We spent the past week and a half in Cedar City celebrating Christmas and New years with Michael's family. We saw many movies, went bowling, played 30+ hours of Rockband, games, worked out, and ate a lot of food. The whole trip was super relaxing and filled with many fun memories.
On Christmas eve, I got to face time my family during their Christmas Eve party and chat with everyone. At the Lemich's we read and sang "The Christmas Story", which is one of my family's traditions that I was able to share this year. Everyone used LaRae's primary singing time instruments, such as bells, blocks, and cymbals, and we rocked out to the Christmas songs while she played the piano. That night, we also had fun participating in "Acro Yoga" in the basement. It led to family circus tricks. We each took turns rotating between acrobat and spotter, and it turned into a whole family affair.
Christmas Day we woke up to the smell of LaRae's delicious home made cinnamon rolls. (I ate 4 throughout Christmas day) We didn't open presents until almost noon due to multiple missionary Skype calls. We were able to 3 way chat with Lizzey in Ukraine, then after, we chatted with Dan in Ecuador. We all loved getting to chat with our missionaries. Dan has picked up quite the accent while speaking English... if you couldn't see him and only heard his voice, you would think he was hispanic. It was interesting to say the least. After the chats, we opened presents. My favorite presents were new Sperry shoes, a running jacket, and The Game of Things. Dawn and Dal got us The Game of Things, which is our new party favorite. Because we were up early to eat breakfast before skyping the missionaries (Lizzey's called at 8 am), and we went to bed around 1 on Christmas day, Christmas seemed like it lasted for two days.
The tree on Christmas morning- we were up before the sun
It's not Christmas at the Lemich's w/o homemade cinnamon rolls!
If you look closely above the parents, you can see Mistletoe hanging from the ceiling. That seemed to be the favorite spot for the couples to congregate during the holidays. (Especially cough Dallin cough)
David, Sarah, & Mom back home
We went down to St. George twice; once for a temple trip to the St. George temple, and another time to meet Dawn's family who was in town visiting from Vermont. It was my first time in the St. George temple and Mike, his parents, and I had a great experience. They also showed me the room where his parents were married.
We met Dawn's parents, grandpa, and siblings for dinner at Applebees.
Out shooting to play with new toys, and played dance games on the xbox. I asked Michael what his favorite part of the trip was, and he said, "Messing around with the peeps."
I got my highest score ever Bowling- a 131! I think this is the first time I have ever broke 100! Mike still beat me by 3 points :(. We went blowing with his parents, while Dawn and Dal were bowling with her family down in St. George.
Mike grew out his beard for 2 weeks. I wish I had a picture of the end product before he shaved it. Here is the beard after about 9 days. He didn't shave the sides of his face, he just doesn't grow any hair there. You could say he just isn't a very hairy person.
Right before Christmas, we got too much snow in Provo. Luckily it didn't snow at all while we were in Cedar, and we had warm sunny weather. Provo before we left:
2014 is going to be a huge year for us with many exciting things such as Mike graduating college, moving to his new job location, weddings of close friends and family, me continuing in my grad school adventure, and we are even planning a tropical summer vacation in the Caribbean for our 2 year anniversary. Can't wait to see what all the year holds!
Mike's cousin Nathanael got married in the Draper Temple last weekend to a beautiful girl named Shelbey. She had a very unique wedding dress as it was gold! Her attire paired with Nathanael's bow tie looked like a couple fit for the oscars! We just needed the red carpet. I will post more family wedding pictures when I receive them. After the temple sealing was a family luncheon that involved a delicious lunch and family toasts. The reception was held later that night in the old historic court house in Provo. 
