Out of Towners day 1

Merry Christmas, y'all. I hope everyone had a mahvelous holiday.  We just got home today and I had a blast. 

We went up to UT last week to spend Christmas with my family- it usually should take about 11-12 hours to get there, but we got a late start, were rerouted in Phoenix around some homicide for which they closed off a section of grand ave., took the car to AutoZone in Wickenburg to check a mysterious transmission error(turned out ok) and drove through a snowstorm in the mountains in the middle of the night (could only see the taillights in front of us and sometimes nothing at all), so it took ummmmmm FIFTEEN. yes. one. five.We got there at 5:00 in the morning.  After about 3.5 hours of sleep, we ate breakfast with the family, chit-chatted for a few hours, and then went to the park with all the kids.

random playground in Springville, UT with the cousins- there was snow on the other side of the park which you can't see in this picture..... I swear it.

Me and Matt.  Yes, I know you can't see my hands-they were cold!!

My toes were frozen when we left.  Dang ventilated hiking shoes.  I forgot that they were so breathable. booo.

Since we all had icicles hanging from our noses we came home and watched some movies and messed around (Aaron slept), then went caroling around the neighborhood with REAL candles...oooooooh...  It was so chilly I even had some double hoodie action going on.  alls I gotta say is burrr (obviously this is not REALLY alls I have to say since this post continues, but you get the point.  One should not be able to see their breath while inside a vehicle. savvy?) And then back home jiggedy jig for my brother's Mexican hot chocolate. 

Matt, Eve, Megan, Willam

Older bro Rob, younger sis Katie (8 mos pregnant), me (makeupless-aren't you lucky), mom.

Abuelita's Hot Chocolate- we were being dumb and acting like it was a picture for a commercial......*wink*

After examining the actual Abuelita (spanish for "Grandma") used on the cover of the packaging (seen above in Rob's lovely Vanna hands), supermodels Kate-mo and Demi tried to recreate her pose in their rendition of "still life with hot chocolate" aka "Double Chins never looked so good"

Katie dont kill me!!!  I LOVE this picture :) We are dorks hee hee AND I love that 80s country mug.... reminds me of home.

By the way, did you know that if you leave a candy cane in your hot chocolate it dissolves the inside of the candy cane, making it like a straw???  Not only absolutely interesting, but scrumptious, too. Who knew? 

Unfortunately for you, the pictures of me drawing on Aaron's face with eyeliner while he's napping on the couch are still on my dad's camera so you'll have to wait to see those.... That concludes our picture post for day one.... stay tuned for more soon!

Hasta.

(Although I know hasta is spelled this way I originally put asta so that people would pronounce it correctly.  Aaron scolded me and said "just because people don't say it correctly doesn't mean you should spell it differently.  People say worcestershire wrong all the time, but you don't see people spelling it wrong for their benefit")

Utah Trip - ....the other half

Hola!
Have you all been waiting for the second installment of the Utah trip? Welllllll, ok here's a little note on the rest of the trip....


Katie and Carter got married!

Thank you to our wonderful and over qualified babysitters, Sarah and the Gannaways... I think they should start a band... I like the sound of that... Sarah and the Gannaways.....

Afterward, we had a lovely luncheon at....a place in Provo... I think. Cute bib, Aaron.

...where among other crazy stories told, Rand proceeded to tell us all about his friend who, while on his honeymoon on some beach, got his nipple-ring snagged on the volleyball net as he jumped to spike the ball. Needless to say, we were the loudest and most rambunctious table there (as always).

Where is Aysha??? And Renee??? I think Renee was the photographer of one of these... we'll catch her later since I dont have any of her at the table... No, I'm not letting you off the hook Renee. Here's the only one of Aysha...I have no idea what Aaron said, but it must've been absurd, right Aysh?

Of course the Harward Family singers were featured singing uhhhh.. what did we sing? I'll Be Seeing You.

The reception was beautiful and a great time was had by all.

Especially Autumn and Megan who loved wearing matching flower girl dresses.

And both Matthew and Colin were too cute in their tuxes.

We called Colin the little executive because he had a serious face on most of the time... You're fired!

We told Colin to give Megan a kiss and instead he turned around and kissed the light post. It was pretty funny. There we go........... much better!

I had to include this last picture of our family. Unfortunatly, it was the best one of us....

Here's one that didn't make the cut... LOL! I love our family!
(Matthew reverse-head-butted me. Never a dull moment...)

Bye bye love birds! Have fun on your honeymoon!!!

No, Renee, I didn't forget you :o)

Utah Trip - First Installment

Welcome to the Shumway Family Blahhhg.

This last week Stephanie's sister got married in the Salt Lake Temple so we rented a car and drove up for the festivities. It was a lot of fun and really nice to see everyone (including Stephanie's brother, Rob, for the first time since he got back from Iraq).

The day after we got to Mom and Dad's house, Aysha and Stephanie decorated the lawn and trees with yellow hearts and ribbons, reminiscent of the song "tie a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree," and hung a big banner over the garage that said "Welcome home from Iraq! We love you Rob!" (Made by Mom, Cami, and Katie)

Colin (Rand and Aysha's son) and Matthew had a great time playing and really liked each other's company the whole trip. It was nice to have a buddy. When we drove up Mom and Dad's street the whole thing was torn up and there were large construction trucks.... I have no idea what kind of trucks they were. Matthew would start singing Bob the Builder everytime he went outside and would point to the truck excitedly and say "Mom! Bob the builder! Mom! Bob the Builder!"

Rand rode with Rob and Renee from the airport that afternoon and we were all waiting outside to welcome them.

That night all of the girls took Katie out for Sushi, which Stephanie had never tried before and was a little scared about. It turned out fine, however, the rolls Stephanie liked the best were tempura-ed, so it wasn't really true "blue" sushi anyway. They decided that every family gathering would include a girls night from now on, since they had so much fun.

From L to R: Stephanie(sister), Kaite (sister and the bride), Cami (sister), Aysha (Sis in law), Renee (sis in law)

After dinner, we raced to the reception center to take our family pictures. The dress code was blue jeans and a shirt ranging in color from navy to white. Both Aaron and Stephanie wished that they had started their dieting a little earlier (their plan is to start on August 22nd after Aaron takes the DAT) so they weren't the biggest people in each picture, but oh well. Our kids are still cute. The ones shown here are not the actual pictures, just us taking pictures while the photographer does her work.

What a cutie. This has been the first installment of The UT trip blog. Stay tuned for the wedding day and a day in Provo Canyon where we were visited by two moosen. Thank you Brian Regan.