Chistmas Celebration Day 5 - The aquarium in Gatlinburg

On Day 5 of the Christmas Celebration we drove to Gatlinburg, TN which reminded me a lot of Park City in Utah. It's a touristy town up in the mountains. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was on the drive there in spite of it being in the dead of winter. I couldn't get enough of the mountains, trees, and water. And the fact that there was no snow! I loved that. My parents took all of us to the Aquarium. I knew Brian would love this, since we have a 120 gallon fish tank at home. Also the kids were going to be super excited too!

I love my mom's face - loving on the Benny boo!

Silly Craziness

Happy happy excitement!

The sharks were amazing!

The tunnel of the aquarium was the best part - a tunnel of glass with fish and sharks all over!
Benny was incredibly grumpy there because of his 4 teeth coming in. Luckily I had my mom around to help our with the poor boy!
Yikes!

We loved the saw-fish. Lily looks amazed!

Mom and Dad being silly in the gift shop!

Checking out the sting rays!

Benny even got a kick out of it at the end!

My favorite were the sting rays! They are like underwater flowers. I couldn't get over how pretty they are!

That concludes day 5 of the Christmas extravaganza!

Chistmas Celebration Day 4 - Christmas Pageant

Christmas Celebration Day 4 was pretty fun. We spent the day at my parent's house recovering from our jetlag. I got to see the church that my Dad is the pastor of. I thought it was pretty awesome to see his name on the sign. The church was having a children's Christmas pageant that night. My mom had my kids being sheep in the play. Rachel was their shepherd. It was pretty cute.

Baaa goes Benny

My sister with all the sheep at the pageant.

Sweet Lily, she was having the worst time feeling afraid of doing this. But she warmed up to the idea since she was hanging out with her auntie.

This is at the dinner afterwards. Benny just hanging out with his Grammy.

There's Day 4!

Christmas Celebration Day 3 - Flying to Tennessee

Day 3 of our awesome Christmas celebration, we got up bright and early (3 am to be exact) to catch our 6:30 am flight to Knoxville, Tennessee to see my family. My brother Jimmy decided in October that he had some extra money and thought it would be great if he could fly our whole family out for the holidays. I was ecstatic at his generosity especially since I hadn't seen some of my family in 5 years and a lot of them hadn't even met Benny yet. Our entire family, Mom, Dad, Sam and his fiancee, Erin, Jimmy, David, and Rachel were all going to be together for Christmas. Plus I was going to be able to see my Grandma, Aunt Rhonda and Uncle Mike, Uncle Brad, Aunt Tammie, and my cousin Corion. All of us being together was the best Christmas present I could ever get.
So 6:30 a.m. we got on our American Airlines flight, and our first stop was in Dallas, TX for our 2 hour layover.

Here's Lily looking out the window for takeoff. This was her first plane ride. She was so cute and wouldn't stop talking and asking questions.

Here's the Dallas airport. We thought this was such a cool airport. It had a train you would ride from terminal to terminal.

My 3 sweeties watching the "plane show" outside.

We made it to Knoxville in the heavy fog and we were so excited to see everyone. I know that Rachel and I just screamed and hugged each other so tight when we got to see each other. We were just so happy to see everyone! Here's Benny getting super excited over the piano at my mom's house.

We always get Rachel and Lily's names mixed up when they're together. They are just so much alike I think. I just love them both. I know Lily never stopped playing with Rachel the entire visit.

That's Christmas Day 3!

Christmas Celebration Day 2 - Christmas morning at home

Christmas celebration Day 2. My brother, Jimmy bought us plane tickets to Tennessee so everyone could be together for Christmas this year. So I decided we should celebrate Christmas early so we wouldn't have to pack presents in our suitcases. It's always a lot of fun to see Christmas through the eyes of a child. It was Benny's first Christmas which made it even more special.

Lily got what she wanted from Santa. A guitar!
And horse toys!

You know how everyone says that babies always like the wrapping paper more than the toy. That's exactly what I expected from Benny. Surprisingly, it was the opposite. He was trying to get the paper out of the way so he could get to his present.

Benny's new ball popper. What fun!

It was interesting to have 2 kids this year for Christmas. Lily was just as excited over her toys as she was over Benny's. I think she ended up playing with his toys more than hers at first.

Christmas celebration day 1 - Zoo Lights

Since the Christmas season was full of so many days of celebrations, I am going to break them up into the days. To kick off the celebration, our family went to Zoo Lights. It was super cold that day, but we were going to be out of town so we decided to go anyway. We bundled up into many layers and me and the kids got on the train down to Salt Lake. Then Brian picked us up and we went to the zoo. They really do make a very awesome display for the kids. Lily really enjoyed it.
At the entrance of the zoo. Lily was pretty psyched over the giraffe and elephant.

Lily loved the train!

I was super worried Benny was cold, but this is what he did the majority of the time. So apparently he was pretty comfortable.

We got to see the Tigers at night - and since they're nocturnal it was cool to see them doing something besides sleeping.

Lily had to ride the tiger on the carousel after seeing all the tigers out and about.

Lily's first time talking to Santa. She was so excited to meet him. She asked for a guitar and horse toys.

I wasn't sure Benny was excited for Santa but we had to at least get a picture.

There's Christmas day 1. More to come!

December 16th

December 16th 2001 marks mine and Brian's 1st date, so this year will be our 9 year dating anniversary. Almost a decade! For real? Time flies. I am so happy that I am still with him. I definitely didn't know that when I asked Brian out to my high school Christmas dance that I'd fall in love with him, let alone marry him and have children with him.

Our first date - we are such nerds. I was 15 and Brian was 19. This was my high school Christmas dance. I was going to school at Salt Lake Lutheran High School. I didn't like anyone from high school so I asked Brian to be my date. Yes, I asked him out. I guess I am kinda brave. After a few months of hanging out with Sam, it gave me the courage to to ask him out. Dances are lame, we left early. I wanted Brian to kiss me that night, but he chickened out and kissed me a couple days later.


Here's us a couple months later. I loved having a boyfriend. I think even more than that I was really happy to have a friend. I really always loved that Brian was so sweet to me even in the beginning. He always treated me with respect. One of the things I liked the most was that he was on fire for the Lord. That was the greatest thing that brought us together.

Here's us in Oregon on vacation with my family. Look at us lovebirds. We fought so much that summer. We still made it through, even through the tough times.
Here's us in Chicago. We took the Amtrak train with my family to see Sam graduate from bootcamp. Literally spent days together confined on a train and exhausted.
And Denver, Colorado. We didn't get a real honeymoon when we were married. This little getaway was like our real first honeymoon.
Here's us today. I love you Brian Bauer. Here's to many many more years.