Journey to Utah

Being alone for Christmas was made much easier because we knew we would be seeing family just a week later.
On Christmas Eve we left early and drove to Utah. Yep, all the way in one long day. It took us 21 hours, through 4 states, and a 72 degree temperature drop (from 58 in Bartlesville, OK to -14 in Green River, UT) but we made it to my parents house just as we welcomed in the New Year. It was so fun to be there. My sister, Katie, drove in from California the same day and it was one big party. My parents have remodeled their house since we were there last. It looks beautiful! We loved every detail of what they did and had so much fun in the new space.
We got to spend some time with the Willises, our good friends in Provo and saw lots of friends when we went to our old ward there. I saw Jill in her new house in my parents' Stake. We visited Nate's brother Jamie and his family. We went bowling and ice-skating and to the planetarium and just generally had a lot of fun.

ice skating for Morgan's early birthday party

hanging out with cousin Lochten

bowling at the U of U

We also got to meet my brother Greg's fiancee. They got engaged a few days after Christmas. It was fun to meet Meisha. We are excited for her to officially join the family in May.
On Wednesday my youngest brother, Clark, returned from his mission in Canada. It was so, so fun to see him. We all went to the airport to meet him. When he left, Talmage was not yet 3 months old and he had never even met Peter. It was fun to introduce our little boys to there very cool, good, handsome uncle. In the next picture, that cute girl in the gray jacket is my youngest sister and Clark's twin. She was so excited to see him. Once she caught a glimpse of him she could not hold back the tears. It was great to see them together again. Also beautiful Karen and Annie and in the back, Greg with his new fiancee.

Waiting. The red, maple leaf t-shirts say, "on the 'Eh' team". They were made by Greg

Cute Clark. I love that kid

On Friday we had our family gift exchange. As our gift theme for this year we chose Moe the Dog in Tropical Paradise as our guide. It is a little picture book about a dog who creates a tropical paradise in his own house to escape the winter drudgery. So everyone gave someone else an imaginary vacation. Holly gave me Moe the Dog in Austria. She gave me salt (Salzburg), a PEZ (invented in Austria), a curtain (think Sound of Music), etc. I gave possibly my favorite gift ever. My mom said something that gave me the idea and I sent Moe and my Dad to "Musical Merryland" I wrapped up a favorite family musical DVD, but what i really gave him was his very own musical. I found a karaoke accompaniment and changed the words of a song from a musical. It was all about my Dad and how great he is. Then i emailed all my siblings to help. When we all got together we practiced anytime both my parents were out of the house (I wanted to surprise my mom too). I assigned speaking parts to a few people so that the talking melded into the song - just like it does in an actual musical. We had a few "technical difficulties" getting the music going but my dad was surprised and it was a lot of fun. Thanks to all my brothers and sisters and in-laws and Nate for going along with my crazy ideas. I included the video of it here. I handed my Mom the video camera and told her "just in case she wanted to use it" but i neglected to show her how to use it or take it off zoom. So the video is pretty much just for the sound. Watch at your own peril. Enjoy.

It was a great trip.