Florida Vacation and Christmas in Utah

Our Christmas Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

Our Year 2000 has been a wonderful year!

Chris enjoyed finishing his second year of med school this summer. He is glad to have classrooms and book work behind him. He is now half way through his third year where he enjoys changing specialties every 6 weeks. He enjoyed Psychiatry in DC. He then did Pediatrics in Tacoma, Washington and loved it. Then he finished Internal Medicine Inpatient back in Washington DC and disliked the horrible hours, long commute and frequent call schedule. He’s finishing the year off with Internal Medicine Outpatient. Nice clinic hours. Besides work, Chris is enjoying his calling as 1st counselor in the Young Men’s Presidency. He is still working with the same boys he did when we moved in so has a good relationship with them. Chris enjoys holding Katie (and is very good at putting her to sleep), giving Ryan piggy back rides, playing basketball in his competitive basketball league, golfing with friends, and of course being with his wife. Chris’ favorite part of the Christmas season is listening to Christmas music (since September) making cookies, doing puzzles, sitting by the Christmas tree and walking through decorated malls (but not for too long).

Lisa is enjoying staying home with her two kids! She loves reading stories with Ryan, making Katie smile, telling Chris all about her day (which takes a very long time), scrapbooking, pasteling FHE packets with friends, cleaning her house, going shopping, reading while feeding Katie, and watching Oprah. Lisa loves being the 2nd counselor in the Young Womens because it means she gets to work with the cute and over excited Beehives. Lisa’s highlight of the year was holding Katie for the first time and introducing her to Ryan later that day. She has wanted a little ‘KATIE’ for as long as she can remember. She also enjoyed spending time with family this summer and looks forward to their two week Orlando, Florida Vacation this month. Lisa’s favorite part of the Christmas season is drinking Hot Chocolate with marshmallows, listening to the Celine Dion Christmas CD, cinnamon candles and cuddling with Chris. And of course…one can never shop too much.

Ryan is a very busy 2 ½ year old toddler. He loves watching movies, reading books, doing puzzles, and drawing pictures. He enjoys going to playgroup twice a week with his friends. Ryan loves riding on Daddy’s back, taking Katie’s socks off, being tickled, being chased, lying on top of Katie and growling at her to make her scream, counting, singing songs and eating Pickles, Marshmellows, pasta, jello, macaroni cheese and pretty much EVERYTHING else. He loves to help me make dinner and set the table. Ryan loves to have Family Home Evening and sing songs. His favorites are Old MacDonald, Eensy Weensy Spider, Head Shoulders, Knees, Toes, Ring a Round the Rosie, and the Tigger Song but he likes to sing them ALL BY HIMSELF. Actually he likes to do EVERYTHING all by himself. Ryan’s highlights of the year include meeting his new baby sister at the hospital, going to Disneyland for the first time, learning how to count to 10, learning to swim with water wings, and moving into his new BIG BOY BED. Ryan’s favorite part of the Christmas season is Visiting Santa’s house at the mall and getting very messy eating candy canes.

Katie, born July 6th, is now 5 months old. After several hospital stays and a minor kidney/bladder surgery she is doing GREAT! She loves eating, sleeping, grabbing her toes, blowing bubbles and playing with toys until her big brother takes them away from her. She occasionally tolerates it when Ryan lays all over and smoothers her with hugs and kisses but usually she likes to scream and get him in trouble. Katie is very spoiled. She loves to be held by her Daddy, especially at the dinner table and at the computer. She has just started giggling and thinks it’s really fun to chase Ryan and make him laugh. Katie’s favorite part of the season is trying to eat wrapping paper.

We hope everyone is just as happy as we are… and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Keep in Touch.

Love the Johnsons

December 9-12, 2000 Ft. Lauderdale with the Redfords

Saturday we woke up early and spend the whole day driving. 13 hours later we got to Orlando and checked into our luxurious CONDO that only cost us $200 for the week. It was so nice and we were so excited. We spent the night there and then the next day drove down to Ft. Lauderdale to spend a couple days with my cousin Mark and his family who are going to Dental School there. We ate and had fun visiting and letting Ryan and Josh (same age) play around together and Katie and Matt (same age) sit on the couch together. Mark got Chris and I hooked on a new Tetris Game so every spare moment was spent playing. The weather was fantastic. We went to the Everglades one day, went on an Airboat Ride and held alligators!!!! Crazy.

