This post is a little late, but better late than never, right?
Joel had an entire week off for Thanksgiving vacation, so we took advantage, took the kids out of school, and headed to Wyoming! I think it will be easiest to break this trip down day by day, so here goes...
Friday, Nov. 19- Joel took his last final Friday morning, and as soon as he got home we finished packing the car and took off! We stopped in Payson to buy some drugs for Jenna- she was feeling car sick. We ended up getting an antihistamine that would just put her to sleep. She was fine after that. The driving that day went off without a hitch. We spent 12 hours in the car and made it to Pueblo, CO where we stayed in a Comfort Inn for the night.
Saturday- We got up early and headed to Laramie! The roads were good, even between Cheyenne and Laramie, and we made it into town around 12:30. It was great finally coming back to Laramie! We stayed with the Bade's, so we were assured a good time! :)
Saturday evening Sarah and I went out to dinner at Sweet Melissa's while the men took the kids to a basketball game. We sure did enjoy our artichoke dip appetizer, falafel pitas, and even dessert. We talked and ate until they started to close! When they were putting chairs upside down on tables, we thought it might be time to get the check. :) Four hour dinners are the best!
We asked our waitress to take our picture. She warned us that she was "camera phone challenged" or something like that. She wasn't kidding...
So outside we tried to take our own picture. That didn't work out so well...
Sunday- We went to church with the Bades, which was also our old ward. It was great seeing so many people we knew! It was almost like we had never left. That afternoon we hung out, worked on dinner, made some snacks, kids napped, watched some football, etc. That night after the kids went to bed we played some Super Mario Brothers, about gave Chad a few heart attacks, and after the boys went to bed Sarah and I stayed up chatting until 2.
Monday- Joel and I ran a few errands around town and did some more hanging out. Sarah and I did some shopping at Maurice's. I got a pair of jeans and a dress, which was a small miracle. Thank you, Sarah, for talking me into it! (This is us being cute right before we went shopping.)
We were hanging out drinking pumpkin pie shakes (yum!), and Sarah kept snapping pictures when I wasn't ready. This is my "I wasn't ready!" face...
I was prepared for this one. :)
Monday night we went to Corona Village and stuffed ourselves! We missed you, Corona! Oh, it was so tasty.
(I didn't eat all of that in one sitting! But I did get through about half of it!)
Tuesday- We were so, so sad to have to leave Laramie. It was hard saying goodbye again. After that we headed up to the Lovell area. The roads between Laramie and Casper were pretty snow/ice covered, but after Casper it got better. Once we hit the Basin the temp started dropping and didn't stop! Man was it cold! We stayed with Brenda and Roland in Cowley, and we unpacked as quickly as we could and did our best to stay inside!
Wednesday- It was -16 degrees when we woke up, so we spent the day inside. We all played some Wii Fit, but the kids especially had a great time with it. I helped Brenda with pies, and we generally had a nice time laying low and relaxing.
Thursday- Thanksgiving! Yay! We had a full day ahead of us, literally. First we headed to Joel's Aunt Marianne's house for dinner with the Robertson clan. The food was great, and the company was great. We enjoyed seeing and talking with everyone.
Marianne's house- we are obviously engrossed in something. :) Not the best picture of Joel and I. ;) (I'm holding our nephew, Kelvin)
At 4 we headed up to Joel's Grandma Asay's house for dinner with Brenda and Roland, two of Roland's kids and their families, as well as Devin and his family. Of course, the food was great again, and we were getting quite stuffed! I took a little power nap on the couch and I think that helped quite a bit!
At 6 we went to my Uncle Brian's house and had pie with the Dicksons. Again, it was great to see family that I haven't seen in awhile. We had some delicious pie and some great conversation.
Friday- Joel's Grandma Flash reserved the church gym, so we got together to play basketball and games. I lost at Boggle, and Joel had a good time playing ball. (I had a good time losing at Boggle, too.) I even shot around with Joel for awhile, and that was fun. That night I wrapped the first Christmas presents of the season, which is always fun. :)
Saturday- We were up bright and early to hit the road. We made it to Orem, UT with no problems. The roads weren't bad at all and we made good time. We stayed with my sister, Adrienne, which is always a party. She fed us some delicious dinner, which was much needed after the day in the car. We stayed up chatting, as always, but not too late.
Sunday- We woke up to a few inches of snow on the ground, and the white stuff was still falling. Yuck. We were in the car by 8, and the roads were treacherous. All of Utah was pretty bad (along our route). We decided to stay on the interstate and go to Vegas. After St. George the roads got better. We got slowed down before the Hoover Dam- there was a lot of traffic! We also got stopped about an hour or so from Phoenix because of a car accident. We had to wait for about an hour, but after that we were on our way. We made it home around 10:15. It was a long day in the car!
The kids did amazing with all of the driving. We are blessed to have good travelers. The entire trip was really a whole lot of fun, but went entirely too fast. We are so blessed to have good friends and good family. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week! Thank you to everyone who made it so great!
p.s. I didn't take as many pictures as I intended. There are some pictures from Sarah and Brenda that I still want to add, but I'll have to do wait until I get them. :)
*update- got the pictures from Sarah. Now I need to ask Brenda for hers!
