Saturday, January 24, 2009

Arizona Youth Museum and Old Friends

Before we left for vacation in Utah with my family, Ellie and I were able to meet up at the Arizona Museum for Youth with my friend Erin and her little boys. Erin and I have been friends for 20 years - we actually both moved to Washington state about the same time and ended up living near each other at BYU and both married Arizona boys. It's always been fun because no matter how long it's been since we've talked or seen each other - we can always pick right back up where we left off. Although she lives in Texas now, lucky for me her in-laws still live in Arizona so we get to see each other about once a year. We didn't have tons of time for a long visit but we fit in a trip to the Arizona Museum for Youth where the kids were able to run around, make crafts, and have a good time. I completely forgot to get a picture of us together but I did manage to get a picture of her boy Logan with Ellie.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

New Years Eve

I'm proud to say that we did manage to stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve...but we were in the car when the clock struck 12 - on our way home for the night!

We spent New Years Eve with my family over at Debbie's sister Karen's home where she had a huge spread of food that was delicious. We stuffed ourselves and then some of us went downstairs to play Guitar Hero World Tour (I think that's what it is called). It actually really made me miss our XBOX and having Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Even though I am not a good singer or band member - I have lots of fun playing. It's one of those games that just doesn't get old to me!



After all of us took our turns being a band member, we watched the newest X-Files movie. It was rather interesting. Ellie fell asleep five minutes into the movie.

It was a fun night and here's hoping for a great year in 2009!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Fun with the Boys




The best part of the trip to Utah for Ellie was all the attention she got from my brothers, my dad and my grandpa. She is still constantly asking if we can go have "fun with Kory" followed by "fun with Tysen" and "fun with Trent" or if she can go and see Papa. She loves her Uncles! It breaks my heart that they all live so far away.

Playing with Kory and Trent and having the time of her life

I loved this - she turned around and gave Kory a kiss through the sliding glass door




She especially enjoyed Great-Grandpa Robins (my Grandpa on my mom's side). We stayed in my grandparents house for half of the trip and one night I didn't know where she had gone. I went upstairs and she had curled herself up onto Grandpa's lap. Grandpa loved the attention as well and she loved playing with him. I was amazed at how gentle she was with him since normally she just wants to rough house but she would just be happy sitting with him and talking to him.



Grandpa White (my dad) was good at entertaining her for hours as well. I think they played on this treadmill for hours. Ellie would sit on it and ride backwards until she fell off and would just laugh and laugh.


It's 75 degrees in Phoenix right now.... any of the Grandpa's and/or Uncles ready for a road trip to the sun?!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Skiing, Tubing and Anniversary Celebration

My dad rented a couple of condos in Midway, UT for a few days while we were in Utah so we all headed out for a day of tubing with my aunt Misti and Uncle Bob and their kids. We just found a local hill and went for it! This was Ellie's first real encounter with the snow and of course I manged to forget her cute snow coat at my grandparents house in Layton for these few days (Thankfully Misti had an extra one for us to borrow). Rob took Ellie down the hill and at first she was pretty excited until the end of the hill when all the snow flew in her face! She was not a happy camper after that. Rob even tried taking her again but they fell off the snow sled that time so it didn't help the issue. We spent most of the time holding her at the top of the hill and listening to her freak out if we moved her even the slightest bit (she did not want to go down again). It was still fun to take our own trips down the hill and watch everyone else do their crazy moves!

Rob holding Tempe and Ellie

Ellie and Rob

Attempt at a family shot
Kory getting some air

Crazy dad

Dad and I before we crashed

The whole gang


After tubing, Rob and I left Ellie in the hands of Grandpa White and Grandma Debbie for the night (thanks again) and went to celebrate our 4th anniversary. Since the plan for the next day was to go skiing and my dad wanted to rent the equipment from BYU where it is cheaper, Rob and I headed to Provo for the night and to stay at my dad and Debbie's place there. We went to a yummy dinner at Tucano's and then saw the movie Valkyrie. Real romantic huh?! :) Rob has been wanting to see that movie for a long time and it was actually a quite interesting movie.