Another day we went to the beach and played around in the water in DECEMBER. So fun. Ryan had an unfortunate experience though. He stepped in a pile of red ants and they ran all over his feet and legs. He came running over to me crying and stomping his feet. We sat him down and brushed them all off but not before he got bitten all over. Poor little guy.

One night all of us piled into their van and we headed down to a huge touristy shopping center. The guys took all the kids and Amy and I shopped on our own. It was great. On the way home we looked for Christmas lights and sang Christmas songs. It was so fun. We really like being with Mark and Amy. They are so great and we have so much fun together. The visit was too short but very fun.

Tuesday night we drove back up to our condo in Orlando and got ready for our first DisneyWorld day…

December 13, 2000 Magic Kingdom & Epcot

THIS WAS THE BEST DAY OF OUR WHOLE VACATION. I LOVE the Magic Kingdom. We got to Disney World by 8:30 am. We parked, got the stroller stocked and practically skipped the whole way to the monorail. It was so fun getting our tickets and walking through the gates. It really is the best place on earth. We decided to head right into the FUTURE world part. We went on the Buzz Lightyear ride first. Walking through you see a lifesize Buzz Lightyear who says… “To infinity and Beyond…” Ryan’s face was so cute. His eyes just lit up. The Buzz ride was fun. Everything was glow in the dark and you could see Buzz and Zurg in several places. Everyone had guns and were trying to shoot at the targets. Daddy loved it. Next we went on the Race Cars. Mommy and Ryan rode together and Daddy and Katie rode together. Ryan wanted to drive ‘all by himself’ so it was a pretty bumpy ride.

TOON TOWN was my favorite. I just love the characters! And Ryan did too. First we saw Mickey Mouse. Ryan was a little nervous but we got some great pictures. Then we saw Winnie the Pooh. Ryan was SO excited… he didn’t want to wait in line. Actually he didn’t even know there was a line… to him it was just him and the Pooh Bear. He gave him a long hug. Then he met Tigger, Eeyore and then Pinnochio.

I fed Katie as we took the Train ride all around the Magic Kindgom. When we got back to TOON TOWN we ate lunch and then Daddy and Ryan went on the Donald Duck and Goofy Roller Coaster. Next we headed into the kids area. We went on DUMBO and off course Ryan loved it.

Then we went on Snow White. It’s kind of scary though so Ryan covered his mouth. Hee hee. He went on the Carousel and then we went on “It’s a Small World”. SO much fun! One of our favorites was the WINNIE THE POOH RIDE. Ryan loves Winnie the Pooh so it was fun to watch him recognize all the characters and point them out.

At 2:30 we went and got fantastic seats for the “Celebrate the Magic’ Parade. We LOVED it. As they came through singing I got choked up. I don’t know why but I was just so happy to be here with my little family and we were having such a good time. I just knew we were always going to have fond memories of this day! As the Beauty and the Beast Cast went by they grabbed Ryan to be in the song. He was very shy. Then he danced in a circle with Snow White and the seven Dwarfs. It was so cute. It was a fantastic Parade.

Next we went on the Jungle Cruise, Tom Sawyer Island and the Tikki Room. It was really cute. Bright birds singing all over the place. It definitely had Ryan’s attention. Next we went on Peter Pan… I like that one. It’s cute. We watched a LION KING show and then ran over to catch part of the Electric Parade. It was ok but we didn’t have great seats. We were in a great location though, to watch Tinkerbell fly from the top of Cinderella’s castle. Then we watched some of the fireworks and went shopping in the DisneyStore on Mainstreet. That’s my favorite thing to do. Those little shops are SO much fun to look in. The Magic Kingdom closed at 7:00 but EPCOT was open till 9:30 so we decided to take the monorail over to the EPCOT Center to check it out. We wandered around until we found the “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience’ 3D movie. Little did we know… Oh, boy, it was very enjoyable. First they accidently let out a bunch of mice which you could see scurrying around and approaching you in your 3D glasses… then all of a sudden something pops out underneath your legs. I SCREAMED and SCREAMED. It scared me to death. The person in front of me turned around to see if I was ok. Oh my gosh, it was awful. Then they let a snake escape and it jumps out and strikes at us (which completely scared Ryan, not to mention me!) and then the dog get all wet and shakes himself dry which gets us all wet. Ryan kept saying “Doggie Ryan all wet.” It was cute.

