On December 1st, we continued with the Swenson family tradition and celebrated Little Christmas. We got out all of the Christmas decorations, listened to Christmas music and put up our tree. Grayson really loved helping me unload the boxes of Christmas decorations and he was very fascinated by his Santa hat. The holidays were so much more fun with him this year because he was definitely more cognizant of what was going on and he it was fun to watch his anticipation and excitement.
When Trevor got home from school, we opened up our presents. Trev and I got a new movie and Grayson got Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon. Then we set up the tree together and watched A Muppet Christmas Carol.
The next day, Grayson and I actually put ornaments on the tree. He ate some lunch and boy was he a happy kid (as you can see), he got macaroni and cheese AND olives. He loves sticking olives on his fingers.
Grayson thoroughly enjoyed decorating the tree with me. He kept putting the ornaments in the same two spots on the tree until the ornaments started falling of under the weight. He was actually pretty good about not messing with the ornaments too much and luckily we only had plastic ornaments.
I was getting ready one morning in the bathroom and Grayson walked down the hall saying "funny hat mommy, funny hat." He had managed to put it on by himself and he was very proud. He was excited for me to take his picture in his hat. It is getting easier to take his picture now because he likes seeing them on the camera after I take them.
One day I was doing laundry. I went to the bedroom to put some clothes away and came back to find Grayson inside his laundry basket.
I just can't resist that face. We also moved some things out of the ottoman and put some blankets in there instead. Now he likes to climb in it and 'take a nap,' he even asks me for a pillow. It's pretty funny.
After a crazy few weeks of finals and packing, we headed up to Utah very early in the morning. I was a little nervous for the flight. We have only flown once with Grayson and he was a lot older now and a lot more antsy, so I wasn't really sure how it was going to go. He was actually a champ! He is a really good traveler. It was a little hard having him in our laps since planes are not exactly known for their space, but all the same he did really good. We were halfway to Utah from Atlanta and I was thinking we were home free when the captain came on and said, "In case you haven't noticed, we have turned around and we are heading back to Atlanta." Turns out that the airport in Salt Lake City was closed because of a massive snow storm. Trying to get a new flight to Salt Lake was a nightmare! The airport in Atlanta was not ready to handle all the stranded passengers. When we first went to the desk they told us we wouldn't be able to get to SLC for 2 days, so we decided to get the first flight to Denver the next morning and try and rent a car from there. Then we found out that there were no rental cars available in Denver. So, we took a breath, regrouped and decided to try and just get the next flight to SLC whenever that was. Luckily, the next flight agent we talked to was incredibly kind and really helpful. She was able to get us a flight for 10am the next morning and then she got us a hotel for the night. We all went to sleep at about 7pm and slept for about 12 hrs, it had been a really long day. The next day, everything went just as it should and we were able to get to SLC at a decent hour. The snow was beautiful!!!
We made it in time to attend the Buckley family (Trev's mom's side of the family) Christmas smorgasbord. All the extended family gets together for excellent food, fun games and this year a visit from Santa Claus himself. Grayson fell asleep in the car on the way to Springville, so I hung out in the car with him while he slept. Then when he woke up, I brought him in the house and found that he had leaked through his diaper and soaked his pants. And of course, I didn't bring a change of clothes...hence why Gray is wearing no pants in his picture with Santa.
He did not want anything to do with Santa, so Trevor's dad went and sat in Santa's lap. He had a really good time other then his fear of Santa.
Grayson begged us to let him go play in the snow as soon as we got to Salt Lake, but the suitcase with his snow clothes didn't make it out of Atlanta with all of our flight interruptions. So as soon as they arrived, we bundled him up and headed outside. He loved it! His favorite thing was making snowballs and throwing them at me and Trevor.
The snow was perfect for making a snow man and Grayson was a good helper. Trev's mom even found a scarf we could use and some carrots for eyes! Of course, after we saw Frozen, Grayson kept calling the snowman Olaf. It was pretty cute.
Snow angels!
And he managed to get himself stuck when he was trying to crawl through the fence out of the snow.
Playing with Uncle Tanner!
