Christmas, New Years, Anniversary, and Snow Skiing

We just got back on Sunday from being gone almost 2 weeks! (So beware this is a long post!!) That's the longest we've ever been gone from our house. We drove many many miles but had the best time over the holidays. Before we left though, we celebrated just the 3 of us. Since we'll probably be traveling every year for Christmas we decided to start some new traditions with just our family. We acted like that Friday before Christmas was Christmas eve. I cooked a big dinner....tried roasting a chicken...and it was actually really good!! We had roasted potatoes, my mamaw's homemade dressing, and rolls. It was lots of fun. Weston of course partook in the eating festivites too. He loved basically anything that we gave him a bite of. The next morning we opened our stockings to each other and Santa brought Weston an Elmo! He thinks it's really funny and loved watching and playing with it.

We left Tuesday afternoon for our big road trip. We stopped for the night in Weatherford with my parents and got up early on Christmas Eve and finished the drive to Kansas. Weston did amazingly well in the car. He was definitely ready to get there and crawl and move around. We went to the Christmas Eve service that night and then had all of Logan's dad's family over. It was lots of fun. He got to play with his cousins Wyatt and Hannah.

Mallory and Jason and Malakai were there the whole time we were. We loved getting to spend so much time with them. Weston loved getting to be with his cousin. Malakai wasn't too sure about Weston playing with his toys...but he started learning to share with him some. It sure was funny to watch them two playing together. Malakai is crazy and I mean CRAZY about tractors!! He loves to say the word....he loves to find them....to watch them on his tractor video....to play with them....anything that has to do with tractors. So the funny thing is to watch him react to a new tractor.....his eyes get really big and his mouth opens wide....it's hilarious.

On Christmas morning we got up and sure enough Santa seemed to find him there too. He got seriously spoiled by his Mimi and Pawpaw. It looked like Toys r Us in our bedroom by the time the day was over. It was a blast to see him and Malakai playing with all their toys.

All of Logan's mom's family came over for the rest of the day. We had brunch with them and then pretty much ate the rest of the day. We did a lot of eating!! We got to meet baby Kinley....she's only like 2 weeks old! She's so tiny.....it was great to get to see her. Weston took some serious naps while we were there. He loved sleeping down in the basement.....it was so dark and cold down there. On Christmas day he slept like 3 hours right in the next room while we were all opening presents in the basement. He didn't seem to mind....he just wanted his nap!

So basically the entire time we were up in Kansas we played his parents new Wii. They have a Wii fit and it was SO much fun. One night we had a Wii olympics between the 6 of us. I wasn't the greatest....I think Mallory and Jason tied for 1st place. Everyone was trying to break the records the entire week. We had some great times down there playing with it. The big dork in that last picture is Logan....he put all his ski clothes on and was trying to beat Mal's record on the downhill skiing....took him about an hour....but he finally beat it.....boy, she was mad!!!

Logan and I had been planning a trip to go snow skiing in Vail for our anniversary. We decided to go over the break since his mom could just keep Weston at her house. So we left him early Monday morning and headed for Colorado. It was SO much fun. I thought it'd be really hard to leave him but he did so good while we were gone.....probably better than he does with me!! Mallory stayed there too with Malakai so they got to play together a lot. She sent us updates the whole time which helped me know he was doing so good. Mimi took great care of him and he learned all kinds of new things. He can drink anything out of a straw now....and I mean anything....like milk of course but also any kind of baby food. He sucks it down that straw faster than anything I've seen. It's hilarious. He gets his tongue wrapped all around it and down it goes. He can clap his hands now all by himself. Mimi made beans one day and while she was putting them in the pot he thought that was the funniest thing he'd ever seen! They left a message on my phone and he was just cracking up.....just her putting the beans in the pot on the stove. He has all kinds of new words...."mama", "dog", we think "tucker"...which is their dog's name, and he's trying to say "duck". I like to tell Logan how he says dog before he has said "daddy"....pretty funny!!

Our trip to Vail was great too. I really think all young married couples need some time to be away from their kids! It's hard to be away but so great at the same time.....but the whole time we were there we were thinking about how fun it's going to be to bring our kids one day!! We drove there on Monday and skiied 2 days and then drove back to Wichita on Thursday. It's about a 9 hour drive one way.....and BORING!! Western Kansas and eastern Colorado are a lot like west Texas....nothing to look at. So of course Logan and I created our own fun. We had some great talks and he taught me lots of things while we were driving. He is so smart! I always learn some lessons on our road trips. We played the "would you rather" game for quite awhile and I was laughing so hard at times I thought I was going to wet my pants. However I think most of the laughing was because I was beginning to get delirious from being in the car that long. The snow was great although we didn't get any snow while we were there and I think Logan was bummed about that. We skiied really hard....fun because we can keep up with each other.....not sure if it's me keeping up with him or vice versa....you'll have to ask him :) But we skiied hard....that first day we were SO exhausted!! Vail is a beautiful place but I will say that it is super fancy. We thought we could sum up Vail in one thing that we saw.....we saw a store that sold fur coats in Vail Village and they had a clearance rack that said "clearance...everything under $2000"!!! We were definitely out of our league but it was such a fun splurge and amazing time with my hubby. We celebrated 3 years of marriage on New Year's Eve. All of the restaurants were so expensive for New Year's Eve so we found a little place and had a burger and fries for our anniversary dinner. It was great and the best part was just being with the one that I love! He is the best and I feel closer to him and more in love with him than ever before.

We got back to Kansas on Thursday night and then headed out on Friday morning to Weatherford to do Christmas with my family. It was great of them to wait so long to open gifts...it was January 3rd before we exchanged presents! That's definitely a way to make Christmas last longer. We had a yummy dinner at my mom's house with all of us and then opened gifts. It was fun to be with everyone. The girls got a little kitchen from my parents. It was so cute to watch them play with it. Weston tried to get in on the action too. He got a huge pony from my sister and Greg. He wasn't too sure of what to do with it....but it looks SO cute in his room!! On Saturday my dad gave Weston a ride on his big new tractor. Weston loved that and is anxious to get his cousin Kai out there to ride it too.


So we finally got home on Sunday afternoon. We calculated that we drove 2600 miles and spent about 40 hours in the car....in 12 days!!!! The xterra did great...never missed a beat....she deserves an award!! You'd think we would have been so ready to get home but honestly we had such good time with family it was hard to come home. I am so thankful for the relationship I have with my in-laws and my own family. I love them all so much and love the time that I get to spend with them. I also hated coming home knowing that Logan has to go back to work. I get spoiled when I get so much time with him....and he gets so much time with Weston. But back to the real world....and what a great real world it is!!! I love my life and am so thankful to the Lord with where we are right now in life.