For weeks before Christmas, I kept wanting to write posts about our upcoming trip and my anxieties about it. Three small children in a sedan for twelve hours (assuming all goes well), staying in unfamiliar houses where my children may or may not sleep well, and then twelve hours back? It was a nightmare to think about. I ended up not posting anything on fb or here, because I’m paranoid about the internet and who might figure out that my beloved little house was going to be empty for a week and a half? I couldn’t risk it.
And now that I can post about the trip … well, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. In fact, it turned out rather well.
We started Christmas early by opening presents from my Grandma and Grandpa a week before Christmas. This way, I figured, they would have time to play with and appreciate the toys before I packed up the car and left them behind, only to get shoved aside when we came home with the rest of the new presents. It was a stroke of brilliance on my part. For four days the girls played with their books and J played with his digger, and they thought they’d already had a wonderful Christmas!
Then we loaded up. I’m happy to say we made the trip to C’s Dad’s house as quick as anyone has crossed the state of Wyoming in the winter. When we got there, we found:
My sister in law, with her beautiful new baby!!! (I just love this picture. I hope she does too!!!) We got to be there when he was blessed on Sunday afternoon.
The kids had all their cousins on their Dad’s side to play with, and play they did! I was impressed at how grown-up my two girls are, when they are surrounded by older kids.
My in-laws were wonderfully accommodating. They don’t do Santa in their families, but they did this time, for my kids.
Santa just fills stockings in our family, little treats and toys, and I love the look on L’s face when she got this umbrella she’s been begging me for.
We had a white Christmas, but we didn’t bring boots or snow clothes with us, so we didn’t actually get out in the snow. We did have L’s favorite breakfast, though, French Toast Bake. Yum!
J was pleased with his haul.
S was her usual, adorable, self.
We opened our stockings, then ate breakfast before lining up to open the rest of the presents. Here are all of the cousins in one picture … from two months old to 16 years!
I even caught C holding the baby!
Then we went to a plane museum! I do enjoy airplane museums … but I think it’s mostly because it reminds me of my own childhood. My mom will tell you how we used to complain, “Not another airplane!!! Can we go yet?!” Now it makes me happy to see my kids get all excited about planes and asking questions.
It also makes me glad to have a husband who knows the answers. I can’t name more than two of the planes in the warehouse, but C can rattle off stats like my dad. He’s a great teacher.
J was a little wary of the planes. He wanted an adult with him before getting too close, hence, his two sisters lined up nicely for the picture, but he refused to get any closer without Daddy.
But the Earth wasn’t frightening.
The kids got to go skydiving …
And fly the Wright Brother’s plane …
They raced around the museum for hours without stopping, which is why this “would have been perfect” picture is blurry … they wouldn’t stop moving.
And by time the camera was ready to take a second picture, this was all that was left:
The legend is that this B-52 was landed on accident at Lowry AFB, and the runway was too short for it to take off again. There it stayed, and now it’s part of the museum. I really hope it’s just a legend. I’d feel bad for that poor pilot, landing it there and putting it out of commission.
The trip back wasn’t as nice as the trip out, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, either. We arrived home safe and sound to find our bunny still alive and our house unmolested (as my overactive imagination told me would happen).
And to finish off the Christmas Season we let the kids demolish the Gingerbread house when we got home.
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