Christmas Day 2009 in Utah!

We had a great Christmas at the Tom and Linda Holmans. Things started Christmas Eve with a Mexican Fiesta compliments of Grandma Linda. She fixed the fiesta Christmas Eve, brunch for Christmas morning with a quishe, waffles, bacon, etc. Then she fixed dinner with shrimp cocktails, ham, two types of potatoes, grape salad, and two types of pie. All this while she was really sick with a cold. Grandma Linda is a trooper! And none of us got sick so she did it all without infecting any of us. Here is Madison on Christmas Eve taking her turn on Beatles' Rock Band.

Christmas Eve and the Young kids are all in their new pajamas.

Josh getting ready to open a present. He is a Xango man as you can see.

Kristy was very surprised when she got an Ipod Touch! Here she is just discovering that is what she got. The most amazing part is that Josh kept it secret!

Logan hot the Beatles' Anthology. We have already watched 3 of them.

Grandpa Tom with Sgt Pepper album--he got 5 Beatles' DVDs! How can you beat that? The interesting thing is that they had all been opened already...hmm. Grandma Linda loved her Snuggie and she doesn't care what anyone says or how much they laugh--it's warm!

We had brunch and dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Holmans. It was good food and fun to be all together.

I think Ty is lobbying for the Victrolla. Grandpa Holman is showing Ty how it works while Aunt Jane looks on.

Logan entertaining Sam and Connor.

We had a great Christmas! All of our children were at our house for Christmas and we talked to Matt, Jenny, Amy, Blake, and (the next day) to Tot by Skype. How can a holiday be better!?

We started Christmas early buying the Beatles Rock Band for Wii. Josh and Logan are really rockin' out! We are just waiting for the rest of the kids and grandkids to join the band!

Ty's B-day and Our Anniversary

Finishing our vacation is hard work and I'm not getting to it. So here is what we did Labor Day Weekend. First we took Ty out for his birthday dinner at the Blue Iguana Mexican Restaurant. Great food and fun to be with Ty. Then we all went to Gilgal Gardens. A strange place. This mason in SLC decided to create a strange garden. Here is Ty as we enter the garden.

Yes, that is a mix of Joseph Smith and ancient Egypt. It gets stranger.

Here is the mason/sculpture himself. Brick pants, which the guidebook says were very difficult to make.

Ty had to get to work, so Linda and I decided to go to Red Butte Gardens at the U of U. They are beautiful and we think our grandkids might enjoy parts of it--the Children's Garden.

Then we finished off with a baseball game with the Salt Lake Bees. A very good game. A fun day.

Our European Trip, Part 2: England

Here is our hotel room in a little village right next to the Hahn Airport. By the end of 2 weeks of walking all over Austria and Germany we were a bit tired so you see me here resting. The next morning, we somehow made it on the plane (after paying $65 for being 3 kilos overweight--the luggage, not me) and flew to Stansted just north of London where we met Matt, Jenny, Amy, Blake, and Cade. What a thrill it was to see them! So began our short stay in England.

This is a view of the village out our hotel room window.

After arriving in England we went straight to the seashore and had so much fun, but that is in a previous post. Here is just one picture of me and Tot throwing rocks into the North Sea. What can be more fun for a grandpa than to being with a grandchild who is having so much fun!After the seashore we came home to Matt and Jenny's home--no address, just a name. That is so English.

,,, and were intertained by a superb puppet show. Here are the puppeteers.We went to Church on Sunday to their very nice English ward. We met such nice people. I thanked the high priests for being such good people; I knew our little family would be taken care of. Then on Monday we took care of the children while Matt and Jenny got away to London and saw Les Mis (?sp?) On our last day, we started in Stonehenge.

As you can see, it was very windy!

This is just outside Stonehenge. You can see burial mounds behind and right of Jenny and the boys.

Then to Avebury, which also has strange hugh stones. Amy enjoyed rolling down the hill...

...and Tot enjoyed having Matt throw him in the air and catching him--which he always did fortunately.

Here are the large stones in a hugh circle. No one really knows why they were put there but they are very fun to look at and try to imagine ancient people cutting them out, transporting them, and putting them up.

We also visited a village in the Cottswolds. They were breathtakingly beautiful and made you want to just stay there. Of course, the plumbing and electrical is probably terrible, but when on vacation you can romanticize!

Levenham is a fun little village where all the buildings are at weird angles; I guess they just settled funny.

Then we flew home. Oh well, you can't vacation forever. We can hardly wait to go back to Vienna in August of 2010.

We'll start at the end--in England with the Matt & Jenny Holmans

We left Hahn Airfield in Germany about 10:25 am and got into Stansted Airport north of London about 10:40 am England time--one hour difference. After finally getting through the passport check--which took about 45 minutes because they only had 3, then down to 2 agents working--Matt and Jenny and the kids met us and we took off for the beach! We got to a little seaside town and while Matt bought some fish and chips, I took this picture of Blake, Amy, and Cade. Notice Cade's unique way of wearing sunglasses! Then see a couple of pictures of us on the beach. That is the North Sea we were on. It was so much fun! The beach was quite rocky, like the beach at Laguna Beach where I was with the Young grandkids just a couple of weeks ago. I'll post those pictures soon. So much to post, so boring for all of you, but we are loving it!

We ate our fish and chips and pasta salad, fruit, and cookies Jenny made (or brought the fruit, that is).

We ended our first day with fireworks on the American post and Blake and Amy each won a goldfish. But the best part was the puppet show before we went to the Fireworks. Here are puppeteers and the show! Amy wrote the script and they had a great backdrop they even changed between scenes! Pretty professional.

On Sunday, we went to Church and really enjoyed their ward--they are going to be with great people the next three years! Then we ate a great meal and ended the day with a fun walk. During the afternoon, Cade got into painting, including all over his pants! But they were masterpieces--the paintings, not his pants. I mean "trousers." Over here "pants" are "underwear."

Sam's Birthday

Sam came home to presents (3 Kit [American Girl] books and the cute cupcake you see below. Then she went with G & G Young, aunts, uncles, and cousins to Pleasant Grove's StrawberryDays Rodeo. Talk about a good Utah birthday! We do love that girl! And all the other grandkids for that matter. I never realized how much I could love grandchildren; it is wondeful!

After softball camp on Miller Field at BYU (Edwards football stadium in the backgroud) they always get a popcycle. Sam has have a really fun time at the camp!

Since it was the the big 1-0, she decided to have one crazy pose!

Here is Sam on the morning of her 10th birthday. She was up early and getting ready for softball camp.