Road Trip!

This year was our year to spend Christmas with John's family.  We decided to take the big journey up to Virginia to see John's brother and his family.  As we refuse to do plane trips due to a certain fateful red-eye from Alaska to Texas, this meant ROAD TRIP!

Folks, I have never been more thankful for John's technological (dare I say it) genius!  Witness a sample of the arrangements from within the car.

That is just a small sample of the wiring John finagled.  Here is what he wrote about it, "For the trip, I installed a new head unit, mainly to connect all of our smart devices (was really tired of the fm modulated junk), hard wired an inverter to the battery, decorated the luggage rack with led Christmas lights, installed radios to communicate with my small caravan, bought BT headphones for the kids to listen and play with their iPad/DVD player, installed sat radio, while using my phone as a wifi and using navigon on my iPad for navigation.  But, probably the highlight of the tech trip was pushing Carys' movies from my iPod located up front to the DVD player in the back so we don't have to get out of the car or stretch over the backseat to change movies." So, umm, ya, he did....that.  Between that and the large box full of a variety of snacks, the actual driving was pretty easy - especially considering that this 3000+ mile round trip involved a 2 year old and a 4 year old. The main limitation was that we had to stop for lunch pretty much exclusively at restaurants that had attached playgrounds.  I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to eat McDonald's ever.again.

Once we arrived in Virginia, Josh and Amy had a house full.  6 adults and 5 kids, 5 and under.  It was like contained chaos, but the kids had a blast.  The neat thing is that for a short time every year, all of the cousins thus far will stair-step as far as age.  Dawson is 5; Cora is 4; Audrey is 3; Carys is 2; and Ryan is 1.  

This is the best picture we could get of the 5 of them.  Like herding cats, folks!

It was so much fun listening to the kids playing together.  Surprisingly, we had very few problems, especially considering that the kids only get to see each other once or twice a year.  The main difficulty was getting the kids to go.to.sleep!  The three bigs had a slumber party every night, and it was pretty hard to rein in the giggles coming from their room.  Though, if that is the worst we have to deal with, we are pretty lucky!

Our drive home was quite an adventure.  We were blasted with the very southern tip of the huge winter storm that graced the Northeast.  It took us 12 and a half hours to get from northern Virginia to our hotel in Knoxville, TN.  I am pretty sure that a very valid way to increase this completely Southern girl's total trust in God is to spend 12 and a half hours in the car driving through 500 miles icy snow and sleet.  Thankfully, we arrived safely. The next two days were much less eventful weather-wise, thankfully!   Nevertheless, we were so happy to have arrived back at our house on Friday night.  I'm fairly certain my bed has never felt so comfortable!

All in all, it was a lovely trip.  We are so thankful to have had the opportunity to spend it with family.

Two!

Honestly, I can't believe that I am typing this post.  Has it really been two years since you made your surprise appearance in San Antonio?  It has been an amazing couple of years, baby ninja.

So, Carysita, what's new?

You consistently live up to your 'baby ninja' moniker.  You are quick, and you are quiet.  You refuse to let your diminutive size affect your abilities.  So far, we have found you in the bathroom sink (you stacked up two stools to get there), on top of your dresser (you used the drawers as a ladder), on the picture window sill, and on the kitchen counter.  You have now learned to climb up on to mommy and daddy's big bed, so we pretty much have to keep most of the house closed off.  Baby ninja strikes again!
 
You are a little chatterbox.  Your language has exploded over the past month or two.  You have a very large vocabulary, though often Sister and I are the ones who understand you best.  My favorite words that you say are:
peezpah (pizza)
ahrigh (alright)
deemas twee (Christmas tree)
tickiepoo (ticklepoo - a bedtime ritual)

Speaking of speaking, you are a little jokester.  You love to tell knock-knock jokes - well, more accurately, you love to tell one specific knock-knock joke.  And, you can tell that interrupting cow joke with the best of them. You are definitely an enthusiastic comedian.

You also love to sing.  You  can sing the ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, Old MacDonald, and Jingle Bells, though they are mostly only recognizable by the tune.  You love to sing along with the radio, too.  Your favorite song right now is 'I'm Alive' by Peter Furler.  It's a fun little duet when you and Sister sing it together.

You recently graduated to a toddler bed when we removed the front rail of your crib.  More on that to come.

You are obsessed with shoes.  You love to walk around in anyone's shoes.  In fact, you recently got your feelings hurt when you found out that it is not okay to walk around in other kids' shoes at the playground at Chick-Fila.

You love to watch lah-eee (Wall-e).  On our recent road trip (more on that to come), you watched Wall-e probably three times a day while we were in the car.

You call most animals by their sound.  Our preferred supermarket has large pictures of farms and cows up on the wall.  Virtually every time we pass by the pictures, you yell out "The moo! The moo!"  Your other favorites are "the neigh" and "the woof."

You are a very enthusiastic eater.  You like to try new things.  Surprisingly, you don't mind spicy.  Recently, you convinced daddy to share his sandwich with spicy mustard and pepper jack cheese.  It must be because of the Mexican food I ate right before I went into labor!  Some of your other favorites include cheese, yogurt, steak, fruit, cucumbers, and rice, not to mention kid staples such as chicken nuggets, goldfish, macaroni, and cheese pizzas.

You are our sweet and sassy little girl.  Your eyes shine with a little bit of mischief which makes it hard on mommy and daddy when you are being a bit naughty.  But, you always brighten our lives with your fun personality.  We love you so very much sweet bebecita!