Sub For Santa

So our wonderful friend Karly Barker set up a Sub for Santa night. She invited all her friends to participate and there ended up being around 20 of us. Sub for Santa provides about 2,000 families in Utah county with Christmas. So Karly signed up for our group to sponsor a family.

We all met up at Walmart to collectively buy Christmas gifts for a needy family in Utah. We (Parkinsons and Pacadas) were assigned the 15 year old boy. We bought a big winter coat, jeans, a book, and a scooter. The boys (Nate and Michael) got a little frustrated with how long it took me and Veronica to pick out said items. But we wanted to get the best presents we could!

After everyone bought everything, we headed to campus for dinner and wrapping. Karly, the amazing homemaker/wife that she is got Cafe Rio catered for everyone. She also went ALL out making treats and decorating with amazing Christmas flair. So we ate, a lot.





Then we wrapped. We wrapped up all of the gifts, with name tags and bows. After everything was ready to go, the presents were stealthily left on the door step for the family.



It was such a great night. We had so much fun and were so happy to provide Christmas for a family. Thanks Karly! Here's her post on the night. (Much more detailed and more pictures)

Phantom of the Opera Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we drove up to Lava Hot Spring, Idaho to spend the holiday with Michael's grandparents and lots of other relatives on his Mom's side. This was my first trip to Idaho. We drove up Tuesday and stayed with Grandma Kay and Roger the first night.

We had a really fun time getting to know them better. The next day about 40 people showed up to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. I got to meet lots of Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. It was fun. And the food was great!

So here's the interesting part. Michael's Mom offered to treat us to a night at a bread and breakfast in Lava Hot Springs. We were really excited about a night out, but she wouldn't tell us where we were going...

She finally gave us the address right when we were walking out the door. So we drove just five minutes from Grandmas right up the mountain to this nice looking bed and breakfast called Lion's Gate Manor.

We very quickly found out we would be staying in the Phantom of the Opera room. We were absolutely not expecting that, but still very excited. The room turned out to be amazing and HUGE.

So you enter the room through a secret door behind the bookcase :) Then you walk down the spiraling staircase.




Super nice huge bath tub.


Big King Bed




The Phantom himself. Watching from behind the mirror (Creepy right??!?) I turned him off the second I saw him.



We had so much fun! We had our own theater room you can't see from the pictures. (Box 5 reserved) So of course we watched the movie. It was only appropriate. The next morning we woke up to a big delicious breakfast before heading back to Provo. Thanks Leslie for such a fun night out!