Christmas Vacay Part 1

I know it may be a little strange to blog while on vacation, but I knew if I waited to blog about everything at the end of the trip - it would never happen...or it would just be in very brief detail because it would be too much to say at one time. So I figured I would just blog every few days - that way it's not quite as overwhelming at the end.

{ The tents at DIA }

Thursday night I flew into Denver. It was quite a turbulent flight due to some snowstorms, but I didn't mind...kinda like a rollercoaster in the sky :-). Regardless, we landed safely, just 45 minutes after I scheduled arrival. After that I headed to the baggage claim and had to wait another 20 minutes or so for my luggage before walking outside to meet my shuttle. I made it to my hotel 2 hours after my original scheduled arrival, checked in, put on my pj's and crashed. It was too bad though - I had a really nice hotel room!

The next morning I woke up super early to make it to the airport by 6am. I budgeted extra time considering that it's the holidays and airports can tend to be a bit insane (Nashville's certainly was on Thursday!). I was able to check in, go through security (where the guard asked me to remove my hoodie - to which I replied, "I don't have anything underneath!" I was informed to not wear a hoodie next time so I could avoid being "patted down". Deal.), grab a quick breakfast and enjoy chillin' & people watching until it was time to depart. I will say that the Denver airport functioned like a well-oiled machine given that it only took 30 minutes between my arrival and the time I sat down at my gate. I've never been through that place that fast!

My parents & Bryce met me on the plane (they BARELY made it) and we headed off to Salt Lake City. We got our rental car, our massive amount of groceries for the week, stopped at the Backcountry store (WOOHOO!!!) and headed off to our vacation home - all in the midst of a massive (and gorgeous!) snowstorm! Bryce & I were so giddy we could hardly contain ourselves! We made it to our place (which is pretty amazing with a gorgeous view of the mountains right outside our window!) just in time to unload our car before Ryan, Cheri, Nathan and the kids arrived. We ate dinner, played with the kids, cozied by the fire while watching movies and finished off the night sitting outside in the hot tub, surrounded by snow. It was absolute perfection!

Today we slept in a bit before bundling up and heading out for some sledding with the kiddos! It is so beautiful here I just can't get over it! I swear I'm pinching myself every 5 minutes! I could live here in a heartbeat. Then again, I'm pretty sure I could live anywhere with snow-covered mountains :-). Today is our "Christmas Eve" for the kids so that they have all week to play with their gifts. So we baked & decorated Christmas cookies, let them open their Christmas pajamas and watched Elf. We just put the kids to bed, so now it's time to wrap gifts and put them under our "tree" (an artificial plant we put Christmas lights on - haha!). Tomorrow morning is going to be a lot of fun! I can't wait to watch their faces light up as they tear through all that wrapping paper!


Tomorrow is snowmobiling in Park City! Stay tuned...more to come!