the start to the year

Just wanted to drop some pictures of what's been going on the past few months before all of this Coronavirus stuff bombarded and took over our lives. It's been a great start to 2020. Love all of my sweet friends and family so much. 

We spent the New Year partly at Tay and Kyle's pajama party and the rest at Geo and Ally's party. We had so much fun with all of our friends! We sure are lucky to have all of them in our lives. 

One night in January, some of the fam got together to make our 2020 word vision boards. We had so much fun with it! This year, my word is "Simplify" and Dan's word is "Discipline". This was so much fun to do with the family! 

One night Tay had all of us girls over for a girl's night and she surprised us by asking us to be her bridesmaids! It was so much fun. We spent the rest of the night eating snacks, chatting like girls do, and making our flower hair clips for the wedding. I'm so excited to be her bridesmaid! 

Visiting Patty at his new Beans and Brew job! He's the cutest little bro. 

For dad's birthday, he requested that we play games. Never thought that would happen! We played a game where you had to answer a question or eat gross food, so that was pretty funny. Then we played our favorite, Battle of the Sexes. Such a fun night with the fam!

We had fun celebrating Ashy's birthday the following weekend. Dan had to travel to Redding for some work, so I was on my own. She had a friend party over the weekend, which was so much fun. Her friends taught Tay and I how to twerk since we are old. Then we celebrated with the fam on her actual birthday. Dad made the yummiest strawberry poke cake!! I helped decorate it! Still drooling over it! 

I had a fun little Galentine's night with the girls - Madi, Tay, Nis, Gilline, and Regan. We went to a Mexican restaurant and then went to Tay's parents to watch a movie and we came in to this. It was the cutest thing ever. Wayne had set everything up like a movie theater and even had popcorn popped for us!  He's a gem. We didn't end up watching a movie, just chatted, like we always do when we get together! I sure love all of them. 

This is the cute sight I came out to see when Dan had dinner ready on Valentine's Day. 

We had a really special Valentine's this year. Dan made us the yummiest dinner and then we gave each other gifts. Dan got me Airpods. I was stoked! I gave him a five senses gift... we won't get into that here. Then we did a paint night and we had a BLAST!!! Oh, can't forget that we got one of our favorites, Coldstone for dessert. I sure love this guy. So happy we tried something new. 

We celebrated Jameson's first birthday! He's the squishiest little guy. It was good to see Aunt Cherie and Jeff while they were in town. We ended up staying late after the party and getting burgers and just hanging out and visiting. They got to come see our house the next day, which was cool since they hadn't seen it since we changed everything! 

We sure are loving our family game nights! So fun to get Patty's girlfriend, Lexie, playing too! She's a cute girl and they seem really happy together. 

My fourth graders had their Utah Program. Dan even came to see it on the parent night, which was really fun! All of the kids loved meeting him. They did a great job. We practiced all year long! 

I had fun at the Drill Showcase with some of the fam so we could see Patty perform with Lexie in the partner dance. He is such a good little dancer! I always love to go back to my old stomping grounds. 

We celebrated mama's 6th months sober with an AA meeting and breakfast at Dee's. Too bad mom's pork chop was dry! It was a very special day and I sure am proud of my mama. 

We went on a double date with Tay and Kyle in February to the new restaurant Slackwater. It was so yummy and so fun to hang out with them! We always have a good time together. We had to give the dogs some attention after the date too. 

We had such a fun time watching the Gunn boys my birthday weekend so Alex could have a break since Danny was out of town. We played hockey and took them to the park. Daniel had fun cleaning Leo up after he pooped his pants and then again after he told us his butt crack was itchy. Those boys keep us laughing! 

I had such a fun birthday this year. I usually don't love my birthday, so it was great to ring in 26 with some fun celebrations with friends and family! On Saturday, I had all of my friends over for a game night. We had drinks and played Battle of the Sexes, which got very heated, but it was a blast! My friends are the best. Then on my actual birthday, the family came over and we made pizzas and dad made the yummiest cherry poke cake! They all got me such sweet gifts. It was a great day! Loved having Davis there too. He has been gone for a few months. 

Dan planned a fun little date night for us. We went up and tried the new Emigration Brewery and then he surprised me with Nickel-mania. It was so dang fun. That was when we were starting to hear about the Coronavirus more and I remember thinking how many germs were on all of the games that night. 

