Christmas

Christmas seems to go by faster every year. But I did love this Christmas. We were able to spend lots of time with family, and that is one of the most important parts of the Holidays.

We were happy to get a call from Matt’s Aunt Amy inviting us to go to Christmas Village in Ogden with them and see the lights. We had been thinking of going there ourselves, so it was a perfect plan. We met them at Café Rio for some yummy dinner and then it was off to see the lights.

We didn’t get to look around too much, because we had some drama with a lost kid. But everything ended well and what we did see was really fun.

The Haun’s had their annual Christmas party right on schedule. Santa comes every year to this party and it is great. He sang songs with the kids and read a story. We all ate and just had a really good time. There was the passing of white elephant gifts (I totally ended up with Chocolate! The best present ever). After the party my sister Chrystie wanted to stick around and go to Christmas Village. We agreed to go again! We spent a little more time looking at lights, but it was much colder than the time before. We covered some ground and then went to Wingers (or the popcorn place) for dinner. Yummy, and so much fun to spend time with family!

Christmas itself is always a crazy day for us. We did a lot of homemade presents this year, so it was a good thing Christmas Eve was a Saturday. We spent most of the day putting the finishing touches on the gifts and doing some final wrapping. Then it was off to visit with my family and eat our yummy Christmas Eve Pizza. We watched Scrooge and talked and just had fun until it was time for the kids to go home and sleep (and the grown-ups too). Then we hopped in our trusty car and drove to Matt’s Grandparent’s house to sleep. It is always fun to spend the night down there and have some quite time to talk to Ray and Joan and just enjoy some of the more relaxing moments of Christmas. Matt’s cousin Aaron was able to spend a little time with us also. It was a good time.

Christmas Morning always comes early. We quickly dressed and moved the party over to Becky and Forrest’s house to open presents with their kids. I am always surprised that those kids are able to sleep in on Christmas. I remember knocking on my Parent’s door pretty early on Christmas morning (well not actually me knocking, we always made one of the younger kids do it. They were cuter). But we got them up and we opened presents. Becky knows us all too well and gave me a whole pallet of Diet Coke. Yep, I am way too easy to shop for.

Then it was off to Chrystie and Preston’s house for more fun and presents. They were super patient and waited for us, so when we arrived they were ready to dive right in. It was so much fun to watch everyone open their gifts. With all the homemade stuff I felt more invested and hoped everyone would like the gifts way more than if I had bought them. I am not sure if that is good or not. But we had a good time, cleaned up fast and headed out to Church, since Christmas did land on a Sunday.

We all walked to the Zaugg’s church and enjoyed their meeting before heading back to the house. We had to pick up fairly quickly and head back to Matt’s Grandparent’s house for some Christmas lunch. We arrived before the rest of the family and had a chance to relax a while before the next round of fun. Matt’s mom and sister came and we started Christmassing again. It was a lot of fun and a great way to start to wind down the day.

We left as the party began to break up and headed back to Layton to sneak one more visit in on the way home. We stopped by my Grandma’s house for a quick visit and had a chance to chat with her and say hi to my cousin Austin for a minute before we headed home for some well deserved Sleep.

It Does get Cold in Vegas

Just so you know, it does get cold in Vegas. I guess I knew that, but I thought Vegas cold would mean 45 at night with a little breeze. Unfortunately last weekend cold meant cold. It was probably in the mid 30’s by 9:00. Why would I care? Because I had decided to run a half marathon in Vegas, at night.

Yep, a few months ago Matt’s dad mentioned that there was going to be a half marathon that went down the strip at night. It sounded exciting. What a fun place to run with so much to look at that the race would whiz by! We signed up. We also somehow talked my sister, Matt’s sister and my dad into coming too. There was a whole party going down to Vegas and it was going to be fun.

We decided to fly down instead of drive because it would have been such a let down to get stuck in bad weather after months of training and the money spent for the race. So we found some cheapish airfare and set off on Saturday morning.