After that we walked around and enjoyed the water fountains for awhile. The fireworks were Incredible! We walked over to the TEST TRACK… a sort of car testing roller coaster which we took turns riding and then headed home. We were exhausted but you couldn’t wipe the smiles off our faces. The kids were so good. We just had a ‘magical day.’ We got slurpees on the way home and got home by 11:00pm.

December 14, 2000 MGM Studios & Epcot

Today we decided to take the ferry over to MGM. It was slower but we got to see some of the neat Disney resorts and enjoy the sun and splashing water. When we got there we headed straight for the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. It was SO great. We loved it. Then we did Star Tours, which is fine but kind of makes you sick, and the 3D Kermit Show which Ryan liked.

The highlight of the day for Ryan was meeting Buzz Lightyear, Woody and Jessie. He was excited to see them but as soon as we got up to the front of the line he just watched them in complete silence being totally amazed. We got some cute pictures.

For lunch we sat and watched the Beauty and the Beast Christmas show. After lunch we went for some big kid rides. We both took turns going on the Rock ‘n Roller Coaster which starts out by suddenly going what feels like 100 miles per hour. It was very thrilling. Then Chris went on Tower of Terror… a BUNCH of times since he loved it so much. At 3:00 we watched the Mulan Parade. I had to take off my shoes and socks and roll up my pants because I was so hot!!! After the parade we ran to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show again. We just had to see it a second time. Then we took the Boat back over to EPCOT. It was so nice to have the 4 day flex pass so we could go wherever we wanted. We walked around the country exhibits but only went in the Canada Pavilion, watched a 360 degree movie and then went and had dinner in front of the water fountain which sprayed water to music. It was all lit up too and we had the perfect seats. It was nice to be able to eat whenever and wherever we wanted… in stead of waiting for a restaurant and long lines. After dinner we went on the Space Ship Earth, which is the slow ‘past present and future’ ride that is inside the BIG round ball associated with EPCOT. We decided we would like to have a voice recognition TV someday! The Innoventions Exhibits were incredible. We loved the New House Stuff, the New Video Games section, the Computer Stuff and Website Info and Chris especially liked the Radiology clips since that’s what he’s interested in now.

After we finished walking around the exhibits we went outside and found a great place for the fireworks. Ryans face is so cute. He loved them. When they got really loud he scrunches up his face, squints his eyes and buries himself into his Daddy. It was so cute. It’s funny… when Ryan gets scared he covers his mouth!! What a fun day. We got slurpees again on the way home. We are addicted.

December 15, 2000

Today we slept in and enjoyed a big breakfast in the condo. Then we spend the late morning and early afternoon swimming in the pool. Ryan swam with his little swimmies and did such a good job. It’s so cute. We layed out for a while, while Ryan played in the baby pool and then we packed up the condo and took everything over to the house that Shelley and Del are renting for the next week. It’s big and nice. It’ll be great. Chris and Ryan left immediately for the airport to pick everyone up while I made some dinner for everyone. We had a great time visiting and playing games before we went to bed!

December 16, 2000 Magic Kingdom

We spent a beautiful Saturday at the Magic Kingdom with Chris’ family. We were so excited as we walked through the gates. We took a picture by the Mickey flower bed and then walked down Mainstreet until we stopped to get our picture taken in front of Cinderella’s castle.

The atmosphere was so fun. We loved watching Ryan enjoy everything! We got Ryan and Katie Mickey Mouse hats and they were so cute. Our favorite rides were the Buzz Lightyear ride, Space Mountain, the Whinnie the Pooh ride, It’s a Small World, Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain and the Thunder Mountain Railroad. We loved the parades too. Ryan got so excited when he saw all the characters, especially Mickey.

