Home for the Holidays!

I was able to go home to Utah for the holidays from December 23rd to January 4th. I was so excited to come home and see everyone. I am glad I made it when I was suppose to. I almost missed my connecting flight in Phoenix because my plane was an hour late leaving Newark, New Jersey. But I did make it there after a very long flight. I couldn't believe my eyes on how tall Jordan had grown in just 4 months. I was in awe. Though I was upset to see so much snow in Utah. Seems like everywhere I go there is snow, snow, and more snow. I made sure we stopped at grandma and grandpa's house after the airport.





I had a great Christmas with my family. We went sledding on Christmas Eve with the whole family and it was so much fun to see Alexa and Chayse opening up their presents on Christmas morning. I stayed very busy while back there. I had lots of stuff to do before I left again for New Jersey. I got all of mom's pictures and music updated and organized on her computer. That only took a few days to accomplish lol!






My boyfriend Jamie flew into Utah a few days after Christmas to come meet my family and to see what Utah was all about. I was so excited for him to come. Jordan went down with me to the airport to pick him up. Jamie and I stayed very busy all week with my family. Just Jamie and I went snowmobiling. We went up in Logan canyon and up into Idaho. It was both our first time. It was a blast. I did manage to get the snowmobile stuck though because I drove it off the trails and the snow was very deep. Luckily there were a couple of guys that saw me get stuck and helped Jamie to free it. It took quite the effort to free it though. The snow only went up to like my knees. Sorry about that Jamie lol!




On New Years Eve, Jamie and I went to lunch with my family and then headed to Wendover, Nevada to spend the night. We had lots of fun hanging out and doing a little bit of gambling here and there. We had a really nice hotel room at the Montego Bay.




New Years Day we spent at Justin and Jenny's house (my brother). We had fun visiting and playing guitar hero and board games and eating. Later that evening, we went to a movie together.




On January 2nd, my brother Travis, Jamie, and I went up to Beaver Mountain to go snowboarding. None of us had been snowboarding in years. I was just a tad nervous. I have never been too good with the whole snowboarding thing. I went down the mountain three times and decided I was finished. I couldn't get the hang of it and I felt bad because Travis and Jamie were waiting so patiently for me and I felt like I was holding them up. Being not too smart, I decided to give skiing a try. I used to ski a long long time ago and I remember it as being a piece of cake. Lets just say it turned out to be a complete nightmare. It was awful. I couldn't stay up and every time I fell it killed. Travis and Jamie were so good with me. They stayed by my side the entire time. Finally I ended up walking down the mountain while Travis and Jamie each held one of my skies while they boarded down the mountain. It was very humilating for me. I chose to spend the rest of the afternoon in the lodge reading while the boys went up the mountain. Thanks Travis and Jamie for taking such good care of me. (Oh, and by the next morning I was so sore I could barely move!)

On Saturday, the family went to Hardware Ranch to show Jamie around before he left Utah. It was fun but cold. My toes went numb. Chayse loved it!!!



For the rest of the day, Jamie, my parents, and I went to Salt Lake to spend the evening with my grandparents. Then we had to get ready to wake up the next morning to go to the airport and fly back to New Jersey. It was very very hard to say bye to my family again. Definitely harder this last time than it was the first time I left.

Sunday, Jan 4th, the day Jamie and I went to the airport to fly back was the beginning of a very long, bad day. Our plane was an hour and a half late leaving the runaway so we ended up missing our connecting flight in Phoenix. Too make a long story short, we waited in USAirway's customer service line for over an hour and then we found out that we couldn't get a flight out till the next afternoon. They gave us a hotel room and one $10 meal voucher for each of us. They had already sent our luggage on without us and then wouldn't compensate us for having to buy new toiletries or any other meals that didn't get covered by the vouchers. What really made this day bad was I felt crappy all day and was starting to get sick. The good part of this story is that neither of us had ever been to Phoenix, Arizona before and now we got to check it out plus extend our vacation by one more day. That night we were able to go out a little on the town. Though I sure wish I would have felt better. The picture below was taken in front of our hotel room in Phoenix. The next day, Monday, we ended up making it back to New Jersey before midnight.



I had a very happy holiday with my family and Jamie. Lots of good memories were made. I was so glad to be able to go home for the holidays and that Jamie was able to come out to meet my family and let me show him around my home town. I miss you all very much!!! Can't wait to see you guys again.