travel...

first, a tiny bit of background... my mom gave me a camera for Christmas... so i took about a million pictures of our trip out to AZ... and i loved it... so now i'm really trying to pare down the number of pictures i post here (though it may not seem like it).



yep... i even have to show the pic of the camera...

where to begin... we planned on driving about 18 hours from paul's work straight through to AZ thurs afternoon, and i even made a paper chain for the kids with places and activities for them to look forward to (and not to ask 'are we there yet') along the way. we always drive through the night if possibel because when the children are asleep they are happy and no one usually has to stop for the bathroom (roughly every half hour when they are awake...). everything was going fine til we got to new mexico. land of enchantment. or so they say... we were routed off the highway around 3 am and told no one was going anywhere so we might as well get comfortable (HA). there were literally hundreds and perhaps thousands of other vehicles routed off where were, we certainly couldn't see any end in sight, and we found a place to stop for the night. fortunately that meant that the kids could get out of their car seats, and they slept the better for it. paul turned the car on every hour or so to turn the heat back on, because it was rather cold (we almost gave the kids their Christmas presents--sleeping bags--early, but decided they were warm enough with their blankets, especially as they barely woke enough to get unbuckled). it was a long night. by 8.30am, we decided to try our luck elsewhere. we knew another highway that runs roughly parallel to the one we were on, and went southwest to it, then we went back northwest to re-connect to the one we were on originally, but about 30 miles further down, because ALL the highways in NM were closed for the duration of the snow. folks, it was 2 days before Christmas, and the huge snowfall seemed to be about 2-3 inches. i'm sure there were places that were more, but it really wasn't that bad. the snowplows were clearly running all night long, and i think if they'd let the cars continue to pass it would have been fine, but it was obviously not my call. so this was our view for the next 2 hours:

 as we sat and waited for the road to open (this was after lunch). in the 2 hours we sat there, dozens of cars were sent back, and eventually they circled around and came and parked on the road (when there were too many for the police to send them back). if you can see the black cruiser facing us just past that black car, it was the policeman, we were that close to the barricade. we made some friends, and paul took the kids on a short walk, but since we were planning for Christmas in AZ we didn't have any real winter gear, so they mostly stayed in the car too. (ps, even more frustrating, we could even see some cars occasionally that they were letting drive OUT of the other side of the highway, so it was clearly passable)


note, afton needed my sweatshirt. that's how unprepared we were for snow.

the kids were AMAZING!!! they were mostly playing and being happy, despite being cooped up in the car for so long (there weren't any places to stay in the little town we were stuck in) and i was proud of them!

hooray for toys (and books)



even malachi was happy as long as we didn't try to buckle him!

eventually a lady came running towards her car calling to her friends/family "they're letting us through" and there was a mass ruch to the cars, paul had ours on and inching into traffic as i was frantically helping the very agreeable and helpful kids into their carseats! i don't think anyone will ever know for sure if the lady was just ensuring that they make it to their Christmas, or if they really were letting us through, but there were plenty more people than police, so either way, it worked...

our view as we finally continued to drive. the roads don't look very scary to me!

and a view out my passanger side window, the sides of the road don't look too bad either!

long story short (too late)... we made it to grandma w's house almost exactly 12 hours later than we planned! but we made it, and we slept really well that night :)

final catch-up before the vacation report

warning, this next few weeks might get boring, i took that many pictures! but first, the last part of december before our stellar arizona vacation!


afton's been SOOO excited about santa this year. she was first in line to see him at the church Christmas party! she told him she wanted snow, a necklace, and a happy family (she got all three!)

 

rayna and i got to go to afton's school Christmas presentation. this is in the classroom after the show, with one of the girls' good friends, tally. they got to play with the costumes a bit and we had milk and cookies to celebrate.

the class getting ready to perform, rockin' rudolf, the little boy in the front is jesse, another of afton's good friends.
i took some pics of the actual performance, and a video, but afton's on the back row, and there were some boys standing right in front of her for most of the pics. :( they were cute though!)

we went to the arboretum with some friends, and ran into snow white, frosty and rudolf on our way out

rayna was a little enchanted!

and just because i need to include a pic of malachi! he can be SOOO sweet sometimes!

up-to-date... almost

so a few more things, so we're all caught up for christmas :). we've been really busy, but mostly playing around. here's a picture from a week or so ago, it's just so easy for me to take more pictures when paul's home, and i wanted to record rayna's 'mary poppins' outfit, that's what she calls this dress (i especially liked her knee socks).

