Christmas Vacation

I’ve been informed that I need to update my blog, so this is for you, Katie! Actually, I know there are so many of you just sitting on the edge of your seats waiting to know how our trip went and see pics. ;) So here it is, the epic tale of our ah-MAZ-ing trip to Colorado.

First, let me just say that the 5 days of travel went surprisingly well, with only a couple of bumps along the way. On the way there, Lily was so excited to get to Grandma and Papa’s house that she never wanted to stop! It was pretty adorable. On the way there and on the way back both of the kids were very nice and patient with the drive, it was a great blessing. We had to stop in Utah to sleep, so we got to see Aunt Chris and Uncle Steve and their kids. That was nice to catch up with them, it’s been long enough since we’ve seen them that they had never met our kids! The drive home was a little stressful because we got stuck in a blizzard in Oregon. We actually spun off the road at one point, hitting a reflector pole thingy and cracking our bumper. But no one was hurt, and we didn’t even need a tow truck or anything, Ben just drove out of the snow back on the road. We ended up staying the night in a motel in Oregon instead of continuing home, which made it five days of driving instead of 4.

There were 28 people at Ben’s parents house for Christmas morning. It was crazy! But so much fun. It was fantastic to see (almost) all of Ben’s brothers and sisters and their spouses and kids. Only Matthew was missing (he’s on a mission in South Africa, so I guess he had an excuse), but we all got to chat with him Christmas morning at least. There were 12 grandchildren there, and 9 of them were aged 2 and younger. Thus the craziness. :) And I finally got to meet Nick, who is Julie’s husband and whom I’ve never met before, even though I’ve been in the family for 3.5 years. Hi Nick!

We left WA Sunday evening the 13th, spent a short week with just Ben’s parents before other people started showing up, enjoyed lots of yummy food, hours of Wii Frisbee Golf and catching up with family, opened a multitude of presents Christmas morning, played some more Wii Frisbee Golf and ate lots more yummy food, and didn’t get home until Jan. 1st. It was definitely the longest, craziest, and most family-filled vacation we’ve ever had. It was wonderful. It was really fantastic to see everybody again, and I already miss them. Love you guys!