Football banquet
Dyer was invited because he "played" on Varsity.
Penny, Addley, and KK. Addley moved away. This was her last day of school.
They are now pen pals. It's really cute that they are staying connected.
KK's friend, Grace. They had a fun time coming up with a dance routine.
Ward Christmas Party
Our bishop is a huge BYU fan and was wearing a BYU "ugly sweater". When Satan Santa came to visit he made a comment/joke about BYU. I guess he's a U of U fan. Dyer wasn't impressed! We told Eden to go up to Santa and chant B-Y-U! She was in line practicing. So cute!
Her practicing over and over again so she wouldn't forget!
Finally her turn to convince Santa to turn away from the dark side!
I'm pretty sure Santa and Mrs. Claus LOVED Eden and thought she was the funniest person alive! They spent so much time with her. I felt a little bad that she was holding up the line.
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That will teach them to mess with BYU!
I took the 2 youngest to the live nativity.
KK's stunt double! The kids had fun making "movies" where KK was getting thrown through the air or down the stairs.
Blair wasn't feeling well so she stayed home from church. She didn't tell Eli in time so he was waiting outside for her to walk with her to church. Eden filled in nicely! Haha!
Start of Christmas cookies!
Happy Birthday to Beau!
I forgot to get him a little treat but KK made sure to make him feel special!
Beau turns 3!
Blair's Christmas choir concert:
Snow girl!
Just a girl and her dog!
KK finally got her wish...BANGS!
I'm not really a fan of bangs but KK kept begging/nagging me for them so I finally told her, "Every time you ask is another day it will take me to think about it!" Haha! I thought maybe I could get away with never having to think about it but she stopped asking. I think it was a month before she brought it up in a very round about way. Haha! I caved and cut them for her!
Finally 2 years later we finally have all her hair cut the same length!
She apparently wants bangs too! I've told her no and that she cannot cut her hair! Let's hope she obeys this time!
Universal:
Day 1: Dec. 23 Islands of Adventure
Hogwarts/Harry Potter dress up day.
We tried to go to VooDoo doughnuts but they weren't open yet. Boo! What kind of doughnut place isn't open early in the morning?!?
Poor Eden was sick all day!
I think she doesn't do well traveling/getting up early.
Working on her magic skills
Silly girl!
Sometimes I feel like her throw up bags are more of a comfort to her (like a pacifier or a blanket)!
She was throwing up a lot this day but there were many times during our trip where she would just hold the bag to her face for what seemed like no reason other than it brought her comfort.
I took Eden on this ride and she screamed Bloody Murder the whole ride! I don't think she was a fan of this ride.
We had Eden ride Skull Island and the Spiderman ride. I really wish that I would have filmed just her on those rides. She's hilarious! She probably feels like we are torturing her but she willingly gets on the rides but decides later (when it is far too late) that she doesn't want to be on the ride any longer.
Eden screaming bloody murder: "Help me! Get me off this ride! Make it stop!"
This is Eden's favorite ride!
Eden fell sleep while we were waiting for everyone else to ride the wet rides.
Waiting for Cheesecake Factory. KK was having fun modeling! Eventually Eden got in on the action too!
Eden fell asleep at dinner too!
Day 2: Dec. 24th Universal Studios
Minion theme
Nathan woke up not feeling well (food poisoning?). He slept it off with Eden. I think they slept until 10/10:30!
I took the rest of the kids to the park.
Haha! Dyer was not happy standing in line to get a picture with the minion but he still got in the picture anyways!?! We were first in line so it wasn't like we had to wait more than 2 minutes!
We met up with Nathan and Eden for a late lunch.
We went to a Pirate dinner show! Very similar to Medieval Times.
We definitely wore the wrong color! Oops!
Green section!
Even Santa made an appearance!
We made a quick video for Elder Kelsey on his mission!
Day 3: Dec. 25th Epic Universe
Mario theme
Originally we were going to go to Epic on our last day but when we got to our Hotel the first night we found out that we couldn't get fast passes for Epic. We didn't realize that you had to get those way in advance. We knew we would have to pay extra but we thought we could only get those once we got there. They were all sold out. We weren't sure how things were going to be at Epic so we decided to go a day earlier than planned in case we needed an extra day there. Luckily we were able to ride everything we wanted (really long lines-almost 3 hours for the Ministry of Magic) so we didn't need to pay for an extra day at Epic.
We got to reuse our Halloween costumes from the year before! I opted out of wearing my Peach costume (no way was I going to wear a poofy dress all day)! Easton's Yoshi costume came in handy!
She had a puke bag most of the day and I don't think she puked once! Comfort item, anyone?
