The End of a Great Trip

Our last day in Texas was a little more relaxing. We did a little bit of shopping. Justin and Jeramy watching the BYU/Utah game. (Justin and Mariah being BYU fans and Jeramy is a Utah fan). And we had a nice dinner at home. The kids played in the leaves and just spent some time together. We did so much on the trip we were certainly busy and the time went very fast. Of course our drive home was not as exciting as the drive there. We were debating to make the trip in 2 or 3 days. We left early Sunday morning and drove as much as we could. We made it to Albuqurque about dark. That is about halfway. We decided to push on for another hour. We were hoping to make it to Gallup, New Mexico. There was a storm coming in that night that was suppose to hit Alburqurque. We wanted to get a little past it so we didn't wake up to snowy roads in the morning. We didn't quite make it to our destination before the storm hit. All of a sudden there was snow and ice on the roads and conditions got bad fast. We found ourselves 10 minutes away from our hotel and we were stuck in traffic on the freeway. It was barely moving. Three semis had slid off the road and probably 4 or 5 cars. All in different locations. We would get past one and then there would be another one. We sat on the freeway for over an hour. The bad news was we had decided to not stop for dinner. We were planning to eat when we stopped in Gallup. So there we were, already on the road for over 10 hours, hungry and exhausted kids, stuck on the freeway. That was the low point. Devin lost it. Emily was crying because she was tired and she felt bad for Devin. Never were we so happy to make it to the hotel. Until we got to the hotel. It was the same kind we stayed in before that we really liked. Just a different location. Huge difference! Cardboard walls! After a night spent there we decided we were going to make it home that next day. We just wanted to sleep in our own beds. So we pushed on through another long day. The first part of the morning was slow. We traveled on snowy roads until we made it back into Utah. Once we were back in Utah the trip went really smoothly. We ended up getting home about 8pm. Everyone was so happy to be home. This is Devin after being in the car for hours. We had such a wonderful trip. It was a nice holiday. We were happy to spend time with Jeramy, Erin, Scout, and Eden. We miss spending time with them. We are grateful they wanted us to come and offered their home to us. Erin took this cute picture of the kids all together. I am so happy that they got along so good. That Jeramy's girls got to spend time with their cousins and that the kids have fun memories with each other. We are looking forward to when we can see them again!

A Dream Come True

After ICE we took the kids Christmas shopping on Black Friday. I know we must be crazy but it was the day that it worked for us to fit it in. It was necessary, because that day a dream came true! Riley got to go to the American Girl Doll Store. Riley and Mariah both have dolls. But Riley loves hers. She pours over the magazines when they come and would love to own everything. A few weeks before we left she was asking me if I thought we would ever go to the one of the stores. The only location I knew for sure was the one in Chicago. I told her I didn't know if we would ever see a real store we would just have to shop out of the catalog. As we were making plans for the trip Erin informed me that there was an American Girl store in Dallas. You should have seen Riley's face when I told her! Of course we had to go visit. The girls brought their dolls. For those of you who don't have girls this is a big deal. The dolls and accessories are rather pricey to say the least. At the store girls bring their dolls. They have a restaurant in the store where you can make reservations to have lunch, with your doll of course. They have a salon where you can get your hair and your doll's styled and cut or have your nails done. As we got to the mall Riley was almost hyperventilating she was so excited. We could hear her breathing rapidly in the back seat. She had a huge smile on her face the entire time we were there. I was so glad we got to take her there. We also went to the Lego store in the mall. They don't have one where we live. Justin and the girls were really excited to go. The highlight was the pick a brick where they filled containers with parts they wanted. While in Texas we also visited the Bass Pro Shop. It was alot more fun for the kids then I thought it would be. They had activities everywhere for them to do. They got to see the big fish, ride a Christmas carousel, watch electric trains, color, sit in the display boats and so much more.

Ice!

The day after Thanksgiving we started with Christmas fun. We went to the Gaylord Texan Hotel and Convention Center. The place is huge and amazing. But we went there to see ICE! During the holidays they have an huge ice display. They bring in ice artists from China to do the sculptures. This year the theme was The Charlie Brown Christmas. We were really excited to see it. This is inside the hotel. They had a huge ice slide you could go down. I noticed most people scooting down it slowly because of the big parkas they make you where. Notice the picture of Devin. Unfortunatly this event started the beginning of a downward spiral in his behavior for the rest of the trip. He couldn't seem to understand that it was suppose to be a fun thing. He hated the parka. He would not where the hood or gloves. So he was freezing. The temparture is 9 degrees inside the display. There was loud Christmas music, lots of people. He just lost it. I know we ask quite of bit of a one year old during the trip. The drive, we ate out everyday, shopping, visiting places. From this moment on, he got harder to handle everytime we went somewhere. He would not sit down at resturants, he would throw food. I guess we just brought on the beginning of the terrible twos! It is harder when you don't have your usual schedule, own space, and even your usual discicpline. I love the little guy. But that is one reason why I was happy to be home to get him adjusted to his usual routine and work on his manners!

