Christmas 2011 & the Tait's

Christmas always feels a little different when you don't spend it with your family.  Luckily it fell on Sunday this year so Matt and I were able to spend the whole day together.

Christmas 2011.  We had enough presents for a family of five.

After church excitement of opening presents.

Okay so it LOOKED like we had a ton of presents, but really I just wrapped most of my stuff I had to get for nursing school (shoes, watch, etc). Still exciting!Matt bought me a cocoa maker/frother and this bag for school-I love it!

Few more Christmasy pics...

Ugly Christmas Sweater Day at work

Perfect for the Christmas card :)

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*Tait Family Fun*

 

The Tait family invited us over for Christmas Eve dinner of fondue(yum! I foresee a Hunt tradition coming on!) and to play part in their nativity this year.  We feel so blessed to have them as friends and have enjoyed the time we have spent with them around Christmas. {Really wish I would have taken more pictures that night.} I've been able to work for their dad the last year and was asked to watch his kids on a couple different occasions when they left town.  Matt and I have loved every minute in their home and we never want to leave when the time comes.  The few pictures below are how we kept busy.


We did everything from ice skating, hockey game(you bet we made the megatron), riding bikes, going to movies, pet store(not sure that was a good move; both girls BEGGED their parents for one later), lots of eating out (why not, ya know?), playing board games like LIFE (how long has it been since YOU'VE played that?), telescoping the moon, making homemade rootbeer, hot tubbing, and laughing all the way!  We seriously had SO much fun with these girls! Can't wait to see them again.

Maui Baby!

My sister-in-law, Teri, arranged an AWESOME girls trip to Maui in November (what event is not awesome when planned by her?).  Matt's mom, sisters, and I were all able to take a good week out of our crazy lives and go to a place where the only worry in the world "is the tide gonna reach my chair?" {name that song!}.  It really was just what we needed.  Okay, so only once did I think I wouldn't make it back to shore alive.  I was too busy chasing turtles to realize how far from shore I was, tired I was, nauseated I was, disoriented I was, close to the coral I was, and that the waves were NOT letting up!  Luckily, those waves finally worked in my favor and I'm glad Kelly survived too because I was too selfish to try and find her.

 

It was way too hard to pick out pictures from this trip so here are some randoms... we had tons of fun in Hawaii and brought home LOTS of stories to tell!  Let's just say we (Teri) unknowingly brought a pet cockroach home one night that was living in our lime jeep... you'll have to ask her the rest... that's IF she's willing to talk about it yet ;)

And my most favorite sight was this....

Instagram

I would like to blame my "not blogging so much" on the Instagram app.  It's a cool way to upload picture from your iphone and share with other Instagramers the random things you do.  So by doing this, I kind of feel like I'm updating my blog!  But, I have to remember that only some of our family can see this.  For those not up with technology (speaking to my side of the family), here's some random uploads from Instagram. In no particular order...

My sister Holly (posing for the first instagram of course)

Taylin loves Uncle Matt

Dancing water!

Hoover Dam bridge

Silly Tay

St. George lunch

Sisterly love

Boys are cool.  Especially this one.

Tyler's the special one.

James & Khyrie's wedding

More dancing water with the Hunt/Hansen girls

Max Brenner's.  Mmm.

Peanut butter and chocolate cake I made for a co-worker.  It was SO good!

Sunday Stroll

Finally finishing the first Hunger Games (We started reading it together one year ago and he just found it again).

May have been dinner one night...

I LOVE these cuties! All ready for winter!

Congrats flowers from Matt for getting accepted to nursing school.

Spoiled with my new MacBook Air for school! :)

Italian restaurant where we witnessed a whole table pay with change and cover it with a napkin.   Very funny, but sad for the waiter.

Trunk or Treat with Thing 1 & 2.

Love her.

Alooooooha!

Best Shave Ice EVER!! Found only in Maui.

Sorry this is sideways.  I just had to buy these in Maui and I'm so glad I did!

Waimoku Falls.  So worth the hike.

Until we meet again...

Freddies! Couldn't get enough of their salsa.

This is where we ended up for Thanksgiving dinner.  I look like a chipmunk, I know.  Hopefully it's just the camera angle?

