Tuesday, January 5, 2010

The Ubiquitous Vacation Post

I took just over 600 pictures while we were in Utah.

Wow.

We haven't loaded the pictures the girls took with their cameras onto the computer yet, but when we do, I'm sure the grand total of pictures taken on this vacation will be well over 1000.  Easily.

Rather than bore everyone to death with countless posts of all the things we did during the two weeks we were in Utah, I thought I'd just do a highlights post and get it all over with at once.  Well, okay, not all of it, because I do have one or two things that warrant their own post, but for the most part it's all going to be in this single post.

So...without further ado, and in chronological order, our trip to Utah, in pictures.

We always get together with my Study Abroad friends when we visit Utah.  It's been 11 years since we got back from London.  Maybe one day we'll all go there together.


Grandma & Grandpa Y. live in Park City, so we're pretty much always guaranteed snow to play in.


Grandma likes to cater to the kiddos, hence the olive fingers.


Since Scotty's in Georgia this year, the girls got to sleep in his room, in a real bed, instead of on a pallet on the floor of the office.  Not that they minded the office floor, though, because I've learned my kids can sleep anywhere.  I don't know what it is about sleeping kid pictures, but every mom's gotta take 'em.


Chris's family has gone skiing on Christmas Eve for at least 20 years now.  This year only half his siblings were able to go, but we took all the kids over 2.  Vicki's the only one of the kids who's ever skied before, and two kids in particular are a little...temperamental, so we weren't sure how the day would go.  A separate post for this event is forthcoming.


Chris's family also has a tradition of a big Christmas Eve dinner.  The menu traditionally includes chicken cordon bleu and artichokes.  Each person has a candle by their place, and when the meal is over we go around the table and each person says something they're thankful for and then lights their candle.


After dinner we opened a few presents.  Grandma & Grandpa E. gave all their granddaughters remote control cars.  The chaos was hilarious, especially since some of the cars operated on the same frequency.


Christmas morning brought each of my girls a digital camera from Santa.  Pictures to follow in another post.


We spent Christmas day at my parents' house with the whole family.  In an odd coincidence, we gave my brother & his wife the game Guesstures, and they gave us the same thing.  Here's Robbie trying to get us to guess "bikini".


The Banana is a longstanding tradition in my extended family, but it's been a while since we've all done it together.  "Bananas of the world, unite!"


The girls loved playing with their cousins.  Emily and her girls were at Grandma E.'s house as much as possible.


A recent Ebert girl tradition is the "Little Ladies Lemonade Party" (although since it's winter we had a hot cocoa party instead.)  We all wear fancy hats and bring our American Girl dolls.  I don't have a doll, and neither do Abbie (yet) or Grandma E. (and Ellie's is actually from Target, but she doesn't care.  Yet.), but Blaine's girlfriend Mel has several and was happy to share.


On New Year's Eve we got together with a bunch of Chris's friends from high school (and longer).  We all have kids and the house was full of chaos, but it's always great to see them again.


We're kinda party poopers when it comes to actually ringing in the New Year, though.


On New Year's Day we went sledding with Grandma & Grandpa Y.


And finally it was time to drive home.  The girls tend to get creative when it comes to keeping themselves entertained.  But if they're happy, we're happy.


So there you have it.  If you've ever wondered what Eberts do on a long vacation, wonder no more.

Stay tuned for lots more pictures, taken by my children, and likely waaaaay more amusing than these!

5 comments:

  1. Sounds like a perfect Christmas!

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  2. Whew, you guys did lots of things. Looks like so much fun. But I do have to say that the picture of Ellie with the tupperware on her head is my fav.

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  3. I don't envy you two that long car trip with three kids. I don't think we could do it with one!

    Two questions: What's the deal with bananas and what was that gymnasium?

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  4. John, The Banana is a silly game-type thing we've done in my extended family for years. It's probably not going to make any sense unless you actually see it, but you start by saying "bananas of the world, unite!" and putting your hands together in the air, like in the picture. Then you peel banana (like you're the banana and your hands are the peel), squish banana (everyone squishes together in the middle), split banana (you all move apart), and go bananas (everyone runs crazy-like around the room. My cousin Jeff started it way back when, and he passed away almost 3 years ago. We haven't had a big family party since then, and we did it this year in his honor.

    The gym is in my cousin's church. The big windows divide it from the sanctuary. I can imaging basketball games are pretty dangerous in there, but it's a really cool-looking building.

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  5. Robbie's bikini picture is hilarious! Glad you hed fun in Utah. We really want to teach our kids how to ski, maybe when we're all grown up and have income.

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