Backyard Honeycomb

His day started out with a wonderful breakfast.

Tickles—because that’s the best kind of motivation for a smile!

Crepes filled with pastry cream and drizzled in chocolatey goodness. Sure, they look a bit messy, but that’s how you know they’re fresh off the pan!

Mascarpone is a staple in this house, so fresh strawberries and mascarpone parfaits come pretty easily in the morning. You can’t help but eat one, they are happiness in a glass! Every bite is as sweet and delicious as it looks.

After breakfast, we made our way to the Orem temple. This was the first time I have been here, and like all the temples, this one didn’t disappoint. As usual, two weddings were happening at once, one on each side of the temple. And Eli? He was so embarrassed. He was worried he was getting in the way as we were rushing through his photo ops, but he made it through.

The flowers were absolutely gorgeous this year. We couldn’t have timed it better.

Wow! This picture was off centered…. But look at all those flowers. The flower planters followed the entire parking lot, leading up to the temple.

After his photo shoot, we went to his favorite restaurant. Melty. We always have to stop here when we are down south. I can’t disagree. The sandwiches are pretty good, and you can’t go wrong dipping something cheesy and fried in sauce.

After lunch we went to Fat Cats.

And burned $30 on video games.

It was worth it.

After Fat Cats, I told Eli I needed to do a bit of grocery shopping and to swing by the store on the way home. He wasn’t thrilled, but since he’s a passenger in the car, he didn’t have a choice but to come with us.

When we got there, I did do grocery shopping, but swung by the bikes on the way out. We told him to pick out a bike for his anniversary gift. He immediately forgot what he was unhappy about and didn’t ask twice to ride the bike around the store. You pick out shoes and walk around in them before purchasing, so why not a bike?

We did one more stop at Lowes on the way home. While waiting, Eli jumped into the bed of the truck to be with his bike. He didn’t want to leave it alone a minute longer than he had to. He rode that bike for about an hour with Paul before bed.

We couldn’t have asked for a better day.

Christmas Eve was at our house this year. Classic cookie decorating during the evening.

Ornament exchange.

We put a train in the middle of the tree this year. This was a fun addition.

The train around the tree….

And the cars? I love this little boy.

I think we are set for tomorrow. The naughty or nice meter ended at nice.

Eli set out cookies and lemonade?

Yup. Freshly squeezed lemonade.

The table was set for breakfast.

The bare tree turned from this…

To this…

So Eli couldn’t hear what we were doing, Paul was out in the garage pumping up the paddle board per my request.

I thought it would be fun for Eli to come out and see his giant board. Which is the same length of ours. In the living room, it looks soooo big.

The lemonade was tart. Ha! 🙂

Paul took one for the team and the cookies this year. He build up an appetite bringing up everything from the basement.

Can’t wait for tomorrow!

We took the traindown town to see the lights.

The temple is still in scaffolding.

Love the floating balls

Due to half of temple square being under construction, there were only a few trees with lights.

We stopped off at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. The gal said it was a 2 1/2-hour wait. So, we grabbed takeout and went into the mall, where we ate dinner: avocado eggrolls and macaroni cheese fried balls.

It was a cold late night so we headed back home.

One of the days we were out, walking through the hotels and shops, we ended at the shops in Caesar’s Palace.  We were supposed to meet Paul for dinner at a restaurant a few streets up, but after walking several miles we didn’t want to walk anymore  🙂

With the buffets dying out we decided to show Eli what a buffet was and took him to the Bacchanal Buffet.   

I should have taken a picture of Paul’s plate, instead he took this attractive picture of me 🙂    He had two plates FULL of lobster, shrimp, and crab legs.  He said he had to eat $250 worth of food.  He is right.  Buffets make money when I eat there.  When Paul went back for something I would ask him to bring me just a little mac n cheese and he would come back with a full plate of pasta 🙂

I taught Eli the importance of a good dessert, ha!  Everytime he went back for a plate of dinner, we would swing around the dessert island and pick up something fun to try.  

My mom and I would take a few desserts, share them, then go back for the ones we liked.

When it was time to leave, Eli went over to take a few pictures of the desserts.  This is what he took. I though it was funny so I posted EVERY picture he took 🙂

As I was posting the pictures, he took so many I didn’t post all the pictures of the flavors of gelato and toppings. He took a picture of EVERYTHING. 🙂

This was one of the fun nights we had.

Today we walked quite a bit. We went to the outlets all morning and did some shopping. Instead of taking the shuttle, we walked a mile to the strip from the hotel.

We went to the Excalibur Hotel and saw the King of Kings dinner/ show.