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Hip Hip Hooray!!

I got the call last month while I was at work.. "Congratulations, you've been accepted to nursing school!" I was SO excited and didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or jump for joy.  So I just did them all at the same time.  I was nervous to tell my co-workers the good news (like they didn't notice me freaking out) because this meant I would be quitting by January.  They were all so excited for me though and are okay with me leaving with a good excuse.  And when I came home, Matt had flowers waiting on the counter for me (I just love him).

My co-workers put this congrats letter together for me.

So I start full-time nursing school at CSN in January and two years later I will be graduated.  I am so excited to have a plan for the next two years rather than being stuck in limbo.  The day after our nursing orientation, I was lucky enough to leave to Hawaii for a week with Matt's sisters and mom!  That was a blessing in itself- we had this trip planned for a good year and I was worried the nursing orientation would be during the trip (Which is mandatory for the program).  I couldn't believe it when I got to do both!!  

Flat Ryan

Ryan (our nephew) was kind enough to flatten himself and come visit us in the mail a few weeks ago! Sounds crazy, right?  His 3rd grade class read a book called "Flat Stanley" where the character is able to flatten himself and travel around the world.  Sounds genius to me! So Ry came to visit for a few days and here's how we documented the trip...

Matt's work

Stacie's work

Weekend fun

We had a lot of fun taking flat Ry around with us.  Eventually, we had to send him back to school, but not without a journal to read in front of his class! (I think this was the funnest part!)

THE ADVENTURES OF FLAT RYAN

"Well, I’ve had quite an eventful week traveling with my Uncle Matt and Aunt Stacie, who live in Las Vegas.  I was lucky enough to spend a day at Matt’s work.  He is a pilot and flew us around the Grand Canyon in a helicopter, eventually landing at the very bottom! What a rad, tubular, crazy awesome ride it was- I have the COOLEST UNCLE EVER!!  The next day was spent with Stacie where she brought me to the doctor’s office where she works.  I pretended like I was the patient and was xrayed, examined (though it was difficult finding a heartbeat), and even given a shot! Ouch!  It happened to be the doctor’s birthday so we celebrated with fruit pie and sang the birthday song.  Then it was back to work!  I just don’t know how she does this everyday- she is AWESOME too! 

As soon as the weekend came around, we all jumped in the car and made the most of our night.  We visited New York to see the statue of Liberty, stopped at Paris for the Eifle tower, and even drove by Disneyland!! At this point we were tired and thirsty so we stopped for a frozen hot chocolate.  The drink was delicious!  Stacie didn’t think I could finish it- she said it was almost taller than me.  On our way back home, we stopped to see the dancing water in all it’s glory.  It was quite the night of travelling and we barely made it home in time for bed.  I can’t wait to go back already!!"

Thanks Ryan, come back again!!

Herman's Hermits

My dad came down for a visit a few weeks ago to go see the Herman's Hermits concert!! And no, it has nothing to do with Peewee Herman ;) I've heard their songs growing up, but naturally thought my dad made them up until I actually saw them in person (And then I just thought they sounded just like Dad!).  It all went down at the Cannery Casino where we had dinner and watched the first half of the U vs BYU game... which was the only part worth watching.  I wish I would have taken pictures of all the strange people in attendance- you could imagine.  I mean, it was in Vegas after all.  It was a good time and Matt's first time to their concert.  He loved it and is still singing their songs.

  Did I mention this was my dad's 3rd time seeing them this summer??


Oh, and in case your still not sure who this crazy group is...

St. George

For living away, we sure have been lucky to spend time with our family this summer- bits at a time.  We met up with my sister, Anne, and her family in St. George for the weekend.  The kids were pretty excited to show us around "their" condo.  We had fun hangin' out, playing baseball, swimming, playing at the CRAZIEST park I've ever seen (seriously, I don't know how all the kids weren't throwing up all over the place), eating good food, and letting the kids entertain us.

Top left: "Ah, mom!!"
Bottom right: The whole Russon fam.. and one you can't quite see in this pic..

We took our two hour drive back home (we realized it's so close that we should go more often) after having a yummy dinner at Don Pedros.  Thanks for having us!!

Just Because.  Aren't they cute?