Thursday, December 27, 2012

Christmas Leave

Ryan was able to have 2 weeks off from the Army for Christmas. So far we have done some fun things but nothing too extravagate. But here are something's we have done.
 
 
I had a great idea (or so I thought) to get tickets for a train ride near Boise since Ryan's favorite Christmas movie is the Polar Express. Now I have always wanted to ride this train anyways cause it can be seen from the highway on your way into Boise up in the mountains along the river. I was all excited and Ryan seemed excited too. So I booked what they called the North Pole Express where Santa will be on board and all that jazz. 
Now the train is really neat and they had it all decorated pretty inside, so I figured this would be a great ride. Well.....it would be a fun ride with little kids or for little kids. I figured the train would be going up in the mountains like I thought but it didn't. It just drove to a place in a middle of a field, oh sorry the North Pole, and everyone got out and the kids sat on Santa's lap and got cookies and milk. Granted it was fun seeing all the little kids but Ryan and I just stayed on the train once we got to the "North Pole". It was windy and really there was NO snow at all so it didn't feel very Christmassy.
Granted there was a Holiday Dinner I could of booked but I thought maybe it would seem more like the Polar Express but it fell a little short. But we did have fun, I guess we had too high of expectations.
But since we were close to Boise( the train was in Horseshoe Bend, which is 30 mins. away) we went over the hill and saw Ryan's family. We were able to see Ryan's grandpa Bill which he lives in Twin Falls and drives Semi so we aren't able to see him often. Also went and saw Ryan's grandma where his little cousins Maddie and Porter live. Maddie is 4 and Porter is 2 and this was the first time we met Porter. Maddie was sure happy to see us though.
After the train ride we came back over and stayed the night at Ryan's mom's house. The next morning we decided since we were in the Snake River Valley we would drive over to Twin Falls/Kimberly and see Ryan's grandpa Bill again and his great grandparents. His great Aunt Donna was there from Wells, Nevada so we got to visit with her also. Ryan hadn't see her since he was 4! Ryan was thrilled cause his grandpa passed down his shotgun to him that he bought when he was 14 years old so that was in 1955. Over all it was a pretty good trip. Just went all over the state of Idaho though.
 
Once being home we just did some little Christmas stuff here and there. We made gingerbread houses.
Went and looked at Christmas lights.
And on Christmas eve we went to my grandparent's house, like every year, where my aunt Robin and uncle John, cousins (Jason, Justin, Jennifer, and Jen's husband Alan), parents, one of my brothers(David), and my cousins' kids(Harley-2 and Stetson-4) opened presents from the grandparents. We roasted but that's part of the tradition of going to Grandma's house on Christmas Eve.
 
The next morning we opened our presents. Ryan was so worried I wasn't going to like my present from him. 
I don't know, a laptop is nothing special really. Just kidding I was shocked.
Than we went to my Aunt Robin's for Christmas dinner. This time Jen, Alan, Stetson, Harley, Jason, Justin, Justin's little girl Halley-7 months, my cousins' great grandma Esther, and my parents went. This was the first time we met Halley. She is such a doll! Big blue eyes.
But we ate and than watched the kids being pulled around on the four-wheeler sledding. They didn't stay out very long due to it being cold.
 
But it wasn't a too exciting Christmas. Still have a week left of Ryan being home so not sure what all we are going to do. Plan on sledding and maybe going to Salmon for a movie but really I'm just glad he is home and I really don't care if we sit on our butts the whole time. :)

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