What we were up to in 2010...

It's been a while since we've been on here.  We had a great couple months to end 2010.  Here's an update of the highlights.  (Warning: this is a really really long post. You've been warned.)

In October for Halloween, we weren't planning to dress up but last minute decided to get into the spirit of it all.  I tied my hair up, put on some red lipstick and a dress and Chris put on his best Babaloo suit and we went to our ward trunk or treat as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo.

In November, we were able to take a trip to LA with our good friends Brianne and Scott Cartwright and Janelle and Jamel McCreary to see Brandon Flowers, the lead singer of our favorite band The Killers in concert.  It was an amazing concert and we had a great time.  

 My older sister Colleen was gracious enough to make us our awesome "concert wear" t-shirts, an essential component to any concert.  

The concert was at the Wiltern, a venue that has been around since 1931. 

The old time architecture was really cool.  

 We were all SO excited!

 Fran Healy from the band Travis was the opening act.  

 We got to our seats and we waited...

 ...and we waited some more.  

 Finally, he came on.  And he gave us an amazing show.  It rocked.


 And we couldn't have been happier.  Good times. 

(Wanna see a little of it?  Here he is singing a song you may know...)

For Thanksgiving, Chris and I were fortunate enough to be able to fly back to Utah and spend time with both sides of the family.  Thanksgiving was spent in Springville stuffing ourselves into a food coma with all kinds of delicious food and desserts.  Chris's family did Thanksgiving up right.  Thanksgiving weekend, we went down to St. George to spend time with my side of the family and work the package holding booth at Santa's Workshop, a show that my mom and aunt have put on for the past 26 years.  We unfortunately did not take any pictures but had a fabulous time at both places.



In early November, my sister Colleen told me about a contest to win tickets to a Dec. 15th concert that Brandon Flowers was putting on at the grand opening at the Cosmopolitan casino in Las Vegas.  We both entered on a whim thinking that nothing would come of it.  To our good fortune, we both won two tickets!  Chris and I debated whether we would go down and finally we decided that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and we would be dumb to pass it up.  The concert was on a Wednesday so Chris picked me up at work at noon and we drove the five hours to Las Vegas.  We met up with Colleen and her friend Andrea.  After a delicious meal at PF Changs, we went to the Cosmopolitan.  The Cosmopolitan is the newest casino in Las Vegas and cost a whopping 3.9 billion dollars to construct.  It was quite fancy.

 This is what you see when you drive into the parking garage.

The parking garage has "real time" parking.  It tells you exactly how many parking spaces are left.  I'd never seen it before and was so fascinated by it.

 One of it's claims to fame is a three-story bar set inside of a chandelier

 Once again, you can't go to a concert without concert wear.  Colleen made all our shirts.  The girl on the left is a girl that Colleen met at a BF concert in LA.  He brings people together.  Next to her is Andrea and Colleen.

 Can you see the excitement in our eyes?

 Getting excited for the concert.  Someone told us that we had just missed Brandon.  He had come out to sign autographs and visit with his fans in line.  :-(

 The venue was beyond cool.  It was in their Boulevard outdoor pool area over looking the Las Vegas strip.

 Look how close we are to the stage.

 Once again, Brandon put on an amazing concert.  It was absolutely incredible.

 He sang his heart out to his hometown crowd.

 If you were walking on the strip, you could also catch a glimpse of the concert. They project it on a ginormous screen. This is what you would see.

This was the view behind us.  We had such a good time and are so glad we decided to drive up.  After the concert, we said our goodbyes to Colleen and Andrea and hit the road.  We (mostly Chris) drove through the night and made it back to San Diego by 7 the next morning.  After a quick nap in my car outside the courthouse, I was back to work by 10am  It was totally worth it!



On the 17th of December, our good friends Janelle and Jamel were married.  They are such a great couple. Janelle looked gorgeous and had on some killer shoes to go with her awesome dress. We were so honored to be a part of their lovely day. We are SO excited for them!  Go Team Jamnelle!

