Well- sorda! We went “home” for Christmas like we do every year, but this time, we chose to go a little earlier before Christmas to get the cheaper airfare, and fly home on Christmas Day evening. Since Josh had more paid holidays off of work for New Years Eve and New Years Day- he wanted to go on another trip. Basically, since we flew home on Christmas, we got cheaper airfare, therefore, by flying somewhere else that wasn’t as expensive as Salt Lake, we got another trip for the amount of money we would have spent on tickets coming home from Salt Lake if we would have stayed later. Make Sense? Did I mention, we took the train/Amtrak as part of our second trip? We booked a roomette for free with credit card points, and flew one way home. Of course, we had to get hotel rooms on our second trip, verses staying for free at families houses, but Josh also found great deals on hotels- like he always does!!
Now that I totally bored you with the fact that we went on two trips instead of just going home for Christmas- how about I actually get into the fun stuff with pictures- describing the fun time we had on those trips!!??
Trip 1- Visiting Family
Payson and I flew to Las Vegas a few days before Josh because Josh had work. We picked him up December 18th in Las Vegas, but he didn’t get in until 10:30 that night, so we stayed in The Golden Nugget Hotel in Vegas before heading back to my parent’s house in St. George. The Golden Nugget is cool because it has a pool with a water slide that goes through a shark tank. That pool was actually closed for cleaning while we were there, so we swam in the small adult pool. We got to see the workers in the shark tank cleaning it, though, and that was kind of cool. Payson was a good little helper with the luggage. He was too good of a helper because when I tried to take the black bag from him- he was not too happy!
Before Josh came on Wednesday, my parent’s, Payson, Aaron, and I all went to the St. George visitor center for Family Home Evening after getting some great pizza! There were lights all over the Temple grounds, and beautiful trees in the visitors center decorated by singles wards in the area. Despite it being St. George, it was fairly cold outside. There was still patches of rare snow from the storm that had hit the week before, but Pay thought the snow patches were pretty cool, and wanted to walk on all of them. Good thing he is not begging to go play in the snow now at home. It’s been crazy cold (-12 as a high, feeling like-39). I would take that St. George cold night any day over our current temps.
We did a small little Christmas with the six of us (Josh, Payson, my parents, Aaron, and me) Thursday evening. We went to Chuck-A-Rama for dinner, and had a little gift exchange afterword. Payson gave uncle Aaron a special shirt with stick figures representing each of his nephews and nieces. There were 7 little figures altogether! (More on that later;-)!
We headed to Pocatello for the Annual Bosen Family Sock Party. The children did a cute CHRISTMAS nativity program that Tina put together, some of us sang and did other talents, and we had fun with our white elephant exchange. Payson had so much fun playing with his cousins. It was nice that we were in a big room, so he could just run around with the other kiddies, and I didn’t have to chase him too much. We did have to keep the doors closed to the room, though, because he loved to run the halls. (We had the party in a hotel)!
We spent one night in Pocatello at my Grandma Bosen’s house. I made her a quilt for Christmas, and she loved it. We then spent the rest of our time with Josh’s family. Sunday we had a nice Jones family party at his dad’s house. I wish I would have taken pictures, but my camera was somewhere I did not know, and my ipod was/still is pretty full! (I need to clean it up)! Anyway, the kids did a nativity scene while Steve read from the Bible, and then we sang some songs. I sang “Away in a Manger” for the family, and we had a wonderful time talking with everyone. Christmas Eve we had a party with Molly’s side of the family (Mayo Family)! Everyone came to Molly’s house, and after dinner we had a white elephant exchange! Payson started opening the first present, even though he wasn’t number one! Sadie and I said to just let him open it, and everyone finally gave in!! Luckily, the gift was for him anyway, and happened to not actually be one of the white elephant gifts! (More on the is little gift later, too;)!
By Christmas morning, I found my camera again, and was able to take a few pictures. We had Christmas morning at Molly’s, then went to Steve’s, and then to Great Grandma Peabody’s house. Then Deana took us to the airport. My sister tried calling, and I felt like it was such a busy day, I didn’t get to actually talk to her until we were at the airport, and even then- it wasn’t a long conversation. I did manage to text her happy birthday, though! (Her birthday is on Christmas)! My brother, Jason, is on a mission, and I was a little bummed I didn’t get to talk to him because the timing of him calling/skyping just didn’t work out with everything. He was skyping when we were on the airplane. It’s all good, though. Maybe next time he gets to call, I will get to chat somehow!
Here are some pictures of our time with Josh’s family:
HOME
We were home for less than 48 hours before we headed to trip number 2, but we did manage to have our own little Christmas the morning of the 26th. We didn’t bring any gifts to each other to Utah because of room, and the fact that we would just have to bring them home again. Payson got spoiled from everyone else, but then came home, and got even more! We gave him lots of clothes, and a basketball hoop! It was a fun little Christmas morning, but then Josh had to go to work before we left town again.
Trip 2- A Trip Back in Time (Washington DC, Jamestown, Yorktown, and more)
As mentioned before we took Amtrak (the train) to DC. We booked a roomette, which is a little private compartment with chairs that turn into beds. The train was pretty cool, but I did not sleep at all. I had to share the little chair bed with Payson. Since we had a roomette, we were considered first class, so we got Dinner and Breakfast for free in the dinning car. The train also had an observation car, bathrooms, and a lounge car.
When Josh and I went to DC before we missed a few things. We didn’t make it to Arlington Cemetery or some of the Smithsonian Museums. This time we were able to see Arlington, Museum of Air and Space (Smithsonian), Museum of National History (Smithsonian), and Museum of American History (Also part of Smithsonian). We were also able to tour the Capitol Building, which we haven’t done before, and see the inside of the Library of Congress.
