I cant believe its been a whole year and I haven't written anything!
We will start with our Christmas in Utah 2017, yes that's right, get in your time machine to good ole 2017.
Charlies sister Shannon and her husband moved from San Fransisco to Salt Lake City, so he could do doctor stuff and we decided to decend upon them like Cousin Eddy and the gang, straight out of Granite Falls.
When we were there, I decided I never wanted to spend another Christmas at home.
My children's love languages are time spent together. The presents wont last, the Christmas cookies wont last, even Santa wont last; the time we are spending together will.
Tuesday morning at 610 was when our flight departed, so that meant that I had to wrangle someone into picking all of us up around 330 in the morning. Luckily, my Aunt Terry was happy to oblige. I was up at 245, the kids up at 3. I fed the dogs, let the chickens out and force fed the kids some snacks for the ride. My aunt showed up right on time and was happy to be so helpful. Goose was also incredibly happy to that we were all awake so early and clearly we were going somewhere fun. He is a huge 100 lb. lab who thinks he is still a tiny puppy. While he was going ape shit and running in circles, and while the other 2 dogs were barking and while we were trying to get every ones bags together and out the door, Goose turned one circle too many and ran into our tiny, sad Charlie Brown Christmas tree, shattering 2 super cheap and completely replaceable Christmas balls. This sent Steve straight over the edge and he broke down into deep sobs.
I yelled for Goose to lay down, crated the other 2 dogs and tried to be as loving as I could, while keeping an eye on the time.
Eventually, in the pouring rain,we all got into my Aunts sweet new ride and took off into the way too early morning.
I was thinking I could catch a little tiger snooze at the gate, because its way early and probably no one will be in the airport.
That was the biggest prank I had played on myself ever.
Did you know that all the people are traveling for Christmas? All of them. Every. Single.One.
Who knew?
In all my idiocy of nap dreaming, we stumbled into the airport and arrived into the official Gates Of Hell.
We found where we were supposed to go and then in a scene straight out of A Christmas Story, we jumped into line, were tapped on the shoulder and "The line starts here, it ends back there" and then a narrator in my head said, "the line went all the way back to Terrahaute!"
It did.
We walked and walked and walked until finally we found a man with a sign, that said "end of line" he was continually walking backward as more and more people had their Christmas Story moments.
I forced Charlie to ask, not once, but twice to confirm that, yes this where we stand.
We waited in line and I silently panicked about making our flight, while Steve voiced aloud his panic about not making the flight.
The Gates of Hell actually moved pretty damn fast for the insidious crowd gathering. As we walked through, Charlie kept asking me about boarding passes, which I had on my phone in the handy dandy Alaska App.
He was getting increasingly more agitated as we got closer and closer.
"Are you sure, we don't need paper passes? Look at all the people with the paper passes! If we have to get out of line, we won't make our flight!"
"Its fine! Ive got it right here! Stop freaking out!"
However, he did not stop freaking out.
Which freaked me out.
Which freaked Steve out.
"Mommy, we're not gonna make it!"
We approached the gate. My palms were sweaty.
I licked my lips and with shaking hands brought out my phone, ready to scan.
"Boarding passes out please! Boarding passes out!"
Charlie tossed me a skeptical look.
Steve tossed me a skeptical look.
Summer was along for the ride.
We were next.
As Steve was on the verge of tears and Charlie was getting ready to eye ball me with anger (and Summer was just along for the ride)
I handed my phone over, scanner ready, with trepidation.
She looked at me.
I looked at her.
We briefly stared into each others eyes, time slowed to a stop as my stomach dropped out to my knees.
"OK, I've got Sara, swipe for me for other passengers please. Summer, Steve and Charlie? Go ahead."
Oh, OK.
We were through! I looked at Charlie and said "See no big deal, jeeze. Have a little faith in me!"
They pushed us through security and we made it to the gate with about zero seconds to board.
We were on our way to Utah, land of Mormons and snow!
It was Summers first flight and the pilot came out and personally gave her, her first pair of wings.
She was super excited and take off was thrilling. Then she realized that flying is basically sitting still for an extended period of time. Good thing the flight is only 2 hours.
We arrived in Salt Lake City to a beautiful clear day and 2 of our very favorite ladies, Susie and Shannon. They whisked us through a glorious mountainscape right to Shannon and Treys house, which was basically a photo out of a magazine.
We were all super exhausted and I tried to force everyone to take a nap.
Which was unsuccessful.
The rest of the day was filled with the kids opening up their plethora of gifts, many, many hugs and kisses and shrieks of joy from the dogs and kids jumping all over the couches and blow up mattresses in our temporary digs downstairs.
