Christmas Events 7-10

7) REDNECK OR WHAT???

The Sat after Christmas was Dan's family Christmas party. It was nice to get to see all of his siblings and visit. We had the party at the church, because Dan's family is starting to get a little too big to handle everyone at his parents. One of the nephews' BRAND NEW football got stuck up on top of the backboard on the basketball hoop. We tried to just let the hoop down but for some reason something was wrong with the mechanics of it...so we had to come up with an alternative method of retrieving the ball.

Dan's dad found a pole in the broom closet that was for the vacuum..it had 3 or 4 connecting poles to lengthen it as well. They were NOT very sturdy to say the least...(the boys,well mainly Dan...the rest were mostly just watching and giving advice...) spent like the next HOUR trying to get the ball down. If you look in the picture below, Dan is standing on a ladder, holding the pole, and trying to bump the ball down. The poles were so unsteady that the top one kept on turning and twisting every time he would get close to the ball. The poles also came crashing to the floor several times as well during the process. After what seemed like FOREVER of trying to get the ball down..I was ready to just buy him a new $10 ball! But at that point...the boys were determined to get the ball down. It had nothing to do with the price, rather at that point they were out to prove the world that their redneck tactic would work! Annoying...to say the least! But FINALLY after like a thousand attempts, the ball and poles came crashing down. Was it worth all that time??? Probably not...but it will def bring back funny memories at future Christmas parties!

8) Fun Times.....

We were lucky enough to stay in Utah the whole week after Christmas as well. It was probably our favorite time coming to Utah because we had such a long trip and most of the family was off and available to visit. Usually we are able to see our moms quite a bit but it was SO nice to have more time with Rueben, Dan's brothers, and both our dads. Dan's dad and step mom, Donna, came up to Utah as well for Mike's Homecoming. We had a nice Sunday dinner with them and all the Crandall boys at Cami and Andrew's apartment. I was even able to go shopping a bit with Donna one day while the boys all hung out. We spent a lot of time just relaxing, visiting, playing games, etc..it was really nice. We even went over to Shelby's house (Dan's sister) to watch a movie on their projector screen with a few of the siblings.

Both of us were even able to see some of our friends we don't usually get to see. Mike & Julia came over for dinner one night, we got to go to the Temple with Kyle and Jess, visit with Randy & Megan, and even go out to lunch with a bunch of Dan's friends that we haven't seen since before our wedding! Actually, there were several of them I have never even met!

One day we went with my family to a center that has galactic bowling, galactic mini golf, bumper cars, arcade games, etc. It was really fun. Rueben especially liked the mini golf because it was all about PIRATES!

Dad "Monkeying Around"

Maybe the Alligator is trying to tell him something....they aren't as approachable as Paul & Dan think!

Like I said before, we played games quite a bit with family as well. Dan's brother, Andrew, introduced us to Blockus. His brother has the square version of the game and we ended up buying the triangular version while in Utah, which is quite a bit more challenging than the block version. Dan played the block version of the game with his brothers and dad the Sunday we had dinner with them all. The object of the game is to lay down all your pieces. Whoever has the fewest at the end of the game wins. Andrew won the game that Sunday and was able to lay down all his pieces for the VERY FIRST TIME. He was SO excited, he kept on yelling and screaming and took at LEAST 10 pictures of the game to prove he had FINALLY done it. He has been playing this game for quite awhile so he was quite excited to accomplish this.

A few days later Dan and I bought the game and played it with my family. If you look below...I am the yellow. My VERY FIRST TIME PLAYING (the harder version I might add...) I laid down EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY PIECES. As you can see...everyone else had at least 4 pieces left...I was so excited! I just HAD to take a picture to tease Andrew...sorry Andrew! I couldn't help myself! But just for the record...once you lay down all your pieces..it is all downhill from there. Every time I have played since I seem to do worse and worse...

9) Ice Skating

We went ice skating outside at the Gallavin Center in SLC as well. It was really fun. I have been ice skating quite a few times before but this was my first time ice skating outside and probably the first time I have really gotten a hang of it as well. We went with Dan's Dad, Donna, his brothers, and my brother. It was a lot of fun! We all started out quite bundled up but the sun was out so by the end we were all hot and sweaty and Donna had a big pile of all our coats, hats, gloves, scarfs, etc. next to her on the bench.

Most of the skaters...a few were still out skating when we took the picture. Donna has a better copy with the sun not shining through. I will add that to the blog once I receive it!

