Christmas Vacation!!

For Christmas vacation this year, we decided to surprise the kids with a trip to California and Universal Studios. Our trip started on Sunday, December 23 when we drove 10 hours to Las Vegas, NV and stayed at the Excaliber hotel. While in Vegas, we walked the strip, ate a giant S'more, tasted a lot of gross Coke products from around the world, and the kids did a couple 3D rides. We continued our drive Monday morning taking the road less traveled on old Route 66. Matt and I started our Route 66 journey back in May, and decided to follow it from Vegas to Santa Monica. Along the way, we made some famous Route 66 stops and, of course, had to stop to take pictures of the signs. We stayed at Jinnefer and Derrick's Monday night and continued on to Santa Monica Tuesday morning. The kids enjoyed walking the pier, going to the aquarium, and watching all the people. Afterwards, we went into Hollywood, then Beverly Hills, and drove down Rodeo Dr. Our hotel was across the street from Universal Studios which is where we stayed Tuesday-Thursday. We went to Universal Studios Wednesday (Christmas Day) and had the best time. Our Christmas dinner was at Bucca Di Beppo and we had pizza. On Thursday, we did the Hollywood walk of stars then drove back to stay another night at Jinnefer's. On Friday, we headed back to Utah and stayed at Royce & Tom's for the weekend. While in H Town, we were able to get together with some of our most favorite people. The first night, we had dinner with Rich & Joni Blackmore, Rusty & Hilary Stewart, Russ & Maryann Eardley, and Josh & Paige (I forgot their last name). On Sunday, we got together with our other group of friends: Russ & Maryann, Jeff & Deann, and Jamie & Julie. They are our wonderful life long friends that have been there for us through the very worst of times and we love them so much. We headed home Monday after a week of fun festivities. We are excited to see what the new year has in store for us!!