Trip to Utah for the Holidays

This is a little past due, but we just got back here to Houston on Monday, and I wanted to share a little about Christmas and New Year's. We had a lot of fun seeing everyone. Eli especially saw a lot of new faces, as this was his first time seeing any of his aunts and uncles on the Grant side of the family. He also enjoyed seeing Grandpa and Grandma Grant again. What little kid doesn't like to be spoiled? Truly, Eli was spoiled by EVERYONE, and he has the toys to prove it. However, he probably deserves them because he was SO good on the trip to Utah, and he had some reasons not to be good. Perhaps that was his way of responding to my Thanksgiving blog.

Las Vegas does not get snow often, but it happened to get it on the day we flew out of Houston. I think they said it was the biggest snow storm Vegas had received in 25 years or something like that. What a day to fly into the Vegas airport, huh? Well, we didn't...until the next day anyway. We were in the air when they decided to shut down the Vegas airport because of icy runways, and our pilot decided he didn't want to risk the landing. As a result, we made a surprise visit to Alburquerque, New Mexico, where we were obliged to spend the night. We waited about 4 VERY LONG hours in line at the Alburquerque airport to get a hotel voucher (fortunately we got one; not everyone did--long story) and new tickets into the Vegas airport the next morning. We didn't get into our hotel until about 10:30 PM, and we were supposed to get into Vegas at 5:30 or so. Needless to say, we were hungry and tired--both very good reasons for Eli to be cranky, but he wasn't. He was a trooper, even with two ear infections (most likely the reason for the unhappy Thanksgiving). He definitely deserved another "best baby on an airplane" award.

Grandpa and Grandma Grant and Kendall all deserved the "most patient and flexible people" award. My mom and Kendall waited for us all day in Vegas (Kendall was picked up from the airport that morning) only to find out we weren't coming. They had to drive the 2 1/2 hours back to St. George only to have my dad drive it again in the morning (and he thought a basketball game would get him out of a trip to the airport). In total, my dad made six 2 1/2 hour drives to and from Las Vegas to pick up or drop off his children. I think we'll all be grateful when they get the new airport up and running in St. George. Until that happens, thanks Mom and Dad for your patience in chaufering!

Despite the traveling, we did get to spend plenty of time relaxing, playing games, talking, and eating! :-) We had a family picture, and we got to meet Aubrey, Nephi's girlfriend. All of us got to meet Sophie for the first time. What a cute girl! She already has more hair than Eli! Despite the cold weather, we managed to do some hiking. Josh doesn't like to go many trips without doing some kind of hiking. We even got to go to the temple--a long awaited event for both of us. Though Houston has a temple, it takes about an hour to get there. Round trip travel plus a temple session generally takes about 4 to 5 hours, which has been difficult with a little boy who won't take a bottle and likes his milk every couple of hours. It's a lot easier when the temple is only ten minutes away. I was reminded how blessed we are to have temples!

Well, there's a lot that we did and more I can say, but I'll say the rest through pictures since this is getting long. Thanks to everyone for the good company, and thanks to both sides of the family for the gifts (even though some were a challenge to get home on an airplane :-) ).

Eli with his cousin, Sophee!

Eli opening his gift from Aunt Bronwyn and Toni. He's becoming quite a walker now!

Eli's gift from Uncle Kendall!

Eli as Santa! Isn't he cute?

Josh's hike in Snow Canyon. I didn't go, but Josh seemed to love it. On the top he's with Nephi and Aubrey, and on the bottom he's with Kendall.

Aunt Monica putting Eli to sleep!

P.S. Happy Birthday today, Mom!