arizona trip - part 3

we had such a great time with my grandparents, dad, and uncle and aunt and their family.  some of my very favorite memories are from family reunions.  i am so blessed to have such a wonderful, loving, supportive family, who i absolutely love spending time with.  and now the kids have pictures with their great grandparents.  how cool is that?

we traveled back up to my other aunt and uncles before heading home.  the kids all had so much fun together.  i didn't get a picture of ethan and emma with the kids, but did get a few with adam.

naomi and adam had a lot of fun together.  here they are going in for a kiss. :)

and a hug

the drive back home was quite eventful.  it was quite cold - around 32* when we started out, and we definitely weren't prepared for the cold.  the kids had on shorts, t-shirts, and sandals.  let's just say that we weren't expecting winter conditions - in march - in the south.  on the way there we had stopped often, and let the kids get out and stretch their legs a bit.  that wasn't happening this time around!  the poor kids (and parents stuck in the car with them!) didn't really get out the whole day.  other than that, though, everything was going fine until we got to santa rosa, new mexico.  there was a road block on i-40 because of the weather.  it was cold, but clear skies, so we decided to take the detour south.  we had already booked our hotel for the night, and didn't want to loose the money from that.  so, we decided to drive the extra few hours to make it to albuquerque that night.  that wasn't the best choice we've ever made. :)  as soon as we hit the texas state line, it started blizzarding like crazy.  the plains in alberta is the only thing i can think to compare it to.  there were also patches of ice that we slid on 3 or 4 times.  visibility was almost nonexistent, but since we were in the middle of nowhere, we just had to keep going.  poor dave!  i was glad it wasn't me driving!  so, as you can imagine, a two hour detour ended up being quite a bit longer than that.  christopher fell asleep pretty easily in his carseat, but naomi wasn't having any of it.  she would cry and cry, then fall asleep for half an hour, then wake up and cry some more.  i got in the back, between the carseats, so i could rub her arm and comfort her a bit.  it worked a bit, but she was NOT a happy camper!  we finally made it to the hotel at 2 a.m.!  what a HORRIBLE drive!  but that's what memories are made of, right? :)  and once we got there, we still had to get the kids, and all of our stuff, to our room.  we were all wearing sandals and summer clothes.  at 2 in the morning. in a blizzard.  dave took this picture as he was unloading the luggage.  i was all for just crashing, but he wanted to document the event. :)

the next day was still snowy, and a little icy and slippery, but the road had all dried up by about noon that day.  what a crazy, random night!  we made it home safe and sound, though, and that's what's important.  i'm so glad we went, even with the crazy drive home. :)

arizona trip - part 2

the next day was sunday, so we went to church with dave and laurel, and had a nice, relaxing day.  on monday, we packed up for the day, and drove down to my grandparent's house.  we had a great time!

dave showing my dad some youtube clips of his hawaii trip

my dad helping naomi "swim" :)  

i didn't get a picture, but we all actually got our suits on and went out there.  keep in mind that this was the middle of march.  granted it is arizona, but still not really swimming weather yet.  i didn't have anything to prove, so i got in mid-calf or so. :)  let's just say there some among us who were not quite as logical about the whole thing. hehehe :)

the kids loved the gorgeous weather, and basically spent both days outside.  they played on the grass (which is hard to find there!), drew great grandpa and grandma beautiful chalk pictures, had a blast with grandpa, and played at the awesome park across the street.

that night we had a birthday celebration for my dad.  happy 50th, dad!

it was great to have fun and spend time with everyone! 

stay tuned for part 3 

*this might get a bit long, so feel free to skip the next ones*

arizona trip - part 1

okay, so this post is a loonnng time coming, but better late than never - right??  oh well, i must admit that i am not very good at journaling, but i do much better blogging and online journaling than i have ever done the traditional way.  

so, in march we took a trip to arizona, and had a great time.  my dad flew down to spend some time with my grandparents, and we thought that made a good excuse to go and see them too.  we didn't make it out at christmas, when everyone else did, so we thought we'd make it a spring break trip instead.  it worked out to be the week after spring break, but i think seeing your great grandparents is a whole lot more important than preschool!

it is a 16 hour drive from where we are, so we took two days doing it.  i don't know what we would have done if we didn't have the portable dvd player.  that thing saved our bacon.  the kids actually did really well, for the most part.  naomi did not enjoy being made to nap in her carseat, but other than that, life was pretty pleasant.

the kids enjoyed watching saturday morning cartoons at the hotel we stayed at.  they looked pretty zoned out, don't they?

on the second day of our drive, we decided to stop and do some site-seeing while we stretched our legs.  we stopped at meteor crater, which is the biggest meteor crater in the world.  it was pretty interesting, and a fun stop.

before we actually got to the crater, we came to a big open space with a bunch of sand, dirt, and rocks.  it wouldn't have been very appealing, normally, but to a couple of cooped-up kids, it was heaven!

they explored...

and ran around like crazy...

here is the actual crater.  pretty massive.

after the meteor, we got back in the car, and made it to my aunt and uncle's house.  they were wonderful enough to let us stay with them on our trip, and even had pizza for us when we got there.

stay tuned for part 2