Utah Trip

Stella felt so much better the next day and blamed being sick on the water she drank from a fountain at the reception. No, not a regular drinking water fountain, she said it was a fountain that was pouring down and recycling itself. Hence, people were probably putting their hands in it and . . . I can't continue because I'm gagging.

We stayed at my sister Marci's house in Kaysville and they took us to "the castle park" so the kids could play.

The big boys played catch or frisbee, Stella tore up her hands on the monkey bars, and Malcolm loved the swings. He loved it when Stella would tickle him.

We headed to lunch at Tasty's (tradition) with Travis and Lorraine and the kids Sarah and Garrett. We were excited to make our very near future plans for the CA beach and Disneyland!

The kids quickly ate their lunch so they could play in a nearby field filled with "flowers" (Stella is still positive that weeds that have color are flowers). Sarah and Stella collected those while Garrett tried to burn ants with his magnifying glass.

Stella refused to drop the "flowers" until I took at least 20 pictures of her with them.

We may have been a little early, but Malcolm needed a nap, so we headed over to the Dibble Farm in Layton for the family gathering that would be happening that night. I love it there. You can just take a big breath there and relax. The entire family was called together (Grandpa Dibble's brother and sisters) and quite a few of their kids came as well. It is so fun to be together and I love it that they are willing to spend their night with us and feed us a giant meal!

Grandpa Dibble's siblings in order (Aunt Ann Call, Aunt Marie McComas, Uncle Cleve Dibble, Grandpa Kent Dibble, Aunt Jane Hales, Aunt Ruth Wood-Bourne, Aunt Ellen Cox)

And of course Stella found some sort of farm something to slide down and get pleasantly filthy. I love it. I know she loves it too.

Christmas

Merry Christmas
from the
Dibble Family!

(Stella decided against coordinating with the rest of our outfits when she saw her new dress on Christmas morning)

(picture taken at 2:00 a.m. . . . Santa finally came . . . zzzzzzzzz . . . hopefully we're on the earlier delivery schedule next year)

Stella and Malcolm were both super excited about Christmas because they both woke up at 6:00 a.m. Dad gave Malcolm a bottle (thank you) and sent Stella back to bed and they didn't wake up until people started arriving for our annual Christmas breakfast with several people from our Ward. Since we weren't going to open our presents until after church (our church starts at 12:30 p.m.), Santa was nice enough to NOT wrap Stella's gift so she could see it right away and wear them to church. Black nigh heel boots! Santa DID get our letters!

We love our tradition of breakfast with the Ward members (I hope they like it too). Grandpa Dibble and Elliot's coworker Curtis Gruninger have been coming for the last 3 years to help cook (he's the one with Lolly the Jeep). This year Curtis brought his mother and she practically took over my kitchen and wouldn't let me do anything (which turned out to be a good thing because I don't know how to cut pineapple). She made all of the fruit plates look so pretty.

Church was good, I sang in the choir because I always complain about not being able to sing as many Christmas hymns that I want because the choir is always taking them all up, Stella and Malcolm behaved themselves with the Roberts family during church, Elliot cleaned up the building, we headed home, took our picture, changed our clothes, and then FINALLY Stella was able to dig into her presents. She had already arranged them in piles by name and apologized to me because I didn't get as many as she did. I made her spread them sporadically again trying to explain how piles are no fun. It's funny how kids sort of forget what they asked for when there are other presents to open.

Malcolm enjoyed his presents by yelling at them. He got some learning toys and a barrel of monkeys.

The girl loves quesadillas. She also got lots of books and somehow she got lots of shoes.

WARNING: The Ove Glove was not made at NASA. Do not become overconfident in it's abilities such as thinking it's a smart idea to stick your Ove Gloved hand into a pot of boiling water. It's not, so don't do it.

Suddenly it was almost 5:00 and we were supposed to be at my Mom & Dad's for dinner at 3:30!! The day always goes by way too fast! We gathered the rest of the presents for the family and the nerf dart guns to see what kind of ruckus we could cause at my Mom's. I'm sort of happy that some of my siblings have my punctuality problem as well because Lindsay and Keith had just arrived shortly before us, but the prayer was said and everyone was dishing up by the time we walked in. My oldest, yet way younger looking, sister Marci and her family came into town for Christmas this year which was so fun!

We ate up the mashed potatoes ("these mashed potatoes are so creamy") and chewed up the turkey ("so dry you could gag on it!") before we moved on to the nerf dart gun war. Don't worry Adam, Mom's divinity was safe. (p.s. those are quotes from a movie and tv show . . . can you guess which ones?)

