The Trip, Part One

So yesterday Garrett asked me when I was going to put some pictures of us on our blog... Novel idea, really. I can't believe we've been home two weeks now and I've not blogged a single picture from our trip (except the baby pictures of Dylan, I guess). Life has been nuts since we got back and I'd dare say it's not getting all that much better, but I knew I had to dig in and get working on catching up. Because I realize now, I don't really like posting pictures that are a month old. It seems weird to go back that far and write about it. So hopefully I'll get caught up quickly so I can do more current posts. But regardless of how old the pictures are, it has been fun to go through them and remember how much fun we had in Idaho! It was hard to know where to start or how to post, so I just went ahead and started at the beginning. I'll just blog the next post where I left off on this post. I have no idea how long it will take (yeah, I have a lot of pictures, what can I say?). But here we have our trip at the beginning:
We rolled into town late on a Sunday night (Dec 28th) and can't even begin to say how exhausted we were. We had spent thirty hours in the car over the span of two days....so we didn't feel like doing anything AT ALL the first two days we were there. We kept a low profile at Garrett's parents house Monday and Tuesday since we wouldn't be seeing my parents until Tuesday night when we drove to Island Park to surprise them at their cabin. We didn't dare do anything to ruin the surprise that we worked so hard to pull off. We did surprise my sister Marilee at her house Monday night and it was so FUN! Nothing like ringing the doorbell and having everyone scream in excitement to see you. Seriously fun. Anyhow, the kids just loved hanging out at Grandma & Grandpa T's and not being in the car. The "vintage" Fisher Price Little People garage was a HUGE hit and provided for hours of entertainment for the boys. They loved it the entire time we were there. It was Garrett's when he was little (a gift from Santa, I believe) and I have to laugh that the toys we played with when we were little are now "vintage".

Could he be any happier to not be in the car??? I don't think so!



So Tuesday evening, we got in the car again (this time it was only for a two hour drive--seemed like a piece of cake, really) and headed to Island Park to surprise my parents at their cabin. We just pulled in the driveway and walked right in the front door. After everyone did a few double takes and realized that it was actually us standing there, the screaming started, some tears were shed, the whole works. That moment right there was the surprise of a lifetime, for sure. It was SO much fun! So we slept at the cabin that night and woke up the next morning and played hard.
But we had to start out by eating Grandpa's breakfast with some cousins, topped off with a nice cup of hot chocolate. Mmmm!

With our tummies full, the fun could really begin. We headed out to the best sledding hill on the planet and went to town sledding down, riding the snowmobile back up, and sledding down again. SOOOOOO much fun! If you remember this from last year, it was basically the same place, the same people, just one year later.

My sister Serena's boy Taylor

The repeat of last year's performance

And since Garrett was giving me grief about us not being on the blog, oh I'm putting him on the blog. We've titled this picture "Rugged Outdoorsman by Day, Attorney by Night".
And let's just say my "little" brother Carter has grown up a TON (I guess he is 14 now and all)...he just seems so much older now. He opted to do some snowboarding instead of sledding 'cuz I guess he's cool like that and stuff.


And then literally everyone got in on the sledding action...

My sister's boy Jackson

Pure fun!

Garrett gave it a run.

And you know your Grandma is cool when she takes a run down the hill too!

I even braved it and I truly forgot how much fun sledding is, and it's great when you don't have to walk back up the hill.

And what an awesome grandpa, too!

Sam was sleeping for the majority of our sledding adventure, but when he woke up we gave it a shot and let him try. He was majorly overwhelmed by it (it's a pretty long hill for a little one), and even more overwhelmed riding the snowmobile afterwards. So his sledding adventure was a little short, but he looked dang cute nonetheless. Look at those rosy cheeks!

We all started trickling back inside, but Tyler stayed out there with Grandpa FOREVER. I was amazed at how long he was out there. I was worried that my Louisiana boy wouldn't have it in him to stay out on the sledding hill that long. But he absolutely loved it. So we came back in to get ready to go on a snowmobile ride. Tyler still had his snow clothes on and we were just about to leave and saw him on the couch totally zonked out. Poor kid!
But that didn't stop us, we got him up after a quick little cat nap and headed out for a ride. We got to go to Big Springs and feed the fish and we all had a great time.


Looking a little top heavy, eh?

And that is "The Trip", the first installment. Hopefully the second installment will come soon (not making any promises, though!). Until next time...