oh the holidays

So it's not a great idea to go to a sunny snowless place during the winter if you hate snow. because then you have to come back to the snow. I realized today I was feeling really down and depressed. I couldn't put my finger on it until I went and looked out the window and I almost started crying- then I realized where my depression was coming from. the snow. I knew I didn't like it. But I honestly didn't know I cared THAT much for it to affect me like this. We just got back from California last night and I was okay with getting back to life and such- but man, its hard coming back to slushy roads and slick sidewalks and boots and big coats and freezing cold cars that you have to warm up and the likes. It was like suffocating to watch the snow come down nonstop and to know it wasn't about to stop anytime soon. DEPRESSING*


but anyhow our Christmas with my family was a blast and a half. it was so fun to be with everyone and just talk and laugh and play games and eat and stuff. it was so great and i thoroughly enjoyed it. we went clay pigeon shooting as the sun was setting the day after christmas and it was in the 20's, maybe the 30's - not sure. our faces were so frozen they were numb and our fingers hurt. but it was so fun. my brother aaron even got his car stuck in about 2 feet of snow. it was just great times. it actually made me feel panicky, but my brother in law tom came prepared with his big truck and a chain. so it was just a minor glitch in the master plan. My nieces put on a talent show of sorts for us. it was hilarious. there was tricks with little pet toy things, singing, dancing, and gymnastics. it was so great. then my sister anneke was trying to take some self portraits of herself with my little sister amy's camera and she didn't know it but it was on video mode and so it took a video of her doing all kinds of different faces and poses. it was hilarious. then the real picture of her after she realized was her laughing hysterically. it was hideous in a very hilarious way. and so then amy took a picture of my oldest brother ammon and he did this ridiculous face and it was so funny. so then amy went around taking pictures of us all pulling ugly faces. we laughed so hard i almost peed my pants. oh man we're retarded.

our new Years was enjoyable. we woke up at 5am on New years Eve and drove 10 hours to California. We got to Brads moms house and were there for about 2 hrs and then went to meet our friends Brody and Ann so we could all go to disneyland for new years- (courtesy of them..how cool is that!?) brad and I were sooooooo sooooo tired but i was really looking forward to going to disneyland for a few hours, since i haven't been in like 12 years or so. we had SOOOO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!! it was so crazy packed and it was really foggy so we didn't even get to see the fireworks go off at midnight- but that was okay. it was still really awesome. then after midnight tons of people left the park so we took advantage of the fact that the park was going to be open until 2am to go on more rides. we went over to California Adventure and went on the tower of terror- where they take you up and drop you over and over. I was a little hesitant- but ann insisted that it was really just a tower of FUN and not terror. YEAH RIGHT! NEVER TRUST ANN! so they take you up in this cage thing and its supposed to be like this old elevator in a hotel that just drops out of nowhere- so they take you up a few floors and then open the elevator doors and you see these little ghosts in the halls of the hotel and then you drop a couple of floors and then they take you up a couple more and drop you and then they take you up to the top and open the elevator doors and its just the outside- so youre looking out over disneyland and they take your picture- well it was sooo foggy you couldnt really see anything (thank heavens i say) but the fog just still made it all very eery and creepy cuz it was such a thick fog- so then they drop you again and that one is a little freaky. so Im thinking from what ann had previously told me that after that drop the ride is over, and i was okay with that- so far so good. well that wasn't true. it does all the drops over again but faster so you are like not even sitting on your seat for like 30 seconds it felt like. the only thing holding you in is your seatbelt. it was so freaking scary. all i could do was grab onto brad and the bar in front of me, close my eyes and scream my face off. it was so crazy. because of my extreme terror i didn't notice that the entire time brody and brad were laughing at me because of how scared i was. pffff. whatever. it was scary. i do have to say that despite the scariness- it was really fun and i could maybe go again someday. but it was freakiness. but i was WIDE AWAKE after that ride. so then we went on monsters inc to calm my nerves and then we went back to disneyland and went on thunder mountain- that was soooooo fun! it was so freezing cold because it goes so fast, but it was awesome. we wanted to go again but it made me a little motion sick so we didn't go again. then we just went on a few more rides and then we left at 2. so by the time brad and I got back to his moms and got in bed- we had been up for 24 hours. holy cow.

so the next morning i got up at 11- CA time and brad slept in until 1 because he was soo sick. so he didn't even leave the house at all that day- and I only left to go get him some medicine. the next day we only left to go to a movie (well kim scott jake and brad went- I went shopping instead). and then saturday we only left to go to jakes bball game and brodys soccer game. other than that we just stayed at kims and hung out. it was nice and relaxing and we had so much fun- as always.

the drive home was lame. it felt like it was never going to end. i was going stir crazy. but we got home around 1130pm and it was around 5 degrees outside. it was shockingly cold. but it was great to be home in our own bed.

so anyway- thats how our holidays went. they were great. now i just wish the snow would melt and never come back.