!  There were really cool yellow, purple, red and white rocks.

That afternoon we went to the Stratosphere and ate a yummy dinner, rode some scary rides and then went to a show, Illuminate.  Even I conquered my fears, gave in to peer pressure and rode the awful, drop you off the side of the 1500 foot high Stratosphere ride, once I saw that Nicole and Monica did not die.  And it really was not that much fun.  Haha!  Just scary.  The Big Shot ride on top is also really scary, but more of a fun scary.  We did that one a couple of times, and no one had a heart attack (a real concern, now that we are almost all middle aged).

More yummy dessert that night, this time in the form of crepes and gelato.  Mmmm.

We had a small adventure that night while trying to fill up gas in the car.  The gas all leaked out from underneath the car and after the security guard at the gas station told us we should definitely not drive our car the half a block back home because we would for sure blow up, like in a Hollywood movie, we drove home safely and the person we rented it from came the next day and brought us a new one.  I think we were the most excitement he'd seen in a while and he looked pretty disappointed when we drove off and didn't go up in flames.

And a little tender mercy was that there was a church only a 10 minute walk away the next day!

With the new car, we drove to another cool hiking area near Vegas.  The rocks here were amazing!  The stripes on the rocks were like nothing I'd ever seen before.

That night we made dinner, played games and pried until we heard Val's life story.  It was a really fun, rejuvenating weekend!  Dustin and the kids had soccer games , eating out and the Nickle Arcade to keep them busy while I was gone (Ryan apparently made 5 goals in indoor soccer!).  

I was thankful for sisters and sun, and also very happy to come back home with my family!