Home Leave - Part I

Since we decided to extend our stay in Holland a bit we received another home leave allowance. It had been several years since we had been with family for the holidays, so we decided to go home for the holidays this year. Our first stop was Utah and boy did we have lots of fun. The time went by too quickly, as it always does. Here are a few highlights of the things we did while in Utah:

We went to a restaurant similar to Chuck-E-Cheese, but with a pirate theme: Rachel figured out the best way to play skee ball:
Cousin Chase found his favorite spot:

Lots of tickets=lots of prizes - right? We had to laugh as we left the restaurant and walked through the gift shop. Rachel picked out a wand as one of her prizes and it was in the gift shop for 99 cents. I'm sure it would have been much cheaper to buy it at the gift shop... :)
We attempted to get a picture of all the cousins in front of a pirate display and of course Rachel wouldn't cooperate. Since Rachel didn't cooperate Audrey was able to enjoy her first sucker - Rachel lost out! :)
One day while we were there Natalie, Andy's sister, organized a treasure hunt for the kids. They had lots of fun finding the clues around the house and then opening up their prizes at the end. Rachel got lip gloss and Audrey got a play cell phone. A win, win situation! :)

Here's Audrey having fun with Grandma's piano:

One afternoon the kids had fun decorating sugar cookies:

Presley was happy just picking the M&M's off her cookie - such a cutie!

We enjoyed one evening at an indoor pool in Lehi.

Just fooling around:

We headed downtown to the children's museum one day and the kids had a lot of fun exploring.

Grandma and Grandpa Smith bought all the grandkids matching pajamas. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! Rachel hanging out with her Aunt Natalie:

Audrey enjoying her first sugar cookie:

One freezing, cold day (okay, they were all freezing) we went on an Elf Scavenger Hunt at Gardner Village. The kids had fun checking out the different elf displays and everyone earned a free candy cane for finding all the elves.

Our pink marshmallow:Daddy is the only one allowed to kiss this little one underneath the mistletoe!Our last night in Utah we celebrated Christmas a few days early:

Having fun with the top to her new sippy cup:

Look at that concentration! We had such a good time in Utah. It's always a lot of fun to spend time with family. And we were lucky enough to be able to see everyone from Andy's family while we were there. We are looking forward to the next time we can be all together again...