whirlwind weekend

I'm gonna try and keep the writing to a minimum...or is it minimal? Anyway, it's been a full weekend. Fun/busy/relaxing/thoughtful...not as in I did anything thoughtful, just that I've had a lot of thoughts/fast/exhausting/happy.

I have a lot of pictures, kinda random, so I think I'm gonna do a quick time line and maybe just explain a couple pictures.

-Thursday: Paul's sister Annie flew to Utah. It was her first time out here. That evening I cooked dinner for them and mom and dad and then we all went to the Festival of trees.

Friday: Paul, Annie and I went to Park City. We wandered around the Olympic Park and Main Street. That evening the 3 of us flew to California. When we got to Cali, Paul and I and his parents just kinda relaxed, visited out on the deck, and then sat in the jacuzzi for a while.

Saturday: Had a great breakfast made by Paul's dad, Phil. He's a master chef...not for a real job, but for me he is. His parents had to go to a party far away so it was just Paul and I most of the day. We pruned a tangerine tree, and I probably ate about 50 in a day and a half. Went and took lunch to everyone at the family business and visited with them for a while. Went and bought a Christmas tree and some new decorations as well as pulling out all the other decor and got to decorating. Way fun. The Nativities are my favorite. Look closely at those pictures!

Sunday: Had another great breakfast. Flew home. Went to a family shower for my cousin Michelle and then snuck out early to go to a couples Christmas party with people from Paul's church. It was a good evening. We were the only non-married couple invited but we still fit in ok.

Ok, pictures.

Festival of trees.
Proof that Paul and dad forgot to look at trees the whole time.
The favorite. It was like marble works, remember that game? It was so fun watching the big silver marbles go through the little maze of wooden branches. As you can see from the people in the back, it was a lot of peoples favorite. Everyoe was captivated.
Olympic Park.
Notice Paul hanging out the back.
It's fun pretending to be a tourist.
California. This was honestly probably one of the best parts of the trip.
We didn't plan to prune, I just went outside to eat a couple and we ended up spending a couple hours out there on one tree. We had a really good time and a really good conversation, I love times like this.
We picked hundreds of them.
So juicy and delicious.
And we brought a whole box with us on the plane home. mmm mmm mmm.
Working Hard!I don't know why these cracked me up so much, but in Paul's family when they were little the made a Cresh every year. It was so fun to see the creativity over the years. This first one had 2 Jesus' and no Mary and Joseph, and big clumps of clay that were labeled on the bottom as sheep, camel, etc.
This one below isn't home made , but it was missing Jesus.I love Joseph's arms. Well, I love all the arms, but Joseph's stand out the most...or, stick out the most.
All birds!
Joseph and the Angel are really tired in this one, so they are laying down.How fun are these?!? What a great family tradition! It was a good weekend. I didn't take pictures at the Sunday stuff...sometimes I can't seem to put the camera down and other times I never pull it out.