Family Vacation

Over the 2 week Christmas Break we took a family vacation to Utah. We had a great visit with both sides of the family. I took 215 pictures while I was there, but don't worry....I'm not going to bore you with them all. I will, however, show a few highlights of our fun-filled trip. Meet Emily Nicole Jensen. My sister Stacie delivered a baby two days before we arrived in Utah by emergency C-section. My first stop in Utah was to the hospital so I could see my new adorable niece. This is Stacie & Darren's 5th child. They now have 2 boys and 3 girls. Their family is moving to MN this week and I probably won't see them for a loooong time, so I was especially glad to visit with them before the big move. Here is Doug's side of the family. Doug is the oldest of 5, so we have the most kids right now out of all of the siblings, but I'm sure that will eventually change. We took this picture at a Christmas Party the Sunday before Christmas. Everyone had a great time!
(This picture is a little fuzzy because I took it from inside the house) This is Jordan and Kaylee playing in the snow with their cousins, Jacob, Ali, & Joshua. Lexi was sick this day and wasn't able to come out and play. :( This picture was taken BEFORE the big snow storm that came 2 days later. It was fun to have it snow a lot while we were there. We only got stuck once on the culdesac that my parent's live on. Luckily they have some nice neighbors that were able to bail us out. I don't miss driving in the snow, but I do miss the snow in general. It is gorgeous.
Every Christmas Eve my family gets together for a Christmas Party. My sister-in-law Tonya organizes the the Nativity Story and the children put it on. It was fun to see the kids all play a part in the play. Kaylee & Lexi were angels and Jordan played Joseph. Some of the older cousins watched the play with the adults because they feel too old to participate. During this party my mom always writes a story and reads it to the kids. My parents give a gift to all of the children that correspond with the story. I have a whole book of stories that my mom has written each year for this party. Here is a picture of her reading this year's story: She did a great job on her story this year and I know that all of my kids really liked their gifts.

We spent Christmas morning with Doug's family. The kids had a really great time and were spoiled, as usual.
Doug just finished his last class and is graduating with his Masters Degree. He has been working hard for the past 2 1/2 years at Boston University Online. It's been very time consuming and we are all excited that he finished and possibly will have more time with his family. Woo Hoo. I decided we should all share this excitement and arranged for a surprise party at Leatherby's (famous ice cream shop in Utah). He had sooo much support from both sides of the family and his friends. Thank you to all who joined in this fun event. Congratulations Doug!
This past year we purchased season tickets to the Children's Museum in Las Vegas which also covered entry into 3 Utah Museums. Thus, we made sure we made use of our passes. We drove downtown Salk Lake and took the UTA Trax to Grandma Farr's work. (The kids LOVED riding the train). We went to lunch and then visited Clark Planetarium first. We watched a holiday show in their dome theatre and looked at all of the exhibits. The above picture is of the kids "walking on Mars". I also have a picture of them walking on the moon. We loved spending time with Grandma & Grandpa. After the Clark Planetarium we walked across the street to the children's museum. We had a fun time there, but it was just a little much for little Lexi. She threw a fit about 30 minutes after we arrived. Not just any ordinary fit...one of those wailing screams mixed with sobbing. Needless to say, we headed home. But not before we recorded Lexi's tantrum for later use of blackmailing.

This post is already too long so I won't put everything in. Overall, we had a great trip and enjoyed spending time with everyone. Happy New Year!