It's a funny thing, taking family pictures. Especially if you elect to take your own (and don't plan on much editing). The dads are typically grumpy. The kids pull out their weirdest smiles and pull some crazy faces and poses you sometimes have never seen until you're perusing the new batch of photos and you have to do a double take...yup, that's my kid! Then there's mom. When opting for self family portraits it's usually her in charge of the camera...and the smiles...and everyone's hair and outfits looking picture perfect...yet everyone is always smiling as an end result, even if it is only in the picture =)We went on a quick trip to Blackfoot last weekend but before we left we hurried to capture our family Christmas picture. Not the greatest time to do it but at least now they are done. So, you see our nice little holiday photo at the top of this little blog. Here are two others snapped of our cute little girls-
We'd been trying to fit a trip in to Texas for quite some time and figured if we didn't get one in soon it wouldn't happen with the new baby coming and other "stuff". After booking our flights (having to pay for 2 kids plus us isn't cheap, people!) there was no turning back; we finally did it. So for Thanksgiving, we spent a week in Texas among friends!
Our flight from SLC was early afternoon on a Monday so we thought it would be in everyone's best interest to drive the 3 hours to Salt Lake on Sunday and let the girls wear themselves out swimming that night. We packed Saturday, went to our 8:00 church Sunday morning and by the time we got home from that we had a mess of snow on our hands. Sandy got everything loaded in the Volvo, we loaded the girls, and were off. Sort of. The car is only as good as the tires in snow...we only made it maybe half a mile down the road, slipping, sliding, and getting stuck once. Now, Sandy is a pro when it comes to driving in snow and can handle any vehicle quite well in any condition, so when he says, "This is not good, let's turn around." you know it's bad. So we turned around, loaded everything in Sandy's truck (with the brand new, awesome tires) and tried again. Much better. We learned a couple of things about Twin Falls that day:
-People think that the snow means get out and drive. We've NEVER seen the city SO BUSY with traffic!
-They are in NO hurry to plow, or sand, or salt...the mess we left was the same when we returned. They didn't get things cleaned up til this week!
We made it to Utah without incident and even got to spend some time with Ty and Laurie, who had just gotten back to Utah themselves from Ty doing is language course in Monterey, CA. The girls really enjoyed their time there; Livi was convinced she would just stay with them and even gave us hugs goodbye and was ready to usher us out the door! Reminding her of the awaiting swimming pool eventually changed her mind-we got to let them splash and swim for quite a while that night. It was nice waking up the next morning not having to rush or worry about breakfast (yay continental breakfasts!). The airport and flight went better than either Sandy or I expected; no problems with TSA and the girls did super on the entire flight! Once we landed and were exiting the plane...oh the humidity! So many people complain about it but I actually really like it. We were trying to leave Dallas right smack dab in the middle of 5:00 rush hour. And in construction. Surprisingly, it still wasn't that bad.
That evening we got to spend our time with our old neighbors and friends, Eddie and Roberta. It was so fun getting to see them again (and the kitty we had to leave behind, the girls LOVED seeing Tori!) Those two are so special to us, and making a drive back from their cabin just to see us was so thoughtful. They fed us dinner, which is when I was reminded how yummy coleslaw is in Texas. Oh MY it tasted good to this pregnant lady! After visiting, and having to talk Livi into coming with us rather than stay with them, we were off to our next stop, the Adams', who were so awesome letting us stay with them the whole time! I'm sure that was more chaos than everyone was used to for a whole week, haha! We made it to Lulu's on Tuesday for lunch, though, much to our disappointment, Hans and Lulu no longer own it. That evening we got to crash a birthday party at the Whitlocks, yet another place Livi was convinced she would stay at. The rest of the time was spent visiting and just hanging out for the most part. Livi started to come down with a cold and all that traveling wasn't as easy as I thought it would be for me so she and I had a down day on Wednesday. Thankfully, she recouped fairly quickly and was back to playing with Eliana and their friend, Riley, in no time. I, however, did not and may have been a bit of a downer some of the time. We still loved our trip and were so glad to see everyone we did. It was good food and GREAT company the whole time! Time is always the enemy, though, and we didn't get to see all the people we've missed, maybe we'll make it down there again...eventually. It was nice to hear of some plans for visits this way and we're looking forward to those!
We were fortunate to have a very uneventful return, aside from me being stuck next to "the fat guy" on the plane. Oh, and the flatulent man across the aisle. And me getting a bit sick on the way home. But other than that =). We are so lucky to have such great little travelers. Both girls surprised us with how well they did the entire trip, even on the way home, which is when things tend to fall apart so easily. And I now have snow tires on my car.
*On a side note-I love the snow! It is so magical and upon landing in SLC it just felt so awesome looking out and seeing it covering the mountains-BEAUTIFUL! White Christmas's are the BEST!! (It's just the driving in it that sucks, haha!)
