Thanksgiving Road Trip - Colorado

After our weekend in Iowa, we drove through Sunday night and made it to Colorado in the early hours of Monday morning. Given the choice, I will never decide to drive through the night again...but I'm glad we tried it. Now we know it's not something that works for us and we can plan accordingly.

Caleb, Lana and Aaron watching for the garbage truck, love the pjs!  

On Monday, we went to a park in Sarah's neighborhood. More swinging fun : ) It was a little cooler in Colorado, but still great weather!

4 sweet kids, made me think of two sets of twins with how close they are in age! 

A park we visited on Tuesday. Caleb was in jail : )

Happy guy

On Wednesday, we headed to Morrison, Co and ate at BeauJo's pizza. It was wonderful! 

Checking out an icy/snowy patch near the parking lot

My family took several vacations in Colorado when I was growing up. If I didn't have two kids watching and trying to follow me I definitely would have attempted to cross this creek just like I would have done when I was a kid! 

After pizza we went on a walk at a nearby lake. 

All of us!

As soon as we took the above picture, Kaylee managed to get off a shoe...and it dropped into the water below!

Alex went fishing

A shoe!

After the lake we headed indoors to a dinosaur museum, Caleb loved it. We have a dinosaur exhibit at the museum in Houston, but this one had everything so much closer. 

Kaylee had fun exploring too

This museum is known for taking the fossils that most larger museums don't want the hassle of cleaning. The kids got to actually touch some of the pieces being worked on! 

The museum "guy" was great with kids! 

Future Paleontologists! 

Caleb and Lana

Thanksgiving day turned out to be beautiful, so the boys spent a lot of time playing outside while Uncle Alex grilled the turkey.

Sand box fun 

Kaylee liked the weather too

Alex and the turkey

Caleb and I on Sarah's deck

Kaylee and I while eating dessert that evening. She helped me eat my pumpkin cobbler! 

The next morning we packed up and began the longest leg of our trip going back home. We spent the night in Amarillo and finally made it home late in the evening that Saturday.

We put in a lot of miles considering we were only gone 9 days, but it was great to visit with family and have some time with our nieces.

Now that we survived our first major road trip, we're already trying to make plans for our next family adventure!

Thanksgiving Road Trip - Iowa

Over Thanksgiving break we took our first big family road trip! We (I) planned and focused on the trip constantly for weeks. We started off driving to Iowa, spent a few days there visiting Jonathan's brother, Roger, and his family and then drove to Colorado to spend Thanksgiving with Jonathan's sister, Sarah, and her family.

I tried to capture the trip with pictures, enjoy!

We left Houston the Friday before Thanksgiving and made it into Iowa LATE that night (after midnight). We stayed at our hotel for the night and then headed to visit Roger, Jill and Juliana and meet baby Emily first thing on Saturday morning. 

Aaron liked being bundled up in the car!

Caleb the puppy dog : )

Baby Emily (1 month) and Aunt Melissa - I loved having the chance to meet our newest niece! 

Uncle Roger with Juliana and Caleb

Aunt Jill with the three "big" kids...they all liked playing with Juliana's art supplies

Uncle Jonathan and a sleepy Emily

play time

I couldn't believe how well Emily slept with all the noise

Jello break

Cuties

Swinging at the park, we were lucky that the weather was beautiful while we were in Iowa. Highs were in the 60s which made for great park weather. 

Bundled up

The only room we could get at the hotel had a big jacuzzi tub in the room...it was perfect for corralling a crazy 16 month old!  

That evening everyone but Caleb and I headed down to the hotel's indoor pool. I was told that the water was a bit cold, but the hot tub was great!

Caleb and I didn't get to swim because he was passed out! He fell asleep on the way to the hotel from Roger's house (maybe a ten minute drive). 

On Sunday we joined Roger and family at their church for Emily's baptism. Jonathan and I are honored to be her sponsors and were so glad we could be there that day.

All of us after church the day of Emily's baptism. 

Caleb and Juliana

The baptism wore out Emily, she slept great after we arrived back at Roger's house after church and eating out for lunch. 

Caleb showing Juliana how to use the IPad. 

After we spent Sunday afternoon at Roger's house, we loaded up continued on to our next destination, Colorado!

Thanksgiving "Feast" at PWS

I love the events we have at PeeWee School for the holidays. I was able to join Caleb in his class for his Thanksgiving Feast. Each kid brought their favorite food, Caleb chose hot dogs! Funny thing is, he rarely wants them at home and didn't eat one at the feast. 

Caleb and his best bud, Samir, at the Thanksgiving Feast. 

Growing Boys

This is the beginning of my marathon of posts to catch up! These pictures were taken in November and I was amazed at how big the boys are becoming. 

Caleb loves art, he regularly asks to paint, color, or draw. More recently he's been upset because he can't write words yet.... one step at a time buddy!

Coloring by number

He did all the coloring in balloons first and then started to scribble when he ran out of numbers...I'm still pretty amazed!

They pushed the chairs together and sat having one of their brother "conversations" 

Mommy and the boys : )

Mommy and Caleb watching the Alabama vs. A&M game...AMAZING game!