Grayson loved playing with Snickers the dog too! He was a little nervous at first because he is a big dog, but he warmed up to Snickers really fast. He liked to feed him his treats and would go out with his Grandpa to feed Snickers and let him out in the morning.
Trev's mom had saved some toys that her boys played with when they were little. Grayson absolutely loved the toys and he never had to play alone.
Trevor and Grayson playing the piano together.
One of the days, we decided to head to Salt Lake to go see the lights on Temple Square. We took the front runner train, which of course Grayson was really excited about.
Train is coming!
He was absolutely fascinated with the ride.
It was still light when we first got to downtown Salt Lake, so we headed to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints History Museum where my mother-in-law volunteers. It was really fun to see the exhibits, especially because I had never been to the museum before. Also, there was a special exhibit celebrating 100 yrs of Boy Scouting and my husband's picture was featured in the exhibit. If you look below where Trevor is pointing you can see our wedding picture and a picture of him as a missionary. Pretty cool!
Grayson enjoyed the museum, they had a really fun children's section. It was pretty busy, but we still had a fun time. I love this picture above with him looking at the temple.
I included a few of my favorite pictures of the beautiful lights on temple square. There is always such a beautiful, sacred feeling whenever I walk around there.
Trevor's parents found a little Grayson size chair and he thought it was really cool to sit in it and watch movies.
Christmas morning, we woke up and did stockings first. Check out Grayson's awesome bed head!
It was a fun morning. Half the fun was just watching Grayson's reactions to the presents.
Grayson loves Star Wars, he has a book and now knows all the characters. He was very excited to be able to play with lightsabers. He told me he was a Jedi and was making sound effects and everything.
We were able to catch up with some friends while we were in Utah. We meet our friend Mike for lunch one day in Salt Lake and had a great time. Grayson loved hanging out with his Uncle Mike and he still talks about him. It is always such a pleasure to catch up with friends you haven't seen for a while.
 |
| Trying to play with Uncle Tanner's phone. |
Trip to the train museum in Ogden:
 |
| Had to take a Rio Grande picture for my dad! |
When we were leaving the museum, there was a lot of ice in the parking lot and Trevor helped Grayson 'skate' on it. He thought it was the funnest thing! He kept walking around trying to find more ice. It was pretty funny.
Hill Air Force Base Airplane museum:
Planes, planes and more planes, Grayson was in heaven. He actually liked the helicopters best. There were videos periodically throughout the exhibit and he loved watching the planes flying.
Tubing in Soldier's Hollow:
I absolutely love tubing! This is a winter sport that I can get behind and not end my day terrified. They had a small hill for the kids to play on too. Grayson was very typically stoic at first, but he kept wanting to do it over an over. We actually didn't dare tell him we were leaving, we just started walking to the car. He caught on and said "No, want to go slide, more slide!" Luckily we were able to distract him quickly and there was not too much of a melt down.
Us bigger kids were able to do all 5 of the runs that they had set up. We had such an amazing time!
The three of us went down as a team every time and ended up going really fast! We would actually have to drag our feet in the snow to stop us from going off the end of the lane. Inevitably, I would end up covered in snow shavings by the end of the run. It was perfect weather and a fantastic day!
We were also able to go visit a few other friends. We spent a day in Lehi with our good friends the Cohen's. We took our kids to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving point and then had some lunch and played games while the younger kiddos took naps. It was a really fun day.
On another day, we were able to go to our friends' the Dahle's for Sunday dinner. Grayson loved their girls! Their two oldest girls took such good care of him and he loved playing with them.
Elk Farm outside of Logan:
Towards the end of our trip, we were able to visit an elk farm managed by the state. We got to take a ride in a horse drawn wagon out through the herd of elk. Grayson thought it was really fun.
The day before we left, we had a little celebration for Grayson's birthday with Trevor's family. He loved it! Oh man did he dig into that cake and ice cream. I have not seen a sugar rush and crash happen so quickly. It was pretty entertaining. We had some cake and ice cream, sang 'Happy Birthday' and opened some presents.
We had a wonderful time visiting our family and luckily an uneventful flight home. We are so lucky to have such wonderful family.
