Christmas Lights at Temple Square

Since I have lived in Utah, I have always felt that you can't have Christmas until you have been downtown to see the lights of Temple Square. There really isn't anything like it. And I love that there are no Santa's or reindeer, just lights, nativities, the Temple and Christ. It really helps to bring back in the focus of the reason for the season...the birth of Christ.

Sunday, the 15th was Dan's birthday so we decided to make it a weekend event even though its really only an hours drive from Cache Valley. So on Saturday, we met up with our dear friends The Waltons. Dan and Ryan went to see the latest Hobbit movie (thank goodness I didn't have to suffer through another one this year), and Jeni and I took the kids (all 5 of our boys) to my friends birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. This was our first time going to Chuck E. Cheese and after going, I'm not sure if it was any better than the torture of a Hobbit movie for 2.5 hours.

Eddie had an absolute blast, but the place was utter chaos. It was all I could do to keep an eye on Eddie, and half the time I failed at that. Jeni and the kids were great at helping me hold Tommy or find Eddie in the jungle gym. At 32 weeks pregnant it was just a little much. I hadn't eaten all day, and then scarfed the pizza, so by an hour in I was feeling sick and lightheaded. But we played a bunch of games, had pizza and cake, and the kids had a blast which is all that matters.

Then we went and met the husbands at the trax station. Eddie has been obsessed with trains lately so we decided that instead of dealing with traffic and parking, we would take the train to downtown. The boys loved it!

It dropped us off right by the temple. So we wandered around with the mass of people for probably about an hour and a half, then took the train back. We picked up some chineese food on the way home, had dinner and put our exhausted kids to bed. Did I mention that Tommy only snoozed for 10 minutes the entire day! He was a trooper considering how tired he was.

And once the kids were down the party really started...we stayed up way too late playing games and eating snacks. It was wonderful! We finally got to bed, hung out for part of the day Sunday, then headed back home. I don't think Dan could have asked for a better birthday. I had to laugh because although it is not planned this way, this was the second year in a row we have spent Dan's birthday with the Walton family. I think it may be a new tradition!