What do you get when you pack a 7-passenger van and a 5-passenger car with people ranging in age from 6-months to 50+ years of age? A VERY long road trip!

This past month I took the kids (without Miles) to Denver for my cousin’s wedding. Most of my mom’s family lives in Denver and I hadn’t been there to visit for about 5 years. I caught a ride with my sister, her four kids, my mom, brother, and cousin. We were 11 people all together. It was crazy! Let me give you an idea of how the week went. According to goolge maps, the trip was supposed to take 8 1/2 hours. But it took us 16 hours to get there! We had some fun times though. And I learned to be a more patient mother and when we made it home I felt like Wonder Woman, like I could do anything!

Here are a collection of pictures from the trip.

This is my incredible husband of 6 years! Trite but true, I love him more now than I did on our wedding day.

We spent the weekend in St. George with my family. For our anniversary, my parents watched the kids for us all Saturday so we could have the entire day to ourselves.

In the morning we went on a long bike ride. We rode to Five Guys for lunch. I discovered I’m not so good on a bike. I fell twice, and have the road rash to prove it. The phrase “it’s just like riding a bike” doesn’t apply to me I guess.

After our bike ride, we went for a quick dip in my parent’s pool then went back to get ready for our evening in Vegas!

We went a matinee showing of The Lion King. It was something I had always wanted to do. We had great seats. It was awesome!

After the show we ate at The Buffet at the Bellagio. It was a busy Saturday night so we had to wait in line for an hour. But it was no big deal. We could have waited three hours without kids! The buffet was yummy. We enjoyed king crab, kobe beef, prime rib, quail, sushi, dim sum, and of course we sampled just about every dessert. Afterward, we walked outside and watched the fountain show.

It was so fun to just be together.

We spent the day at my families’ ranch near Pine Valley and took the back way home through Enterprise. We made a couple stops. The first stop was the monument at Mountain Meadows. I’d never seen it before.

It was a beautiful time of day and I couldn’t resist stopping again just to get a few shots of the warm sun and the open fields.

This year we spent Christmas in Arizona with Miles family. It was wonderful! I told Miles we can live in Arizona, but only in the winter! Much of our 9-day vacation was spent enjoying the beautiful weather. It felt great to get outside and stretch our legs.

We got to see Santa twice during the Christmas season. And here’s our story about Link and Santa this year. Lincoln and I were doing a little Christmas shopping when I tried to sneak a hockey stick into the cart without Link knowing. I wasn’t successful. He kept asking over and over for the hockey stick. Finally when it was hidden away in the trunk, I told him Santa had it and he would bring it to him on Christmas. So, when we visited Santa at Bass Pro Shop in Arizona, Link asked Santa for his hockey stick. Link was perplexed when Santa just smiled and set him down. He was expecting Santa to give him his hockey stick right then! Needless to say, it took a little more explanation and Link was happy to see his hockey stick under the tree Christmas morning.

We sorta forgot Santa was in this picture!

Ever since Claire was born, the thought of the long car-trip to Arizona for Christmas haunted me. For the first few months of life, Claire couldn’t even make the five-minute drive to Walmart without screaming her head off. I’m telling you a miracle took place. She was an angel on this trip.

This is her chillin’ in her carseat:

The unfortunate part of our vacation was that I got sick a few days before Christmas. Christmas Eve the infection really hit. I hadn’t been that sick in years and years. I was so grateful to Miles and his family for taking care of the kids so I could rest. The day before we left I was able to go into an urgent care where I found out I had bronchitis, an ear infection, and a sinus infection. Luckily I felt good enough to travel home the next day.

One of the consequences of mommy not feeling well is a lack of Christmas photos. I feel bad since it was Claire’s first Christmas and all. Lacey and Grandpa Pomeroy, could you send me any of the pictures you may have taken?

While I was sick, Miles and Grandpa took the kids on a couple fun excursions—the Casa Grande Ruins and to a train park.

Link getting off the train ride.

Grandpa Pomeroy and Link riding on the train.

Link loved this train car. Daddy said he played just like this for more than 45 minutes. He has a great imagination!

At the Casa Grande Ruins.

And here are a few pictures of the family at the park across the street.

Claire and Aunt Lynda. Cute!

Adorable cousin Aidan.

Link cheering on his daddy playing football.

Boy, that was a patchwork post. Sorry everything was so scrambled. The bottom line is this, we had a very Merry Christmas!

We enjoyed a full weekend of Halloween festivities. Friday we took the kids trick-or-treating at Miles’ work. It was really fun. They went all out with balloons, haunted houses, lots and lots of candy, and people dressed up.

Friday night we went to our ward “Fall Festival” aka Halloween party. People thought we were weirdos decked out in our blue costumes. It was funny all the things people thought Miles and I were dressed as. Some of the guesses included Avatar peeps, Blue Man Group, Blue Berries, and X-Men. The real answer: we were a “Pair of Blue Jeans.” Ha ha ha. Aren’t we creative?

Saturday morning we drove down to St. George to spend Halloween with my family. Link entertained himself on the trip by eating candy. Spending Halloween with my family has become a tradition. We’ve been partying on Halloween for the past 10 years or so. The first time Miles met my family was on a Halloween night.

Lincoln had a blast with his cousins as usual, and everyone was ga ga over how cute Claire is. We were really looking forward to taking Link Trick-or-Treating. He made it to two houses before he asked to be carried. The last half he slept in his Dad’s arms. I guess too much fun exhausted the poor kid.