I know I said I would post pictures of Chloe's birthday, but I don't have them with me and I should post these before it gets to be Easter. :-) Today is Christmas and we've had a wonderful morning with Craig's brother and his family as well as his wife's family, who came to stay as well. However, Christmas pictures will have to wait a few more days. We are spending the rest of this week into next here as well for Craig's brother's wedding (who is getting married to this beautiful lady here next week)- marking our first trip together as a family to Utah.
Our vacation has been pretty packed full, mostly with shopping, but we were also able to make a trip to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights in Salt Lake City. It was beautiful! We were only able to stay for about 40 minutes or so, but the kids were great (thanks Karen for letting us borrow your double stroller!), and even though they were so bundled up that they looked like scarecrows shoved into a stroller, they enjoyed seeing the lights. Linus loves pointing out Christmas lights, and so he was constantly awed and kept saying "Wuh...wiiiiiiiiights! Wuh...wiiiiiiights!" Chloe recognized the temple, which I promised her we would see, and she liked looking at the lights as well.
As you can see, it took a few minutes to get them all bundled and buckled in in the car lot. Linus didn't like waiting.
It was so peaceful on the square, even though there were a bazillion people. Somehow it still seemed reverent rather than a spectacle.
A nice passing lady took this picture for us.
After we left temple square, we went to see one of Craig's old mission companions for hot chocolate at his house in Salt Lake City. I asked Craig if he wanted me to take pictures while we were there, but he didn't want me to. But I did get this nasty shot of all the SMOG in the city on the drive out there. We were hopefully speculating that the clouds were just hanging really low, but upon asking his siblings when we got back, they informed us about the smog/weather patterns in Utah Valley that cause the smog to get really thick and nasty. They said it wasn't even that bad when we went out there, sometimes it gets so bad they don't even let kids out for recess. Reason number #99999999999 that we will not live in Utah EVER.
The next morning Craig and I went back to Temple Square to go through a session at the Salt Lake Temple because our soon to be sister-in-law was receiving her endowment. I didn't bring my camera with me that time, but I'm kinda glad that I did because it was so peaceful and nice to be able to just enjoy being there. Craig and I were early so we were able to spend some time at the Christus at the North Visitor's Center before we went though the session. Since it was early, we were the first ones up there. It really is beautiful and it was nice just to be able to sit there for a few minutes before we went into the temple. The session was just as amazing and we're glad we came out to Utah early so we could go. When we got out of the temple it was snowing enough to start accumulating on the roads. We were planning originally on seeing the Joseph Smith movie at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, but we were already late for the one we wanted to see, and we thought it would be better to hit the roads before they started to get too slick.
That evening Brent and Karen made marshmallow men with frosting and marshmallows, so Chloe joined them. Linus ate a couple of marshmallows, but he wasn't too interested in making any snowmen.
I have some pictures from Christmas morning, but I should probably start socializing and playing games instead of posting more pictures, so I'll save them for a couple of more days. :-)
Hope all of your Christmases were warm and merry!
