back to real life again and sorry this is so long

after spending two and a half weeks in utah for the Christmas break, we have returned to wisconsin.

our vacation was the perfect amount of fun and relaxation. we loved spending so much time with the hedin family. we returned home feeling recharged and ready to head back to work.

katelyn and i left for utah almost a week earlier than tyler. he was busy slaving away preparing for finals. our departure from wisconsin was anything but boring. we started off our drive to the airport realizing we weren't exactly sure how to get there. but we did manage to get there just in time. good thing too because we sat on the plane for an hour before we finally took off. luckily katelyn is a champ on long days like that.

since we left so late we happened to miss our connecting flight. the next one wasn't leaving for another three hours, so we entertained ourselves with our handy point-and-shoot camera.

taking shoes on and off...what a fun game

staring off into space. bound to happen when lacking sleep.

climbing all over airport chairs. who knew they could be so fun?

were so happy to finally get to utah. it was fun to meet up with the in-laws again. we spent the next couple of days preparing for and attending tyler's sister's wedding. it was a beautiful sealing and, of course, the bride looked beautiful. i wish i could say i had pictures, but i left my charging battery plugged into the wall in the hedin home.

before christmas, i drove down to the provo/orem area to see all of my cute sisters and their husbands before they all headed to their in-laws. we watched it's a wonderful life, had a mock Christmas breakfast together and opened white elephant gifts. we were even instructed to wear our pajamas for the breakfast.

six days later tyler finally joined us in utah! he was so ready for a break, and we were so ready to have him back.

tyler kept the beard to show his family. i made him shave it off before i would kiss him.

we all had such a wonderful Christmas together. it was fun to watch katelyn this year to see how she would react to her presents. it didn't take long before she realized there were toys and clothes all for her in those boxes.
we spent Christmas day talking to tyler's brother who is on a mission, taking naps and playing with Christmas toys. tyler and i finished off the day by reading the Christmas story out of Luke.

Christmas eve dinner. everyone picks one thing they want for the big dinner that night. none of the requests have to coordinate or make a complete meal. it's fun to see what everyone picks and to see what you will end up eating that night.

christmas pajamas.

waiting to open presents.

while in utah, we made sure to squeeze some extra fun things in that we don't get to do in wisconsin. we went out to eat a number of times, played in the snow and made a snowman, went to an actual movie theatre with katelyn, visited deseret book and cafe rio, visited the bodyworld exhibit and visited family and old friends from the provo/orem area.

drinking juice at the restaurant. i think it entertained her all night.

playing in the snow. i warned tyler this was going on the blog, but he kept making funny faces. the little snowman was the one we built for katelyn.

she really did have fun playing outside despite the blank look on her face.

katelyn was completely spoiled with attention the whole break and enjoyed every minute of it.

tyler had a free meal to cafe rio that he forgot to use before we moved to wisconsin. it was a great excuse to visit cafe rio.
the day before we left we visited with my grandma bastian, uncle curtis and aunt marlene. it was fun to see that spunky grandma again.

tyler and i flew out the same day but not on the same flights. he took katelyn with him on his flights because he was supposed to get there at 2:00 and i wasn't going to get in until 6:00. because of a number of delays on both flights, he didn't get to milwaukee until 6:00. they entertained each other and katelyn kept tyler busy. he ended up having some great daddy daughter time with her.