 'crafting' with some friends. we made a bunch of snowflakes, and we put a lot of them up on our sliding back door, so when the sun shines we have cool shadows on the kitchen floor; it makes for a fun breakfast room.

 malachi LOVES this truck now. he plays with it almost every night after the girls go to bed, he's getting pretty good at stacking the blocks and shoving them through the shaped holes, but mostly he drives it around making siren noises :).

 most pictures of him i have now look something like this:

he loves the camera, and what can i say, obviously the camera loves him too!

we also had a fabulous visit to the zoo last saturday with daddy... unfortunately i left the camera in the car :(. it was really one of the best visits we've had in a LONG time, partly because we haven't been going as much with that miserably hot summer and then school starting for afton, and partly because paul got ot come with us, but the animals were entertaining, the kids got to see most everything they wanted, and the zoo wasn't crowded at all (it was predicted to be cold, but it turned out to be a nice warm day).
we had an especially great time in the reptile house, and playing at the bug house... of all the weird things for my "cutsey little girlies." we also enjoyed seeing an eagle eating some little furry thing, and an owl feathering a small bird... sounds so much worse when i write it down... suffice it to say, the things i would have taken pictures of would not have involved any of that, but lots of silly smiles, petting little goats, watching the flamingoes, and maybe crawling through the tunnles with the naked mole rats... oh, and afton and paul held a few birds in the children's aviary. we sure have enjoyed having that zoo pass, though i think we're ready to let it expre for a little while, it's a lot harder to get all the way out there with school... maybe we'll try somethign else next year! merry christmas!

afton's school days

so i tend to do better blogging when i can let the pictures tell the story. i'm not one for taking the time to write everything out, and don't have the general writing skills i so admire in others, but i figure it's time i take a couple minutes and share a little about afton. she's doing really well in her school. she's reading fairly well (understandably slow), and she's a great listener (at school). it's always nice to have someone else appreciate your child though, so it was a really nice surprise when afton got an award at her first 6-weeks (grading period) ceremony back in october. they only give out three kinds of awards, perfect attendance, nearly perfect attendance (missing only 1 day), and a good citizen award for one boy and one girl in each class that do an exceptional job at obeying the rules and helping others. afton was sick three times that first grading period, but she was a good citizen :). it made me happy, and i hope her too.

here she is sitting with some of her classmates on their rug

getting the award from her teacher, ms flores



i know i've posted a few pictures randomly throughout of some o fthe dress-up days at her school. they have a couple things each month it seems where they get to wear something special. as part of drug-free week they got to dress in super-hero costumes or t-shirts. we don't have any of those in her size, so we made one :) she was her favorite (though admittedly, she only knows the names, not who they actually are, or anything like that... she hasn't seen any of the movies), green lantern.

then again, at the end of the second 6-weeks gradin gperiod, afton got an award, perfect attendance. hooray for no more sickness! here she is with a couple of her friends.

i should have some more pictures from her school up soon, she just had her christmas program last friday, singing and dancing and cookies and milk,. and rayna and i got to attend (triple hooray for daddy getting to work from home that day so he could be here while malachi slept!!! !!! !!!). i need to upload those pictures still and hopefully i'll post them soon.

some more dressing-ups

some more of our silly days...

after church one day

just in case anyone wondered what i look like anymore... rayna took that picture,
paul doesn't take pics, so it's usually me behind the camera--i don't really change too much either

rayna was cold, she borrowed daddy's coat

malachi all dressed up for church in his snazzy vest. i thought he looked so handsome :)



paul's sister emalie just left on her mission and one sunday afternoon paul was writing her a letter (with the girls' help). as he was writing, afton was dressing him up to match her, and he didn't really notice... so we took a pic of the final product to send to her so she could see the effect letter-writing has on her big brother. please note his handbag ;)

trimming the tree



ta-da!



afton took this pic of the finished product...
it just might look better this way ;)
we love it regardless!