Birthday dinner

For my birthday, Bryan took me to dinner at Panda Garden. They have moo goo gai pan, which I love. But we decided that we needed to figure out how to make it ourselves because they use too many mushrooms! Although, the translation for moo goo gai pan is "mushroom chicken slices" so I don't know what I was thinking. 

We got three fortunes and we weren't sure what the first one meant. Is it bad to be the beef in a vegetarian salad or is that good?  Seems bad to me and that means the fortune wasn't very good. Anyway, you can judge for yourself.  The food was still good.

Skiing at Brian Head

Grandpa Pack wanted to ski at Brian Head so he and Grandma came to town. Bryan, Courtney, and Grandpa went skiing and had a great time. It was cold and started to snow as they left, but they had had a lot of fun. Bryan and Courtney rented skis in Cedar City. Grandpa has his own so he was all set.

Courtney is a great skier and has a lot of fun. I'm glad they were able to go.

Grass soda?!

Ethan finds the strangest sodas to give to Bryan. For Father's Day, he gave Bryan a Ranch flavored soda. For Christmas, Ethan gave Bryan a grass flavored soda.  We decided to let it get cold and then see how it tasted. To be honest, it was really good. It tasted kind of like green apple but it was sweet. I didn't mind it at all but it was weird to think I was drinking something flavored like grass.

Video games

Courtney has spent her break trying to beat scores on the Wii games. She has been having a lot of fun and beat all of us at Wii bowling.

Scout Cave Hike

We wanted to go on a hike but not one that was too long. I found the Scout Cave hike and we decided to do it. We parked in the construction parking of the Black Desert Resort (which stressed Courtney out) and then walked to the trailhead by the Welcome to Ivins sign.

It was a short hike through a dry wash and then up some steep stairs but it was worth it. There weren't too many people but the view was incredible.

It was definitely worth the time we took to hike it.

Baptisms

I had snagged an appointment for baptisms at the St. George Temple right when the appointments opened up. I was glad I had because they were filled when I looked later. It was fun to be there with all 4 of us. Ethan baptized Courtney and Bryan, then Bryan baptized Ethan and me. 

The workers are still learning so it took a bit longer and there were some funny mishaps but it was a good experience and I'm glad we were able to go. The sun was bright.

Courtney had a cool experience. When she got home, she realized that one of her earrings was gone. She was sure it had come out in the font so she didn't think she would ever get it back. The next day, Hayley called her (which is weird because they only SnapChat or text). I heard Courtney answer and say "No way!" about 500 times. When they finished talking, Courtney came in to tell me what had happened. Hayley had been in the temple doing sealings but had time enough to do something else so she decided to do baptisms. She didn't have an appointment but when there but they fit her in. While she was in the dressing room, she noticed an earring sitting on the counter near the mirrors. Hayley has the same earrings so she recognized it as Courtney's earring. Courtney had told Hayley that she lost it and so Hayley grabbed it and, after she was outside the temple, she called Courtney to tell her. What a blessing!

Christmas

We had a quiet but fun Christmas. Again, I didn't take many pictures. In fact, I only took 2 pictures.

But it was a great day. Ethan got photography stuff, a sushi making kit, and money. Courtney got shoes, cleats, and money. It was a good day all around.

Christmas is great when the kids are home.