The flight was great, a little bumpy because of all the wind that was in the area, but we made it super quick and then took a cab to the race expo. We met Matt’s sister Becky and her husband at the expo and picked up our packets and our shirts. It was crazy busy, pretty much people smooshed into each other as far as you could see. I was trying to have a good humor about this because I knew we would be smashed in with these same people for the race. Rumor was that 44,000 (yep forty-four THOUSAND) people were signed up for the race. The biggest races I have done in the past have been Disneyland, and they have about 20,000 people, so I was prepared for this to be insane!

Mass of people at the Expo (this was the least crowded part of the whole thing)

Anyway, we picked up our packets and walked back up the strip from the Venetian to the MGM at the other end. We checked in after some difficulty and the Matt and Forrest were off to an MMA fight they had tickets for. I hadn’t had a chance to relax all day so I took a break in my room until my Mom, Dad and sister arrived from their flight. Then we all walked down to the expo again to pick up their stuff. Yep, that was a lot of walking. I dropped them off to have dinner and went back to my room to wait for Matt to get done at the fight. They finished and came home and then took me and Becky out to see the Bellagio fountains. Matt was super sweet and purchased a rose for me from a guy on the road. We then listened to him try to convince us to go to a strip club for about 10 minutes before we convinced him we were not going to go. But it burned some time between fountain shows and I got a rose out of it. Not too bad of a deal.

Matt and I at the Bellagio

Sunday we slept in and then got ready to have a late breakfast/early lunch with Matt’s dad. He and his friend Alicia drove down from Mesquite to spend some time with us. We convinced them to go to the buffet at the Treasure Island (Matt and I ate there a few years ago for dinner and it was steller, pricey, but wonderful). We were able to have omelets and anything else we wanted (including chocolate covered strawberries! I mean, those are the best breakfast ever!)

After brunch we went back to the hotel to chill out and get ready for the race. We were supposed to start at 5:30, so we set a meeting with Becky at 4:30 at the entry of our hotel to give us time to walk over there and find our places. We watched some football and slept a little then ate a banana I borrowed from the buffet that morning and I was ready to head out. Matt had been debating if he wanted to run this race since he was pretty sick with a cold. I was mostly over mine, but he was deep in the middle of his. He decided to give it a shot knowing he could bail out if he needed. And we were off to the races!

View from the hotel looking toward the airport.  See how far traffic is backed up!

We crossed the street to the Excalibur and then noticed the road was already closed so we just walked up the side until we got to the starting area. We had assigned corrals, which is an area you line up based on your anticipated finish time. We were all towards the middle and the back. We walked through the corrals from the back, dropping Matt and Becky off at their corral I waded through the crowds until I got to where I was supposed to line up. My dad was in the same one so we spent some time stretching and chatting and trying to stay warm while we waited for the race to start. They lined us all up in a U shape, so the end of the group was even with the start, but on the other side of the road. I was lined up at the peak of the U, so the farthest away spot from the start we could be. We couldn’t really hear the announcers or the band, but we were able to see when the people in front of us started moving and we followed. We moved as a mass that changed from a walking mass to a running mass at the starting line. This is when I figured out that this was not going to be like any other race I had ever done.

Waiting to start the race.  The start line is WAY up there somewhere.

People were smooshed together from the start. It was shoulder to shoulder people as we tried to run down the road. I set my dad loose since I didn’t have the energy at the start to push past people and hoped that he would be able to find a spot where people were going the right speed. I tried to keep up my run as I squeezed past groups of walkers and tried to stay out of the way of runners going faster than me. The race never thinned up and by the time we got past the Stratosphere and headed into the dark back roads I was kind of tired of the race, but it was only about mile 5 then, and I had a long way to go.

We weaved thorough the back roads and to the end of Fremont street and then turned around. To this point there had been a couple water stops, but they only had water, no sports drink like they advertised. I brought my own little sports beans so I popped a few of those and chugged along – still packed in with people. About mile 8 my cold started to come back. I guess an hour or two of running in the cold air had aggrevated it (who would have guessed?) and I was coughing like crazy. I had to stop running and start a slow walk to get my coughs under control. Then I had to push myself to a water stop to get a little water for my burning throat. But I couldn’t get over coughing and I probably walked 2 miles.

