Holiday Goings On

On Saturday, January 3rd this is the ONLY thing I wanted to see, minus the need to shovel a driveway full of snow of course. We were on the end of a week long road trip and we were ALL pretty darn sick of the close quarters of Jason's truck. But that's the end of the story. So here's the beginning. . .

Our holidays were filled with unexpected fun.

Before Christmas we got a bunch of snow that actually stuck around this town (unexpected in amount and duration). We get snow, but usually it warms up quick (like a few days ago the high was 61?!?) and the snow goes BYE BYE. This put a kink in my shopping plans because who wants to carry a baby in and out of stores in that kind of weather? Especially since I only had a few things to buy and I still had PLENTY of time left. Notice the lack of road behind our fence. Kennewick is not equipped to deal with lots of snow so we had about 18 inches that sat on our road and got packed into a sheet of ice for over a week. A snowplow did finally find our little side street, but by the time it came along it was more like nails scratching a chalk board than snow removal.

Then Nathanael missed his entire last week of school (definitely unexpected) due to two hour delays each day in our school district (snow and more snow). When there is a two hour delay, morning kindergarten gets canceled altogether. He vacillated between LOVING sleeping in and being bored/missing his teacher. I am clearly not as fun as her and I got a little grumpy. The last minute Christmas shopping I had put off would have worked tons better with an infant that can't yet speak than with a six year old coming along.

But in the end the stockings were hung and the
presents wrapped and we had a wonderful Christmas.

Two days later we hit the road for an Arizona wedding (unexpected because Jason was going to fly down alone but that didn't work out so we all piled in the truck and left). The roads were scary in Oregon and Idaho but once we were in Nevada the roads were good and the temperature kept rising! Gotta love that.

A fun pit stop along the way.

The Happy Couple. . .

The wedding was the highlight. It was so great to finally meet Patricia (Patricia you are fabulous!!) and see Pat snugged up with a chic! It's wonderful to have her in the family.

Family Fun (all pictures with all smiles is boring)

The next two days were spent basking in the AZ sun, swimming, setting up for the reception, taking pictures and, if you are a kid, living in bliss. Imagine an acre of land, plus the open area beyond with a canal, lots of dirt, sun and no adults telling you to keep yourself clean or not to eat dirt. What could bring greater childhood happiness?

Grandpa + his fifteen grands

The reception was beautiful, the weather was nice, the food was yummy,
the band was festive and there was some pretty sweet dancing going on.

Patricia's wonderful parents, Miguel and MarleneJason and Eli

Patricia and the girls
Twirly Girly

The family festivities were lots of fun and ended too soon, especially considering the six of us had to climb back into that little truck cab again. But it was good while it lasted. . .75 degrees when you're used to 10 degrees is swimming weather!

On the way home Ethan was throwing up or sleeping
(thank you to whoever invented ziplock bags),

Elijah was grumpy or sleepingWe hit snow sooner than expected,

and Kate took over Jason's iPod.

At 9:00 pm Saturday night our house was such a welcome sight!