Road Trip!

I was gone the last half of the month of December, which may explain a little my remiss in posting for a while.  Alex's mother generously offered to load us the use of her car for a while, seeing that she just bought herself a brand new Lexus and wouldn't be able to drive them both back to Mexico.  Catch was that I'd need to fly to Maryland and pick it up to drive back to Arizona.  Being a little sporty car, there is no room for car seats in the back, so I would need to go alone, while Alex stayed home with the kids.  My gorgeous sister, below, so obligingly agreed to meet me in Baltimore and help me drive the car back. 

We planned the trip for just before Christmas to coordinate with her husband's time off school and the trips we would both be taking anyway to Utah with our families for Christmas.  So we met in Baltimore, spent just a little time with some of Alex's family out there. We got to see my twin nephews who were born a couple months ago.  They are absolutely adorable!  I can't imagine the work that must go into caring for twin newborns.  God bless their parents; I'm sure it will be so worth it all in the end.  

Next we drove up to upstate New York, where my parents are serving their mission in the Palmyra Temple.  It was wonderful to see them again.  We got to attend a temple session with them the first night we were there, which was wonderful!  

We followed that up by meeting up with my little brother, Mike, at his place of work, for some awesome buffalo wings and a little karaoke.  I haven't seen Mike since the last family reunion, so it was really a treat (and hopefully we'll be forgiven for taking our missionary parents to a sports bar.)  And who knew he could sing so well!!  You should hear his Johnny Cash!  It's amazing!  I got to sing a duet with Mikey too.  "Summer Lovin'" from Grease.  We rocked the house!

We spent the weekend with them, played some canasta, visited the local Amish goods store, toured the Christmas lights, and enjoyed another evening with Mike and his girlfriend, Amber.  Maryle and I also sequestered ourselves for a few hours to make Mom our Christmas present.  Since she couldn't take her wall of pictures of her grandkids with her on her mission for lack of space, we created a family tree for her on corkboard for her to pin wallet sized pictures to.  It was really fun working with Maryle, and how our ideas melded into the final product, which I think turned out awesome! 

From there we drove to Maryle's home in Indiana, where we met up with her family and caravaned together to Colorado.  Watching Maryle be reunited with her family made me really start to miss my own sweet little girls and loving husband.  We got to talk everyday on the phone, and that helped a little.  I couldn't wait to see them all in Utah though.