Christmas Vacation: UTAH!

WARNING!  This is a LLOONNGGG POST!  Hope you can make it through it all!

Well our Christmas vacation really started with a quick trip to Troy, Alabama - well, I say quick, 5 hours there, 3 hours at the wedding/reception, then 3 MORE hours to Atlanta - all in 1 day!  The wedding was BEAUTIFUL and well worth the agonizing drive.  I love a Christmas wedding - My friend had a beautiful string quartet that played lots of Christmas carols and we had a great seat (I got VIP seating with the family :)  I think some of the cousins were thinking, "Who are they?"

Another great thing about going to the wedding was getting to go by one of the BEST restaurants in Alabama, a little place called Nancy Patterson's Bistro.  The strawberry cake there is. to. die. for!  T's Dad's birthday was the day after we left, and he loves Nancy's strawberry cake sooo....we bought one to take with us to Utah.

Yes, we are insane.  

I figure traveling with a cake a couple of thousand miles is just a warm up for traveling with a child!  So me, T and the cake all arrived in Atlanta in the wee hours of the morning...we all went through security...then we all boarded the plane together.  I thought, "this is a breeze", until... we had to connect.  Our plane was late arriving to Atlanta, so when we connected in Denver we had 15 minutes to make our connection.  So me, T, and the cake literally "Home Alone" ran through the airport and guess what(!) we MADE it!  The cake however did not fair so well - it sorted a shifted and the bottom layer collapsed.  Well we arrived and the "shifting" didn't effect the taste at all...  

See the poor bottom layer...

We all sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to T's Dad and enjoyed a slice (or two)...

The house we stayed in Utah was amazing - We were so blessed to spend the days before Christmas in such a beautiful place.  This is a view from the outside...How awesome is the snow covered tree!?

Kitchen

Living Room

Kids room - how awesome are these bunk beds!  Since T and I married now, we have upgraded and no longer have to stay in  the kid's room - REJOICE!  However, if I'd gotten a bottom bunk, this wouldn't have been too shabby of a place to stay in!

Hot tub - We need one of these in Savannah!

So as you can see the house was awesome, I felt like a peasant getting to visit the Queen while staying there!  

We had spaghetti for dinner and ate strawberry cake and called it an early night!  The next morning we woke up to SNOW!!!

How crazy are these heated driveways!?!

My niece and T's Mom admiring the all the snow!

 In Georgia, an inch is ALOT!  I mean, we close down schools, roads, and everyone goes to the store and stocks up on milk and bread and Reese's cups!  But by alot, I mean, Park City had about 5 feet total during the four days we were there!

So that meant, it was time to SKI!

We skied ALL day!  I stay on the bunny slopes, but even that is a workout!  "Pizza-ing" all the way down is a REAL workout!  At the top of the mountain it was like a blizzard - the wind would knock you down - and it did!

Skiing all day can do a number on all of your ski gear...

Eleven people need lots of coats, mittens, and hats!!!

After a long day of skiing, we went out on to the back porch to enjoy the view!

GORGEOUS!

T's sister, brother-in-law, and niece

T's parents

After a long day on the slopes...and a few naps...

and lounging...

We all gathered together for a sleigh ride that took us up to the top of a mountain for dinner!  It was super fun and everyone LOVED it!  It was so Christmasy!

The restaurant was super fun and delicious!  They played live music ( a lot of beach music, which was weird)!

Major hat hair alert!

The day before we left, there was so much snow the kid's made snowmen and a snowcat!

And just played and played in the snow!

Our other niece, Chandler, my ski partner :)

We had such an amazing time and we couldn't say thank you enough for T's parents for taking us on such an awesome trip!  His parent's years of hard work made such a wonderful trip possible.  T's family is so lovely and I thank GOD everyday he blessed me with my family and then again with T's.