A long trip.

We have just returned from a two week sabatical in Utah.

Pretty sure this picture says it all. 20 hours in the car does wacky things to our already messed up psychies.

Growing up I remember skiing on Christmas eve and sometimes Christmas day at Nordic. So being able to go with these guys was so funny and awesome.

Ellie is a natural. (Even though that helmet might have started her battle with lice.)

Jaynie was also a pro

The rest of my vaca was spent with the second nut on the left

We were going to head somewhere warm, but... we couldn't get there from here. So the incredible 'rents sent us skiing! The fireplace(s) at Basin were warmer than any island in the Caribbean.

Twas a bit nippy

Something about the unicorn/princess helmets made us...........
yeah.

Italian food at 8900 feet in a posh lodge in the Utah Alps is kinda the best.
(just go with it, ok?)

So posh, I took a wee nap.

I think she got in a fight with a troll. What else could explain such an expression?

Or behavior?

Overall, one of the funnest days of skiing I have had in an uber long time.

I love these peeps. (Sorry about the zombie face, Tess!)

Love.

Moving on... What could be better than a hardcore pedicure after a day of skiing? Christmas just kept getting better.

AND BETTER!!

Ladies and Gentlefolk, what you are looking at is Utah Professional Hockey's future. That's right. The Christensen family has officially claimed their sport.

I think we were the only people in the audience who weren't related to one of the players.

Check him out. The top of the goal is at his WAIST. I think I can stand up inside that thang.

We party.

Seth called me on the 30th and asked if I was done with Utah. Yes. So we left the next morning, spending our epic new years eve party in a hotel room in Boise. Bring on the popcorn and Gatorade!

1 degree in Idaho!

1 degree on 1-1-11! And lots of Dorito fingers!

Amy: "This desert is balmy"

It's nice to be back :)

What? A post not involving children?

It's true. I did something with my friends. Don't pass out, I know this is kind of a first, but yes. Believe it.

It started out on one of the rainiest days of the year. (Yep we have those too).

Four crazies, driving over rivers and through massive woods to...

SULTAN!!

My friend Tabitha told me that in order for me to ever be associated with her, I had to have a sandwich from the Sultan Bakery. Since I have no money to buy my friends, I agreed to the challenge.
This is a Texas Toast veggie sandwich, containing only sauteed peppers and a couple slices of tomato. The Sultan Bakery is a total dive, packed with people (no sitting room, we had to eat in the car), and with an employee age minimum of about... 98.
But it was somehow divine.

The boys hated it.

Ha.

Quote of the day

Me: "Jayne, do you want to take your boots off?"
Jayne: "No. You can take them off."

Classic.

Ghahppy Thahnksgihving Bahck (Just say it with a spanish accent ok? thanks)

Thanksgiving reminds me of a lot of things.

This lovely lady - Rose - Is one of those things. Name that movie!

Seth and Amy were awesome enough to fly me home for Thanksgiving! I arrived to this

I hadn't seen snow in a while, and neither had my big cousin Jake (not to be confused with my little cousin Jake), So we went out at like 11:11pm and foofed all over in it like little kids. (No, this picture isn't a crime scene. We were having a blast. Hanna got all creeped out when I showed it to her... really?! Get cho mind outta da gutter, Nah!)

Reason #1 for visiting home? DORKY SISTER!!!

Emmy: "Dats dross"

Have I mentioned the fact that my siblings possess the ability to create epic children?

And the ability to lull them to sleep anywhere?

This is Emmy begging Austin to read to her. He wasn't stoked on the idea, but who can say no to miss curly head with 2-foot-long batting eyelashes?

Lainey got in on the action, and before long they were both on his lap. Austin was the hero.

After 10 days of.... ??? I flew back to the "pac no wee" (pacific north west, thanks Jayne). I happened to be flying home with 3 or 4 people from my ward up here who were also visiting family in Utah! It was great. I even got a bit of visiting teaching done on my flight. Now here's the trivial part.... No one else could see this, but if you look really close at the picture, there's a little bright dot below the wing, and inside it is the shaddow of our plane, as well as a huge circular glare around the right side of the pic. I don't know how this happened, I kinda duhmb, but... it looked so cool!

Jayne (little Jayne, not to be confused with.... little-but-not-as-little Jayne) came running up to me in the airport, and didn't calm down till she looked like this. She was still thinking in her sleep.

Hey little Jake!

Jealous much? :)

The extended fam saves us again!

Whew what a week! Uncle Allen and Aunt Janis came in for the week, along with my cousin Rachel and her cutie patootie family. It was so fun to spend time with them and their crazy crew. I haven't ever really spent time with them (I'm just a baby Christensen!) so it was fun to hang out for a few days.

Audrey and Jayne are buds

Jayne can down a whole can of "little bean soup" (lentil soup) in like T minus 10 seconds. It's pretty entertaining.

The girls were hiding from the boys at playgroup hehe. I taught them well.

We all went to dinner at Claim Jumper (UHMAZING) and on the way out Seth wanted to try his luck at the.... I don't even know what to call it. You put your hand on this thing and the lights indicate your level of loving abilities :) He got "Clammy", so we all had to try. No one made it very high.... except me. I got the top score of "Uncontrollable". I walked out of the restaurant with my victory fists held high. An old man behind us asked Rachel "Is that woman available?"

Todd and Aunt Jannie did a huge number on the yard and upstairs bathroom. I'm serious, we were getting bad vibes from the neighbors but we have always been too tired to tackle the projects. And the girls had a good time following Todd around the yard :) We still possess the only palm trees in Redmond, but they are for sale. So... hit me up if you want some random palm trees.

I love our crazy life!

So we have had some pretty great times these past couple weeks.

Since Halloween was on Sunday this year, an awesome family from our ward invited us over for a spooky dinner

This is amazing to me. "Brains" in a mini pumpkin, witches broom bread, vampire blood soup, eyeballs, and witches hair veggies. So cute.

Seth and Amy headed out last weekend, so the kids and I headed to the childrens museum. It was so awesome. They have this big exhibit about water and how evaporation and all that cool stuff works. Plus you can send balls and other random things down the fountains. Really, what could be more entertaining.

Ellie practiced her creativeness and art skills upon the skin of the guinea pig sister

Her pillow was black the next morning

Gunther (Jake) was super mellow. He was perfectly content with blocks. For 2 hours.

Sam has a very balanced head, which allows him to make perfectly balanced... things... like this.

Who doesn't like ginormous LightBrites, that is what I would like to know.

Beth and Co. came with us, and Ethan worked the bowling-ball lifting exhibit till it burned down. just kidding.

This is the Scarf Shooter. It sucks up scarves and they go through this crazy maze of hoses then shoots out above your head. I had to hold myself back. I want one of those in my future home.

I need to take chillax lessons from Jake.

Next was haircut time!!! We all loaded in the van and drove to this cutest little house with the cutest little mommy and got hair cuts all around. (But ceptins me... till next week!).

phở (prounounced "Fuh") is this crazy Vietnamese soup that is mostly popular because of its name. Seth swears by it (no pun intended) and today we found out that Jake loves it too! There are pho shops all over town, including one called "What The Pho?!"

Jake rocks, I can't stop taking pictures of him. Seth put my helmet on him tonight and it almost fit.... Why didn't I inherit the big Christensen head?