our two week vacation...finally (prepare for TONS of pictures!)

We got the opportunity to go to San Fransisco to be with my family and grandpa over most of the Christmas break. Then we spent a few days in St. George with the kids and a bunch of Dave's family. It was a super needed and super fun vacation. There were a lot of firsts and a lot of traditions, and most importantly a lot of laughs. Here are some pictures of our adventures...

Our 12 hour drive started like this....(this is the road coming out of our town)

 We reached San Fransisco and had this as a view...little did we know the traffic just ahead was horrendous and took us at least 2 1/2 more hours to get to my grandpa's....grrrr

 We finally got there and the next day I showed Dave around were I used to live a little bit...This is the swing in my grandpa's backyard.

 We went food shopping that night this is my mom and her dad

 Dave was so good and continued his work out run everyday. We walked down to Sharon Park and he ran while I read my book...this is a park I played at all the time when I was a kid...

 One night the Ward's (family friends) invited us over to their grandparents and we had a feast!

my cute grandpa

 Greg made some of the best ginger bread I've ever had!! and we had a blast decorating them! It was a fun night!

Another day we thought it would be fun walk around the Stanford campus, so we took my brother and

 it was so beautiful and I sort of went over board with the pictures...

We did some needed shopping at Costco and Macy's men's store at the Stanford shopping Center and of coarse I took pictures!

 my cute grandpa...he love the Costco samples...don't we all....us at Macy's for TOOOO long!!

 Next stop our annual Chinatown trip....we had to make it quick because we had so many other things we wanted to do... but we stopped and bought some fortune cookies at our "secret" place and also some pork buns...SO YUMMY!

 Some of that stuff was sick!! Especially when they rip the skin off frog legs and blood is everywhere...I got in trouble for taking a video haha oh well they just said "no picture!" We also got splashed by the huge live fish people would order...

 

 Then we went to the Golden Gate bridge with some family friends. This was a first for both Dave and I so we were pretty excited to walk to the bridge. We decided to just walk to the middle and turn around since it is quite the walk and we still had things we wanted to do...

 We all wondered how many people actually use this...

 I love my parents...they are so goofy!

 

Next stop some dinner...this was also a place we haven't been. We my family goes to China town we normally go to Chinatown for some meat pies at Henry's...this time we went back to Chinatown for some Sam Wo. It was delicious but I did miss the meat pies...

We got to Sam Wo's and you walk in the kitchen maybe like a ten foot across space, you walk through their kitchen and up some tiny stairs. The seating is on both sides. There is a small table and seating two by two. See the pictures we were really squeezed in there. 

 gotta love her!

 I take after my parents...

 Our last stop of the day we went to.... Ghirardelli square for some famous ice cream and then walked along the beach for a little while while the "grown ups" talked and the kids went off on their own...

the beach...

 Then as we were about to leave we saw a huge city rat and chased it, until it ran right in front of my dad and went into the sewer! I didn't get a very good picture of it since it was dark but it was pretty close to us!

That was a long day in San Fransisco from China town to the Beach, we had SO much fun and made a lot of memories.....

When James and I and all the other grand kids were little my grandma would make what is seemed like thousands of sugar cookies. We would decorate them (she would too and make cute things like Santa Claus and some years she even made one that looked like each member of the family...basically she was amazing.) and then we would hang them on the "cookie tree" which was supposed to be for the carolers...but we all know we snuck them and ate them ALL the time...sorry secrets out... well that tradition sort of stopped after grandma passed away. But this year we decided (James and I) that we would bring it back to a point...no tree and not as many. So we did...and we got the family to decorate, it was such a great bonding activity. I'm glad Dave got to see and participate in some old traditions! oh and we also tried to make rolls (I only say tried because so many things went wrong...the store didn't have the yeast we needed and the risen dough accidentally got preheated...BUT they turned out ok!)

 See that awesome shirt I'm wearing? My mom gave it to me from grandma's closet and welcomed me to the sisterhood....should I be scared? haha all the sister-in-laws, my grandma, and my mom all had one (i think my mom still has hers) They are sexy okay?!

 don't break the concentration!

Every christmas eve we always read from Luke the story of Christ's birth. When we were little we used to act it out...but I think we've out grown that. So this year my dad read it for us and they we just hung around and chatted for a little while after. Then we go and eat our snowballs (vanilla ice cream rolled into a ball and covered in coconut normally with a candle on top). They are so yummy!

 We have this tradition every Christmas eve we go to this donut shop called Chucks...these are the most amazing things you've ever tasted...ask Dave...he's been converted. The thing is you have to go at like 12:30 right after they make new batches and they are warm. So went...and partoooooook and we saved some for christmas morning!!

Christmas day....we also celebrated my moms birthday late (dec 6) and my brother made a killer German chocolate cake ALL from scratch! It was so yummy!

 And of coarse we still have the stairs tradition!! (this is at like 1 on Sunday...we went to church first and then just sort of hung out and ate lunch)

 And Pookey opened her own present! My mom just held it and Pookey scratched it until she got what she wanted out. It was super cute!

We had a super fun time with my family....one night we played apples to apples and another night we listened to my grandpa tell a story about his dating life haha it was fun!

On our way to St. George (another 12 hour drive... ahhhh) we saw some windmills....they lined the hills and were very pretty! Most of the drive back to Utah was very pretty we drove though farm land and rolling hills. There was always something to look at. But 12 hours is a long time to be in the car!

We got to St. George and went to two movies (Sherlock Holmes, and Mission Impossible) on different night obviously. The morning after we got there we celebrated Christmas with the kids...

  they got a pink guitar and a Captain America shield that shoot discs from Santa. I think they were super excited! Then later we went and bought them new shoes....we found Ethan some VERY nice church shoes for only $10!

We had a lot of fun with the family and had a lot of time to bond and get to know each other better....Nert with teams is super fun, however I know I'm not awesome enough to play by myself...