Alright...fifth times the charm. I have started this blog post so many times. Every time I start all the sudden I get tired and decide sleep is better than blogging.
Happy New Year!! Oh boy...that was quite the break. It was such a fun, long break from our responsibilities. By the end Ben admitted that he was ready to go back to school just to feel a little more productive. I was definitely ready to be back in our home and in our bed. In Idaho we were sleeping on a fold out mattress...so basically just three metal bars...so our bed felt great!
Our Christmas lasted pretty much all December. It started on the 2nd when we invited some friends over for a gingerbread house making party. We decided to create the Eiffel Tower, but with the lack of candy provided it turned out to be a little lack luster. (Basically those put in charge of bringing candy purchased what they like to eat and not what would actually be fun to decorate with.)
We didn't even really finish decorating because we weren't really feeling it by the end...but we still had to take pictures to document it.
This is what taking pictures with Ben looks like...a little blurry...let's take another
Okay, that's decent we'll go with it.
Ben...give me the phone...
Give me the phone!
PHONE!
The day after was our 6 month anniversary and we decided to go all out Ben and Em style. In other words we stayed home all night, ate yummy food, and watched some Downton Abbey. We bought a rotisserie chicken, Ben made potatoes, I made a yummy salad and rolls, we had Martinelli's. It was just the BEST. Then we opened our Christmas presents to each other and from Mom and Dad since we wouldn't be taking them to Utah/Idaho with us. So fun! We got some great stuff!
We had a friend drive us to the train station and took that to the airport. Well really we took the train to a station near the airport, got on a bus that took us to a parking lot, and took a different bus from there to the airport. Yeah...Texas doesn't really have this whole public transport thing figured out. Where is the MAX when you need it??
(Pictured above: Emilye wearing as much clothing as possible to allow more room in her carry on.)
Ana was kind enough to pick us up from the airport. She was also kind enough to hold us hostage in an Old Navy parking lot for an hour and a half. The things you do to get cheap (hopefully not stolen) phones. :)
Our time in Utah was a blast! We loved being able to see all the Utah Messerlys and were very grateful that Matt let us disrupt his peace for a few days. We weren't going to have a car for our time in Utah so making plans was a little tricky. Luckily, Ben's sister, Angie, was kind enough to lend us one of their cars so the last few days of our trip we had a little more freedom.
We took the Frontrunner up to SLC to see the lights...well really to see Shanna and her husband, but the suggested activity was go see the lights. It honestly almost didn't happen when I saw the cost of the tickets. Ridiculous!! Have I ranted in this blog post about crappy public transit yet?? Here I go again. GET IT TOGETHER UTAH! To cheer me up on the train ride up Ben challenged me to a round of Trivia Crack. (A game I was addicted to when we first met, but have since kicked the habit.) It cheered me up initially, but after he killed me 6 times in a row it was starting to have the opposite effect. Annnyyywayys...hanging out with Shanna was fun! We got some cute pics soooo #worthit.
One night during the break we went over to Rich and Erica's and the gel nails came out. I promised Erica that I would keep them on until we left for Idaho. I believe it was a total of three days. It was hard, but I did it! I was literally peeling them off in the car on the drive up. I just can't help myself! They are fun to peel off!
It was so fun chilling at Matt's house. We talked musicals, health and fitness, sports, movies, clean up your messes I'm not mom... etc. We even got to watch him in action. He totally T'd up the coach. It was awesome. I will say I'm VERY glad our schedules didn't align until our last day for Ben and Matt to play each other in FIFA on the Xbox. If that would've happened any sooner I'm pretty sure I would've gone to temple square by myself.
This is just a bonus picture...how cute do we look? It's like our first family photo. They could totally be our kids.
Wednesday was dedicated to Missy and Kimball's wedding! It was a lot of fun, really I'm just excited about the cute dress I got out of it. The sealing was great, the luncheon was yummy, and the couple looked very happy. So, three for three in my book. We bounced before the reception (we didn't feel like killing five hours in Ogden, UT...like how do you even do that?) On the way home we stopped at this place called Wing Coop in Holladay. Ben had been there once before and has dreamt of it ever since. So we stopped there and as we were driving away Ben said, "I want to go back for more." Haha so much for trying to satisfy his craving. (We did recently attempt to make some wings at home which turned out pretty good so hopefully it'll tide him over until the next stop in Holladay, UT.)
Some other highlights from Utah: making peanut butter cookies and seeing them disappear in 24 hours, wrapping presents with Ana, having Rich record Ana, Ben, and I as if we were carolers and sending it to mom and dad as an e-carol, making sugar cookies, watching Ana load up plates with said sugar cookies and delivering them to her neighbors, watching the Christmas Carol with Ben and almost tearing up from the nostalgia, delivering some cookies to Dane and getting to catch up with him and Hobbes. I could go on and on. It was such a fun week!!
Thursday afternoon we packed up and headed up to Idaho. I really do love Ben's family, even though I may have teared up a little on Christmas Eve thinking of all of yall I was happy to spend time with them. We had a great time! It was definitely very different from our days in Utah. All the family was in one house because almost everyone came from out of town. Every minute there was some group activity going on! In Utah Ben and I just chilled most of the time...in Idaho whenever you finished one activity you started looking for the next. One of my favorite activities was when we stood around the piano playing hand bells. We did this last year at his house and I LOVED it. I'm totally investing in some hand bells at some point. And they do not kid around with the bells. Every time I missed a note I'd get all flustered and prayed no one noticed.
Another fun tradition the Jacks have is painting mice ornaments. It started with Meredith when she was really young I believe and it's just continued through the years. Meredith is a PRO. Like I should've taken pictures of some of the mice she's done. They are CRAZY detailed. It took me like 4 hours to do the very imperfect mouse that I ended up with.
Our cute singing mice. Ben definitely out performed me here, but overall I think they both look nice.
I didn't spend much time out in the snow, but I just had to show off the igloo Ben, Tim, and their dad made.
Gingerbread house making round #2
I am SO proud of this house. Definitely the best house I've ever made. See what good candy can do?
Our cute house may have seemed a little cooler if Dan and Sterling didn't make a ROCKET SHIP. The Jacks are just too good to keep up with sometimes.
Other highlights from Idaho were playing a BILLION board games (seriously I don't think we ever stopped playing board games...we were probably playing them while making our gingerbread houses some how), playing racquetball against Ben's mom (I went with them under the impression we'd go work out in the gym while the boys played racquetball, but when she asked me to play I didn't want to say no. It was actually super fun! I mean she says she's not very good and she still beat me, but it was a fun way to get in a work out). all of us getting little drones for our "Santa" gift, Angie, Hannah, and I getting mad at our respective husbands for hitting us with the drones (those things hurt! with their little blades moving so fast. I considered telling Mama and Papa Jack that they really gifted us all marital problems), watching Finding Dory, and listening to the Christmas story on Christmas Eve.
Whew...I made it! I think that's everything! Of course I could tell you about the trip home, but by then Ben and I were both sick, we missed a train, had to wait an hour for the next, we got home way too late, and I may have shed a few tears at the thought of Ben going back to school. Sooooo, lets just end it on that positive note instead. It was definitely a different Christmas time, but a good one still. OH. I forgot one of the biggest highlights! Getting to Facetime Mom and Dad on Christmas! Even if they had no sound it was great to see their smiling faces :) I love you all! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
