Thanksgiving in Utah!

I’m playing catch up on events that I never posted about. So even though Thanksgiving was 3 months ago (oops!), I’m still going to post about it. Kennedy and I spent 10 days in Utah for Thanksgiving, and it was great seeing family and friends!  Zak got to spend the last 5 days with us and we enjoyed having him all to ourselves and no work! Sadly, I don’t have one picture  from actual Thanksgiving day, but I’ll post pictures I took throughout the week.

We sure enjoyed our time in St. George! I loved shopping with my mom, eating at our favorite UT restaurants, going to Tai Pan for many hours (Kennedy was with us the whole time and she did amazing, I still can’t believe she lasted for a few hours!), chatting all the time, watching Kennedy play with her cousins and grandparents, playing games, seeing so much extended family, and just being together!  I think the fact that Kennedy doesn’t get to play with her cousins and grandparents very often is the hardest part for me living so far away.  Thank goodness for skype, at least we can “see” them and chat often! (I’m disappointed I didn’t get a picture of Kennedy with all her cousins, next time I guess)

  Making cookies at grandma’s house, she really got into it! Kennedy has really been into the nativities we see in the stores, so I really wanted to take her to see the nativity at the temple. She loved it, but I think she was hoping to be able to touch them. I sure love the St. George Temple, Zak and I were married there so it’s extra special to me! My mom and I were able to do a session earlier that morning together which was really neat!

  

I loved this moment!  While we were in the temple visitors center the missionaries turned on the message that goes along with the Christus and while Jesus was talking, Kennedy walked right up to it and looked up at Him.  I think she felt the spirit and wanted to be closer to Him.  After the message ended she just turned around and sat down in front of him sitting quietly. It was really sweet and will always be such a special memory to me!

She loved seeing all the other exhibits in the visitors center too, I wish the San Antonio temple had one!

We had Thanksgiving at Zak’s brother’s house with all the Muir extended family, the food was wonderful and we had a great time with everyone! We even got Johnson family pictures done that day too. It was freezing cold, but Tracy still got some good shots.  

The day after Thanksgiving I enjoyed the morning at Santa’s Workshop with lots of the girls. Then that afternoon Zak and I took Kennedy to this really cool park, we all had a great time playing together!

She had fun going down the slides with mommy and daddy!   LOVE that Smile! She loved swinging and never wanted to get out! All tuckered out from playing, she sure loves her daddy!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving a bunch of my high school friends all got together and had brunch at The Egg and I, the food was yummy and it was great seeing everyone and catching up! I just wish I would’ve taken a picture of everyone!

We even got to be there to celebrate Oliver’s 1st Birthday!  Tracy did such a cute job with Ollie’s Party!Us with Grandma and Grandpa Great Johnson

As you can see, Kennedy was sure happy to be there!Kennedy spent some time our last day playing in the leaves with Oliver, too bad I didn’t bother to do her hair that day! :) She was loving playing in the leaves, we don’t get leaves like these in Texas! Happy Fall Ya’ll!

         Phew, way to go if you made it through that big post!     Thanks to all of our family and friends for making it such a fun trip, we always love being with you on our trips to Utah!

Snow in San Antonio!

Last Friday it snowed 1/2 an inch in San Antonio!  I know to you Utahns that’s not much at all, but for San Antonio it’s a big deal! The last time they got this much snow was in 1985!  School was cancelled, roads were closed and Zak wasn’t supposed to go into work until noon!  It was pretty chilly here, in the 10’s, it made us feel like we were back in Utah! Pretty crazy that just 2 days later the weather was back up in the 70’s though!  Only in San Antonio I guess!

Kennedy was so excited to hear that it had snowed!  As soon as she got downstairs she pulled her chair over to the door and when I asked her what she was doing, she replied “I want to see the snow!”

Since this is a very rare occurrence here in Texas, we figured we better get out and play in it and take some pictures. Kennedy doesn’t have much in the way of “snow clothes” so we used what we had. :) Yes, she’s still in her jammies, hey they were snowman pj’s at least, we had to get out there and play in the snow before it all melted! (It was pretty much gone by 10:30am!)