The happy couple

To continue with our rock and roll lifestyle, on the 18th of December we drove back to Las Vegas.  I met up with my mom and sisters for a girls day out.  After lunch at the Yardhouse, we headed over to the Gold and Silver pawnshop from the show Pawn Stars to say hi to Chumlee.  Unfortunately, we forgot to call and tell him we were coming and he wasn't there.  We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but we got a couple shots outside.

That evening my mom, sisters and I went to the Judds Last Encore concert at Mandalay Bay. 

It was phenomenal.  I grew up on their music and they were the first concert that I ever attended.  They are so talented and they put on an amazing show.

And you better believe we had our concert wear, thanks to Colleen.

They sang all their old classics, Wynonna sang some of her solo songs and they ended with Ave Maria and Silent Night. I can't express how awesome it was.  The concert lasted for three hours and I could've sat for three more.  

After the concert, we spent a couple days in St. George then bundled up for a trip up north.

The snow is pretty; I'll give it that. 

Chris's little brother had a birthday two days before Christmas so for his birthday celebration, we went to Pirate Island where they have pizza and karaoke.

One thing led to another and I found myself on stage with Chris singing along with Elton John and Kiki Dee's "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart"

It's a good thing we got pictures of it because it probably won't happen again.  

It should be called Scary-oke.  

Then, our whole crew got on stage and sang Happy Birthday to Craig.  

Then Chris, unlike me, was ready for more.  

He did an awesome rendition of Desperado.

On Christmas Eve, we ran into Santa and Mrs. Claus (aka Chris's Grandpa and Grandma Knudsen)

His grandparents took the whole family to Tucanos in Provo. It's a great Brazilian grill.  

They even sang a Brazilian happy birthday song to Craig while he danced and played the tambourine.  

After dinner, we all went back to Chris's uncle Dave's and Aunt Debby's house and danced off our big dinner by playing Just Dance.  

After a while, we took a walk around the block to look for Santa Claus.  A couple people thought they caught a glimpse of him.  

We may not have seen Santa but we sure found some noses red enough to light the sky for his sleigh.

We warmed up with a little more Just Dance and...

...Michael Jackson Experience.  

So much fun.  

After we wore ourselves out with dancing, we opened gifts.  During Thanksgiving, we drew names so it was fun to see what everybody got.  We had a really great time.  Afterwards, we went back to Chris's mom and step-dad's house for our own present exchange.  

Christmas morning, bright and early (or should I say dark and early) and headed back down to St. George.  The weather co-operated with us in the fact that it didn't snow but we hit some nasty fog.  We pretty much drove in a cloud the whole way home.  We made it safe just in time to see Duke and Moki in their Christmas pajamas.  So adorable.  

We opened gifts around 11:00am and then headed into Grandma Sullivan's house for the our traditional Christmas lunch.

The weather was beautiful and we were able to play outside for a bit.   Here's Chris and our nephew Cannon on the swings. 

 

We wanted to get a picture of them together in their Buzz and Woody shirts but Cannon wasn't having it.  We had to use a little reverse psychology to trick him into taking a picture ("I guess we don't need a picture of Buzz.  Only Woody" and he was ready for a picture with a smile in no time.)  

Love this.  

And this kid...oh my goodness.  Do they get more adorable then Mr. Elliott?  He melts my heart.  

And this little Jacee girl doesn't know how to do anything but smile. We seriously have most adorable nieces and nephews. Not that I'm biased or anything... 

On the last day of the year, Chris and I decided to be tourists for the day.  I've always wanted to tour the USS Midway, a decommissioned battleship that lives in the San Diego Bay so we went down and got headphones and took the self-guided tour. 

If you can read the writing on this, you'll see what an awesome vessel this was.  

If you're made it to this part of the post, congratulations.  You are a trooper.  As you can see, 2010 was a great year and we feel really blessed.  2011 has brought more adventures but they will have to wait for another time.  I think this post is long enough.