Salt Lake City and Jackson Hole

Our trip was amazing.  We went to Salt Lake City, where we went through the Temple for the second time ever.  What a treat!

This is the general conference center, where conference is held twice a year.  I was amazed by how big it was!

 This is where the Tabernacle Choir sings.  It is an incredible building and a man was playing the organ in there.

 I got a kick out of this sign.  It was right next to the Tabernacle.

 This is the assembly hall and was built sometime in the late 1800s.  Isn't it beautiful? This is Elder McCulloch.  He is home from his mission and we got to hang out with him and his mom in Salt Lake.  Elder Hill, the missionary who baptized Brian, is also home from his mission, so we spent some time with him and his family too.

 Inside the Assembly Hall there was this beautiful staircase.  Just gorgeous!

 At the Visitor's center Hunter was amazed by the big cutout of the Temple.  You could see all the rooms inside of it.  This is the oldest standing Temple that is still in use as a Temple.  The first burnt down and the second is no longer a Temple.  Salt Lake is the third.

 These boys just love snow.  When we got off the plane in SLC there was some slush.  The boys went running to it yelling "snow" and then Hunter asked if he could ski in it.  Um. No.

 The beautiful Temple.

 It says this outside of all of the Temples and is a good reminder that the Lord dwells in these walls.

 In front of the Temple.

 Trying to get the kids to cooperate.

 The whole family.

 The whole family + Tyler

 My beautiful little 4 month old. Yes, she is 4 months old!!!

 And SO smiley!

 The boys are always so cute sleeping together.  I just adore these angels.

 At the Church history museum, there is a big setup for kids to play within the stories of the Book of Mormon.  We went with Tyler and Nate (previously Elder McCulloch and Elder Hill) and they had fun!

 Hunter, Landon and Tyler built a castle.

 The guys outside of the museum.  It was a really neat museum, for anyone interested in learning church history.

 The Temple in the reflecting pool

 On Friday afternoon we all went tubing.  We weren't sure how Hunter would do with it, given that he doesn't like new things.  He loved it and had SO much fun.  Landon missed his nap that day and was pretty grumpy, but the rest of us had a great time.

 Nate and Landon

 Playing in the snow

 Landon in the tube

 Hunter loving tubing

 There they go! This was at Gorgoza Park in Park City, Utah.

 Brian being pulled up the mountain

 Me going up the mountain

 Aspen enjoying the view.  Ok, she was asleep. but here's proof she was here.

 Making a snowman!

 I knit this hat for Aspen. Doesn't she look cute in it?!  This was on Saturday morning before we went with ate to the Temple.  It was such a beautiful session and we were blessed to go thru the Temple there.  Tyler and his mom watched the monkeys, took them on a train ride and walked around downtown SLC.  It was another blessing for us to have them there.

 On Saturday night, the Hill family threw a big party for us.  We got to meet most of Nate's awesome family.  It was really fun to tell his family how great he is as a missionary and as a guy.

 Nate's parents.

 Woohoo!!! Jackson Hole! I love it there.  Last time we went, I thought it was incredible but this time I loved it even more. This is the airport - getting off of the plane and walking in you walk through elk antlers.  Cool huh? The Elk weren't hurt, they lose their antlers once a year.

 The boys on the baggage cart.

 The view from our room! We could literally ski out of our resort and onto the mountain. It was incredible.

 My little snow angel!

Snowballs!!  we were having so much fun playing in the snow until the boys saw snowball makers - then we were on a mission!  Brian was in the room with Aspen and the boys and I went in search of snowball makers (which we later found and bought).

Wake up!!

These boys are obsessed with their sister.  They were actually fighting over who got to sit by her and who gets to hold her.  Just yesterday Hunter asked Daddy if we could have another baby! They sure do love each other and for that, I am so lucky.  Also interesting in this photo, under is a moose.

Me and the girl.  Every morning we went out as a family and played in the snow.  We had snowball fights, played on the snowed over play structure, and went sledding.  It was So much fun!

Brian was teaching Landon how to use the snowball maker....

Hunter knew how to do it.  He lived throwing them at us but didn't like it when we threw them back!

1, 2, 3, throw!

Landon: "1, 2, 3, I eat it!" and he sticks it in his mouth.  This kid is a lover not a fighter, and would rather eat the snowballs than throw them.  Everywhere we went with him all bundled, people commented on how adorable he is.  He really is.

