10 Big Ones, Baby

Not to brag or anything, but OP and I just celebrated our anniversary.

Our tenth one, to be exact.

I know, I know.  You're wondering how someone as young and vivacious as I am could possibly have been married for ten years.  Orrin robbed the cradle, that's all I'm saying.

We decided that since we never went on a honeymoon or any other vacation without the kiddos, we were going to do our tenth one right.  We kicked around ideas about Disneyland, Hawaii and the like... and then we got real and went for something in our price range:

Vegas, baby!

Original?  No.  OP kept saying that we were in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah.  I told him to shut up and enjoy it.

You only develop that depth of love after 10 years, people.

As a warning, I didn't bring my camera with me, so all of the pictures are taken by my old iPhone 3g.  And that is why my phone battery was pretty much dead the entire trip.

Anywho, we were planning on hitting a Cirque de Soliel show, a magic show, a comedy show... and then Orrin did this, had to miss some work while he recovered, and we had to dip into our anniversary fund to fund Christmas.  Boo!  But, at least the hotel was pre-paid for so the most expensive chunk was paid for (or so we thought until we saw how much it cost to eat there!).

We stayed at South Point Hotel and Casino off the strip.  It was nice.  South Point was built with an equestrian center attached to it, so there was lots of horse motif.  It also had a movie theater and a bowling alley in it, so BONUS!

On our actual anniversary we hit the strip.

We rode the New York New York roller coaster (the thing was so jerky that we both had to pop some Ibuprofen afterward), visited The Secret Garden at the Mirage (gotta see dolphins being trained, a couple of lions roaring and playing, and an orange tiger and white tiger attack each other- color me impressed), and the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay (where there was a surprising lack of sharks).  We also did this CSI: The Experience thing at the MGM, but it was stupid and over-priced and really not worth mentioning.

I even got OP to go into a few shops (not an easy thing to do, believe you me).

How did I do manage that?  I told him we could have lunch in the food court instead of one of the buffets in the casinos.  Win win, people.  Win win.

We also did a lot of people watching.  I wanted to post some pics of the weirdest people we came across, but Orrin said that it was cruel, so I didn't.  Psh, he has to go and get all nice on me.

We also visited Silver and Gold Pawn shop... you know, where they film Pawn Stars?  OP loved it.

There was a line out-the-door to get in there.  Worth it!

And then, because OP and I are old farts, we went to the movie theater in our hotel and saw Mission Impossible 3: Ghost Protocol.    And that first pic shows the stairs that I tripped up.  The second pic is to prove that even though I humiliated myself by tripping up something, I was able to maintain my coolness since I saved the popcorn and didn't spill any of it.  Psh, Tom Cruise had nothing on my skills that night.

Oh, and the last pic is of OP telling me I had better not take a picture of him.

By the morning of the third day, we were both ready to go home.  We packed up and left Vegas in the dust, grabbing Jack in the Box on our way out.  Oh yes.  We know how to live.

We also did what we do best: rode along doing our separate things together.  OP listened to his audiobook, and I jammed out to Britney Spears Pandora station and played Line Breaker.  We also threw back a few Mountain Dews.

Here's to another fantastic 10 years of you and me, Mr. Merrill!  Just imagine how many more gallons of Dr. Pepper we shall share...

Oh, and an extra-special thanks to my mom and Whit for taking care of the rascals and making it all possible!

And it's a wrap people.

After all the merriment and gift-opening of Christmas Eve, it was nearly impossible to get our little kiddos to sleep.  They did go to bed incredibly easy, but getting them to actually drift away into dream land was quite a challenge. 

So Mom and Dad ended up staying up pretty late to set things up.  Well, Mom set things up.  Dad played Star Wars on the computer.

Anywho, as I normally do, I decorated over the kitchen table.

No, it's not a very good picture, but my eating area is very awkward and has that hideous light in it.  But hey, it's rental so it doesn't bother me too much.

Then Santa got to work.

