family time and christmas lights

the weekend before christmas, quin and i headed up to northern utah to spend time with some family before the big day. we always try to make it up to salt lake during the christmas season because i love love love looking at all the lights and it's usually always snowing. snow and lights just go with christmas. period. we also wanted to spend time with quin's parents since we wouldn't get to see them any other time during the holiday.

we left friday evening after quin got off work and made our way up the frozen tundra. quin slept while i drove and blaired christmas music the whole way. quin had worked all day while i slept all day since it was my last shift the night before, so i was well rested. i'm used to being awake at all hours of the night (hence, why i am awake now catching up on blogging). we got got up pretty late and chit chatted with the folks before calling it a night.

the next day we spent with the parents and just enjoyed being with them. we shopped til we dropped pretty much. i hadn't gotten any of my christmas shopping done so, naturally, i had to squeeze it in the only possible day that i could before christmas day. i love all the stores around christmas time with the music and the lights and decorations. just a fun atmosphere. the holidays are always the best no matter what but the extras make even more awesome. all the stores were open late which helped us out. we shopped until we couldn't shop anymore because closing time was coming.

sunday we went to church and then enjoyed a nice long nap before heading out to a family christmas party and kirks sisters sons house. so basically kirks nephews house if you didn't catch that ;). we caught up with everyone that we don't get to see very often while we ate some yummy soup. i didn't get any pictures so i failed at that job of mine. we didn't stay too late though because we wanted to catch the lights at temple square and city creek. i make quin go every year because i love them so much. not much changes but i love the feeling and i think they are so pretty. quins parents came along with us and it was so fun walking around admiring the lights and the salt lake temple. i love visiting the place where quin and i got married. good memories all around.

we walked around for awhile and soaked it all in before calling it a night. the next day was christmas eve and i had to work that night so we had to head home. the weather was supposed to be bad so we tried to leave early. quin met up with some friends for breakfast while i got the better end of the deal and ate breakfast with his parents at kneaders. we then loaded up and headed on our way back south. right as we started driving is when the snow started to come. i was wishing we could stay and watch the snow fall out of his parent's windows instead of our cars. the roads were pretty good until we left nephi. between then and cedar city the roads were awful and you couldn't see a dang thing in front of you. the snow plows were out but the snow was just coming down so fast you couldn't tell the roads had been plowed. i don't get nervous in things like that so i took pictures and videos and just stared, fascinated by how fun snow is. when we got to fillmore, i made quin pull over so that we could get a picture of the first snow fall we'd seen this winter.

needless to say, we made it home safe with time to spare before i had to go to work. we had an awesome weekend celebrating christmas with family and were excited for the next day to come. i can't wait to have kids and get to see their faces all lit up on christmas morning. i wish i would have had more time to post these when christmas didn't seem so long ago but better late than ever i suppose!