Christmas in Utah

We flew out to Salt Lake on the Sunday before Christmas to spend the next 8 days with my family. Bobby did well on the flight and continued to win over people both behind and in front of him on the plane. I love happy babies. Anyways, first order of business when we got to my parent's house was to check out the new bounce house in the basement.

Bobby enjoyed it at the beginning...

...and quickly fell in love.

Grandpa got in for some of the lounging action.

We drove up to Beaver early that week so we could ski the backside of the mountain to ourselves. We had great weather and it's always fun skiin the beav.

Me

John showing me how it's done.

We got a decent storm but it was so warm and actually started raining towards the end so the snow didn't stay long. I did what I could for the snow hill in the back yard. Dad's plow sure helped out a lot.

As you can see, Bobby was a little tipsy

"I can't put my arms down!"

We had fun hanging out with Grandpa

and grandma.

Cousin Jack grew out of his shoes after a week so my brother gave them to Bobby. He has about 4 years to grow into them.

Jack rockin the shepherd outfit for the nativity at the Emmett Christmas party.

Bobby passed up the more prestigious role of baby Jesus for a shot to be one of the wise men.

Turns out the wise men included both wise women and children.

This is when Jack and Lily both realized that baby Jesus was being played by their little sister, Isabel.

Sometimes it's more entertaining to watch the 12 camera people recording the show.

Grandpa Emmett with the two newest additions.

Bobby giving Kristin some love.

Grandma wanted a turn.

Back to Grandpa.

Even Jack wanted a picture with the babies.

That night in Logan, Bobby slept in the closet at the Marriot.

We were supposed to fly home Monday morning at 7 am but once I heard almost everyone would be up skiing at Beaver, I changed our flights. I couldn't pass up a family ski day. Especially since it had been a few years since I was around.

The 11 o'clock lunch.

Raise your hand if you're special.

The whole gang. Umm, John, goggles up dude.

Bobby waiting for the flight.

Watching the Mickey Mouse clubhouse on Mommy's Ipod.

Zoo Lights and other updates

Just in case you missed it, I grew a beard out in the beginning of December. Lasted about 3 weeks and it was time.

Now that Bobby is pretty mobile, it's funny to see where he ends up.

The weekend before Christmas we did our 2nd annual family trip to the Portland Zoo for the Zoo Lights Special. I didn't take any pictures of the "animals" this year so you'll have to go back a year if you want to see those. Bobby was bundled up and ready to go. He loves his Aunt Margie.

As well as his Grandpa Donkin

He was a little hesitant to ride the sheep for some reason.

He enjoyed the horse ride though.

After going to a few exhibits, the rest of the night was spent trying to get Jeri out of the computer.

I thought this stuff only happened in bad horror films.

Bobby was more than willing to try to get her out of there.

Since we were off to Utah the next day, we actually did our family gift exchange in the cafe.

Gifts got Bobby to smile (more).

After the gift exchange it was time to leave. We caught Rudolph just as he was about to leave.
It's funny that we never would have asked Rudolph for a picture with just me and Jackie, but since we have Bobby, it's acceptable to do all of the silly stuff.

We made Jonathan and Thomas take a picture with Rudolph, since they are still 8 and 11 in Jackie's eyes.

After Rudolph left, I told Margie to go up and stand there to see if anyone wanted a picture with her.

not many takers....

eventually Charlie volunteered, although he appears apprehensive.

That week Bobby created a habit of avoiding his car seat at all costs. It was nearly impossible to get the kid into it. He would arch his back like so, and refuse to get in there. Funny kid.

Family Pictures

While the rest of Oregon sat in front of their TVs to see if Oregon State could pull off the upset against the University of Oregon, we took a few family pictures. Think Christmas card style, although we didn't actually send any out. Danelle is always so gracious to take pictures of us, we even have our own album on her Facebook page. So, if you're dying to see pictures of us, you know where to go. If you just need a few, hopefully these will suffice.

My favorite. Do you have one?

Nevermind, this is my favorite.

Yes, I did let the beard go for a couple of weeks. The moment Jackie thought I should start trimming it, I shaved it. It brought flashbacks of High School and my parents urging me to cut my hair.