To help digest the delicious Christmas feast, we busted out the guns. Nerf guns. Oldies vs. youngsters (Bill, Elliot, Keith vs. Alex, Alecia, Karl . . . . Lindsay joined later, but I'm not sure she knew which teams she was on).

Don't worry, Alecia's not really possessed with those red eyes, but she was quite the contender with the dart gun.

There should be some theme music to this brother/sister conquering march picture.

Uncle Bill, intimidating.

Alex was hiding somewhere for the first several rounds and then popped out to massacre passersby.

Uncle Elliot posted at a popular corner by the laundry room.

My Mom's house has lots of places that have 2 entrances. This makes for a good escape.

Grandpa was helping Brynlee with the dart gun and she was just at the perfect height to be shooting everyone in the junk.

Uncle Keith taking over the post.

An ambush around the corner.

Uncle Bill stalking his prey.

That's a happy, chubby baby.

I thought Stella would totally be in on the nerf dart gun action, but she sat in front of the TV instead playing the Wii. Another reason we can't ever purchase one.

Bryn got such a laugh after shooting Uncle Elliot in the nether regions that Hannah wanted in on the shooting.

Father/Son battle to the death.

Another ambush. Will they never learn?

I think Lindsay just shot whoever came by.

Lindsay challenged Karl to a boxing match on the Wii. I hope their deodorant didn't quit on them that day because neither of them wanted to lose. Karl, quit beating up your aunt.

Hannah and Brynlee duked it out too. That sound coming out of Hannah's mouth is one of my favorite sounds!

Uncle Bill and Aunt Marci loved themselves a little Malcolm. (Uncle Bill looks like he's glaring, but he got his turn with Malcolm too)

I love that Brynnie giggle!

LAGOON!

So if you remember the Lagoon debacle of 2009 with Stella, you'll understand why we made it a priority to go again this year. My sister had graciously volunteered to bring Stella to Lagoon a little later so that Elliot and I could ride some grown-up rides. Moments after Stella arrived, it started pouring rain and we had to go home.

We took her back that night to ride some more rides and I think she was perfectly happy, but Elliot has felt guilt for 2 years. So let's move on to a new little something that we can feel guilty about . . .

. . . the first ride we made Stella ride was the rickety oldest roller coaster on earth. She didn't breathe for the entire ride. Seriously, Elliot looked over at her and she wasn't breathing. I knew I'd get this picture at the very end. I just wish it wasn't blurry.

We brought Sarah, Garrett, and my nephew Alex with us and Bill, Marci and Alecia joined us and brought us lunch. We tried to receive immediate forgiveness by putting her on the carousel and she seemed pretty happy for a while.

The other kids had a lot more fun on the rides than Stella did. The rest of the day was spent desperately trying to get Stella to ride the other rides. Sometimes she acts like she's so grown up and we all know how fearless she usually is, but I think that roller coaster did her in. She was terrified of EVERYTHING ELSE! It was another expensive mistake (see the Sea World debacle of 2010).

Once we got her on some of the really little kid rides, she warmed up a little bit.

She loved the swings, which was weird because it swings out over open water. That would scare me. The kids actually rode it about 4 times before the day was over.

Alex's favorite ride. Can't you tell?

Stella couldn't be convinced to go on the Log Ride because she does remember hating it from 2 years ago. It was actually Rattlesnake Rapids that she hated and got soaked on and then we just rode this one after. The girl is practically a fish, but doesn't like getting wet by someone or something else. So everyone else went, but didn't get too wet . . .

. . . until they added another adult to the mix.

Splash of the day!

And everyone looked like they'd peed themselves for a while.

I'm so glad Alecia was there to ride some rides with Sarah since Stella wouldn't do it.

Alex always tries to act like he's bored out of his mind, but he was really having a great time. He got along with Garrett really, really well. They connected on some sort of weird robot, ninja level that none of us understand.

Does that kid behind Stella remind you of one of the characters on Karate Kid that says "Put him in a body bag! Yeah!" Come on, anybody? Anybody?

We did some more kiddo rides as we tried to convince Stella to ride some bigger ones.

We said she could ride the smaller swings if she promised to ride the other pirate boat. She agreed.

Awkward, seriously nervous smile and wave. She was NOT excited about this ride. Until it started . . .

. . . then she was a happy camper! I wonder if she would have liked the other ones if she'd just tried them. Oh well, maybe in 2 years. And by then we'll have a nearly 2-year-old and we'll have to spend time on the little kiddo rides. :)