Flagstaff during our Christmas Trip

As I FINALLY came back to my blog, I found this unfinished post.  So here it is!  :o)

So for Christmas this (last) year, our family went to Arizona!  Since Scott is able to work from anywhere, we had a nice long vacation visiting my family.  It was so nice to not have to rush trying to do things in a short time.  We did some fun things, but we also just relaxed with the family.  One of my favorite parts was playing games with my dad after the kids went to bed.  I LOVE doing that!

So my dad only gets really sick about once a year it seems.  Pretty healthy guy.  Well, just my luck, each time that happens is when I am in town!  Luckily he already had the time off so he could rest.  But unluckily, he had to spend that time off in bed.  It was passed to a few other family members, but at least they could still spend time with us when they were healthy.

While we were there, we took a trip to Flagstaff to see the snow.  My kids had never been in snow before, so we wanted to take this opportunity since it was only a couple of hours away.  (Who knew a month later, we would wake up at our own house here in San Antonio to see everything covered in snow!)  We followed behind my sister and her family, as well as my dad.  My fabulously adorable niece, Isabel, drove with us and kept Mason company, as well as holding her ground during any of Mason's sudden, I'm-tired-and-don't-know-how-to-handle-my-emotions-right-now moments.  She did great catching the bottles, toys or pacifiers that Dakota decided to throw at her as well!

Considering my kids had never been in snow, of course they had absolutely no snow gear.  Jeans are not going to keep a person warm once they get wet.  Still, we had no other options.  Jeans it was!  Kota didn't care much for the snow and cold, and wanted to be held and kept warm most of the time.  Mason had a ball playing with his cousins, falling and slipping in the snow, and throwing "snowballs."  It wasn't until about forty-five minutes went by when Mason, and pretty much the whole clan was definitely ready to go!  We stopped and ate our sandwiches (in the warmth of the car), and then headed home.  Such a fun-filled day with the family.  It makes me want to take more road trips like that.  Especially knowing that Dakota is a much better traveler then Mason!  :o)

And the below pictures make me laugh EVERY time.  In fact, after I post this, I am going to call my sister just so that we can laugh so hard together hundreds of miles away from each other.  Here's the story...  Melissa was walking with her then like 4 month old in her front carrier, when suddenly she slipped and fell.  The helpful and supportive sister that I am, I immediately started snapping pictures and didn't run to her aide.  My dad did a fine job helping (when he was able to gain composure from laughing so hard himself)!  The pictures are in order:  Melissa fell, then as my dad tries to help her up, he is laughing so hard that she slips back down again, and then she finally makes it upright.  The funniest moment of our trip by far.  LOVE my family.  :o)