Utah Thanksgiving 2014!

We got back from Utah today! What a crazy trip! It truly started out crazy ... Audrey misplaced Eric's wallet. It had been missing for a few days, but on the day we were driving out (Last Friday), we still hadn't found it. I tried following Audrey around to see where she led me, but she simply opted to sit down at her little table and stare at me ...

The day before I had decided we needed to say a prayer and had the thought, "God always listens to a child's prayer," and opted to have Aaron say the prayer ... but I needed to learn a lesson - it wasn't until I was confident that God would listen to my prayer that we found it ... hours before we left, I knelt down and then was guided to search my craftroom where I found it in a random box. I said many more prayers after that - the whole car ride to Utah. It was insane. First there was rain - loooooooooots of rain (And crazy children. Aaron fell asleep and Audrey was cranky till he woke up and entertained her). Semi trucks were blazing past us and knocking us over with waves - I'm not kidding. I was so happy to see about 10 semi's pulled over by police officers after we were out of the rain.
We stopped at Subway for dinner but Aaron really wanted french fries - a boy after my own heart :)

After the rain came the mountains - which were closed. We asked one of the people blocking the path and he had been called in to work because the mountains had freezing rain and some trucks had crashed. They were cleaning up the crashes and then the mountain would be re-opened. We spent about 40 minutes entertaining ourselves while we waited.

After the pass opened the kids slept off and on (more awake than not) as we drove at a Grandma pace... The roads were icy! A truck flew past us and flipped around to face us! We stopped but not everybody did and they almost got hit - and then they all sped off into the distance. DO YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR LIVES?!? On the other side of the road we saw a semi that had gotten itself stuck and blocked the entire road! Crazy. We finally made it out of the mountains and the roads cleared as we reached Idaho. Things seemed clear and nice as Eric and I chatted, but around 5:30 am local time (had we not gone so slow over the mountains, we'd have arrived by now) we saw what looked like a plastic bag in the road. When we hit it, we knew it was in fact a LARGE clump of ice that had fallen off a car. It was big and sharp and blew our tire immediately. Here is my knight in shining armor out in the cold changing us to the spare. We were lucky to have a spare (we had to look up where it was located since we were borrowing Eric's parents' van and aren't familiar with that). We knew right after attaching it that it was flat - but no tire stores were open ... what were we supposed to do? So I turned on the hazzards and drove 50 mph in the 80 mph zone all the way to my parents' house. What would normally have taken 1.5 hours took 2.5 hours and we arrived around 8 am. Can anyone say, "ready for a nap" ???

Given how crazy the ride was, it really was a fantastic week!

We loved being able to spend time as a family and getting to play with our kids. We didn't have to worry about whether they were fed or getting up with them (my parents wanted to do all of that) and I didn't change a single diaper. Not a single diaper. SO FANTASTIC! We just got to play and bond with our kids.

I got to throw a shower for my little sister who is due Dec. 30 with her little girl.

I may or may not have napped that day until 2:30 and the shower was at 5 - but thanks to  The Dating Divas I had some fantastic decorations! Lissa and I raced to the store and decorated like fiends!

Not too shabby, huh? We had fun :)

I love these two together - they are adorable!

I came up one morning to find Audrey dressed as a mini-me marshmallow! This was my snowsuit when I was a kid! There wasn't snow on the ground, but the ground was damp so they got her all dressed to go play :)

 

 My parents loved being surrounded by all 3 of their grandkids! 

 

  

 When you can't find a phone, the calculator makes a good substitute... 

Audrey loves to snuggle!

 Papa ... the dog ... she'll snuggle with everything!

 We also got to go visit Rachel and Tighe the day after Tighe's birthday. We brought Cafe Rio with us and they provided ice cream and hot fudge. We put the candles in her ice cream ... :) 

Thanksgiving was very low-key. I loved it!

Audrey enjoyed her meal - she ate before the rest of us since her bedtime is so early. 

Here we are all minus my sister Kestra who is next to me and my Dad who took the photo.

The day after Thanksgiving, my dad took us to see Hero Big 6. It was a fantastic movie!

Here are a bunch more from the trip :)

Aaron getting advice from Papa. Haha, I love his face!

 

Given the craziness of the ride to Utah, we decided to break up the drive home into 2 days. We left around noon and stopped in at Rachel and Tighe's home for lunch.

 We stopped in Idaho for dinner (IHOP - our tradition) and then stayed the night with some friends.

 The kids opted to not sleep - Audrey woke 7 times (at least) and was up for good with Aaron at 6 am. We ate breakfast and hit the road. I'm SO glad we drove through the mountains in the daylight. It was snowy and icy and crazy and I said many more prayers. But I felt much safer since I could see everything around me.

What a great trip. We are happy to be home - the kids have rediscovered all of their old toys (magical) and are resting peacefully. But, we miss the Wilkinson's in Utah!