Merry Christmas from the Burton's!

Notice Shane isn't sitting on the reindeer...he has to climb as high as he can. We had a great time and really enjoyed the warmer weather.

We bought a tree on the 23rd (our first real tree in 9 years!) and made chains out of ribbon. We bought one strand of lights that wasn't enough and so we only put the lights on the front of the tree. It is a Christmas the kids will always remember. The kids didn't get as many presents since we went on the trip instead. Shane and Jalyn were adament that Santa just forgot to stop by the apartment and left all the rest of the presents at our house here in Salt Lake. He was pretty bummed last night when we got here and there were still no presents. Poor kid. He told me a couple of times that it was "the worst Christmas ever". Maybe it was for him but the rest of us had a great time, and best or worst, it will be one we will never forget.

Fun pics of miniland...

These are just fun pictures of mini land. It is fascinating to me. The time and effort and the millions of Legos that were used is mind boggling. Shane isn't in the pictures because he is pouting. I think we told him to quit running around, quit jumping on everything, and to generally be careful. I think we bummed him out and so he pouted.

Get down, Shane!

We could not keep this kid down. I don't think he ever slowed down the entire trip. He just climbs, jumps, runs, and bounces everywhere!

Fun Pictures of the Kids

This is just a few of the many pictures we took while we were down there. It was overcast, drizzly, and chilly, but, NO SNOW! Apparently, we missed 2 big snow storms while we were gone. I am so grateful. Our neighbor plowed our driveway too which was very nice, since nothing says "vacant house" like two feet of snow in the driveway.

Christmas in California!

So we decided to escape the cold and snow of Utah and spend Christmas in California. Matt works in Carlsbad and the company he is working for has him set up in an apartment. It was the perfect chance to enjoy free housing and see the sights of the town during Christmas. On our way down, we decided to drive through the strip in Las Vegas. We had gone to Carlsbad in October and went to Legoland. They have this mini town, which is my personal favorite of the whole park. One of the towns they created in miniature was Las Vegas. We drove the strip so the kids could see the buildings full size. I passed the camera to the back of the van and they each fought over it to get the shots they wanted. This is only a very small example of Las Vegas, viewed from the back seat of a van, in traffic, through the eyes of the kids and what was important to get a picture of.