Party Down

We flew back to Salt Lake after Nate finished up his last final, which, by the way, just so happened to be on the very last day of his exam period. Of course. After 3 years of living in D.C. we've yet to finish finals before the very last day which is unfortunate because plane tickets are much cheaper if you're able to fly out a few days earlier. 

Anyway, we touched down, packed an overnight bag, and headed for Pocatello for what is becoming our annual Whittier Christmas party. The newest addition to the festivities this year was a little Schnauzer, Pepper. Bryn took a minute to warm up to such an active little dog, but they became inseparable as the weekend progressed.

One of our favorite parts of the weekend is the White Elephant exchange. After the fun and slightly disturbing gifts last year, we couldn't wait to see what was in store for this year's Christmas exchange. For our part, we found two priceless gifts. 1) A singing Justin Beiber (Bieber?) toothbrush, and 2) a big bag of Christmas "Pooh." Unfortunately, after little B saw the Pooh Bear she wouldn't give him up.

Best friends in action

Christmas Grinch

Madagascar!!

Last year Spencer and Tara went to the "Grinch on Ice" last year and just raved about it. So, this year we scored tickets through Spencer (military discount of course) to "Madagascar on Ice." Basically they truck in these giant, solid blocks of ice and create a Christmas village. If you've ever seen the Chinese version, it's amazing!!! Over there they build an entire city out of solid ice. Here in the states they take the same idea and downsize it to a manageable level. However, they do fly in the same Chinese artisans to craft the city...

After donning giant blue parkas we made our way into the makeshift freezer. Holy Christmas was it cold!!! Reminds me of Logan, in January, after midnight, during a blizzard. Poor Bryn had the smallest parka on that they could find and her hands didn't even come near the end of the sleeves!! But, our little Oompa Loompa was a trooper and found a way to have some fun.

She was in a major Hide and Say Boo phase. Here she is in action

So this is an ice house set in the middle of the freezer. You walk up the ice stairs, stand on the ice platform, before sliding down the ice chutes. For most people the blue parka makes an excellent sled. But Bryn is not most people. Fearless as she was, she only made it halfway down before getting stuck. Fortunately Dad was able to slide down and scoop her up.

The Ice-tivity

They warned us that as we exited our glasses, cameras, video cameras, etc would get all fogged up. You can see how bad it was from this picture of Spence and Bryn which was taken 15 minutes after we left the freezer. 

Family Pictures

One thing that we really love about D.C. is that there are 4 distinct seasons. Spring lasts for months with different trees blooming at different times. The weather slowly warms up and gives way to the long hot days of summer. Summer lasts and lasts until the relief of Fall finally arrives. As Fall takes hold the weather turns from hellishly hot to delightfully warm. Finally the cold nip of fall hints at the onslaught of winter. But just before Fall fades to the snowy, cold days of winter the trees come alive for several glorious weeks. Not surprisingly we tend to take our family pictures during this time of year. 

This year Bryn was a bit more expressive than last year, which really helped shorten the photo-session. We're also incredibly lucky to have great friends in the area who don't mind taking up the camera once in a while to capture our family moments. While we've already sent out our Christmas cards and tipped our hand, here are the rest of the pictures.

                                Parenting. Burk style                                               

Bryn loves her secrets

We just had to post this bed head shot we took after her nap that day

Curly Sue, eat your heart out!

Philly Yo

So, we've been terrible about posting over the last two months. But, after some sincere soul-searching and a new-found dedication to exploiting our daughter's cuteness for personal gain, we're back in business!! Expect to see a series of posts of the next week covering everything that has happened between Halloween and New Year's Day. But first, Philly yo.

Our trip to Philadelphia started with a question. 

Nate. What do you want for dinner? 

Nate thought for a second and said... A cheese steak.

Ok... Do you want to grab some steak from the store now or later on?

No Jen. I want a cheese steak. And there's only one place to get cheese steak. Philadelphia.

So we loaded up the little beast, strapped in and headed to P-town. Unfortunately our lack of planning made a trip through Independence Hall impossible, (tickets are allotted daily and sell out quickly.) But we weren't in Philadelphia to see Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, or even the Rocky statue. We were there for Geno's. Here are the pics.

We tried one with onions and the "whiz" and one without the "whiz." 

Always get the "whiz." Always.