Weekend Getaway

One of my all time favorite things to do is to take trips.  Whether it is for the weekend or a long Christmas Break. I love looking forward to them and love enjoying the time away with my little family.   One thing that makes trips even more fun is when you get to enjoy time with family that you haven’t seen for a while. 

This past weekend we got to go on a mini trip to Indiana.  My cousin Rebecca and her hubby recently moved there and had their first baby.   We were excited to see them, meet their new baby and see their new house!

We got there Friday night and ate a yummy dinner.  The four of us stayed up for a while and chatted.  The men retired to their beds and Walton and I gabbed into the weee hours of the night.  Not only are we cousins but we were also roommates for 2 years at BYU-Idaho.  Talking so late into the night reminded me of college and all the late nights we spent chatting.  Saturday’s activities included: games, shopping at the outlets, had a tour of their cute city, yummy ice cream, delicious, food, etc.  Sunday came too fast.  We went to church, played another game, I raided Walton’s recipes, and we left after dinner.  We can’t wait to go back! Maybe we can convince some of our other cousins or roomies to join us! 

The Holidays!

 Thankfully Abigail enjoyed Christmas a lot more than sitting on Santa’s lap!

We are so grateful for the time we had to celebrate this Christmas season.  What a great opportunity to be with loved ones and to reflect on the birth of our Savior. 

For the holiday season we packed up our little car and headed to the Big Apple again!  We had so much fun with my brother Spence, his wife Wendy and their daughter Elliana last Thanksgiving.  We were thrilled to go back! 

On the way there we decided to split up the drive into two days.  We stayed the  night in Gettysburg.  Here is us with the Great President Lincoln. 

Last time we spent 95% of the time seeing the city and 5% of the time hanging out at their house.  This time we spent about 5% of the time seeing the city and 95% of the time hanging out.  It really changes things when you have a baby :)  We did one day in the city.  It was fun and great to see the sites but one day in the Big Apple was more than enough for all of us.

Time Square

                                                 Macy’s Windows

Our baby has the hardest time sleeping anywhere but in a crib.  She finally fell asleep when we were leaving.

Christmas!

Christmas morning!  There is an extra magic feeling Christmas morning with kiddos around.  Obviously Abigail is too young to know what is going on but Elliana made it extra special.  She got so excited about each present! It was so much fun. 

   Miss Abigail with her new Abby Cadabby doll.  She was spoiled by Santa, her Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and cousins.  And yet what was her favorite toy of the morning?  Mommy’s new cookie scoop :)

Spence and Barton had so much fun with the helicopter!  They had competitions with it and set up different obstacles to fly it through.

A Christmas picnic!

The rest are a few random pictures of our fun:

Abigail loves Aunt Wendy! 

Elliana made me into a princess!

We loved hanging out with the Crabtrees!  (Notice that Elliana also turned Abigail into a princess.)

Cake anyone?  If any of you have seen Cake Boss then you know this shop.  It is in a neighboring city to my brothers.  We stopped for a famous cannoli but decided that the hour and a half wait wouldn’t be worth it and went down the street to Cold Stone (Thanks Lizzy!)

Last but not least, here is a picture of the men.  Two parts to the story of this picture. First of all, these are the shelves they made for Wendy’s kitchen.  Love them.  Second of all, they decided to have a contest to see who could grow the best goatee during the holidays. 

Thanks Wendy and Spence.  We can not wait to see you again!