Fun with Family and Friends

Even though we didn't travel anywhere for Christmas this year, it still felt like we were constantly making big plans to meet up with family and friends who were in town for Christmas vacation. We got to spend a lot of time with Ben, Jenny, and Tyler, which was awesome. They came to see our house, we played a game, talked a lot, went out to dinner, watched a movie, and had an impromptu sleepover. The next morning, we had pancakes and played another game. It was so fun to be able to just hang out with Ben and Jenny. That has NEVER happened before. 

 Here's Tyler showing off the castle he made with his mom. My dad made these blocks for Michael for Christmas. We were going to make him blocks, but when we guessed that my dad had made these, we decided to forget about making some too. Good thing since his blocks could beat up any we would have made!

 Michael modeling his castle...well, our castle.

Brian got me a manicure/pedicure for Christmas. He go the deal on Living Socials, so after I opened it, he said, "You better call; that deal's going to expire really soon." Apparently he bought it back in September. Good thing that I did because it turned out that the spa was closing. I made an appointment for the very last day they were open, and Lea came with me.

It really has been too long since I had one of these, and it was SO nice. Thanks for going with me Lea!

Our trip to the spa fell on the last day that Ben and Jenny would be hanging out with the Savilles, so we squeezed in one final excursion with the whole crew to the Children's Museum at the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake. The kids had a blast! Thanks Lea for giving us your extra tickets!!

 Apparently, after Michael saw that he could play in the water freely, he gave up on everything else.

 We finally got him to check out some more stuff, like this horse

 and this car. 

 This exchange was hilarious. I should have taken a video. Hunter is the cashier, and he's making it super hard for Cole to pay for his groceries. Apparently, Cole can't afford what he's buying. Who knew that could happen in an imaginary world?

 Michael with random kids in the helicopter. Apparently, he had a blast.

 Hugging Tyler goodbye. After the hug, Michael was freely passing out kisses.

All the Saville Grand-sons minus one. 

 Ben, Brian, and Lea: three of the original 5. 

After the Children's Museum, we headed to Sandy to meet up with our friends, Michael and Kristina and meet baby Lydia! Michael's mom kindly made us dinner, which was excellent. She also made this amazing hot fudge sauce for ice cream. SO good. Brian even had some, going for seconds and thirds. He even had it plain, which is saying something about how good it was because Brian doesn't like Chocolate that much.  Thankfully, our Michael went right to sleep on an extra bed so that we could stay later and play games. We had so much fun with Michael and Kristina!

We didn't remember to get our traditional Michael Michael picture until we were leaving. Little Michael was trying to be asleep and didn't appreciate having lights flashing in his face. Oh well. We got our picture :-)

I also got to see my good friend Natalie over the holiday. It was a quick visit, but I got to show her my house and get a hug. I'll take what I can get, even if it is only an hour.

Thanks to everyone for a wonderful Christmas week! To our friends and family living far away, know that our thoughts were with you. We miss you and hope that you had a great holiday season!