Trip Part One

My mom is literally the most difficult person to buy for. When Christmas approaches I inevitably receive a phone call from my dad with the frantic plea for some help as to what my mom could possibly want. Well this year we decided we would give my mom the best present ever....ME! What could be better then that right?

Several months ago my dad and I planned the surprise. This was no small task considering how suspicious my mom is. We contrived a plan to have my dad pretend he has a meeting in Salt Lake (which isn't uncommon) and take my mom with him and leave her at the mall while he came and picked me up. We did run into a few kinks with car seats and car situation but we were able to pull it off. It was a Christmas miracle! I don't think my mom has ever been more surprise in her life. She kept saying over and over, "Are you serious!" And then we surprised the rest of my family (other than Jody. She had to help remedy the car seat situation.) It was a perfect vacation and I felt I was able to see all the people I wanted to and more importantly improve relationships with those I love and don't get to see all the time.

So before I left I stole the pictures off my mom's camera because I didn't have mine with me the entire time. So I will start here and do my pictures in a future post.

Seriously how could my mom not be thrilled to have these two faces with her for ten days? I think Adam was making them laugh in this picture. They think Uncle Adam was pretty much the funniest person they have ever met. He calls them Jo Jo and Odd Job.
Here is the adorable Grady Boy. We couldn't get enough of his smiles and giggles. He is seriously the happiest baby. We ADORE him.
Can you sense trouble? Jenna and Audrey were great friends other than when they were sizing each other up and giving little shoves here and there. That Nay Nay is the spunkiest, cutest little thing I have ever met. I can't wait for these two to be best of cousin friends (which I assure you they will.)
I think Audrey really missed Bryan because she was very attached to my brothers and brother in law Chuck. She LOVED them.
Julia and Audrey with their cousins. Brookie and Julia are two peas in a pod. They played HARD. I don't know if Julia has ever been happier then when she's playing with Brooke and Hankie. We love you guys so much! Thanks for playing with us.
We got to celebrate Dylan's 11th birthday and had his Arrow of Light ceremony. I remember when Dylan was born and we all fought over who got to hold him. I can't believe he is 11. It almost makes me teary eyed to think about how big he is getting.
We wrapped things up with a little Dance Dance Revolution. this picture makes me laugh HARD. We were intense and that dang Carli was unbeatable! I even do Zuma! I like how my dad got in on the action. There also may or may not have been a few children that were casualties to our mad dance skills.
It was unseasonably warm in Wyoming and so we were even able to go out to the fire pit and roast marshmallows. Such good memories. We think little Max is such a funny little guy.
Now stay tuned for some more pictures of our wonderful trip (well other than the fourteen hour trip home but that will be for another post.)