more holidays

we have lots of catching up to do from our christmas break!


we went to the mormon tabernacle choir christmas concert with austin's family the week before christmas. we had a fun time and laura looks very cute in her new green coat.


after being spoiled with pretty mild weather for most of december, we got a lot of snow right at the end of finals... and just in time to make us nervous about our drive through utah down to california!


austin behind the wheel in... um... santaquin? nephi? somewhere on our way to california.


laura is glad she doesn't have to drive on the slushy roads. actually, they weren't bad at all. we were happy to have good weather.


we stopped for lunch at the in-n-out burger in st. george... yummo.


we made a gingerbread house with laura's youngest siblings (emily and david)... who knew it took two hours to set the roof? we decided to do our own custom design (instead of the one on the box) and emily and david did an awesome job.


the finished gingerbread house. notice the frosting sidewalk leading to the front door. yum.


we went to knott's berry farm a couple days before christmas with laura's mom, her brother jon and emily and david. this is us on a log ride (think of splash mountain at disneyland) which had been modified from a mountain man theme to santa's workshop. the outdated plastic elves singing in the tunnels were hands down the scariest part of the ride. not joking.


laura and her family wait in line for one of the smaller roller coasters that david and emily were tall enough to ride. we tried sneaking david onto a bigger roller coaster but the ride attendants didn't skip a beat and wouldn't let him ride.


on christmas eve day we went with emily and david to chuck e. cheese to spend a bunch of game tokens they had saved. emily was amazing at one of the games and won like 70 tickets in one try.


david beats austin in mario kart. austin was hoping he might have a chance if maybe david wouldn't be able to reach the pedals very well, but david showed austin that he's about ready to get his driver's license.


laura and david play some sort of game where you shoot peanuts at animals in the zoo. laura points out that the goal is to feed the animals, not to hurt them.


this is our second christmas morning together -- laura spent christmas with the taylor family last year when we were engaged.


we really enjoyed being with laura's family. we get spoiled by being so close to austin's family so it was great to be in california with them. they gave us so many great presents and we were excited to see them open the ones we gave them.


another cute christmas day portrait.


laura and emily and mary in a sisters picture.


we couldn't get enough of our little niece, livia.


she was so fun and so mellow the whole time we were there.


when it came time to leave, we went from this (notice the abundance of sun and the lack of snow)...


...to this (notice the abundance of snow and the lack of sun)


austin's new basketball shoes came while we were gone and he thinks they look great with his church pants.


laura looks too cute in this picture not to include it.

if you made it through all those pictures you win a prize! (some restrictions apply, see back of box for details)

we are having a great christmas break. we have enjoyed being with both sides of our family, as well as our alone time without school and jobs. speaking of which, laura did amazing last semester and austin didn't fail any classes, so we're happy with that and ready to try one more semester before graduating.