You can tell this was taken at the beginning...I still am bundled up in a million bulky layers and FREEZING! Dan on the other hand...well I don't think he even started with a jacket. I swear he is never cold. Actually, I can think of an exception to that...see #10 event:)

Abby got to be quite a good skater by the end of the day! Here she is still holding Kristen's hand but by the end she was going around all by herself without even using the rail. She was definitely better than her Grandpa Crandall! Paul skating was one of the highlight's of our trip! This 50+ year old man is good at every sport you put in front of him it seems. He still runs like 6 miles 7 days a week along with push-ups, sit-ups, etc. He makes a lot of us look bad:) Well...we learned that skating is not his forte. He was wobbling like crazy and kept on holding on the rail. Abby didn't even want Grandpa to take her around because he was going too slow for her! He kept on trying to grab a hold of the boys shirts as they would pass him by. A few times he got lucky and would get a hold of one of them for about 30 seconds and get pulled along the ice sheet until they struggled free of his grip. Rueben has a really funny picture of Paul holding onto Dan. I will have to get it from him.

Rueben flying right by the camera. My dad was a hockey player in high school and I think Rueben inherited his skating skills. He was doing really good! I got to the point that I could skate around without holding the rails...but yeah, I didn't inherit that gene! The boys got into playing tag after awhile and had a lot of fun. No one could seem to out chase Rueben. Dan even hurled himself halfway over the rail one time trying to catch Rueben. On Dan's last attempt to catch him, a little girl (who was skating across the middle of the sheet, Dan would want me to add...instead of around in a circle like everyone else) came out right in front of Dan. He had to swerve majorly to not hit her and face planted it quite bad. At that point...with a few bumps and bruises, Dan was done skating for the day! Overall, we had a great time and want to go back again someday.

10) Snow Tubing

We went professional snow tubing for the first time while in Utah as well. Funny how we both grew up there but had never done this or ice skating outside?? I guess when you actually live somewhere you don't seem to explore your surroundings as much as when you vacation somewhere. Either way, we loved it and hope to go tubing again soon as well!

We used to go tubing as kids on basically any old hill we could find but this was our first time tubing at an actual resort. They have a pulley system that pulls you up the mountain while you sit on the tube. We could have walked faster than it pulled us, but it was nice to not get so worn out just from climbing up to the top! Once you are at the top there are employees that push you off the top of the hill and down you go... I was surprised at how fast we went. The tubing path was all iced over from being used so much.

Waiting in line for a ride up the mountain...

and waiting...

and waiting...

And FINALLY! Going up the mountain....

Rueben going up the mountain...

I had Rueben bend over so I could get a picture of my mom and dad who were right ahead of him...

And last of all....me!

This is a picture from the top of the hill, while we were waiting to go down. The picture doesn't quite show, but it was a lot steeper than I had imagined! My mom and I were a little nervous to go down, while the boys were just the opposite! The workers were spinning everyone as they pushed them off the slope. My mom and I specifically asked not to be spinned, we wanted to see where we were going and wanted to go down as slow as possible...lol. The guy obeyed my mom's wishes but when he got to me he spun me as HARD as he could, harder than anyone else I had seen. I don't know if he forgot or what???? But I was spinning FAST the entire way down, it was scary! My dad was still at the top when I went down the hill. He even said the guy spun me so hard it looked like I was on a spinning ride at the amusement park! By the time I got to the bottom and had stopped screaming, I decided to give it one more try...

The next time I went down with Rueben and Dan. We all held on to each other's tubes. The boys liked the idea of the more weight we had the faster we should go...on the other hand, that made me a little nervous. When we went down we all had a blast! And surprisingly enough...it seemed slower to me (faster to them) after my spinning experience. Even though I was freezing I decided to go down just one more time, and this time my Dad joined us as well.

My mom took this picture at the bottom of the hill. She tried to get one in action, but it didn't quite work. The boys pretended they were still going down, I obviously didn't get the memo:)

P.S. I mentioned in #9 that Dan was cold while tubing...which was true! He thought he would be just fine in his little rain jacket. He had no hat or gloves until the very end when my dad found him an extra pair. It was funny to see him admit to being cold...made me feel better about being freezing!

DONE!

We had a great trip to Utah as you can see. Thanks family for all you did for us while we were there! We are happy we got to see and spend time with everyone! We love you!