Arlington was probably the neatest cemetery I have ever been to. It is huge, and there are signs all over that ask for respect and silence. We were hoping to see the Arlington House, but got to it just AFTER the last tour started. I was pretty bummed, but it’s only because we high-tailed it to the building to try and get there in time. Since we didn’t get to tour the house, we watched the Changing of the Guard at the tomb of unknown soldiers. I couldn’t see very well, but managed to get a picture by lifting my hand above everyone else’s heads. The graves at Arlington all had a Christmas wreath placed in front of them. This was especially neat, and one of the perks for going around Christmas time.
The Museum of Air and Space was pretty neat. It is basically two huge rooms full of airplanes, rockets, and missiles. Payson loved all of the airplanes, and every airplane we saw he would point it out and say, “airplane.” My favorite airplane was a super fast military plane for spies! Well, Josh told me spies use it so they can get across the world really fast and take pictures without being noticed. Apparently, the plane we saw actually flew from LA to DC in 1.5 hours, and then it was donated to the museum. Josh’s favorite was not a plane, it was the actual space shuttle that went to the moon.
I didn’t get a ton of pictures in the other two Smithsonians we went to, but I did get some cute ones outside of Payson running around. Across the grass we could see the huge Christmas tree on the White House grounds. Also, on our way back to our hotel we saw the smallest parking lot outside of the National Archives Building. I didn’t think much of it, but Josh thought it was funny, so I took a picture for him. After all it did only have 4 parking spots.
The Capitol was way cool, and they allowed pictures, except for in the Senate and House wings. (We saw the Senate wing, but chose to skip the House because it was getting late, and we wanted to see more). In the Capitol there is two statues for every state. We found both Utah states, and one of Idaho. One of the Utah state statues was of Brigham Young. We thought that was pretty cool. The Capitol also had cool chandeliers, lots of art, and neat designs in the ceiling of the rotunda. At one point we walked through the rotunda without another tour group, so I took my chance at taking a picture with no one in my background. The pictures is not the greatest, but I only had a few seconds because we were moving. The visitors center in the Capitol is biggish. We walked through it, but didn’t stay long because we wanted to see the Library of Congress across the street. We walked in the underground tunnel to get to the Library. There we didn’t have to do a tour, so just chose to wander the place ourselves. The Library had lots of cool designs on the ceilings, and a huge Christmas tree in the middle of the room. We saw the Gettysburg address on display in the library, as well.
Washington DC was not our only destination for the trip. We ventured South to Yorktown, Williamsburg (although we didn’t see that much of Williamsburg), Jamestown, Richmond, and saw the Marines Museum on our way back to DC. We also saw Fredericksburg Battlefield.
The main attraction at Yorktown was the Revolutionary Ward battlefield. You could literally see the troughs the soldiers dug out to hide behind during the war. It was a pretty big battlefield. In the visitors center we saw the actual tent George Washington used to plan and meet in during the war.
Jamestown was my favorite place. It was the one place I was most excited to see on this trip. We stood on the actual ground that the first settlers of America stood on. We saw skeletons of humans that were part of Jamestown Colony. We walked through the church that was built later as the colony grew, and saw the place where buildings or houses were built for the colony to live in. I also got loves from my boy, and we saw some deer.
If you didn’t know- Richmond, VA was the capitol of the Confederate states during the Civil War. I was hoping to see some cool things due to this fact, but unfortunately, Richmond was kind of a bomb. There was supposedly a cool mansion, but it is closed during the Winter. We went to a Civil War Iron works museum, but to be honest- it was lame. We did have a nice little lunch at a cafe we happen to run into, but even the battlefields around Richmond were not that cool. (At least not the free ones). I suppose we could have planned better, and possibly seen some cooler things, but if I go there again, I want to go during summer so I can at least see the cool mansion I read about.
Fredericksburg battlefield was pretty neat because the battle took place literally through people’s houses. Part of one house that was in the war, still stands with battle wounds. The house next to it is no longer there, but one of the generals was killed because he was standing outside of the house and a bullet went through the house from the other side and hit him. There was a wall built for men to hide behind, and part of it still stands.
The Marines Museum was awesome. It was big, and went through every Marine encounter from clear back when they were established. Some wars were represented by recreated rooms with sound effects and life size dioramas. It was even a little scary to venture into the rooms- especially the first one- because I almost felt like I was in the center of flying bullets. I already had great respect for the Marines and Military in general, but seeing all they have done for our country, makes me have even more respect. I also noticed that we have had too many wars, and I realized that we will always have more until the Second coming because people are power hungry. I realized that even on a smaller scale people are at war. Social Media is filled with social war between controversial subjects, and people can be cruel in what they say or comment on other people’s ideas/opinions. People want power, they want to be right, and for a lot of people if you don’t think like them- you are wrong!! It’s pretty sad that we are all at war with each other like this. This gives me more reason to embrace the Gospel, and follow God’s will for me. He knows everything. He has a plan for me, and I feel peace when I am close to him.
Sorry for the soap box! I just remember thinking those things while walking through the Marine Museum. I also remember thinking that I am glad I am a plain old civilian and not a secret agent or member of the military. I don’t think I could handle it. Thank you to those country men and women who do handle it for our country. You are needed, and you are appreciated! Now for the pictures:
Even though I was not super excited for this trip because I really just wanted a break from always going on trips- ha ha. It was a lot of fun. I learned a lot about our country from the very first settlers to what our government does today. It took Pay and me a day to recover. My house was a mess when we got home from Christmas, and it has taken me all week to finally get it cleaned, but now that we are home for awhile hopefully I can keep it clean! Stay tuned for a future post about those “special” gifts I talked about during the Christmas trip portion of this post!!:-)
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