I told myself I would run the last 5K of the race because that was the part where we were back on the fun part of the strip. But the fun was gone by then. I wasn’t feeling well, people were pushing and shoving around me. I just wanted the race to be over. Finally it was! I was so happy to finish, grab my metal and my mylar blanket and banana and find my family.

My wonderful Mom brought me a sweatshirt to wear and I was so greatful because it had started raining just as I finished. I was able to cool down (too fast probably) and then we waited for the rest of the group to finish (My dad beat me by about 10 minutes. Go dad!)

Becky and Matt finished and we walked back to our hotel to clean up and then head out for some more fun. We changed and cleaned up as quickly as we could and then took a cab out to Fremont Street. We had a really fun cab driver and made it in good time. Unfortunatly it was pretty late and things were shutting down. We had hoped to have a good time out there, but there just wasn’t much to see. It was Ok because I think we were all a little sore and tired anyway. So we made a trip up and down the road and then took a cab back to the hotel. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the food court and I was almost asleep before we got to our room.

Monday we went home. Not much else to it. We got up and checked out and went to the M&M store and Coke store and looked around. Then we went to the airport and relaxed until it was time to head home.

When we got home I was reading on Facebook about the race. There were a lot of REALLY angry people because of the crowding and the running out of sport drink and I guess they even ran out of metals. Overall, probably the most negative race I have participated in. People just were not happy. I still had a good trip, and it makes a good story, but I don’t think I would sign up for that race again.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my very favorite holidays.  I love that it is just a time to get together with family and sit around and talk and eat and enjoy each other's company.  There is something just warm about Thanksgiving.  I love it!

This year I let myself down a little and caught an awesome cold just in time for Thanksgiving.  I guess I shouldn't be too surprised since I did the same thing last year.  Maybe I just need to start planning on being sick...anyway...I wasn't going to let a crazy cold ruin my holiday! 

Wednesday night Matt and I packed up in the car and headed out to Bluffdale to spend some time with his sister and her family.  We got there later than we planned, but still had time to enjoy some Thanksgiving Eve pizza and play some video games with the kids before everyone had to go to bed.  I was feeling awful, so I took some cold medicine and was out like a light.

Thanksgiving morning we woke up early (what were we thinking?) to head to a Thanksgiving morning 5K.  We have done this one before, in Draper, and I like it because all the proceeds go to the Food Bank.  I mean, that is a good cause on a day like Thanksgiving.  I had signed up for the 10K, but there was no way I could do that with my cold.  I barely made the 5K.  Matt was a sweetheart and walked slowly with me making it our slowest race ever.  But it was a nice morning and we had fun.  Matt's sister Becky woke up with a cold and couldnt' come with us. 

Me and Matt waiting for the race to start.  There were over 4,000 people there.

After the race we went back to Becky's house to spend a little more time with them before heading back up North.

We made a quick trip home to clean up (and take a much needed nap) and then we headed out again, this time to Layton to my Parent's house for some Turkey dinner.  We were a little late but there was still a ton of food and it was delicious.  I have been super lucky so far and Thanksgiving is a pretty low key holiday for me.  We made some sweet potatoes, but that was the extent of our responsibility.  My mom Rocks and made pretty much everything else.  Thanks Mom!

The weather was still really nice and we had a chance to play in the yard with my nieces and nephew.  My dad raked all his leaves into a pile and let them jump around and have a great time.

 Arden mid-jump

 Sweet Cora had a little cold too

I didn't stay as late as I wanted at the house.  I was feeling pretty yucky and needed to go home.  I don't think I even made it to 2nd pie!  But we had a wonderful time and were able to steal some leftovers to enjoy the next day. 

Yep, I love Thanksgiving!