How can six people (our family!) be so blessed!! This trip to CA was more fulfilling in more ways than I can possibly put into words. We loved every minute of it (except for the puking parts - darn flu - oh! and except for the part when my camera disappeared with our train pictures and Avery's baptism pictures).
We met the most wonderful people on the train. Martina, her brother Anthony and their little sister, Holly, got on the train in Provo. What a wonderful visit we enjoyed! And Gracie Anne met a little girl after her own heart - a busy body who loves to go vertical too!
These pictures are from the Christmas Eve progressive dinner that we had on the 23rd, instead of the 24th. What a joy to be surrounded by wonderful family. I stole a moment to just listen to the sounds of laughter and conversation that surrounded me. It felt wonderful to hear the noises of family!
Moments before the large gathering of boys took down cousin Kory!
Uncle Dave and Avery Michael discussing the meaning of life... Well, probably not, but it looks serious. My guess is Uncle Dave is trying to talk Avery out of his Christmas present from Aunt Dana. What Uncle Dave doesn't realize is that Aunt Dana gave Avery a gift bag full of NOTHING! But Avery isn't going to let him know about this before they agree on a deal.
Charlotte and Gracie Anne, with mouthfulls of candy from the pinata!
Gracie Anne could hardly wait to meet Charlotte and Louisa. She had only seen pictures of her cousins from the computer. She was very shy and didn't get much playing in, but we did manage to capture this moment of the two together!
From Charlotte, Gracie Anne earned the nick name "Pony Tails." Charlotte, at one point in the evening, Charlotte informed her Aunt Shelly that she wanted to go and "see Pony Tails over there." Charlotte didn't know Grace's name yet so she came up with her own!! Hilarious moment!
Vaughn showing us how the Italian Sodas are made.
Next day, Aunt Dana treated the boys for their birthdays! It was so fun that everyone got to join up! We went to John's Incredible Pizza Experience in Roseville. What a place! As you can see, the kids had some fun! They all went in and got two lava lamps with their tickets. One for Missouri and one for California.
Gracie Anne won herself these glasses!
Not included are pictures of all of our visits with family and friends! It was such a treat to spend the time we did with them all and how we miss everyone so terribly already.
Our trip back home was uneventful. It was hard to say goodbye.
We enjoyed the scenery and kept ourselves entertained.
No one knows it, but Callan has hacked into the train's operating system and he is the one who is really driving the train!
A fun and challenging round of Rush Hour.
Deep thoughts.....
Some serious coloring! THANKS to Aunt Dana for the wonderful colorbooks, games and play-doh!
After 3 1/2 weeks, we once again found ourselves back home. This time full of wonderful memories and good times that we enjoy talking about daily!
