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Eli is out of school for a school break so he came running with  me.    He is 40 lbs!  I think this is the last time I run with him.  He does give me a great workout pushing him 4 miles and up all those hills!

At the top of the hill there is some new construction and Eli loves every minute of it.  There is always some type of construction vehicle moving.  Excavators are his favorite! 

He had a great time watching the road grader.

We heard the high school band play, so we had to run over there and listen.

We started running again and met the band in our neighborhood.   We had to stop and rest, I mean watch the band  🙂   Time to teach Eli how to play!

That afternoon we stopped at mom and dad’s house and walked through the car show.

Bryan stopped in as well.

Paul, Bryan, and Aaron came to the show.

Paul had to take my picture in front of this truck.  Reminded him of a truck from his childhood.

Eli was getting bored of the cars until this truck pulled in!

A fire truck!  Another favorite.

I had a few things to do at the stores today.  Eli got straight to work.  He set the tables with baskets.

All the tables with baskets.

He filled the ice machine with ice.

He grabbed his favorite snack.  Cheese.

Played with water.

When we started out the day it was sunny and only a few white clouds in the sky.   An hour later it started hailing!  And not just a little hail, it looked like it was snowing.

The hail was the size of quarters.  It left dents in my car.

A river of hail.

 

 

For Paul’s Birthday he wanted to fly a plane.  So we did, but waited until it was warmer outside.

This is the only picture of our pilot.  He was 19!  He looked like he was 14!

The pilot took us down the runway, up in the air, and handed the controls to Paul. 

The view of Utah!

Flying over I-15.

Paul flying the plane.

Me in the back 🙂

Paul flying the plane.

After Paul flew, the pilot landed and Paul and I switched seats.  Paul was nice to include me in his birthday gift and I had a chance to fly the plane.

The pilot going over the ground controls.

I’m flying this time.  Not too exciting.  But it was so fun to fly!

 

Eli’s school created a movie of what they have learned throughout the year.

They held a private event at the movie theatre.  So much fun!  We purchased popcorn, drinks and went to the movies.

At the end the kids walked the red carpet.  Well, all the kids walked, my son hopped.

I made those tasty Mexican Wedding cookies.  Yeah, the ones with three ingredients of butter, sugar and more butter.

We dusted the cookies with powdered sugar and what do you do with the left overs?  Drive your cars around the snow.  Fun?  Eli thought so.

After the snow, the cars needed a car wash.  Into the sink they went.

I came back periodically to check on him 😊

That’s my three year old!  I sure love him!

Every Tuesday is the same around here.

Eli’s photo shoot.  I asked for one good smile and this is what I got…

 

We jump in the car.

We don’t forget about Charlie.  He is strapped into his car seat as well.

We drop Charlie off to play with Lucy and pick up my mom and brother.

And we go to the prison for lunch.

At the Serving Time Cafe.

Inmates cook and serve the food.  It’s fast food type food, but really good and cheap!

We were crazy today and had the French toast instead of egg and cheese bagel.  Tater tots are always ordered.

After lunch we find a new bakery and treat ourselves to a treat.  Today was the Chocolate.  We split a huge skillet cookie.

We always look forward to Tuesday’s!

 

Christmas eve was at our house this year. I tried to decorate to make sure everyone had some great memories of Christmas this year.  Growing up I looked forward going to mormor and morfar’s house and seeing all their decorations.  Their decorations became so familiar and fun, I looked forward to them every year.  I didn’t feel it was Christmas until we were at their house smelling the traditional Norwegian dinner cooking.

Our Norwegian Christmas dinner was mutton (so glad I’m vegetarian 🙂 ), Surkal, kalrabi, and risengrot for dessert.  I’m sad we are not carrying on that tradition.   The only thing I’m making is risengrot.  Maybe next year we will make the full traditional dinner.

I love getting together with my family.  They are so fun to be with.

I love all the smiles.

After dinner we decorated tiny houses.  I ordered them online, but din’t look at the dimensions.  They were so small!  Oh, well.  They were fun to decorate.

My attempt at making the risengrot, or rice pudding.   It turned out wonderful!  Growing up I didn’t like mormor’s rice pudding and now that I made my own, I know why I didn’t like hers.   I used arborio rice and she used just regular rice.  I also used real heavy whipping cream and sweetened the cream before mixing into the risengrot.   I also used a danish red sauce to add a little flavor and sweetness.

I also made krumkake.  This also turned out fantastic and was a great cookie to eat along with the risengrot.

Eli loved it.

My mother was supposed to bring the marzipan pig for the almond winner, but instead brought marzipan fruit for all of us.    She is always so sweet to think of us.  Maybe one year I will put an almond in all the cups so we all will really win the marzipan fruit 🙂

Unwrapping gifts.  Charlie really wanted to get in on the action, but he waited patiently.  He is such a good dog!

Unwrapping gifts.

Even Charlie was tired at the end of the night.

After everyone left, we had our Christmas Eve as a family. We unwrapped our Christmas pajamas.

Santa came!  🙂 Paul and I brought up all the wrapped gifts from downstairs to be ready for Christmas morning.

We had a really fun night with family.

Eli’s first visit to Santa went as well as any three year old.

He didn’t want to sit on his lap, which is totally fine!  So he gave him a hug 🙂

My sweet little boy.

Paul had a conference in Vegas so we all went with.

We stayed in the Trump hotel because of Eli. The Trump is a gambling free, smoke free hotel. We all LOVED it. At the end of the day it was nice to go to a REAL smoke free room. Not those rooms that say they are smoke free, but still smell the smoke.

We went to the Venetian for dinner. Not bad. I wouldn’t go back. I actually wouldn’t go back to any of the dinners we ate in Vegas. They all were over priced and started to taste the same.

Me and my little boy.

Eli loves his dad.

The hotels were decorated for Christmas. All the twinkling lights really lite up the hotels making it a fun walk through the long hotels.

Nascar was in town. They come every year for their the end of the season celebration.

One of the vendors gave Eli a little nascar car. He loved it and kept him in the stroller which was a win for me.

Always something to see in Vegas. Like a huge wall of water.

One night we saw Mickey Mouse. Eli couldn’t control his laughter. He was so excited to see him in person! I guess it’s time to go do Disneyland .

We went to the pool daily. It was a heated pool with a nice hot tub.

It was so nice to have a few hours a day of downtime.

Eli loves to be with mormor.

Eli found a nice chair to relax.

We went shopping every day.

Look where Eli put his shoes 🙂

We watched the Nascar drivers do burnouts in the intersection.

I didn’t know how fun a burnout was going to be. Could watching a car spin around as fast as they can and make as much smoke as they can be entertaining? It actually was a lot of fun to watch and really loud.

Enjoying the water shows at night.

Every morning it was breakfast in bed. Eli better not get used to this.

One of the hotels had a huge aquarium. The stingrays would come up to the glass and watch us.

Eli thought the fish were fun and scary.

We took a short trip to Otter Creek State Park. We went mid April, and it was VERY cold. Next time, if there will be a next time, we need to go later in the year.

Eli did very well the car ride.

He kept himself busy.

Very entertaining.

Watching movies helped 🙂

I used this trip to sew a blanket for Eli.

My first patch quilt. I embroidered monsters. I think it turned out nice.

As usual, we ate a lot! Real whipped cream for our breakfast of cheese blintz with blueberry sauce. Very tasty.

We took a short trip to the painted road. Not much, but a painted road out in the middle of no where.

At the end of the painted road, there was a little exhibit with dinosaurs.

Enjoying a good book before bed.

On the way home. He played hard. It was a fun weekend get away.