I was so disappointed with the Ministry of Magic ride! We stood in line for 3 hours and when we got on the ride it looked very similar to Tower of Terror/Guardians of the Galaxy. I hate that ride! Eden was right next to me and all I could think about was, "when is this ride going to drop us?" I was so terrified we were going to drop, I couldn't enjoy the ride at all. It was probably a great ride but I'll never know unless we go again someday.
The girls adopted baby dragons!
Stardust racers was probably my favorite ride in Epic. Blakely and I sat in the front and tears were coming down my face! I think because it was so fast! It was really fun though!
Dyer lost his phone on Donkey Kong's Mine-Cart Madness. I think that was the 3rd ride we rode. We weren't sure we were going to see his phone again but we went looking for it right before we left the park. It took a while, but they did in fact have it and Dyer got it back!
Day 4: Dec. 26-Volcano Bay/Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure
We started the morning at Volcano Bay. I didn't get any pictures though. The Krakatau Aqua Coaster and the Ta-Awah The Fearless River were both really fun!
We (minus Dyer and Eden) went back to Universal Studios to see the Christmas Parade. Afterwards Blair took KK back to the hotel while Nathan, Blakely and I enjoyed a couple more rides. Nathan missed out on our Universal Studios day so he needed to make up some of those rides.
The only thing KK wanted to do on Thanksgiving was to watch the Macy's Day Parade. Her class at school learned all about the parade and even made their own Macy's Day balloons and paraded them around their school. For some reason I totally forgot until it was already over! Oops! When I saw they were having a Macy's Day Christmas Parade at Universal, I knew we had to see it!
We did the Villain -Con Minion Blast and then Blair took KK back to the hotel. KK really didn't want to ride any of the scary rides. Nathan, Blakely and I had to ride the Mummy ride since KK prevented me from riding it a few days earlier. We also hit up Escape from Gringotts and then took the train over to Adventure Island to ride the Hagrid ride. We ended the night by going to the Three Broomsticks to get butterbeer desserts. We ordered on the app and for some reason it sent our order to the Leaky Cauldron. Luckily they were able to give us our order there so we didn't have to ride the train back to Universal Studios! Haha!
Our flight back wasn't until the afternoon so we had some tim to kill. I saw online that BYU was having a tailgate party at noon before their Bowl game. Our hotel was less than 15 minutes away so I thought it would be fun to check it out. I didn't realize that it was right next to the stadium (it was at a high school across the street) and that it was going to be crazy busy! We didn't think it was going to be worth it to pay $40+ to park and walk when we only had about 30-45 minutes to stay before we needed to head to the airport. On our way out we passed the BYU charter bus! At the airport we saw a ton of BYU fans. Looking back maybe we should have went to the tailgate party because our flight got delayed about 1 1/2 hours! That would have been plenty of time to go but we didn't know. Because of our delay we were worried that we wouldn't make our connecting flight. We tried to get off our flight (they made an announcement to let people off that had to catch a connecting flight) but of course we were towards the back of the plane and hardly anyone is polite enough to let that happen. Dyer was able to sneak off a little sooner than us to find out where our gate was. Of course it was in another terminal! Once we got off we took off running. I'm pretty sure we ran over a mile to get to our connecting flight. Dyer even carried Eden for part of the run! I wish I would have been able to get a picture! So cute! Once we got to our gate we realized that Nathan had the times wrong! He thought the boarding time was our departure time so we made it just in time (or so we thought)! One of the boarding agents was running late so we didn't start boarding until 20 minutes later... We definitely didn't need to run to our gate. Oh well! At least we made it on the last flight to Twin Falls!
Christmas when we got back:
Eden got a play fort couch.
Lego Flowers
Lego Flowers
Football artwork for his bedroom
Jewelry holder
makeup
Barbie Fashion Designer kit
fake nails
Smart Sketcher
Baking kits
Light up frisbee
This boy! He never seems excited about anything! He specifically asked for this and this is the reaction I get...
Really nice/kind of spendy markers for art! I think she loved them!
Last district picture before everyone left to the field!
I thought Easton was going to leave on New Years Eve but it turned out he left the day before.
Our Primary was in charge of doing the bulletin board this year. I was the lucky one to put it together. Thankfully Nathan, Blair and Blakely were willing to help me put it up. I was planning on using the background that was already there but unfortunately my border was a bit thinner than the year before so it looked ridiculous! Nathan and I had to run quickly to Hobby Lobby to get bulletin board paper right before they closed. We seriously walked in 5 minutes before they closed. I don't think they were thrilled to see us but we definitely made it out before they closed and we weren't the last costumers in the store. I think we won!