December 17, 2000

Sunday… everyone else went to Busch Gardens but Chris and I stayed home and enjoyed a relaxing day, went to church and made a big Sunday dinner. It was nice to have a break from all the big busy days.

December 18, 2000 Universal Studios

Our favorites at Universal Studios were the JAWS ride, the Men in Black ride, the Cowboy Stunt Show and eating dinner at the NBA restaurant.

December 19, 2000 Animal Kingdom

Our day at the Animal Kingdom was so fun.

December 20, 2000 Islands of Adventure

By 9:30 Chris, Ryan, Katie and I were in WHOVILLE, the Dr. Seuss Children’s Play area. We felt like we were right in the middle of a Dr. Seuss book. It was FREEZING cold… but we bundled everyone up and enjoyed it anyway. The Cat in the Hat, Red Fish, Blue Fish, and the Seussical Merry-Go-Round. Then we enjoyed Posidon’s Fury, a fire/water theatrical show with a circular water tunnel. It was pretty spectacular. The Unicorn Roller Coaster was Ryan’s favorite. He barely made the 36” height requirement with his hood on. He wasn’t scared though… not one bit. He went on it 16 times!!! All the way up the first big hill he’s say, “Up, up up… oh-no oh-no..” and then “down… AHHHHHHH!” He never stopped smiling and then as soon as we’d slow down he’s look up at us and say “do again?” It was so fun to watch him get so excited. At 11:45 we finally met up with Chris’ family. They left the house after we did and on the way got into a car accident that was Del’s fault. Yuck. With everyone there we decided to do the Dueling Dragons. Chris and I went with Ashlyn and Kyle to be in the front row of FIRE. It was absolutely incredible. I’ve never been on a better roller-coaster and the front was the greatest!!! We had lunch at a nearby burger place and then went to the Sinbad Stunt Show with pirates, swords, explosives and everything else. Very fun. It was still cold out so the girls refused but the guys were adamant about going on the Jurassic Park Water Ride. They had ponchos and plastic bags that they covered themselves in to keep themselves dry. They said it was fantastic. They continued with other water rides, Spider Man and the Hulk while the Ashlyn, Lindsey, Nikole and I went and did the Dueling Dragons ICE… front row!! We waited 45 minutes but it was fun to talk the whole time. When we met up with the boys we went on the Hulk again and then the Spider Man 3-D ride. We had made a crockpot dinner at home so we went home while everyone else went out to eat. We watched the Jazz Game and then got a phone call from Geneva. They had their baby. A little GIRL… Hanna Chugg - Born December 18, 2000 - 5 pounds 12 ounces. Yeah!

December 21, 2000 SeaWorld

As soon as we got to SEAWORLD we walked around and then went to the Sea Lion and Otter Stadium. It was SO funny. Before it started we watched a MIME make fun of everyone coming in. It was hilarious. The show was incredible. They had the sea lions doing the funniest things right on cue. It was one of my most favorite things! Then we checked our the Sharks, Penguins, Turtles and Fish. The Shamu and Killer Whale show was awesome as well. The trainers would ride on their backs, stand on their nose and be shot high into the air and dive in the water. It was amazing! Whales are such beautiful animals. Next we hit the Dolphin Nursery to see the baby Dolphins and then went to the big Dolphin area where I took some great pictures of everyone petting the dolphins. It was really neat. The two rides that they have at SeaWorld are both awesome. The Journey to Atlantis is a water roller coaster ride. It has a big splash and then whips you around like a roller coaster. The other one was called the KRAKEN. It was a HUGE roller coaster with the best free fall drop. I ran out of scream half way down the hill. This roller coaster was hooked on the bottom but the floor dropped out so your legs were dangling. It was amazing. It was Chris’ favorite one!!

That night Shelley and Del took us out to dinner to Chevy’s. Then we went home, packed up everything and drove to Atlanta, Georgia from where we flew to Utah for Christmas.

