Winter Vacation in Utah

(Wow. I thought I had finished and published this post a long time ago. 

I have certainly been slacking on the blogging front...)

I felt so good to come home to Utah and spend Christmas with Karl's family. We love to move in with Grandma and Grandpa for a few weeks and keep them on their toes!

One of the boys' favorite thing is Grandma's home-made granola for breakfast (and sometimes for lunch, dinner, or dessert):  

Karl grew up making gingerbread houses (i.e. elaborate castles) from scratch with his family and Grandma is carrying the tradition on with the grandkids:

We got to play with friends and celebrate Eric's birthday: 

We played games and made puzzles. And apparently Max entertained us with his funny faces: 

The boys found some pretty big icicles: 

Max gave Noah a Nutella jar for Christmas. 

Noah shared and both kids were in chocolate heaven. 

And what better thing to spread your Nutella on than Grandma's fresh home-made bread? 

Sledding in the backyard:

Grandpa was thrilled to show us the new FrontRunner train that goes from Provo to Salt Lake. 

So we tested it out one afternoon and went to Temple Square. 

It's a beautiful place to be but, as you can imagine, the boys figured just looking is boring and decided to throw snowballs at everything instead. In order to minimize destruction, Karl took them to one of the many fountains. 

(I won't mention how someone in the family told us that the train leaves at 2:00. When we got there at 1:57, just in time to hop on the train, it was slowly pulling out of the train station. Believe me, you don't want to mess with Germans when it comes to public transportation. I grew up riding the bus/train everywhere. And I've learned one thing: It ain't gonna wait for you! So you'd better know exactly when it is going to depart...)

We had a great time and I definitely didn't take enough pictures. But, hey, I was on vacation so I only did whatever the heck I felt like - and taking pictures was apparently not high in the list. Family time is wonderful and cousins are the best thing ever invented! We can't wait to head back up there in July to spend a solid 4 weeks playing and having fun. But first, Grandma and Grandpa are coming to visit us in Flagstaff for a week in just 5 days! Good times ahead...