Christmas in Utah

Well, after getting back from Florida, I had a day and a half to prep for our next trip down to Utah to spend Christmas...yikes!  This year I decided to have a fun photo booth to have at my Grandma's house, so I got that ready to take on down as well as everything else :)

Christmas Even started off with dinner at Nate's Grandmas and opening gifts with her.  Then off to Barbara and Daryl's house for more good food and company.  Here's my photo booth fun!

 \ Coops sure enjoyed his cousin Abbi!

Christmas morning, we woke up at Grandma Lani and Grandpa Wade's house to see what Santa had brought.  Snack-eez was Grayson's #1 request for Christmas, and he was thrilled to get one!  Other fun gifts were basketballs, Wii games, and a hoop that Santa left at our house.

 Cooper loves his ball pit!

 After Santa excitement and opening presents with my fam was over, we headed to Nate's grandma's house to have some strawberry waffles and open gifts with her.  Then back to Barb's house for lunch and fun with cousins.  By mid-afternoon, Gray had had enough excitement and thought the middle of the hall looked mighty great for a nap!

 After that, back to the Watkins house for a few more gifts and Christmas dinner.  Such a busy day!

The day after Christmas Nate and I made it to to Ogden temple for the first time since the re-dedication.  So amazing.  Crazy it's been 9 years since we were married there and how different it looks now! After we got home from that, we went to the movie Unbroken with my parents, grandparents, Trish and Peter, D, Court, Justin and Emily.  Great movie...the book was better, but such an amazing story!

Saturday was filled with hunting for Tuck and Nate, shopping for me, playtime for Coop and Grayson.  Then back to the Watkins Saturday night...for another family party.  Christmastime is so so busy!!!  

The trip back to Washington was brutal in places...so much stinking snow!  But we made it and all is well.  

{universal studios at christmastime}

I'm gonna be honest here and say that I liked Universal Studios more than Disney this trip...all because of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  The last 3 or 4 years, Nate and I have made it a tradition of watching all the Harry Potter movies in/around November.  So just getting done with those and visiting this place made it all that better.  If you are a Harry Potter fan, this is a MUST-SEE!  To truly appreciate it all, you have to see all the movies.  So if you've loved all the books, but not seen the movies...do it!  The attention to detail to match the movies is unreal, the rides, the shops, the cast members.  So. Stinking. Cool.  Anyhow, when you get there, the outside just looks like London, buses, house fronts, and a "secret" wall takes you to Diagon Alley.  

 Our first stop was Escape from Gringotts.  That was such a neat rollercoaster/virtual ride!  Just walking through Gringotts while in line was amazing :)

 We also bought the kids an interactive wand to share.  There were a bunch of places around that you could do spells and make things happen if you moved your wands in certain ways.  Tucker loved this.  They chose the Harry Potter wand, but there was literally a wand for every character in the books/movies you could think of to choose from.

 Hogsmeade

 And we got a chocolate frog :)

 And walked through Hogwarts

 And bought lots of butterbeer and a bottle of pumpkin juice

 Walked through the Platform of 9 3/4 to get to the Hogwarts Express, which we got to ride.

Butterbeer and frozen butterbeer...YUMMO!

Other rides we/the kids enjoyed were Men in Black, Dualing Dragons, Jurrasic Park, Blutos Barges, Jurrasic Park, Rip Roarin' Roller Coaster, the Mummy, E.T, Transformers, Minions, and a few in the Dr. Seuss section.

We got to watch a fun Grinch show as well as see Who-ville all decked out for Christmas!

Great Vacation!

{that one time we went to disneyworld at christmastime}

 The week before Christmas this year, we surprised the boys with a trip to Disneyworld that was a year in the making! The morning we left, we had our elf Buddy announce that they would be getting a big surprise that day.  At that point, they thought we were going to take them to the trampoline park or something similar.  Sadly, Tucker woke up with a pretty good fever that morning, and we were extremely nervous he was going to be sick all week long.  

Then as we went to the airport, Tucker thought that we were going to fly to Salt Lake to be with our families for an extra week before Christmas.  Then we let them open their backpacks for the big reveal.  I had packed it full of Disney activities for the plane ride, shirts, treats, etc. for the big announcement.  We were waiting for squeals of joy, instead they were initially bummed out because "we were not going to Jenna's house" and even had a few tears shed by Gray that we were not going to Utah.  After it all sank in, they were excited :)

The plane ride was long with a one year old, but we survived.  

We stayed at Nate's parents time share just outside the park, and had lots of fun! We met up with the rest of the Watkins clan for the rest of the fun :)

Day one we explored Animal Kingdom.  We did all the rides, Expedition Everest was a favorite of Tucker's.  We saw the awesome Lion King show, went on a safari, went through the river rapids, and had some yummy food.  

 Next up, Epcott.  Some highlights from there included Test Track, Soarin', Mission Space, and visiting all the different countries...including a German lunch and French desserts.  We also watched a beautiful candlelight processional that went through the nativity and heard some beautiful Christmas music.  

 Duffy

 Germany

 Gray on time out after dropping his pants and peeing in the bushes right behind him in front of a large crowd of people...

 With their aunts and uncles...

 Great entertainment at lunch!

 Goodnight Epcott!

 We went through the line to meet the characters, after which Grayson said "That was dumb."  Needless to say, we skipped the character lines the rest of the trip!  Saved lots of time :)

 One more of Epcott...Tucker liked Morocco :)

 The next day was the Magic Kingdom, and our 9th anniversary!  I got to sport this fantastic button all day long.  We were literally at the park from 8am-10:30pm that day.   So, so exhausting!

I even got to be on the big screen at Mike's laugh floor and interact with Mike.  I'm not a jumbo-tron kind of gal, but it was fun :)

Some highlights from the Magic Kingdom were the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Pirates of the Carribean, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, and Buzz Lightyear.

That night we paid extra to go to Mickey's Christmas party, which included all the cookies and hot chocolate we wanted, an amazing parade and light show on the castle, and shorter lines for some rides :) 

 Our last day at Disney was spent at Hollywood Studios.  Another long day!  We hit the Rockin' Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones stunt show, Car Stunt show, Great movie ride, the Disney Junior show, and then Tucker was not feeling well at all (remember how I said how he was sick, and we hadn't let him rest all week?)  So he and the other boys went home with Grandma and Grandpa while Nate and I enjoyed a anniversary date.  We ate a yummy dinner at the Hollywood Brown Derby where I had the yummiest cobb salad of my life.  Then after another ride or two, we hit the Fantasmic show with VIP seats.  So amazing!

 After the show, we wanted to check out the spectacle of lights.  It's one of those things that is so amazing if you're there, but pictures and video would never do it justice.  So amazing!!

And that concludes our Disney adventures!  Next up, Universal Studios :)