Christmas fun in SLC

I love going downtown.  By that I mean downtown Salt Lake City.  I always have.  I will jump in the car and drive there for any reason. In fact I make up excuses to go.

Leading up to Christmas we went downtown for some fun festivities:

As usual Grandma, Heidi, and I had an overnighter and all day shopping spree.

One of our favorite things to do together.  

We met up with the family at the Conference Center for the Christmas concert and dinner.  So Good!

Millie and her cute friends planned a "Mother Daughter" date night.  We went to Temple Square and dinner at City Creek.  It was fun to hang out with the other moms who happen to be so nice and cool. I adore her friends and we had a great time!

Sydney, Mckayla, Maddie

Krisha, Sydney, Kiersten, Millie, Maddie, Aliyah, Mckayla, Brynn, Kennedie

 

Teenager!

We officially have a TEENAGER!

And a lovely one too!

To celebrate this exciting milestone, we treated her to a day of pampering. 

First:  Getting her hair done at a fabulous Salon in Layton.  They serve you frozen grapes, snacks, and bottomless drinks while you just sit there and relax.  As if the scalp and should massage isn't enough!

She didn't do anything drastic, just a little trim and style. She looks older already!

Next:  Pedicures!  The joy of a pedi speaks for itself.  We all benefitted from this stop!

Third:  A visit to the Clinique counter at the mall for a little makeover.  She's only been wearing mascara (which is just fine), but she wanted to play around with a little make-up for the days she wanted to feel like a teenager.  She looked absolutely gorgeous!  Too gorgeous.  I forbid her to wear the make-up (not really).  She also got a great lesson on taking care of her skin like washing and moisturizing.  She has been very lucky so far to have a perfect complexion but that acne has to be coming soon.  I don't remember being so cute and zit free at 13!  

Next:  Dinner at Tepanyaki!  We let her chose where she wanted to eat, and of course this was on the top of her list.  It was a tough choice between here and Olive Garden.  It was fun and delicious as usual.

Then:   A sleep-over at Grandma's cabin!  This is one of Millie's favorite spots.  Just she and I went up while BS and the other 3 kids stayed home.  It was so nice having some alone time with her and we definitely needed the girl time!  I am so blessed to have her.  Truly so blessed.  This was a day neither she nor I will soon forget.

Last:  A weekend trip to Midway!  See the next post...

Christmas begins!

The signs of Christmas have been popping up all over.  Here are just a few:

Christmas crafting and decorating:

The Festival of Trees:

Ashley and Quincy

Making candy canes

Face painting

Talking to a real Elf in the phone booth

 

Millie's Christmas Choir Concert:

Guffey Family Dutch Christmas:

Fun party at the Search and Rescue Lodge in Morgan.  Sadly forgot to take pictures

Christmas Shopping:

Yay for Trader Joes!  Sooo happy it is finally in Utah!

Cute and fun holiday shopping bags.  Lush is another of my favorites

He's back!

Our Elf named Buddy

And he's watching...

It really is the most wonderful time of the year...and I'm getting excited!

We heart City Creek

A few weeks ago the much anticipated City Creek shopping center opened downtown.  I personally have been waiting and looking forward to this for a long time.  I grew up going shopping downtown and some of my best memories involve going to Crossroads (the old downtown shopping center).  I loved that place and I was very sad when it closed down 7 or 8 years ago for renovation.

But.

But now it is open and it is incredible!  

On opening day I took Millie and two of her friends to check it out.  We left at 3:00 and didn't get home until 10:00!  We parked and rode Trax because I wasn't sure how the parking was and I knew it would be busy.  They couldn't have picked a more perfect day for opening because the weather was perfect!  It was on March 22nd and it was warm and sunny - so warm that the roof was off!

We hadn't been there ten minutes when we were stopped by a familiar face...Nadine Wimmer who is a news anchor for KSL.  She told the girls she wanted them to be on the news.  She said to come back and meet her at 6:00 with their purchases if they had any.  They were so stoked!  

Millie got some sassy red shoes that she wanted to show.  Her friends got some shoes too and jewelry.  They were super excited to be on TV.

Some of their favorite stores were Lush, H&M, 77kids, Vans, Forever 21, & Disney Store.  Here, they are trying on cute rompers at H&M which they bought for 9 bucks for swimsuit cover-ups.

I love this picture -  Temple in the background

New shoes!  Addie, Tatum, Millie