Home for Christmas Part 2!

And here we are back for the second half of vacation at home:

This is a random dessert I made... I think it looks better than it tasted but still good.

*I forgot to mention that on Friday we went and visited our elementary, middle, and high schools. We ate lunch with Jacob and Sarah and saw a lot of our favorite teachers from our childhoods/ adolescent years which was really fun. Dahl thinks it's weird that we are friends with our teachers, but we love them :). One of my favorite parts was when Heather and Nicole waltzed right into a Family Life class when they were learning about puberty for girls! The teacher, not missing a beat, said "Oh yes, they have been through it!" and ushered them out. She told them what they had burst into and said, "I can't believe you guys walked in on a Family Life class! You guys are gross!" She was a hoot. Here is Julie with an ESOL sign (English as a Second Language). For the reason for this picture click here. It's kind of a funny story.

1. Thursday: The whole family minus dad went to DC for the Tour de Nicole. We met the little boy Nicole nannied for and his family. We went to the zoo, the Archives, the Air and Space Museum, and saw some monuments at night. Nicole also pointed out other areas of the city she loved as we drove around. Finally, Sarah got pooped on by a bird. And I cleaned her up.

The zoo!

Look at Heather seducing the panda...

A random sign outside the Archives we thought was funny

Air and Space Museum

Washington Memorial

Capitol Building

Botanical Gardens

2. Friday: We took family photos with Kellie Nuss. She took our wedding photos and is amazing! After the photo shoot the girls were not done (of course) so we hurried back to the playground to do a sister photo shoot. Don’t worry, we did about 3 over the course of our time at home. We love us some pictures—mostly of ourselves. Unfortunately, upon arriving, we found that the children at this playground had multiplied! What?! “Playgrounds aren’t for children, they are for adults wanting to do photo shoots!” (direct quote courtesy of Nicole). We managed to run as fast as possible between unused equipment when the kids got bored of them and got quite a few pictures in. Please enjoy this mini break to look at us be goofs:

Look at how much Nicole didn't want to be in this pic...

Afterwards, Nicole wanted to go to the mall, so Heather, Julie, and I agreed to go too. Upon arriving, Julie and I decided we were far too tired to go to the mall, so we slept in the car while Heather and Nicole went in. Nicole brought back Chipotle, and for reasons that no one quite understands, decided I was the chosen one who she would share with. Sa-WEET! Heather brought us frozen yogurt and shared with us all. It was amazing! Then we had a girl party and watched 13 Going on 30. Um LOVE that movie! We had an awesome out-of-this-world dance party afterwards to the credits music. Here's another photo shoot... don't remember when it was taken:

3. Saturday: New Years Eve! We went to Hunan Manor (our family tradition) and it was wonderful (thanks Daddy!). We spent the night hanging out, making New Years Resolutions, and watching Captain America.

4. Sunday: We went to church, and Dahl and I sat in on a Valiant 9 class (our new calling in our home ward!) I am so freaking excited to teach primary J. We went home, packed, played Set, and ate some yummy ribs my mommy made. We also took pictures with the quilts my mom for our baptisms.

Attack!!

I am scary!!

Then we said a teary goodbye and it was back to Utah.

All the sibs!

I had such a wonderful time seeing my family! It is hard to live so far away but it is nice to know we can be together forever!

Home for Christmas Part One!

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to blog at least once a week… today is the 7^th so here it goes!

Dahl and I went home to Maryland for Christmas and it was wonderful! Here are some highlights of the first half (some of these details may be out of order or on the wrong days… but they all happened):

1. Thursday: We flew home on a flight that started at 6 AM! Sarah tried to get me to watch Cars 2- I fell asleep.

2. Friday: We went to watch Sarah’s basketball scrimmage. It was incredibly entertaining, especially when she got mad at some girl and shoved her out of the way (but got away with it)! She is an aggressive one! Even more entertaining perhaps, was Heather’s constant attacks on my dad’s eyebrows documented below:

You don't touch my eyebrows!

Just a little hair...

Never!!

Now you stay away from me!

That's it! I'm changing seats!

No Daddy come back! I won't hurt you!!

(Hehe yes I will)

Seriously I promise! Just sit down!

This is my body not yours! You keep your dang hands off!

I will Daddy.

Look at what your husband has to look forward to! When your mother tried to pluck my eyebrows I had a Hitler-stache for an eyebrow!

Alright I'll sit back down but you better keep your dang hands to yourself!

I guess this is a constant plague upon my poor father-- apparently Heather is no longer allowed to sit next to him in church because every time he falls asleep he receives a rude awakening as either his nose hairs or his eyebrows are being forcefully plucked from his face! Also on Friday, I tried to watch Smurfs with Sarah and fell asleep. And Dahl got caught up in an intense match of Stratego with Jacob and Joseph—full of rule-changing and making up—that lasted for hours. Oh yeah, and here's Sarah at her game:

3. Saturday: Christmas Eve. The older kids became Santa’s elves and help mom get everything wrapped up. We followed traditions from both my family and Dahl’s: From mine we listened the “The Little Shepherd”. From his, we read “That Thine Alms may be in Secret” and “A Christmas Dress for Ellen” and watched “It’s a Wonderful Life”.

4. Sunday: Christmas! We performed our “surprise” play like usual- Dahl was an amazing Spanish- speaking Mexican. We opened presents and went to church, and just relaxed together as a family. We had our usual Santa treasure hunt and ate Monkey Bread and Oatmeal for breakfast.

5. Monday: The whole family minus Dad went to Mt. Vernon. I am a huge George Washington fan, so I loved it. We took a tour of his home, went to his grave site, walked around his gorgeous estate, watched a few movies about him, and met Aladdin the friendly camel. We came home and watched home videos (hopefully coming soon to a Facebook near you) and The Help (love that movie!). Mom made some amazing apple pie which we all appreciated immensely!

Haha note how Julie looks like a "little person" (or however the politically correct way is to say it).

6. Tuesday: The original plan was to go to DC for the day, but weather changed those quickly. We in no way allowed that to make it a downer! We opted for a relaxing day at home (if that is even possible considering our household). Dahl and I went on a date to Ledo’s, and because of a mix-up ended up with double the pizza we ordered for the same price, so we brought some home to share. Then we took all of the kids (except for Sarah) to Rita’s.

Ritas!

We also played Just Dance, which was super fun. The second I saw that game I knew it was made for my family! Then we watched Taken and I watched Alias with my sisters (best show ever, hurry up Netflix!)

7. Wednesday: We relaxed in the morning and watched LOTR. I fell asleep, but only for a little (anyone sensing a pattern?). We went to the temple as a family. The kids did baptisms and we did sealings with my parents. We haven’t done sealings since our own so it was really nice. Then we went to the Visitor’s Center to a dance concert. We thought it was doing to be some professional international dance company but it turned out to just be some kids and their teachers (who, it seems, only created the school so they could perform) which was a disappointment but one we found immensely amusing.

Finally, that night all the Connor kids played Nerts! This is a family favorite and it was even more fun that Gina came to join us!

Stay tuned for the next half of the vacation coming soon!