The Hills: Christmas 2010

Okay, I know January is half over, but we JUST returned home from Christmas vacation. Noah' s school was out from Dec 22- Jan 18th, so we took full advantage of that time and did quite a bit of traveling! We were suppose to head up north on December 26th, but decided to get up there a few days early to surprise my mom. Success. We left Wednesday about 3 pm, and ran into quite a bit of snow. West Virginia was especially bad with snow, wind, and wandering cows. Not kidding. We were in the middle of a snow storm and people on the left side of the road kept flashing their lights. We drove a little farther and passed a COW, that had wandered into the median. Can you imagine not being able to see but 5 feet in front of you, traveling 55 mph and BAM, theres a cow. God really protected us and we were able to make it to Lafayette,IN by 1:45 am. We were able to get a few hours sleep at our friend's house, then headed up to IL to surprise mom. She had only worked a half day, so we wanted to get there before she got home. We had parked our van in the garage so she didn't see it when she pulled in. The first thing she saw when she walked in the door was Jacob and Noah sitting in the chair yelling "surprise!". It was precious and she was very very shocked. We had a great time celebrating Christmas and New Years at my parent's house. We celebrated our 9th anniversary with a date night (which these days are very rare). Mom and dad watched the kids for us (even Taylor) so that we could go out. Little things like that mean so much!!!! Anyway, we stayed up there until the 2nd, then headed down to IN to visit with our friends. Josh had to be back to work early, so I was able to find him a cheap flight out of Indy on Tuesday. We headed back up to IL on Thursday, then drove up to northern Michigan to see my grandparents for the weekend. While we were there, we were literally DUMPED on with snow. My poor grandpa would just get done shoveling the driveway then it would start to snow again. Taylor also got to meet her aunt Abbey for the first time! We came home on Sunday night with colds and pink eye, so we decided to stay in IL and heal for a few extra days before going back to IN. We were able to spend the rest of our time in IN just lounging around and visiting, then headed back home on Sunday, before MLK day. PHEW! What a trip!!! The kids did so well on the trip both up and down. We have it down to a science. One Stop Shop is the key! They are starting to get the routine (even Taylor) down. We had such a great Christmas and visit with friends and family, but are happy to be back home and back into the routine. I trust you all had a wonderful Christmas as well!!!!