More Fun

Most of our time in Utah we went back and forth to various family and friends house's.  We'd eat food and play games.  

One evening we spent with a few of Stan's best friends from his growing up years.  His friend Kevin and wife Heather just had their third child, a month after Eliza was born.  

Here's the two babies, Luke & Eliza.

 We played one of my favorite games, Ticket to Ride.  Oddly enough I didn't win.  

Can you tell by the proud smile who did?

 (Stan)

 We also went to Ikea, one of my most favorite stores.  However, it was not a fun experience with a toddler who wants to run around and a new baby who needs to be fed.  Hopefully next time Miriam will be potty-trained and she can enjoy running around the day care that Ikea provides.

We also went out to eat a few times with some family.  One of those was to Joe's Crab Shack.

On the way home we stopped to see the Draper temple.  It's so far up the mountain, the temperature was about 10 degrees colder there. 

It was a great trip and as always we enjoyed every minute spent with our family and friends.  

Thanksgiving Dinners

The advantage to being in Utah for Thanksgiving is we get pie and dinner several times that week.  

On Wednesday we had dinner with Stan's mother and family:

Karen (mom) and Gina (Stan's sister) working away in the kitchen with Uncle Ed observing.  

Brother-in-law Allen enjoying some wild hairstyles by niece Ari.

What a crazy and fun-loving group of people!

Thursday we enjoyed another Thanksgiving Feast at Papa's house (Stan's Dad).

 Another wild and crazy group of family!

Miriam modeling Papa's new BYU hat.  Go Cougars!

And finally some more Thanksgiving pies at the Hornberger side of the family.  We enjoyed visiting with many of my cousins, Aunts & Uncles.

Miriam especially loved playing with the new toys.

And Eliza got to be held and cooed over, what she loves best.

I'm so thankful to be able to spend the Holidays with family.

Road Trip

Every year since Stan and I have been married we have taken a trip out to Utah at some point during the Holidays to visit the McBride side of the family.  We have always traveled by airplane in the past.

BUT,

 we bought a minivan this past year,

and had a horrible experience the last time we flew,

and had a child turn 2 which equals paying for another plane ticket,

and had a second child which equals MORE baby stuff to tote through the airport.

Thus, we thought it was time to try driving to Utah.

I voted that we visit the family for Thanksgiving this year.  There should be less of a chance of snow then, right?  

Maybe in Arkansas.

Kansas was boring, but I managed to catch a beautiful shot of the sky and the huge windmills.

However, in order to dodge a snowstorm heading through Western Colorado, we headed North through Wyoming. It didn't snow, much.  

But it had snowed a lot the day before.

For 6 hours we drove in and out of snowy roads on I-80.  Stan drove the whole way and I closed my eyes and said my prayers.

And a video of the insane drive.

 Luckily we didn't encounter any trouble or accidents (except that the windshield wiper fluid wouldn't work in the freezing Wyoming temperatures which made visibility difficult).  However I can't say the same for the semi trucks.  We saw at least 6 diesels off the side of the road, some flipped over, some broken in half.  I definitely breathed a sigh of relief and said a prayer of gratitude when we got out of Wyoming.

On a different note, we had a mostly wonderful experience with Miriam and Eliza.  They really did SO well. We made very good time and didn't have to stop that often.  Here are a few fun shots of the girls:

Thank goodness for the DVD player which kept Miriam very well entertained.  This picture cracks me up.  The sun was shining in her eyes so she had her sunglasses on.  She gets so entranced in the video, she doesn't realize her fingers are in her mouth and up her nose!

Singing songs with Miriam:

So...will we road trip again?

YES (but NOT in the Winter!)

Miriam's 2 Year Photos

I love getting professional pictures taken of my girls.  I already think they're adorable, but somehow a professional captures it and magnifies their character and beauty.

So here are Miriam's 2 year pictures.  The only disappointment with these pictures was that we could hardly get her to smile, so most of them are her "serious" face.

Enjoy.