early Christmas

Jared and I decided that we couldn't take all of our gifts to Durango with us so we had an early celebration. On Sunday we watched the Bingham Christmas movies and opened most of our presents. (I convinced Jared to save a couple for Christmas morning). We got some great gifts from my parents including most of the Lego Harry Potter sets. We've already built the Hogwarts train and will be moving on to the castle soon. It was a lot of fun opening gifts from each other and trying to guess what was inside. Hopefully Jared hasn't figured out his remaining presents. I have a few surprises up my sleeve. We leave for Colorado tomorrow to start all the Ash Christmas festivities.

the lights

Jared and I really wanted to see the lights at Temple Square this year but he has had to work late every night but Sundays lately. So when my family said they were coming through on a Tuesday to see them I just couldn't pass it up even if Jared couldn't go. We stayed at the Radisson near Temple Square. After walking out to eat at PF Changs we made our way back and checked out the lights. The lights were beautiful as always. Keegan was much more interested in the "train" or the water but Layton liked it for a little while. To keep them all in good spirits we had to promise swimming when we returned to the hotel. Those little fish loved going to the pool and as usual Layton didn't get out until he was shivering. Looks like we'll be swimming a lot in Mexico.


Layton seemed happy to see me, whenever I could steal him away from Dad.


I taught him how to say "expelliarmus" like a true wizard.

no more school

The semester is over and we could not be happier. It is such a relief to have one more chunk of school under our belts. It wasn't exactly a fun semester for us but we both passed all our classes and will be moving on to bigger things. Now our free time can be spent playing the uke and watching YouTube. We may need to find a more intellectually stimulating outlet for the next three weeks. Or we'll just conquer Angry Birds.