New Year's Day – This is a night for friends! We hope to start a tradition of meeting a large group of our married friends at a restaurant on this night, but right now we have smaller game nights and sparkling cider with a couple or two. Tanya would really like to usher in one year in NYC.
Valentine's Day – Historically, Ryan and Dustin (brother-in-law) planned and prepared an annual fondue night for Tanya and Sharlene while they went shopping. More recently, they choose a new fancy restaurant to visit together. After dinner, the couples split and do their own thing. We love this tradition!
St Patricks Day – Tanya wants to start a mad hatter “tea party” for cousins and Chloe's friends. For now, we simply wear green and send Chloe to preschool with a snack to share with her classmates!
Easter – We spend the week preceeding by visiting various community egg hunts. We color easter eggs and do Easter crafts. If it is warm enough, Tanya likes to take Chloe to see baby animal days, an event held locally. We have the cutest picture of Chloe cuddling a baby chick! On Sunday, we go to Church and really focus in on the life of the Savior. She always wakes up to an easter basket with clothes, a few fun candies, a toy/book and a new game. We have a nice dinner with family, where Grandma Stephens hides baskets and candies for the grandkids. Chloe gets money in the eggs that get hidden at our house because she gets more than enough candy from her grandparents!
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| Chloe saw her friend Annie at the Community Easter Egg Hunt! |
Memorial Day – Tanya’s family goes to visit family graves earlier within the week, including her mother's, and it is the time that all the flowers/wreaths, solar lights, etc get set out for the season. Ryan’s family this is generally the first boating weekend of the summer! Sometimes we make it a campout. That is just the beginning of many boating trips we make through the summer! We love the sun, Lake Powell and splashing in the water!
Independence Day – BBQ & Fireworks, Friends and Family. Somewhere between the 4th and 24th,
Tanya’s paternal relatives have a reunion at Bear Lake each year. Camping, boating, Pickleville Playhouse, Raspberry
Shakes, Dutch Oven Cooking, the whole 9 yards! On the 4th, we grab BBQ takeout and eat in the park, play games and watch the fireworks with Ryan's family. We also go to Weber State's annual fireworks display.
Labor Day – We generally visit Manilla, UT with Tanya’s Family. We go fishing, four-wheeling, trucking, play
games, go to the Mountain Man Rendezvous, watch the boat light parade at
Flaming Gorge and enjoy their fireworks.
Sometimes we even brave the cold water on the waverunners.
Veterans Day – My Dad served in the Navy from 1968-1972 so I like to cook dinner for him to show my appreciation for his service and for the type of man it helped him evolve into. Tanya's brother and grandfather also served our nation. We are so grateful for the sacrifices of so many to provide us the liberties we enjoy. God bless the USA and the people who defend it.
Halloween – Every year we patch together coordinating costumes for Halloween. We always end up going to a few different parties with friends. Sometimes we host them! Every year Ryan's brother hosts a big Halloween party. We invite our friends too. For Chloe's first Halloween we were characters from Wizard of Oz and for 2015 we dressed as Harry Potter characters. Chloe made the most adorable Dobby! We really want to dress up as Grinch characters one year, and Nutcracker characters on another. Also during this time of year, we enjoy visiting various pumpkin patches in the area.
Thanksgiving Day – We alternate spending it with Ryan’s family at his grandparents house in St George & with Tanya’s family in Ogden. Lots of food…and going around the table so say what we are all grateful for. Tanya has tried her hand at hosting and cooking the turkey.
Christmas Day – This becomes a month long celebration. We set out an advent calendar with a holiday oriented activity for each day of December (building a snowman, seeing the lights, singing carols, etc). We seem to have family, friend & work gatherings at least three times a week for three weeks of the month! All sides of the family come together and we have a blast. While Ryan's brother and sister were in California, we would visit them every other year and see Disneyland, but they are back in Utah now so that doesn't happen quite as often. We study the life of Christ and try to do random acts of service for the community and our friends/neighbors. As Chloe grows older, we plan to make this one of the stronger elements of our holiday season.
Birthdays -- We love birthdays! They become a week-long celebration! We go out to dinner with Tanya's family on our birthdays and spend the evening playing games. We plan a movie night or some other activity with Ryan's family within the week of the birthday and then his parents have us over for dinner, presents, and cake on the nearest available Sunday! Ryan likes to plan a separate date night for the two of us. One year he surprised me with a shopping spree in Park City! LOVED it! When we have kids we want to take them out for a special two-on-one dinner during the week and then do all of the other things the family likes to do with them. We never turn down an opportunity to throw a party!
Anniversaries -- We will go to our favorite restaurant (right now its Cheesecake Factory) and have some evening activity...and then sometimes we'll book a night at some fun hotel (like Anniversary Inn). We have been known to offer dinners to close friends and family who don't appear to have anniversary plans, themselves. :)
Tuesday Night Sibling Night -- We believe sibling relationships to be extra special and so every Tuesday night we get together with one or all of our siblings for game nights, collective dinners, hikes, or some other fun activity. We love this opportunity to share time with our siblings and find it bonds us to them, and them to Chloe in a special way!
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