Our extra long, wonderful vacation...

Okay, so we've really slacked off for a month and a half now. However, we do have somewhat of an excuse. We were so excited for Christmas this year. We were celebrating on December 23 at our house and then traveling to Delta on the 24th. We took a bunch of cute pictures of our little family opening presents, etc. and then packed everything into our bags so we could make the 15 hour trek from our house to Grandma & Grandpa's house. The problem came when we went to take pictures on the 25th. Guess what...no camera! We were sure it was packed; we had the batteries, cords, and everything EXCEPT the camera. Long story not quite so long, we got home and the camera wasn't here either. Not to point fingers, but, TSA did look through all of our bags somewhere along the way. We are sad at the loss of our "1st" Christmas pictures on our own and we are very upset about our camera, especially since we keep having opportune moments to take pictures, and no camera with which to take them. At any rate, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of our friends and family! Here's what we were able to get on borrowed cameras of our long journey.

Coleson's face the day after traveling all through the night is a perfect depiction of how we all felt. It took a lot out of us to get from N.C. to Delta, but it was all worth it in the end.

We loved seeing our Grandpa. Grandpa is a very fun friend!

Even after not seeing our cousins for two years, we played like best friends. We were sad that they had to head home so soon. We can't wait to play with them again!


We got lots of opportunities to play games with the family during our visit. Much more relaxing than what we're used to!

Coleson did what he does best no matter where we went. He easily cat-napped in the recliner in Delta and the swing in Boise. Those naps kept him growing and changing.

We celebrated Christmas one last time as soon as we got to Boise. Addellyn could NOT WAIT to try on all of her new clothes. Makinzie was in awe that Nana and Papa had actually found her the Rapunzel music box that she had wanted.


"Tote! Outsye, outsye! Ba-bye, pees!" (big wide grin; clap, clap, clap)
Translation: "Coat! Outside, outside! Bye-bye, please!"

Addellyn and Coleson loved all of the constant attention and the chance to go outside much more than just to take Kinzie somewhere and back.

Makinzie loved driving Princess Ruby around the neighborhood on her Princess bike, sometimes she was concentrating so hard about turning corners correctly that her tongue kept slipping out to one side.

SNOW, SNOW, and more SNOW!!! Addellyn had never seen snow before we went out West. It was fun to bundle up and shovel driveways, sled down hills, and (Makinzie's favorite but definitely not Addellyn's) throw chunks of snow at each other.
Reading stories is one of their favorite things, especially when it's with Nana and Papa! The girls loved to wake them up very early every morning.

Between Aunt Chantelle and Uncle Logan's broad collection of toys, the kids were well entertained.

"Why can't we live in the same world with ALL of the people we love?!?" This is Makinzie's favorite thing to ask these days...At least they have each other and the family cell phone plans so we can call everyone else anytime we'd like.
Tyler finished all of his interviews while we were away. We will soon find out if any of our "worlds" will get any closer. We are anxious for March 20th, it couldn't come too soon...