This was kind of our last hurrah before things got crazy with corona. We went to Park City for Rachel's birthday and played hockey and we had a pure blast. I never thought I'd like hockey so much. Of course we weren't on skates, so that helped, but it was so fun. Dan of course loved it. We had some yummy brownies with ice cream and strawberries to celebrate. Madi even brought the guy she's been talking to, Tyson. It was great to get to know him more. What a fun night! 

Well that pretty much sums up what's happened so far this year. Now here's to hoping I can start staying more on top of this whole blog thing. Life is good. 

xoxo

Kenzie

O H I O

Getting the opportunity to fly to Ohio after so many years of being there last was the most amazing experience. Family means the world to me, so it was amazing getting to go spend a few days just having quality time with them. 

This was truly one of my favorite trips. We didn't really do a lot, but that's why it was amazing because we were just present and together and really soaking up the time we had. 

We had quite the adventure getting there! I got a call from Daniel on Friday on my home from school. Our flight was supposed to be that evening, but he called to tell me it had gotten cancelled due to snow in Chicago (our layover). I was so sad. He told me that it was rescheduled for early Saturday. I pulled myself together and went to get my nails done to pass some time since we weren't going to be leaving that night. When I got home, Ash, Dan, and Kai were sitting around the table. (Mom and dad were already there since they went a few days before us.) We all sat there racking our brains out trying to figure out what to do because we got word that the flight had now been delayed to Saturday afternoon, meaning we wouldn't get in until late Saturday. We were so sad. I finally had the idea to Call Jordan Solomon to see if he could hook us up. SURE ENOUGH... he said he could get us on a plane in about an hour. I packed my bag and we left right then for the airport. It was pure chaos trying to drive there while getting the tickets and finding parking. But WE MADE IT. We got on the flight and got there late Friday night. We picked up our rental car and drove to Cambridge. It was so nostalgic walking into their house. The smell. The memories. It all came back to me from my childhood trips there.

Ash, Kai, Dan, and I were all squished sharing a room, but it turned out so fun! We could barely even shut the door haha. Every morning we loved all waking up and drinking coffee, playing bananagrams, doing crossword puzzles and word searches, and just hanging out. 

The first day we had a big reunion with grandpa's family. It was so good to be able to meet some people that we had never gotten to see before. Then grandpa took us to his bar that night, the one he spends every evening at for a couple of hours. We just hung out, played pool, had some Shirley Temples, ate the yummiest wings, and had some good chats. 

We all stayed up til the middle of the night playing Cover Your Assets and Battle of the Sexes every single night. That is probably my favorite memory of the whole trip. We all just had so much fun and dad even played with us and LOVED it. I loved when dad said, "Are we playing games tonight, guys?" Dad has never been a game guy, but we've changed him! We all about peed our pants every night from laughing so hard. We even got grandma and grandpa to play Battle of the Sexes one night. So hilarious! They could never read the little slip of paper. 

One day was spent celebrating Preston's birthday! It was so crazy and amazing to see him again. He was tiny the last time we saw him so it was pretty surreal. We even got to see where he is living with his grandma Tami. She seems to be taking good care of him, but it was hard not to get sad about his hard life. We wish we could bring him here to live. He is the sweetest boy. 

This was the house that mom's grandma and grandpa Hose (on her mom's side) lived in forever. She pretty much grew up here because she stayed with them so much. I actually still remember going there the last time we were there and they were still alive. I wish we could have gone inside. 

We got to video great grandpa one morning about some of his great stories and memories. That was pretty amazing and I'm sure we will treasure having that on film forever. He is the funniest guy and I love him so much. 

We got to all go see great grandpa's place at his sister Diana's and he showed us all his coin collections and had us all peeing our pants because he pulled his gun out and freaked us out sticking it right in his eye to be funny. He said it wasn't loaded, but still freaky! We took him to dinner with us that night. It was so yummy! The place had the best pie. Look at these giant slices. It was so cute that grandpa ordered salmon and applesauce. He had to be healthy. So adorable. 

Stopped at the best grilled cheese restaurant on our way to the airport! 

It was an amazing trip just being able to spend good solid quality time with everyone. I came home feeling so refreshed and happy. I love trips like this with no agenda, but just getting to spend time together, laughing our butts off. We loved traveling with Ashy and Kai! 

This is a trip I'll never forget.