Over the river and through the woods...
...And through the Western Slope
...And through boring Utah
...And through a little corner of Arizona
...And through Las Vegas
...And through Southern California...
To Grandmother's house we went!
We piled in suitcases and strollers and DVDs and coloring books and snacks and Dr. Peppers and Pillow Pets and four kids and we drove straight through,
all the way to California for Thanksgiving.
It took 16 hours.
Sixteen.
Hours.
I helped Gary with the driving. I drove for one hour.
(Brody's special road trip glasses make time go faster.)
But we got there and hit the ground running!
(After a nap.)
Our week was rich with family and friends. It was a lot of fun to go and just be together and visit with some of the people we love most in this world.
Some highlights:
We went to the CU vs. UCLA football game at the Rose Bowl! So fun.
The girls made us a sign to hold up.
We certainly brought it with us... but then OOPS!
We accidentally left it in the car...
Even though it was an AWFUL game, we had a blast with our friends
Thomas and Kristen (and Aubrey!).
We went to visit Granny and took an entire family picture
while everyone was there together! Pretty rare these days.
And then...we got to celebrate Thanksgiving TWICE!
Once with Gary's Mom's side of the family:
And again with Gary's Dad's side of the family:
In between all the fun, we had fun going to the park, taking bike rides, playing games and horsing around with Aunt Heidi and "Uncle" LV.
And then we piled back in the car for the
very
long
drive
home.
It seemed to take three times as long to get home.
But we passed the time with car dance parties,
the Toy Story movies and lots of good talks.
Is it crazy that I won't mind when we have to do it again?
And then we were home.
Brody kept telling us the whole time that he wanted to be home.
It's a pretty good feeling when your kids look forward
to going home because it's a place they like.
And I'm glad to be home too. I've been away a LOT lately, and I'm homesick!
I got up the next morning and tackled all of the
laundry non-stop until it was done. I love getting settled back into home.
Home.
That's something to be thankful for.
You drove 16 hours in one day with 4 kids?!?! You are my hero!!!! Glad you had fun in So Cal! So fun you got to see LV and see the Buffs play!
ReplyDeletewe're thankful we got to see you! and I'm so glad you helped out with that long drive....did you fulfill your quota on the way home too?
ReplyDeleteYou can not convince me that you enjoyed that car trip. Coming or going. It does look like you had a great time while you were there. Your kiddos look like bright beams of sunshine in those pictures.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fun trip! We are thinking of doing it next year for Thanksgiving... I think SoCal from us is 17 hours... and we would do it the same way too- straight through. :)
ReplyDeleteLooks like a fun Thanksgiving! We also had to drive hours and hours to get our destination in ID... driving with kids is always an adventure:) Hope you are doing great!
ReplyDeletegreat post!! Yes, I think you are crazy for looking forward to the next roadtrip...unless you are coming to Kansas...that would be fun :)
ReplyDeleteSo glad you made it home safely and had a good time!