This was Eli at 10:00 PM. He had enough and he was tired. After dinner, we tried to find the hotel shuttle pick-up area, but couldn’t find it.  We called the hotel and they directed us to the Paris Hotel.  When we arrived at the hotel, the cab director said he hadn’t seen the Wyndham Hotel shuttle in years. I walked my mother 6 miles today and decided I didn’t want to walk her anymore. Even though we were only a mile away from our hotel, we decided to get a cab.  The cab director said the ride would cost $15 for a two-mile ride due to a street closure. No worries, we all got in, and off we went.  45 minutes, 6 miles of street closures, one-way streets, and $35 later we arrived at our hotel.  Ha!

Eli was so hungry he ate his second dinner at the hotel. Not sure how he stayed awake while eating 🙂

All the hotels were decorated for Christmas.

We walked around through all the hotels.

We drove to a fun restaurant one night for dinner. You can’t go wrong with four cheese mac n’ cheese. Can you tell he was excited? 🙂

Went to Bobby Burgers for dinner. Eli tried his first burger this past summer and now is obsessed with them.

Went to Panino for lunch. I wanted to remember this place to never go back. The sandwiches were really good, but the bread was really hard. We all took the bread off the top. I’m not thrilled that I paid $35 for the most expensive hard sandwiches.

We ate so much and it was so good!

Every morning, after Paul got up and left for his conference, Eli came with me to the gym.

It was fun having a workout partner.

After working out, we would stop by the ping pong tables on our way back and play several rounds. By the end of the week, he was getting pretty good at it. We need to add a ping pong table to our list of must-haves for our new house. 🙂

After breakfast, we got dressed in our swimsuits and went to the pool. I was a little disappointed with the heated pool because it wasn’t heated.  It was solar-heated by the sun!  I thought it was freezing and had to keep moving to stay warm.  Eli thought it was great!

We went to the gaming center every day. Every Day. Eli loved the gaming chairs.

Going to the movies was also part of our daily routine. We stopped at the store to get movie essentials: drinks, popcorn, and treats.  Jungle Cruise and Indiana Jones were our favorite movies. We didn’t finish Jungle Cruise so a few days later one of the employees was so nice, she started the movie just for us, and fast-forwarded to where we ended so we could finish the movie.

Back to the gaming center.

We found the best bakery in Las Vegas. Freed’s Bakery. They have the BEST cannoli. We may have frequented this shop every day. They had so many treat to try, and we were so short on time 🙂

We went to the Oasis Cafe a few times and took it back to our room. They had battered fries and freshly made potato chips. I ate those chips along with a glass of chocolate milk. Oh, so good!

Eli told me he loved our daily routine. Oh, that makes my mama heart smile.  When we are home we need to start a routine just for us. And it doesn’t need to be this elaborate.  Something with the two of us.

Look at that smile.  Eli is a seasoned flyer now 🙂  

 Eli was excited to go on this trip. We took a week off work and school, so I was excited as well  😀  We didn’t want to do homework in Vegas, so he completed a week’s worth of homework over the weekend. I’m so pleased with his hard work and dedication.

What a different view than the flight to Colorado. Instead of ever-green trees and snow, we flew over dry and brown.

He didn’t know what we were flying over, nor did he care. He didn’t waste a second to start playing a movie. He enjoyed his flight.

As we walked off the airplane and into the airport, they had casino gambling machines front and center. Eli asked if we had entered a gaming portal, ha!

We picked up the rental car and drove to Red Rock Canyon.  I have been to Las Vegas many times, but have never been here, so I was looking forward to this drive.

When we arrived at the front gate, I showed the park ranger my mother’s military ID, but she wouldn’t accept it.  Eli stepped it up and used his 4th grader ID to get us into the park for free!   He was taking this seriously filling out all the information.  We have the cutest boy.

There isn’t much to Red Rock Canyon.  There is a giant rock sitting in a gray desert, but, it was what we needed after flight.

The rock was beautiful though. You can see where the flash flooding erodes the rock.

Eli needed to get out and RUN!

There were some fun plants that we need in our yard.

Found a holly bush.

We explored the area.

See him? Pretty cool. Paul spotted this guy.

A cool looking cactus.

We stayed at the Wyndham Hotel. With two bedrooms and two baths condo, it was nice for each of us to have our own space.

Eli found his bed right away. He stayed up watching a movie and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I got in my bed and fell asleep. We have a fun week planned with a lot on our itinerary.

Nisse came back this year. Eli asked about him a few months ago, so he either made an impression on him, or he wants to eat treats for breakfast. I haven’t decided.

It Looks magical! Eli will love it!

I needed to make a few changes to make setup a bit easier, but at the same time maintaining the whimsical look and keeping the the magic feel of the morning. The term ‘make it easier’, unfortunately means more purchased items.

I had to keep the infamous powdered donuts that started it all. This will be a staple every year.

Hot chocolate, chocolate spoons, mini marshmallows, and candy canes.

Eli and Paul have fun with this. Eli likes the chocolate spoons and stirs his hot chocolate with them.