Saturday, December 23, 2000 CHRISTMAS ADAM

We decided to go watch our 'Christmas Movie' today since Christmas Eve is a Sunday. We went to 102 Dalmatians. It was enjoyable... especially when Ryan would bark like a dog. It is so much being with Chris and the kids. We had such a great time together. It's fun to be on vacation because we are always together!

Sunday, December 24, 2000 CHRISTMAS EVE

After church we changed quickly and headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Polson's house for Christmas Eve and Shelley drove with us. It is so fun to go over to the Polsons. We eat lots of yummy food, look at all the presents and visit with everyone. Katie wore her red velvet dress. We are always the first ones over there and the last ones to leave.

When we got home we read the Christmas story briefly and sat by the fireplace. Then Ryan put two of the stockings on his feet. So funny!

Monday, December 25, 2000 CHRISTMAS!

We had a wonderful Christmas. Katie woke up at 6:00 and happily cooed and talked in the dark. Chris picked her up and said to me..."Go back to sleep. This is your first present of the day." He was just too excited to go back to sleep. He's such a cute little boy on Christmas. At 7:30 we had a great Johnson traditional Christmas breakfast of sausage/potato/egg/cheese casserole and then we waited as Chris dragged out doing the dishes to "increase the anticipation". Chris' Grandma Johnson was there with us for Christmas but Nikole, John, Kyle and Ashlyn weren't. It was so fun to watch Ryan open his presents. Actually he helped everyone open their presents. It was cute at first... it quickly became annoying because he was speeding everything up. We gave Ryan Buzz Lightyear and Woody characters. He opened Buzz first and said, "Buzz!" then looked in the box again, looked up and said, "Where's Woody?" It was SO cute. He loves saying “finity and BEYOND” and “howdy, howdy, howdy”. We also gave him a Pooh Bear Cup, 2 Pooh Bear Books, 2 small church books, Toy Story2 and the Tigger Movie. We gave Katie a small beanbag Piglet, Eeyore, a Noah's ark book and a Piglet Cup. The kids were spoiled with lots of other things from everyone else too!

Chris gave me some cute clothes, a scrapbook cutting mat, an adorable Mickey Mouse frame from Disney World, new frying pans, a Jan Brett book, and great red plaid kitchen dishtowels and oven mitt. He went over the limit. We weren't supposed to buy much for each other since our present was DisneyWorld. I got him three shirts, a Gene R. Cook tape, socks, and Jon Schmidt piano music. Adam and Marilee spoiled us too. They sent a big package with cute clothes for Ryan and Katie, and chocolates and $25.00 at Blockbusters for us! They are so cute.

At 1:00 we were all decked out in our new clothes looking SO cute over at Grandma and Grandpa Polson's house. They spoiled the kids as well. We enjoyed opening presents, visiting with everyone and EATING. Ryan kept going downstairs all by himself. He loved to stand on the stool and play with Grandpa's pinball machine. It was so cute.

At 4:00 Nikole, John, Kyle & Ashlyn came over and we opened a few more presents. Shelley and Del gave us a calendar, the deluxe Risk game, $15.00 at BlockBuster and some cute scrapbook stickers. Then we gave them their present... a big Christus statue. They loved it. Shelley started to cry. We played MAD GAB for a while. It's a fun game.

Then I disappeared to go talk to my family. They had a good but very relaxing and casual Christmas. Mom said she needed us to help 'get things going'. Yep... that's what we do! Plus my mom is going through all these weird sicknesses that may or may not have to do with her disease and medications and Mike is sick too.

We had a small turkey potato gravy Christmas dinner really late even though we weren't very hungry. Then we sat around talking at the table. For some reason we were laughing so hard. John, Nikole, Kyle and everyone were being so funny. It was a great time. When everyone left we went downstairs and fell asleep watching Mission Impossible 2. What a fun day.

Tuesday, December 26, 2000

Today we have had fun playing with all our new stuff. Chris and I went shopping, took our film in, went to the GAP and then rushed home to play RISK with Kyle and Ashlyn. I was out within minutes but it was fun. Then the boys went and watched GLADIATOR at John's house and the Girls went to go see WHAT WOMEN WANT. Cute.