The next family to arrive was the Chans and Broekmans. Joey and Jared went to Vegas for the BYU game, but those of us that were here had a fun time watching in my living room....well, until we lost. Cougars, you're hurting me!!
The Abneys joined us and we were a full and happy throng. Nine o'clock church came pretty early the next day, and the super religious of us made it to the service. (haha) Here is a picture of all we could round up on our way out the door:
Joey and Jared got back and we had a fun night chatting with everyone. The Chans and Broekmans showed us alot of moves from their P90X workouts...the rest of us (slackers) got to laugh at all their funny push-ups. I seriously wish I had a picture to go with this paragraph. Aaron Chan (who is a chiropractor) had to give quite a few adjustments after this.
Monday was the day that we planned and executed all the food for our trip. There was a crazy snowstorm (I know I keep saying crazy, but the weather has been...) so we had to go really slow on our way to costco. The boys watched the kids...I'm not sure they really knew what they were getting into, because it took us all day. They took the kids sledding in my neighborhood and even fed them lunch. Thanks guys! I am proud to say that the food turned out awesome. We girls did good!! Besides the shortage of sour cream (can there ever be enough with Jared Palenske in the mix?) we came out just right with everything.
I wanted to include this picture of my front hall so that you can understand the magnitude of how much snow gear it takes to get all those kids out the door sledding. Thank goodness the front of my house is basically unfurnished, as it could function as a "staging area" for all the snow stuff.
Tuesday we headed out. We stopped by the airport on the way to Bear Lake to pick up Gramy and Poppy...our family was finally complete! I was so happy that we made it to the cabin without incident, as the roads were bad in places. The cabin met and exceeded our expectations. It was truly fantastic. I think I will copy Alli now and paste some of my mother-in-law's post into mine. She explained the cabin well:
"Our family just spent the most wonderful holiday season in Bear Lake, at Garden City, Utah. We found this amazing place online at VRBO and booked it last summer. It was everything we had hoped for. Nine thousand square feet of FUN! There were bedrooms and bathrooms for each family, a state-of-the-art kitchen with double dishwashers, ovens, microwaves, washers and dryers, etc. as well as the highlight for everyone...a 1,500 square foot, two story playroom, equipped with half court basketball court, putting green, in-ground trampoline and great playhouse and swings. The kids loved it so much, and the Dad's had some pretty good b-ball games as well. We did so many fun activities together and just mostly enjoyed coming around the corner to see one of our kids or grandkids with smiley faces! Here are some pictures of our week together at Bear Lake. Thanks to everyone for making the effort to be there. SO many great memories were made. There were 26 of us there--12 adults and 14 kids. Our oldest grandchild is 8, so there were LOTS of little people. They got along so well. There were two fun spiral slides built into the walls...one originating in the kitchen going to the next floor down, and then one from there to the bottom. There was even a miniature rock-climbing wall! Something for everyone." (Thanks to Gramy for the great explanation...the rest of the words will be mine)
The front entry hall. This cabin was very beautiful.
An amazing kitchen to be able to comfortably hold all SEVEN woman cooking and cleaning at once, not to mention a few guys too!
A fun little playhouse, the girls kept saying "no boys allowed".
I wish I had pictures of the indoor playground area...maybe one of the sistas do? Anyway, we had an amazing time. I am now going to post some more pictures (the part of blogs I like the best) of our Christmas Eve program. Natalie was in charge and it was ADORABLE!!
Brady Broekman, kind shepherd:
Davis Broekman, Innkeeper Extraordinare....(he put together his own costume, he has his father's flair for fashion!)
Jack was Angel Gabriel, he had a speaking part which he delivered quite well!
Avery Palenske....horse, need I say more? Unfortunately I don't have a great picture of her sister Addison who was an "angel chicken"...or cousin Holland, the Elephant.
Gracie, my angel baby....she had a speaking part "hark!" (which she pronounced "heart!!!" and delivered upon command all week)
Kate Abney, a wisewoman for the ages....
Tyson Emig, a wiseguy!
My sweet Mary...(sweet being a word I don't use often when referring to this daughter of mine, I should say..my SPUNKY Mary) She felt very special....thanks Nat!
Dallin Chan, being cool enough to step in as Joseph next to my CC (I'm not sure he was thrilled, but was extremely gracious...what a gentleman!)
The aforementioned "donkey" with his beautiful cargo Carolina Jones Emig. (Grace is perplexed. You may have noticed she is in the corner of almost every photo I took that night...she really got around!)
The whole group....gotta love these kids! My plan is to keep making them do this until they are off on missions. hee.
I had to include this picture, because I bought my girls gold and cream outfits for Christmas Eve. CUTE!
After the Nativity, we had our cousin talent show. (Ty and Jack sang the chipmunks christmas song, Carolina Baa Baa Black sheep, Grace did her "trick" she puts her hand on the ground and puts one foot in the air.) Then they opened their "gramy jammys", and the boys got stuffed animals, the girls, princesses. Then it was off to bed!
Poppy with his two girl babies!
This is getting long.....To be continued!
Jack was Angel Gabriel, he had a speaking part which he delivered quite well!
Avery Palenske....horse, need I say more? Unfortunately I don't have a great picture of her sister Addison who was an "angel chicken"...or cousin Holland, the Elephant.
Gracie, my angel baby....she had a speaking part "hark!" (which she pronounced "heart!!!" and delivered upon command all week)
This is baby Jane Abney (can you believe those eyelashes?). She was our sweet baby Jesus. I must mention here that this baby is such an affable young thing. I didn't hear her cry the whole trip. She is a true sweety.
Tanner Chan, wiseman, Ashton, Shepherd...with their dad, the donkey (as you'll later see).
Kate Abney, a wisewoman for the ages....
Tyson Emig, a wiseguy!
My sweet Mary...(sweet being a word I don't use often when referring to this daughter of mine, I should say..my SPUNKY Mary) She felt very special....thanks Nat!
Dallin Chan, being cool enough to step in as Joseph next to my CC (I'm not sure he was thrilled, but was extremely gracious...what a gentleman!)
The aforementioned "donkey" with his beautiful cargo Carolina Jones Emig. (Grace is perplexed. You may have noticed she is in the corner of almost every photo I took that night...she really got around!)
The whole group....gotta love these kids! My plan is to keep making them do this until they are off on missions. hee.
I had to include this picture, because I bought my girls gold and cream outfits for Christmas Eve. CUTE!
After the Nativity, we had our cousin talent show. (Ty and Jack sang the chipmunks christmas song, Carolina Baa Baa Black sheep, Grace did her "trick" she puts her hand on the ground and puts one foot in the air.) Then they opened their "gramy jammys", and the boys got stuffed animals, the girls, princesses. Then it was off to bed!
Poppy with his two girl babies!
This is getting long.....To be continued!
2 comments:
That sounds like so much fun! I love the pictures of Jack as an angel and the picture of Carolina as mary made me laugh outloud. She is so funny!
I must have forgotten to tell you the "I don't take pictures until my braces are off in March" rule!! EEEEE! Super gross! :)
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