We fell asleep that night to the sounds of Summer snorting around and to Charlie snoring loudly.
I fell asleep asking myself 'where in the hell is my xanax and why don't I have earplugs?'
The next day we casually sipped coffee and tried to stay quiet as Trey was working the night shift at the hospital and was trying to sleep during the day. We played in the snow with Lucy, their labradoodle and I learned how to use the Keurig and drank probably 500 cups that morning.
We went and picked up our ride for the week, a brand spanking new gigantic never driven by anyone before us fully loaded Suburban. That thing was huge, had heated seats and was made of American Dreams and probably got 1 mile to the gallon. It was radiant and extravagant and I regret nothing.
We went on a little shopping excursion to the worlds cleanest mall and I fully stocked up on Lush products and we explored Macy's, in a new city, which looks exactly like the Macy's in Lynnwood. What a shocker.
We always go to Macy's and put the kid's Christmas Lists in the Santa Drop box, we had been so busy that we hadn't been able to do that at home. It was a welcome surprise to the kids and to me, that we were able to do that in SLC.
After we shopped till we dropped we popped over to the capital building, which was literally 3 seconds away from the mall.
Obligatory yoga poses in front of the capital were had enjoyed.
There was snow everywhere and the kids had a great time hopping all over and exploring this gorgeous new city.
That evening the kids and I walked down to a little park in the Sugar House neighborhood, where Shannon and Trey live and it was magical.
The kids played in the snow, somehow after 8 years of Steve not knowing how to swing, all of a sudden he could pump his legs, and everyone that we met was super nice and friendly.
This is the opposite of PNW life. I was ready to set our house ablaze and start fresh in Sugar House.
The next day, everyone went skiing up at one of the many ski spots that was only like 20 minutes away from the house, basically Charlie and Steves dream, while Summer and I skipped out and stayed home. Summer blew through all her Lush bath bombs and bubbles and stayed in the soaker tub playing with her barbies for at least 3 hours. I sat on the couch with a direct view of her and read, cleaned up, sipped coffee and relaxed like I hadnt relaxed all damn year.
It was the best day for my money; everyone had a great time.
The kids were on the fence and really so were the other adults, but I demanded that we take everyone out in the crisp 11 degree weather and enjoy the damn animals in the lights. We drove all over town looking for these tickets at various Wendys. I could have paid the full amount to get in, but why would I do that when I could spend an entire day searching for the Golden Ticket like Charlie and the Wonka Bars?
We waited until dark and sub zero temps and ventured into the lights. I was there and ready to fully document this beautiful orchestra of fun, dancing animals, supreme familial bonding and possible Santa sightings.
And then my phone died.
Clearly I was not prepared. Needless to say we froze our butts right off, the kids were the happiest in the cafeteria drinking little cups of scalding hot cocoa and refused to stand in line for one second to see Santa. They had reindeer in little pens next to Santas Workshop and while everyone was impressed, Steve looked at me with his big sad hazel eyes and sighed, "Poor reindeer, that pen is way too small. They look scared." and really they did.
Overall Zoolights was not the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory DZ Funzone I had imagined. It never is. I will never learn to stop hyping things in my head and forcing people to do things. Never.
We popped on up to Park City, fun fact, Uncle Trey was an alternate in the Winter Olympics in Park City for the long jump. Shannon is a high finance wizard with like 100 college degrees and Trey is an Olympian Doctor. When I compare our fly by the seat of our pants plan nothing and prepare for nothing family to Cousin Eddy, I mean it.
Anywho, Park City was fascinating. All the shops and cool places, it was magical with all the snow and the cute little houses, the whole vibe was amazing. Summer and I are normally warm weather lovers but even we were smitten with Park City and all its rustic glamour.
We totally were chased down by Santa too and the kids finally got to chill with him, I don't know if they were excited about it. By the looks on their faces, the could probably take it or leave it really.
We finished out our trip with a Chinese dinner and watched Die Hard 1, 2 and 3. It was the best Christmas Vacation we could have asked for. We spent time with family we don't see often and got to explore a new spot. The airport on the way back was a breeze and Summer is now at expert flight status.
Shannon is actually giving birth to a new little Oxford as I write this so I see SLC in our very, very near future. The kids don't remember the gifts they got that year but they certainly do remember skiing with Grandma Susie, Aunt Shannon and Uncle Trey, playing in the snow and the swinging at the park. We couldn't make a Christmas trip happen this year, but Ill be hard pressed to stay in the rainy PNW when there will be a squishy nephew baby in Utah next Christmas.
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