Kennedy loved walking around and playing in the snow…regardless of what her facial expressions may show! “Mom this is the best smile you’re going to get!” She was quick to point out the “S” for Spencie as I drew it in the snow. She looks thrilled to be standing there huh!?!  Haha

We even made a tiny snowman!

Family Pictures

I’m playing catch up on the blog and realized I never posted these. We got our first professional family pictures done this last fall by the very talented Mikki Platt.  We had a great time and loved how they turned out! Here’s some of our favorites:

   

One year older and hopefully wiser too!

I had another great birthday this year!  Zak took the day off and spoiled me all day!  He made me crepes and fresh fruit and cream in bed, so yummy!  Then I came downstairs to balloons, signs, streamers, a beautiful bouquet of flowers and an amazing quilt shelf that Zak made for me! I’m one lucky girl! I’ve been wanting a quilt shelf for a long time and I LOVE it, it matches our table perfectly! I still can’t believe that Zak made this for me without me finding out. He said he went to great lengths to keep it a secret and he did a great job until Kennedy totally gave it away during breakfast, it was pretty funny! This picture doesn’t do it justice and the rod wasn’t in it yet, but I can’t wait to get it hung and start decorating it!

Kennedy was so cute all day, she sang Happy Birthday to me multiple times, gave me lots of hugs and kisses, and kept saying “I go to mom’s birthday party” as we drove downtown. She even prayed that “mommy would have a happy birthday party!” in her prayers.  How sweet, I loved spending the whole day with her and Zak! We spent quite a bit of the day downtown at Ripley’s Believe it or Not, The Wax Museum and then Schilo’s (a yummy German deli) for lunch!

Ripley’s Believe it or Not

Kennedy and Zak in front of a moose made out of nails Us sitting in the biggest tire in the world (a mining tire), the rubber from this one tire could make 395 car tires!Kennedy measuring up next to the tallest man in the world! Checking out the Titanic exhibit… Zak and Kennedy “smiling” ha! This picture of Elvis was completely made out of butterfly wings Eiffel Tower made out of toothpicks! Zak and Kennedy walking through this awesome light tunnel, you walked on flat ground, but this barrel of lights turned around as you were walking through it and it totally made you feel like you were turning with it! 

The Wax Museum

Ellen, Whoopi and SandraHarry PotterKennedy is always asking us to lift her up and fly her around and say “Super Kennedy” so we thought it appropriate to get a picture with Super Man! Kennedy wasn’t sure what to think of being on the Oprah show…

That evening our friends watched Kennedy and Zak took me to Chez Lu’s (his own restaurant he takes me too on special occasions) where he made me an amazing gourmet dinner!   Butternut Squash-Parsnip Soup with Thyme, cream cheese red mashed potatoes, Top Sirloin Steak with Bell Peppers and Onion Saute, asparagus, and rolls. It was delicious! He also made this divine Brown Butter Raspberry Tart that was to die for, seriously it was so good !  I told him that I just might request this tart every birthday! As if the tart wasn’t enough, he thought I still needed an actual cake too. Kennedy loved helping me blow out the candles! It was a fantastic birthday!  I’m lucky to have such a wonderful hubby that makes me feel so special! Thanks to all those that sent messages or called, it made me happy!

Everyday Life

Many of you have commented recently about how we are always doing fun things and you want to come to Texas.  Well, it’s true, Texas IS fun and yes you should come visit us, but just so you know life isn’t always a bed of roses around here.  We ARE very lucky to live 10 minutes away from Sea World and that it offers so many fun things to do, and we do go often since we have a season pass. Of course I also tend to take and post pictures of the fun things we do…but there IS plenty of this going on at our home too, actually more than we wish! Here is our cutie in action on her time out stool!

So don’t worry, our life still includes the normal day-to-day things here in Texas too.  But I do have to say, since we don’t live close to family and don’t get to attend all the family gatherings that many of you do, in our family time we do like to get out and about and explore new things around us. So next time you see a post about something fun we did, you can rest assured there was also plenty of  other “fun” things going on too! 

Diggin’ for Gold in Style!