Let me explain how we do Christmas around here.  The kiddos all take their stockings and lay them in their "present spot" which is where Santa will fill them up and leave his gift to them.  The rest of the gifts are left under the tree and after opening their stockings and Santa gift in the morning, one kiddo gets the privilege of being "Santa" and gets to distribute the rest of the gifts.  Pipes had the honors this year.

**Oh, and shout-out to my awesome Auntie Leanne who knitted these stockings for the kiddos last year.  I love, love, LOVE them.  And they stretch to extreme proportions so I can cram a ton of stuff in them**

As you may have noticed in past Christmas posts, but I don't really take pics on Christmas morning.  Most of the time I feel as though I am so worried about taking pictures that I miss out on all of the fun.  So Christmas morning is the one time I set down the camera and just try to be with everyone.  And I can better revel in the culmination of four months of work.

Here's the four pics I did take:

*Adi, you look weird, btw*

Look how genuinely happy this girl is.  Although she was much happier when she opened her My Way toothbrush.  Nerd.

I think Wyatt is a bit overwhelmed.

Sorry OP for getting your garments, but I did warn you to move!

Hope your Christmas was as wonderfully laid-back and awesome as ours was!

On the Night Before Christmas,

We gathered at my Momma's house for a feast- which I didn't take a picture of but I sure wish I would have.  My mom and Whitney set it up so beautifully!

And, prepare yourself, there are no pics of Wyatt.  He fell asleep right after dinner and snoozed through the whole party.

Anywho, we then exchanged gifts

Here's Whitney recording the events.

Here's us girls and all of our Toms.

My excitement over getting a pair of these rivaled that of when I was 13 getting my first pair of Dr. Martens.  Yes, it was that awesome.

The kiddos got jammies from Whit and Chris and promptly changed into them.  Nerds.

OP and Chris rocked out on Chris's Christmas present,

while Porter jammed on his.

Here's PG and his golf buddy,

and OP and Adi playing jewel breaker on the iPad,

and Whit and Pipes snuggling in the chair.

We played our traditional "Buckway Ornament Exchange"- very official- game.  It's played like a White Elephant Exchange, but with ornaments.  Duh.

Whit wanted to record everything, so here she is recording herself opening her ornament.

And Chris was the entertainment

Everyone had fun teasing and tormenting the kiddos.  Hey, it's how us Buckways entertain ourselves :)

What ornaments did everyone end up with?

Did I mention that my mom just had finger surgery?  Well, she did.  She still made Christmas dinner, dessert and played all of the games.  What a champ, huh?

Us Merrills then packed up (and had to sneak a big Christmas present home that I had stored at my mom's house and then forgot about) and went home to prepare for Santa.

We all opened our traditional Christmas Eve jammies, then set out letters to Santa, cookies, milk and oatmeal for the Reindeer (of course!).

That night the kiddos went to bed without any complaint and actually stayed in there, warm and snug, for fear of scaring of Santa.

Wyatt even woke up long enough to put on his new jammies and smile for a pic.

Or stare off long enough for me to get a pic.

To be continued...

As George Bailey would say,

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Yesterday we headed to Thatcher for our annual Merrill Christmas party.

I cannot explain how excited I was to see this in Globe (a small city on the way):

Yes, I know the picture is blurry.  I took it from a moving car.

And then we were with the fam we took an icy trip up Mount Graham to play in the white stuff.

Well, actually, we planned on going sledding but the twisty, winding mountain road was icy and slippery so we just pulled off to the side of the road and let the kiddos play in a little patch of snow.

Lucky for us freezing parents, Emma came along to play with the kiddos.

Us adults just stood on the opposite side of the road- the side with a drop off- and prevented the kids from sliding over the edge.

Or maybe we were just freezing and didn't really want to get any more snow on ourselves. 

Hyrum was all ready to go sledding.

Aww, the newlyweds.

Oh, hey Hebes.

Fun, fun, fun!  I have missed the snow! 

But, I have to admit, it's nice to be able to wave goodbye to it when you get too cold and return to the warmth of the valley :)

**Oh, and I totally forgot to take any pics of the party.  Awesome, right?**