the rest of christmas

So this year we tried something new with Christmas. We woke up and had Christmas morning at our house. I loved that. Having our own little thing. Ava was so cute and loved her new bike. She got excited anytime someone "got a box"! Then we went to our church which was nice. There was lots of music and one really excellent talk. After that we frantically threw all our stuff in the car and headed to the Downing's. We had brunch and opened presents and hung out there for a few hours and then around three drove up to Idaho Falls. This was the first year the roads have been perfectly dry when we have gone there for Christmas. When we go there we ate a Swedish inspired dinner and celebrated my little sister Brianna's birthday. Then we opened more Christmas presents. It was a late night for Ava. It was a way fun day. I really kind of liked doing it that way.

 

The rest of our break was really fun. Jared and I went on a date monday night to celebrate our four year anniversary. FOUR YEARS! It goes by so fast. We have sure been through a lot in those four years, and it has brought us so much closer than I could have ever imagined. I love my husband :) We also went to an alumni bball tournament to watch Jon play. Ava got really into the game, and was cheering for both teams. We also went and visited my Grandma Stowell. We shopped a little. I got to see my friends. We went ice skating on Wednesday, my mom's birthday, and our anniversary. Ava was soo excited to go skating and put ice skates on. The smallest size they had was a 9 and Ava is a 6, but I just had them give me the big skates anyway since Ava wanted the skates so bad. I may have wanted to see her wearing skates as well :) Walking to the rink she was giggling and having a great ol' time, but once we got onto the rink things went downhill. She went about 5 feet with us holding her up and she started complaining about it being "waaabely". Or wobbly. She had wool socks on so I don't think the skates were really loose, I just think she didn't like the feeling of her feet slipping out from under her.  We went around once and took her skates off. after that she didn't even want to walk on the ice in her shoes. She just watched us skate the rest of the time. It was really fun. That night we celebrated my mom's birthday. Thursday morning we went to breakfast with Kim, Ryan and Ellie. It is so fun to see friends you only get to see once in a blue moon. There little girl is the cutest and happiest little one ever! After breakfast we said goodbye to my family and started our 7 hour journey back home. We detoured to Logan to go to a late lunch with our good friends the Mumford's who live in Kansas now. It was so fun to see them! Then we had to stop at Jared's work and get his desk cleared out since his company is moving buildings. We got home around 8:30, just in time for Ava to go to bed. It was a great trip and wonderful Christmas holiday.