New Year's trip to Utah with lots of blurry ipod pictures

 We had a really fun trip to Utah for New Year's.
Unfortunately I forgot my camera so we'll have to just live with the blurry ipod photos.  If they bug you, just turn the page!

 Lewis was even able to join us for a few days which is always nice.  He was ever so helpful on the flight.  He took Cate and I had A, B and D with me.  Sooooo helpful.  Thanks, Lew! (smack)

 The weather was so nice for us, no snow was a bummer, but we got to play outside a lot.  Jordan and I even pumped up the ball thing once.  Only once because the air came out of it in two minutes after a half an hour of inflating.

 The first day we were there the manly men went fishing and we took a walk to see the neighbor's zebra and emu.  I didn't get any pictures of those animals, just these ones: (clever, I know)

 We also celebrated Kip's 23rd birthday at Cafe Trang and had this awesome dinosaur cake

 New Year's eve we had our traditional family talent show.  I did my one talent (besides bossing people around and folding scrubs) of touching my nose with my tongue.  Brooks did a Justin Beiber lip synch, Aid did a Taylor Swift lip synch and piano piece and Cate did a princess dance with Sophie.  We also had a cola taste test.  I got zero correct.

 I did identify the 3 Dr. Peppers I just didn't know which was the dp 10, diet, or regular

 Lewis had an awesome evolution of facial hair.  These pictures are all messed up out of order, this is the final stage of awesomeness, the mustache.

 We went and saw the move Tin Tin and A loved it so she dove right in to John's collection

 We banged pots and pans at midnight! (eastern)

 We made sure John got a kiss from his date at midnight (Juneau). 

 What? You want more facial hair shots?  You got it!

 Lew and Matt (ok mostly Matt) made some amazing wings

 I love the mantle with all the stockings

 Biggest tree yet I think

 More cola testing.  Man, I hate how these are out of order.  But not enough to put them in the right order! Matt and Lewis did really well on the test.

 The kids roasted weenies or mallows not sure:

 My extended family came up for Sunday dinner and all played on their phones the entire time.  I am so serious.  Every stinkin one of them has an iphone and they stared at them the whole night (except while they were actively eating). At one point my aunt sent them all a text and they all checked it at the same time.  Not a joke.  I almost thought we were on an SNL skit, but they were serious.  Love their phones!  My cousin's kids stayed the night and the kids all had a great time running around like wild animals together.

 Jackie got in town just a few hours before Lewis left.  She wasn't sad to see him go, only because she HATED the mustache. I have no  idea why. I think it's SUPER HOT.

 Blurry picture of my and my siblings

 We went to see Nana one day for lunch and this is a picture of her with all 10 of our kids.  Aiden and Brooks are the oldest.  10 kids 8 and under was always busy!

 We also took the kids to this fun place called Airborne that has trampolines and foam pits on all the floors and walls.  The kids had such a great time. Right after that we went to IKEA and snuck Cate into the kids play area. She was thrilled, they probably thought "she doesn't get out much" but she does, I promise.

 We hit H&M, Naartjie, and Hot Dog on a Stick in one mall visit.  It was a dream come true and all 10 kids were so good.

 UUUHH I hate out of orderness, but her is a nice one of Nana with her girls

 BFFs

 After visiting Nana we went over to my mom's grave and painted all of the kids hands on the outside cement.  It went surprisingly smoothly and only a few flowers and one teddy bear got swiped off another random grave.  Sorry person who had a teddy bear on their grave!

 Tillie told her mom " I don't like CORNDOGS on a stick, just HOT DOGS on a stick" so Jackie had to take the bread off.  It was funny so I took a picture.

 Kids running around the cemetery like crazy

 We solved the mystery at last! KIP IS MR BUBURGEN!!!  Sophie is so creative.  She makes up words and uses them all the time in the same context.  One word she uses is "mulcher".  If something is mulcher it is good.  Mr. Buburgen is another one of her imaginary people and I think the kids believe he is actually Kip.  At least that is what they were chanting for 10 minutes in the food court.  But now Kip is in Peru and then off to Kazakhstan so we all miss Mr. Buburgen.

 I had never been to Wheeler Farm but it was lots of fun.  Lots of kids.

 WHeeler farm:

 Grandfather with his 10 well behaved and extremely intelligent grandchildren:

 Of course we had In N Out.  Which was really brave of me because last time (2 years ago) I ate there I got terribly sick.

 At Planet Play the "big" kids played laser tag and we did lots of games

 Oh, and bowled

 One night we had spa day.  Aiden insists every time. I don't know where she came up with the idea because I've never been to a spa or talked about one.

 Handcuffs are so fun!

 So are 64 ounce drink things! With tires on the bottom!

 But smog is not.  :(

 On the way home we got to fly with our friend Sophie, her sister Grace and her mom. It made the trip lots less scary for me

 Before we left it finally snowed! Even though they only got to play in it for a minute, in the dark, as we were loading up the car to leave for the airport, the kids were still excited about the snow.

Whew! That was a lot of pictures.  And I don't even have any from the kids and Lew's ski day.  I will have to post those later.  The thing about my terrible ipod pictures is that they load really fast so I can do lots in a quick post and bore you all to tears.  But come back because I am hoping my sisters will send me some less blurry ones and you won't want to miss those! Pinky!