The next morning we were at BYU Campus at 8:00 A.M. on the dot to pick up the ski gear. Unfortunately there was still a huge family in front of us and we had to wait a while! But we finally loaded up the gear and made it back to Midway around 9:30 where we were able to see Ellie for a quick little bit before we left her with Misti and her kids for the day. (She didn't let us out of her site the rest of the trip - worried we were going to leave her again). We went to the Canyons resort for the day. It's been three years since I've been skiing and I am very out of practice! Rob snowboarded for only the 3rd time ever and he's really very good. I didn't take my camera this day so I'm going to have to have my dad e-mail the pictures he got on his camera phone. All in all - we had fun but we were VERY sore the next day.

After a full day of skiing, we headed back to the condo to clean up and change and pick up Ellie. We then headed to Rob's Uncle's house up near Ogden for a night visiting his relatives(The DeYoung side). It was a night of good food and enjoying their new beautiful home and Ellie was able to play with a lot of little kids there as well.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Bowling & Roommate Reunion

On the Saturday following Christmas, we took Ellie for her first experience bowling with my family. She loved being able to push the ball down the roller and I think her way of doing it got her a pretty good score! My bowling skills are seriously lacking since my Bowling class at BYU years ago. It's still fun though!





We also had a dinner at a local family dining restaurant in American Fork and we ordered Ellie the kid's portion of the pancakes....I'd hate to see what the adult portion looked like!


After dinner and bowling, we headed over to my old roommate Jen's house for a little reunion. Christina, Jen and I lived together for a few years in Arizona and we had to reenact the picture we put on our Christmas card one year in front of the tree. Good memories!

Present Day
5 Years Ago


Ellie had fun playing with Christina's little girl Charlotte. They are only 6 weeks apart so it'll be fun to see them grow up! Sorry if they ruined anything at your house Jen!

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Christmas!

Yes I am very behind on my blog posting! And hopefully I didn't leave anyone out when we went private. I haven't edited any pictures yet but wanted to get back into blogging so here it is!

We were able to take a long vacation up to Utah over the Christmas "break". We arrived in Utah on Christmas Eve and spent that evening at my Aunt Misti's house with my dad and Debbie and brothers Kory and Trent and of course all of Misti's family. Since it was Christmas Day in Korea, we were able to talk to my brother Kevin (Elder White) for a while. After hanging out for a bit, Rob, Ellie and I headed back over to my Grandma/pa Robins house to sleep.

Santa came to Misti's house so we headed back down there about 8:30 in the morning to see what he brought. Ellie was quite overwhelmed that morning with all of the people that were around and the chaos that ensued. She had a few tears as we tried to get her to open new presents when she wanted to play with one that she had already opened. I think we learned our lesson that less is definitely more at that age! But she loved the two dolls and two baby doll strollers that she got. They were definitely the hit! My dad and Debbie gave her one set and Misti gave her the same set as Tempe (my cousin that is 3 months younger than Ellie). We spent the rest of the morning just playing with the new toys! If you've noticed the higher quality of pictures - it's thanks to the new camera that Rob surprised me with before Christmas. I Love it!! But I still need to learn all the tricks of using it.

Waiting to open presents

Elmo

Ellie and Tempe checking out the HSM dance floor


Having fun with the cousins

Riding on Uncle Kory's shoulders

3 of my 4 brothers

First look at the snow with Uncle Tysen


We finished off Christmas by going to see a movie that night (The new James Bond) with all of the adults. My cousin Sierra watched Ellie for us. It was crazy because by the time we came out of the movie - there was tons of snow on the car. I have forgotten what Utah winters are like! After watching that James Bond, we went and rented the one from a couple of years ago since Debbie hadn't seen it and we all needed a refresher. Ellie was wired from the day and wouldn't go to sleep until half way through the movie we discovered this little display:





I am going to try and catch up on my blog posting in the next few days - so keep checking back!