Family Trip Part 1

Here is the beginning of our trip. 

We left early in the morning.  We had Harry Potter books on CD for Derrick and I to listen to, and a plethora of activities to keep the kiddos entertained for our 24 hour drive.

A neighbor gave us an idea to wrap up a bunch of little dollar store gifts and let the kids open them every hour or two so they had something new to play with and something to look forward too.  It worked great.

We also gave them a big early Christmas present to play with.  Halle got the Tag JR, and Hayden got the Leapster Explorer (both which I got some seriously amazing deals on!)  We didn't anticipate Halle wanting Hayden's toy so bad, but other than that it was a good plan.  Luckily Hayden was in a sharing mood.

We also were able to get a dual screen portable DVD player, which probably was the most useful.  Hayden watched one of the many Land Before Time movies so many times we lost track.

 They really did great considering how long of a drive it was.  They even slept through the night really well in the hotel.  Derrick is the only one that woke up in fact, and that's because I forgot to put a diaper on Hayden and he was sharing a bed with him!  hehe

 We saw both of my parents when we got there.  Friday night we had our gingerbread house making night with my brothers and mom.  Hayden and I made one, and Halle and Derrick made one.  It was so fun!  Hayden had a lot of fun ideas.  Notice the Santa in the chimney, and especially the garage with the car in it in back.

 Saturday we went to Gunnison to visit Derrick's family.  The kids are in absolute heaven with so much family around to play with them.  

 When we pulled into Derrick's parents' driveway, Hayden woke up and looked around and said, "Is this the grandma and grandpa with the tractors?"  :)  He's been looking forward to it for weeks.  Norman wasn't inside when we went in and Hayden wandered around looking for him for a while.  As soon as he came in, Hayden was asking for a tractor ride.  I've never seen him so happy as when he was telling me the he actually got to drive the tractor!

There was a big snowstorm and we have had a lot of fun playing outside.  It's so great to have so much space just to play and ride tractors and four wheelers around.  I helped Derrick build this snowman.  Can you believe how big it is?  Remember that he's 6'4".  Too bad it only lasted a few hours before it got knocked over mysteriously.

 Do you love Hayden's masking taped wrists?  Whatever you can do to keep the snow out!  Later we had to put a plastic bag over both his and Halle's gloves.

 We had fun sledding behind the four wheeler and tractor with cousins.  Hayden just loved to walk around and eat snow in the really deep parts.

Look at me driving a tractor!  That is something I thought I would never do.  It took a minute to get the hang of it.  I kept killing it of course.  I pulled Derrick and Greg on the back.

 And later that night here is a bit of funny little Halle.  She insisted on riding in this too small cart.  And then Hayden of course got the idea to push her.  That didn't last long. :)

I love them!