Day 1

I will be doing at least ten days straight of blogging so I can be all caught up.  Aaron had 3 weeks off around the Holidays, so we decided to go "home for Christmas" and visit families.  The drive was LOOONG.  Usually a 12 hour drive, it took 16 and a half.  This was the first time we did the drive without stopping overnight.  Not only were we trying to save money, but unloading at a hotel for 6 people just for a night, is no fun.  It took us 6 1/2 hours just to get to St.Goerge, which usually takes 4.

The girls



 Getting a tour at the Visitors Center.  There is a missionary couple serving there from our ward but it was their pday, so we missed them.  We left them a note.

 My cute kids in front of the Christmas tree.

 All of us.  And yes, I usually travel without make up. :)

 Checking out the nativity scene in front of the beautiful St. George temple.  It started raining, so we ran to the car.  When we all got in, the man in the white minivan parked in front of us backed into our van.  Besides liscense plate damage we were good to go.

The reason our day of travel took so long is because we left Provo in a major snowstorm and once we got into LA, it was full of rain and fog.  Living in bad weather states before, we have driven in some crazy storms.  However, I think this one may have been the worst.  There were so many cars off in snowy ditches.  Accidents left and right.  I read in the paper that the 5 days around the day that we traveled, there were 13 deaths on that stretch of Ut highway.  It was long and nerve racking, but the kids were really good. Aaron likes to drive the whole way on road trips, but I was so bored so I drove for awhile.  Ok, an hour.  What? Driving makes me sleepy.  I just wish riding in the car made my KIDS sleepy.  Reina threw up around Barstow.  Lovely.  Luckily, Aaron had given me an early Christmas gift of Taylor Swifts new cd and let me just tell you it got a LOT of use that day.  I packed lots of snacks and I was just grateful when we pulled into his parents driveway at 2am.