Living with the Bakers: Christmas in Salt Lake

This year, we met my family in Salt Lake for Christmas. Blaine got out of school a week earlier than I did, so the plan was for him and Jake to drive out ahead of time so we could have a couple of days with his siblings before they leave and because we knew Jake would be too big for a plane... and we're still scarred from that horrible thanksgiving trip. But then a couple things came up, and so I ended up driving out with them and had to miss a couple of days of school.

Its about a 17 hour drive, so the first day we drove 7 hours to my uncle's house in Kansas. Its a small town near the Colorado border and is convenient because it is right on our way. It was especially nice of them this time since I only gave them a couple of hours of heads up since our plans changed so last minute.

The next day we went 10 hours to Provo, but first we stopped in Denver to eat lunch at Boston Market and then in Grand Junction for our first Cafe Rio dinner in 6 months. It was sorely missed, but thanks to my lack of appetite and pregnancy palate, it was not nearly as delicious as I had hoped.

Anyways, we were in Salt Lake for a little over 2 weeks so I'll just show some highlights of the trip. A lot happened and Jake grew a ton, but I'll just let these pictures do all the talking.

Nowheresville: starting our long journey

We got pedicures for Alexis' 22nd birthday... can you tell I didn't shower?

I chose O.P.I.'s Plugged in Plum and LOVED it. I usually am not a huge purple fan, but in honor of Alexis' special day and favorite color, I gave it a whirl. Mom and Alexis got back scrubs while me, Liv, and Abbie got pedicures. We got a really fun bunch of girls to do our toes. They jumped in on our John Tucker Must Die quotes and even did a Kim Kardashian impression. It was fun... Come to think of it now though, we never took a picture of all of our toes. Sad...

We also all went to see Frozen together. The movie was good, a little sad, but I LOVED the music. Idina Menzel is the voice of one of the sisters and there are 2 songs that are phenomenal. I will be awaiting the Broadway premiere of Frozen. After the movie I got my picture taken with this Abercrombie model... ok, he's my brother, but he's so handsome and the cold temperatures don't scare him. We also went to Outback for dinner after the movie since my baby's been loving steak a lot.

Me, Blaine, and Jake stayed at my grandparents. My grandpa was an orthodontist so he and Blaine bond over that. Just look at what Blaine found. We also found his old work magnets on the fridge.

Austin loved bonding with Jakey :)

One night we also went sledding. It was so freezing, though, that the hill had turned to pure ice. It was fun and they went far (I could not participate), but it hurt their bottoms so bad that we didn't last long. Blaine took Jake down a couple times, though, and he liked it. And when it wasn't his turn to go down, Jake would chase people as they slid down the hill.

We went to Temple Square to see the lights and eat dinner at the Lion House. Blaine and I loved (well, Alayna loved and Blaine probably mildly enjoyed) going to see the lights every year when we lived in Provo. We didn't get any amazing pictures this year like we had in the past, but oh well. In addition to a million beautiful lights and music, there are also several nativitys from around the world. I ran over to take a picture with this Native American nativity as a joke since Blaine is half Indian, but then after we took the picture, my mom pointed out, "Thats a kiwi!! Thats New Zealand."

Thats the temple where Blaine and I got married 4 1/2 years ago!

Something new in the Joseph Smith Building was this photo booth in the Family History section. It was so awesome. I made my family do it. It was supposed to be your family arriving in America at Ellis Island, so we told everyone not to smile, to preserve the historical accuracy, but Dad, Craig, and Alexis didn't get the memo. And it looks like Blaine, Austin, and Aaron died on the ship along our journey from Europe.

Everyone went skiing, but I couldn't go because I didn't want to risk a fall, so no pictures of that. I did get to participate in snowmobiling though and that was a lot of fun. It was just our family and we had our own little guide, who had a bit of a 'tude, but got better as the journey went on. It also turned out that he was from the same town that Blaine's Dad is from in Montana and knew a lot of Blaine's cousins. We got to wear this really awesome and flattering racing suits, but they did keep me warm.

And lastly, just some random pictures of the trip.

Blaine got lots of baby practice in with all my cousins.

We weren't able to see everyone we wanted to while we were there, but we were able to see a couple of our friends. And when we did, where did we go? Zupas. Home of the ONLY salads I like. (Besides Cafe Rio, but that lost its magic with me for the time being.)