Christmas in LA

Christmas Eve

I drove down from Cedar City to LA on Christmas Eve.

The night started out with our annual Monopoly game

I gave Luke Nintendo Monopoly for Christmas

[Luke]

The game was pretty intense

[Luke, Mom]

[Dad, Luke, Mom]

Dad won... what do you expect? He is a banker.

[Dad]

Christmas Day

We woke up early to open presents

Luke was really excited

As were my parents

[Mom, Dad]

Go Chargers!

[Luke]

Me with my presents

I got some awesome presents but the best one of all was being able to spend time with the ones I love...

...Snoop Dogg, Lou Adler, George Lopez, Sylvester Stallone, Phil Jackson, and Kobe...

at the LAKER GAME!

My dad was able to score us the front row bank tickets for the Lakers vs Cavs game!

[Luke]

We ran into our cousins (fellow Laker fans) at the game

[Tahnee, Tyler, Michael John, Me, Luke]

The Lakers were destroyed by the Cavs but I still love them!

The Day After

My parents, Luke, and I went and saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie (which was awesome!) and then had a great sushi dinner at LA Live.

That night Ryan and Missy came back from northern CA (where they had spent Christmas with her family) and we had our 2nd Christmas with them.

I gave my brothers and my dad a picture of me wearing all my clothes that are banned from the Neilson house: checker shoes, red board shorts, Jack sweatshirt, and blue trucker hat.

They loved it!

[Luke, Dad, Ryan]

Ryan got a Darth Maul statue which he was really excited about

Dad couldn't stop laughing because he was so embarrassed

And Ryan gave me this:

Singed by the author!

Bill Simmons is my favorite sports writer so you can only imagine how excited I am about this!

Thanks family for a wonderful Christmas!

Vegas Wedding

One of my best friends just got married in Vegas. Here are some picture from that weekend...

12.18 - Bachelorette Party Day

The day started with some mani-pedis

[Shanda, Katey, Emily]

Then lunch with the girls

[Coleen, Emily, Shanda, Katey]

We dressed up Katey for the night

[Emily, Katey]

And then headed to Macaroni Grill for dinner

[Katey, Emily, Shanda, Coleen]

Of course, we drew on the table

[Katey]

Coleen and her dinosaur...

My contribution to the beautiful artwork

Cheesecake

[Katey, Emily, Shanda, Coleen]

12.19 - Wedding Day

All the girls got up early and went over to Katey's to get ready for the big day

[Emily, Coleen]

The bride getting ready

[Shanda, Katey]

[Me and my cute slippers]

All ready

[Katey, Courtney]

Lunch-in

[Chad, Shanda, Emily, Katey (bride), Paul (groom), Dianna, Coleen]

The little white chapel on Bonanza

They got married!

[Katey, Paul]

Bridesmaids hugging the bride

Bride and her maids

[Courtney, Katey, Shanda, Emily]

Friends

[Coleen, Adam, Emily, Courtney]

Reception

[Hot shoes]

Cutting the cake

[Katey, Paul]

I got to put the garter on Katey

[Katey, Courtney]

Of course I caught the bouquet

[Courtney]

Bridesmaids all dressed up

[Shanda, Emily, Courtney]

Friends at the reception

[Leslie, Evan, Adam, Coleen, Katey, Skyler, Kim]

We loved how the 5" heels made our legs look

[Emily, Courtney]

Katey loves our legs too

[Emily, Courtney, Katey]

Me and my girls!

[Courtney, Katey, Emily]

Congrats to Katey and Paul!

Irony

I got something, I didn't want it...

Then why does it hurt so much now that I lost it?

Parowan Gap

On 9.11.2009, on our way to Cedar City from Delta, my co-worker and I decided to visit Parowan Gap to see the petroglyphs.

I had been to this site before (back in 2006 during field school) but it's one of those places that you need to see more than once.

[Parowan Gap]

[Petroglyphs]

[Petroglyphs]

[Me in a rock shelter]

[Do you see the scary face?]

[Me in the scary face]

[More Petroglyphs]

This is just one of the things I love about southern Utah.