Namma and Dampa: December 2011

For Wed. Dec. 21st. dadu and I decided to go to Orem Utah for Christmas. He had 7 days to use or loose from work. On the way out we stopped in Corona and left a couple of gifts at my brother's house...[Treats and a photo album of photos I had of him.] We got to St. George in the afternoon and did an endowment session in the temple there. We have never done that there. It was a Great experience. I love the time period furniture and lights and such !! That night we stayed in a $33.00 plus fees..hotel there...Knights Inn airport...no frills..just what we needed to sleep. Thursday we went to Manti, ate a whole pizza, and did a session in that temple.[live]...again a Great new experience and awesome time period furniture, paintings, carpet ...etc...You have got to see the dinosaurs,etc.. painted on the walls there ! We got to Orem in the afternoon..and hit D.I. of course..then to Eddie and Sandy's apt. after we dropped off gifts at Abby's house...[.they were on a cruise with his parents ..nice gift !] We camped out at Sandy and Eddie's for the duration of the trip. They are excellent hosts and hostess'. We enjoyed our visit.!! We had dinner at Cafe Rio and then they drove around to show us the lights. Friday we went to the "UP "house in Harriman Utah..it was awesome...just like in the" UP" movie !!! We got to tour the whole house ..then we went to SLC . We saw the Joseph Smith movie in the Joseph Smith memorial building...very powerful. We walked around temple square and looked at the lights..and ran into Jill Duram and her husband and 3 children...and enjoyed visiting with her a little. She looks great ! Saturday morning...Christmas Eve we couldn't wait any longer so we took some Cosco muffins and caroled to Nathan's family at breakfast time. !! They were truly surprised.!!..meanwhile before this, Shannon thought were were dead or something because she couldn't get a hold of us by phone., I forgot my cell phone and camera at home...and those in the know didn't tell..so we had to call and tell her what was going on !! Dadu and Nathan hung out most of the day and I hung with April and kiddos..April and I were able to escape and went to Shopko and to Panda Express for lunch...it was nice. ! I got cute sheets for Maddie and Ava's bunk beds..washed and dried them at Sandy's and went and put them on the beds. Christmas Eve I did some shopping..got myself a wheat grinder attachment for my Kitchen aid...and a cheese slicer for April. We all had a nice ham dinner at April's house..and the orange Christmas story....by her..and chocolate orange slices...[I sewed pajamas for 3 kids as April cut them out before dinner]..Christmas day we did stockings and gifts at Sandy's....then went to Nathan's church. He conducted the meeting. He is awesome ! We went to Nathan's house after church and watched them open gifts. We then watched Seth's family open gifts via the computer...that was fun. Abby called April so we knew she was home. We went over, pulled up in front of her house and got out of the car and she came flying down the steps..she was excited.! At midnight she had been home and seen the gifts from us and drove by Nathan's house to see if we were there...but didn't see our car so she decided we must not be around...[.our car was hidden in Eddie's garage for those first couple of days !! ] We played with the girls ...it was sweet ! We all had dinner at Nathan and April's. Monday dadu was a zombie..We visited Abby..then we went to DI in American Fork....and when he started vomiting out the car door we knew why...I dropped him off to sleep for 11 hours on our air mattress . I went to Winco, bought Lysol wipes and cleaned up the car. I went and visited Becca and Aida and the rest of the Monsivais family. Greg and family weren't home so I left a note...Tuesday we played with family some more and in the afternoon we went to church distribution and a store or two...then bade them all good bye and headed back to the cheap hotel in St. George.[ found on travelocity.com] and spent the night there..We drove home Wednesday..after we got dadu's sun glasses fixed at Walmart. We stopped in Vegas and looked at the Bellagio...all decorated ..went to their DI and had lunch then came on home....lots of people had the same idea...[to go Wed. to miss traffic]...so we didn't miss traffic...It Was A GREAT week. We enjoyed it all[ except for the sick part ] A LOT !! Thanks everyone for the Awesome Christmas vacation !!