Thanksgiving!

Looking back now, I think it is a little funny that we went all that way just for Thanksgiving and I took a total of 3 pictures that day. I guess we were so busy visiting and eating that I just didn't think about it. So these are my great moments for the day. The food was delicious. And it was fun to try some new things.

We made it!

Our 3rd day traveling we finally made it to our destination. We had a great time staying with their family. The kids got along really well. We did a lot of things to keep us and them busy. They were so good to entertain and host us the entire time. Here are some highlights of our time with them. We went to Fossil Rim Nature Park. It is a drive through park where you can feed animals and they come up to our car. Really close to your car. In some cases noses and heads were in the car. You can feed the giraffes out of your hand. The funniest moment was when a giraffe stuck it's head in Erin's sunroof and then drooled into it. We could see the drool dripping down in long strings. Riley was riding with her. She was horrified by it and snuck under the dashboard. The zebras were pretty aggressive and would stick their heads in the windows. Which was a little scary since there were signs stating to be careful of the zebras because they do bite. We went to the Fort Worth Stockyards one evening and watched them run the longhorns down Main Street one night. They have the cowboys dressed up and they really just turn them loose. Which I thought was a little scary when they came right by us. They were really big and there was nothing between us. They must not have many problems since they do it everyday. We had dinner there. Texas BBQ complete with fried pickles.

Texas or Bust

This year we had a different Thanksgiving. We went to Texas to spend the holiday with Justin's brother, Jeramy and his family. Since Justin and I are both from Ogden we have never traveled for Thanksgiving before. We were really excited to spend some time with Jeramy, Erin, and the girls. Our adventure started with our drive. That is right! We DROVE to Texas with 4 kids. It is a 20 hour drive each way. I knew the girls would be ok. We had DVD player, DSs, MP3 players, books, and a bag of things to occupy them from Grandma (the wikki sticks were a life saver, occupied them for hours). I was worried about Devin. How do you explain a 20 hour car drive to a little boy is a year and a half. We started out our adventure on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. We decided to split up the drive over 3 days. We left about noon and drove to Moab. We had dinner there. It was a little painful for me to drive right past Arches, Dead Horse Point, and Canyonlands and not stop. I have such wonderful memories of times spent there. (I have the best friends!) After dinner we drove on to Blanding, UT where we spent the night. It was a nerve racking drive because it was dark and there were deer all over the road. Clusters of 5 or more deer just standing on the side of the highway. I have never seen so many deer all at one time in my life. I was driving and scared to death we were going to hit a deer in the minivan we rented and get in an accident. Somehow we made safely. We got there just in time to go to bed. Which we discovered is best with 4 kids. You don't really want to be sitting around a hotel room telling them to be quiet all the time. It was a rough night! Devin was sleeping with me and Justin and he sleeps horizontal on a queen bed between 2 people. Sometime during the night Justin ended up sleeping on the floor. Emily and Mariah were both talking in their sleep. Good times, good times! The next morning we woke up and visited Four Corners. The kids had a great time posing for pictures there. Here is Emily with each of her limbs in a different state. The kids thought it was great that all 4 of them were in a different state at the same time. We spent our second day of driving in New Mexico. We drove through Shiprock, Gallup, Albuquerque, and Tucumacari. We stopped in Albuquerque for lunch and a break from the car. We went to the Historic Downtown which is filled with shops and restaurants. We had lunch at the Church Street Cafe. It was one of the best meals I have ever eaten. The food was so good! Best pinto beans. Everyone had huge servings and everything we tried was delicious. I would go back there again just to eat! Here are some pictures of the the Historic Downtown. It was the same day the blizzard hit Northern Utah that day. But where we were it was a beautiful autumn day. There were leaves all on the ground, sun shining, and great weather. We only saw a small part of New Mexico but I really enjoyed the part we saw. The scenery was pretty along our drive. The people were friendly. The food was great. My Dad's family is all from New Mexico. The moved to Ogden when he was a baby. I enjoyed seeing where my family was from. It was a good day! The kids were doing so much better in the car then I had imagined. We did watch Cars (Devn's favorite show) too many times to count. He seriously has a problem. He is a Cars superfan! We made it all the way into Texas that day and stopped in Amarillo to spend the night.