Chocolate covered oreo cookies made it to the table this year. I heated the top of the cookie a bit then sprinkled with sprinkles. I thought I had Christmas sprinkles in the cupboard, so multi-colored had to do. I also didn’t sprinkle a bunch of cookies because Eli isn’t a fan of mint, and I’m not a fan of sprinkles. So, I only sprinkled the ones I wanted to keep.

As I was perusing the cookie isle, I found these Pepperidge Farm cookies. They looked fun; and fulfilled the requirement of new and easy with a touch of fantasy, so I had to try them. Although they looked great, they tasted terrible. They went straight into the trash as I was cleaning up. I’m glad I purchased them, as they looked fun on the table, but I likely won’t use them next year.

The marshmallow ‘things’ last year was a hit, so they were on my list for this year. These chocolate-covered marshmallow cookies were the only ones I could find and I’m pleased I couldn’t find the others. They were surprisingly tasty! Hopefully, I can come across them again next year.

Pirate O’s didn’t disappoint. A shipment of mergpijpjes arrived two weeks before Christmas. I was getting a bit worried and had a backup plan just in case they didn’t come in. I’m pleased I didn’t have to use the backup; because nothing compares to this tasty goodness.

I decided to purchase Mexican Wedding cookies instead of making them. I’m glad I did. They were not bad. To make things easy for next year, I’m going to purchase them again.

The plan was to make crepes a few weeks prior and freeze them. Yeah, that didn’t happen. Too many other things got in the way and crepes went further down the to-do list. Frozen waffles it is. This is the first time we have had frozen waffles so I didn’t know what to expect. We toasted them up in the toaster; loaded them up with fruit, cream, and maple syrup. I will do this again next year. It was easy to pull them out in the morning, and they were still chilled when Eli got up.

Fruit parfaits will continue to be a staple. They are easy and some sort of non-saturated fat needs to be somewhere on the table.

Raspberry shooters are back. These are becoming one of my favorites.

Paul liked them as well 🙂

I’m so ready to start building the new house. Designing the new kitchen, I have visions of what the new kitchen will look like in my mind. It’s going to be nice. It won’t have house plans hanging on the back door with magnets 🙂 It also won’t have a bike in the kitchen. I’m too tired to edit and try to hide the bike and garbage can this year, so looking forward to my new kitchen!

Look at that breakfast plate. Eli had a lot of fun.

A cup of M&M’s. Easy and brings in some Christmas color.

Breakfast was a success! What a fun morning.

Christmas was brought up and put out.

The scarecrow is staying. Somehow, she is going to turn into a Christmas scarecrow…

Paul has been searching for a new jeep for a while now, and a few days ago, he found the one. It was the color he wanted, with leather seats, and… he named some other jeep qualities, but this is all I could remember, ha! I promise I was listening. Sort of.

We arrived at the airport at 4:30 AM. Originally, Paul had plans to fly to Colorado and drive back himself, but I didn’t want him driving back alone. Eli doesn’t remember the times he has flown on an airplane, so this would be a great opportunity.  I’m glad we did because Eli had a lot of fun.

On the way to our gate, we I had to stop for a treat. I can always eat an almond horn for breakfast! 🙂

We were on the plane for almost an hour before it took off. It felt like we taxied to Bountiful, but we only went around to the other side of the airport to de-ice the plane.

Finally, we took off.

I have forgotten how short the flight to Denver is. We taxied on the ground longer than we were in the air.  The next thing we knew, we touched ground in the snow. 

45 minutes later we were still on the airplane because they couldn’t open the door.  This was a new one for me. The airline stewardess said the plane was too heavy in the front and needed all passengers to head to the back of the airplane to tip it backward. After the door was open and passengers were getting off, she again got on the intercom to tell all passengers to come forward to the front of the plane, because now the airplane was back heavy and the nose would start lifting off the ground. I have never been on a plane that was this tippy. Or maybe she was tippy?

I didn’t take any pictures after that. The sweet car salesman (sales lady?) came to the airport and picked us up. With the plane issues, she had to circle the airport a bit, and then it was an hour’s drive to the dealership in the snow! She was so wonderful to accommodate us.  We were at the dealership for longer than I wanted to be there. I kept hinting that I was hungry, but that didn’t push the finance guy to work any faster.

We went to lunch at Snarfs and tried the Farmer. I don’t know if it was the best sandwich ever, or because I was so hungry, but this was the best sandwich ever.

Time to head home! We stopped off at Johnson Corner Bakery for some driving treats to keep me awake.

Eli was right at home with his switch.

10:00 PM we arrived at Little America for dinner and ice cream. Eli asked if we could stay the night. I would have stayed if we didn’t have to go to school tomorrow.  It was a long drive after that. Trying to get Eli to sleep, I sat in the back so he could lie down for the remainder of the ride home. I need him to get some sort of sleep because tomorrow won’t be fun getting up.