Throw it! But not at Mommy because she's holding Aspen.  Hehe.  Brian got the brunt of it.  Good thing their aim isn't the best.

And after we came back inside and took off our big clothes, we had jammies underneath!  Then we needed hot cocoa to warm up!

I am so proud of my husband.  We have been together for 11 years and he has never once wanted to ski.  This time, he thought he would try it.  He took 3 lessons and really enjoyed himself.  I took him up on some intermediate runs and he did pretty well.  He spent 4 afternoons skiing and I spent 3.  One of the afternoons we spent together and it was probably one of the best dates we've had in awhile.  Dinner is fun, but doing something you love together is even more fun.  I love to ski and am so excited that he enjoyed himself too - maybe we'll actually get to take some more snowy vacations.  We also had 4 date nights - so we alternated ski afternoon and date night.  I think the secret to amazing vacations is to also give yourself a vacation.  Brian and I got to spend so much time together - and we really like each other - so that was awesome.

Going skiing! The first day the conditions were beautiful - upper 40s and sunny.  The next 2 days we skied were cold and it actually snowed on me (because I was at the summit).  The visibility a few days was AWFUL - you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you, but it was fun to ski anyways.

9,000 feet!

Coming down the mountain

Jackson Hole town center.  There are 4 arches made out of shed elk antlers.  Really neat.

We saw 28 moose.  Is that crazy? 28!? And the national park was CLOSED!

Moose on a frozen pond.

My little men.  What is cuter than this?

Maybe this.  She is all bundled up and ready to go in the snow.

And she sure does love being held by her big brother.

And her little big brother.

And, of course, her mommy.

"I EAT IT!"

Making more snowballs.

Hunter was in heaven.  This kid was born to play in snow.  Seriously.

He had 2 days of ski school and could actually pizza down the mountain! This was his first lesson.

And then we had to come warm up by the fire...until Landon tried to give me a heart attack and we had to go inside.

Tom.  How we love Tom.  We had dinner with Tom and Sue - who we also love - while in Jackson.  Tom Mangelsen is the photographer who took most of the photographs in our house.  We've become good friends with him and we were so excited when they asked us to dinner.

Tom, Me and Brian

Sue, Tom, Me and Brian

Me and the baby girl.  I wanted proof that she was here - all snuggled up to me.  This is a symbiotic relationship - we both kept each other warm.

Sledding.  Hunter wanted to go down on Daddy the first time - then he let loose!

Daddy and Landon

Daddy and Hunter

Of course we didn't send her sledding! But she sure is adorable on the disc, isn't she?

Me and Landon

Me and Hunter

Hunter's second day of ski school.  He's going up the magic carpet.

There he goes! Our amazing babysitter also worked at the ski school - so she got him to do some stuff he otherwise would have resisted.

After ski school we went on a sleigh ride in the Elk Reserve.  It was so neat to be up close and personal with a whole TON of male elk (bulls).

Flat creek

Landon on the sleigh ride.  Hunter is asleep.  Literally.

Male Elk.

On one of our date nights we bought legit cowboy boots.  I am so excited to wear them! We wore them on our date night too :-) I bet people thought we were locals.

Date night in Jackson

I love this man!

I was making a snowman.  Evidently I am very territorial over my snowman because when Hunter suggested knock it down I got pretty upset.  I'm sure it is still standing there to this day.

Our last day of skiing - on the lift together.

Ready to go!

Brian's first intermediate run.  He's nervous.

It was snowing.  I was eating it.  I'm not really grown up enough to have 3 kids.

Let's go!

Handsome man at the top of Casper - my favorite run.  Probably not his.

Then we got back to our precious little angels.

Sweet girl. We went to the lobby for hot cocoa and then found out that they were giving out smores...

Having hot cocoa.

But really just loving the girl.

And smores!!!

Yummy!

Warm by the fire.

Landon is now obsessed with hoods and thinks that all of his shirts have hoods on them.  When they don't, in fact, have a hood, this is what he does to them.

On Saturday night the kids were crazy.  We wanted to have a nice family dinner but, at the last minute texted the sitter to come for just 2 hours.  We had a great last date night and then sat by the fire and had a cookie skillet.  What a perfect ending to an awesome trip.  It couldn't have been more fun and I can't wait to go back there!  The best news is that Brian fell in love with it too, so I'm not alone.