Saturday, January 21, 2012

December

Now that January is half-way over, I'm struggling to remember all the things that happened in December! It was a pretty busy month finishing up my last full semester at school plus Christmas parties and spending time with family. Hopefully I can remember all the important things.


First off, I gave my hair a big chop. I've basically been growing my hair out for two and a half years, ever since I came home from my mission. It started off that I wanted to grow it out for my wedding, but then Mikey told me he likes my hair long, so I just kept going. I've cut a couple inches off here and there, but nothing this drastic. I've always wanted to do Locks of Love, but have never had hair long enough, so I thought for sure I'd be able to do it this time. Unfortunately my stylist told me I was a couple inches short, but by that time I had worked myself up and couldn't just walk out without something different. I guess I'll know for next time I ever get it really long. Here are my beautious before and after photos:


Before
Before
After!!
Ever year my Grandma throws a huge Christmas party and it's one of the few times that the majority of her seven kids get together. My mom can never come since flying stand-by in December is a nightmare and usually she has to work, but she always feels really bad that she's never made it to one. This year she seemed particularly sadden that she couldn't come, so she told me to make sure to let grandma and everyone know she was sad she was missing it again for the um-teenth year. The Friday before the party my dad's sister called and asked if Mikey & I wanted to come down and they'd take us out to dinner and we could spend the night and go to the Christmas party the next day. On the way down (it's about a 2 1/2 hr drive from Logan to Orem) my mom called and asked me all about the party, my weekend and Christmas plans. No big deal, normal conversation. When finally pull in at 830 to my aunt's house, all the lights are off and I'm afraid we've made them wait too long. Nope. I knocked on the door expecting my aunt to open it. Nope. It's my mom. I just stood there and stared thinking "You're not supposed to be here! You sneaky mom!" Not only that, but right after we arrived she left with my dad to pick up my sister Alicia from the airport! I was totally surprised and excited to see them since we spent this Christmas in Minnesota and I wasn't sure when I'd see my parents next.


Needless to say, mom had a very fun time surprising all her siblings. We went to a gymnast gym with all the aunts and uncles and cousins and ran around. They had a huge foam pit, which if you've ever been in one of those you know how hard it is to climb back out. We spent a majority of the night pushing the aunties in and anyone else that got too close. :)


Surprise!! The parents, Alicia AND Nick
We drove to Mikey's parents' new home in Woodbury, Minnesota, just outside of the Twin Cities. It was a 22 hr drive and we caravaned with Steve and Kathryn and we rode in Allie's car with her. We decided to drive straight through which was nice in some ways but also terribly exhausting. We didn't get there til almost 6am the next day, just in time for Mike's dad to get up for work! Minnesota was a blast though! We mostly just relaxed and slept in every morning. We had a wonderful Christmas and went shopping at the Mall of America with our Christmas moneys and bought a new DVD player to go with our brand new TV we got from the Burnhams! I was super excited because we no longer have to watch movies on our computers! We were also surprised by Jeremy from Alaska dropping by on his way to Oregon.


 On one of our last nights we went to Buffalo Wild Wings. My brother Lincoln introduced me to this place in Colorado a few years back and I've always wanted to go again. I LOVE it!! I love buffalo sauce anyways, but they've taken buffalo wings to an all new level! If you have one anywhere close to you, you MUST go! MUST!! On Tuesdays and Thursdays they have cheaper wings, so I'd suggest then. Mikey and I were having trouble deciding how many we wanted and even though I had just said I wasn't as hungry as I wished to be before we walked in, we decided to split 50 since we both loved them. Mikey ate like 25 and I think I managed 10... :s It was totally worth it though! We ate the rest later that night and the next day for lunch, so no wings went to waste. :)
Mmmmm. I LOVE this place!
A wet wipe package. Too true!
Our 50 wings. I'm drooling just thinking about them again!
We also went to the temple there. We've been spoiled here in Utah and I thought we could just show up whenever and rent clothes, but no. We got up super early only to find out we didn't have a car to get there (Allie  went shopping and took the Subaru keys with her and Steve and Kathryn already left) so we went back to sleep while we waited for a car to come home. We obviously missed our session, but we were still able to do initiatories which was nice since we haven't done them in awhile. It was a great experience remembering all the blessings we have been promised. 
St. Paul Minnesota temple. Look familiar?
The sun was super bright so it made for a bad squinty picture.
I was really worried we we left for Minnesota that it would be really cold there. Like colder than Alaska cold, but surprisingly it was really warm with hardly any snow. We had beautiful weather the whole trip until we had to drive home. We made it all the way to Utah and were only a few hours away from home when a huge storm hit and was a total whiteout in some places. I was driving at the time and pulled over to let Mikey drive. The snow itself wasn't too bad, it was the wind that whipped it up and made a wall so you had no idea were the road was. We had to stop the car a few times to wait for a clearing, but finally made it home safely. The next day on the news there were several stories of people who weren't so lucky and were blown off the road, so we were very grateful we made it home in one piece.
The back of the Subaru "Roo" after our near-death experiences in the canyon.
That's all for now. I'll probably be writing again in two week to summarize January, but at least I made it before the end!




1 comment:

  1. What a great surprise!!! I've always wanted to go to the Mall of America. P.S. I have a NCLEX study book that has thousands of questions in it if you want it.

    ReplyDelete