Good-bye holidays…………..

I refuse to believe that the holidays are over. Things were just too busy and went by too fast for my liking, so sit back while I reminisce. I’d like to share darling photos of our family enjoying these memories, but somehow I have deleted about 400 pictures that I have taken since the first of December. I will now try to create these memories in words……….

1. As part of the kids (Brianna and Nick’s) Christmas, we gave them tickets to the Metallica concert. We traveled to Boise on December 7th and saw them at the Boise Center. It was VERY COOL! The kids are still talking about it. Inserted here would be a picture of us all sporting the ‘devil horns’ sign and wearing our Metallica concert T’s.
2. The Sunday before Christmas we had our Tanner family Christmas party. The picture here was really cool; I stood on our catwalk and took a picture of everyone in the living room. They were all looking up at me taking the picture and there was Christmas all around. Well anyway, we had our traditional soup feast with Lori introducing us to tortellini soup and Denise bringing pickled asparagus yummies. We didn’t have grandma Tanner there with us because she was home taking care of grandpa.
3. Christmas Eve brought us the traditional Oswald party. The cracking balls and Flarp were a hit. Kenny brought the controversial gift of Obama’s book which gave Uncle Ferrell something to talk about. Lesson’s learned: Don’t steal from Mitchell & don’t have any more kids (there’s no room!). The picture here would include lots of happy faces including Derek and Angie’s family. There would also be a picture of my kids standing in their new jamies in front of the Christmas tree.
4. Christmas day held many treasures. The first gift that we opened provided many shocked looks, then squeals of joy. The picture here would show us holding our Boise state Fiesta Bowl t-shirts along with our TICKETS to the game! We had seats in the end zone, row 28. Of course we got all sorts of other stuff like a Tom Tom that guides us with the voice of Homer Simpson, Brianna got an iPod Touch, Nick is set for snowboarding (if only he would quit growing out of everything!), and Jake—well he’s the only one that is fun to buy for anymore so you can imagine. :) We went to the Oswald’s and enjoyed a great meal of prime rib. It was the year of family memories as mom and dad Oswald gave us a great family history book (so much work) and my mom and dad gave us a DVD of family movies. I did notice however, that I was only a glimpse in these family movies. Apparently the Tanner’s were only a family before I was born!
5. New Year’s eve Brianna had a party at our house with her friends and Kevin and I went to Jaker’s with my friends. We promptly returned because of the 12 teenagers that were at our house without parental supervision. Then the adventure began…………..

New year’s day we left for St. George. We left in a pretty good snow storm and headed to sunshine. We got there about 6:30 that eve and visited mom and dad. Dad had a bad day the day before and had fallen, so he was in pretty rough shape, but it was good to see them both. We stayed the night at Bonnie and Steven’s and then did touristy things. We visited the Brigham Young summer home, toured the Tabernacle and had lunch with Josh, Amber and Paige. It was a great time and so good to be with them all.
On Sunday we left for Phoenix, but went via the Grand Canyon. Here I can insert actual pictures!
We had a great drive and the weather was beautiful. This bridge freaked Nick out so much! He hates heights and this bridge was WAY up there. The great thing was on the entire drive to Phoenix we encountered Boise State fans along the way. As we were leaving this site some of our fellow Boise State fans were coming.
How cool is this?! There was just enough snow around to give very interesting contrast. As you can see, there are always tourists around—but not many, and it was so nice. From here we headed toward Phoenix to Dirk and Gerry’s home. The next day was the Fiesta Bowl. We went to the stadium at about 1200 even though the game didn’t start until 6:30pm. By the way, it was 70 degrees. :)
We wandered around the area called Westgate where there were all sorts of activities going on. The Boise State band came by and played for us, it was cool to see up close. They, however, did not have any flutes—just annoying piccolos! Brianna was so disappointed. This next photo was a dream come true for my boys….

Enough said.

We walked a lot, and it was hot. We were sweaty. I think is was something like 4 degrees at home.

This is just one end of the stadium, it was so big.

Here's a view from our seats. Not bad aye...

Brianna quote, “things you can’t unsee…”
Here’s one of them.

These guys (see photo below) adopted Jacob and through the entire game they kept bringing him stuff like Skittles, Dibbs & M&M’s. They let him stand on their chairs, gave him their football lanyard, and taught him how to disrespect the Horned Frogs. Jacob worshiped them. I, however, may look back at this experience and see where my son’s life took a turn for the worse.


And of course, you know the outcome of the game…..












Lots of celebration!


And the trophy!
We had such a great time, it was the best Christmas present ever! We got up early the next day (5am!) and headed home. We came home through Lake Powell and saw the beautiful scenery in that part of Utah. It was a long drive home, about 14 hours, but we arrived safe and sound. We can’t thank Steve & Bonnie and Dirk & Gerry enough for letting us crash their places. Dirk and Gerry weren’t there because they were in San Francisco seeing their new baby, so we really missed having them there to show us around, but we really enjoyed their beautiful home. Go Broncos! (Let me make sure to clarify here as I never want that held against us---that’s the Boise State Broncos, not Denver!)