The Rest of the Trip

Matthew's toes did this every time he ate in Grammy's high chair

After spending the first part of our stay at Grandma and Grandpa Clayton's house, we moved across the street to Grammy and Grandpa's when they returned from their Idaho trip. It was so great to see them and to spend time at their house. It had also been a while since our paths had crossed with Aunt Dacia and it made our week even more special to finally get to spend time with her. She has a wonderful way of making the kids feel like a million bucks.

We were excited to get to reunite with some Clifton cousins and enjoyed a day of sledding and playing around the house. Even though these cousins hadn't seen each other since the previous Christmas they played as the best of friends. Cousin friends are the best!

Carter, Heidi, and Nathan in sledding heaven.

For lunch Trent and Dacia made these hot dog "guys" and squids for everyone.

Late night silliness with the dice game.

MANY loom band bracelets were constructed during this holiday. It turned out to be a very fun activity to share with cousins of all ages.

Couldn't include a post without some good baby cuteness.

As we did a fair amount of walking back and forth between grandparents houses on icing roads and driveways I got to see such a sweet part of Nathan come out. He insisted on holding tightly to my hand as I would cross over icy patches and continually said, "Mom, I don't want you to fall! Please hold my hand." I just LOVED this sweet protective side of my little man.

I just love this picture. This little push toy was very popular with Matthew and Sammy and in fact produced a few of their first "disputes". :) Here Matthew zooms along on a victory walk as Sammy is hot on his trail. Don't worry, I made him share.

The cutest part came when we decided that a good way to solve the problem of them both wanting the toy would be to encourage some teamwork. So, we put Matthew in the cargo hold and Sammy was more than thrilled to give him the ride of his life. They were SO cute together. I can't wait for them to be best little friends as they grow up so close in age.

At Grammy's and Grandpa's we got to help with a few projects around the house, including cleaning out the attic. We hauled out boxes of old papers and got them ready to be sorted.

The best part was having a big bonfire and burning bills and bank statements from umm, before Trent was born. Hotdogs were even roasted which turned the whole things into a party!

This little man decided that he better get busy with this walking business. Here he goes between Mommy and Daddy-

He was so pleased with himself!

The kids have been pretty into checkers lately and were really excited to have a tournament with these giant sets at Grammy's house.

And it's not a trip to Grammy's if we don't spend some time in the kitchen baking. The kids love how she includes them in the kitchen. Here they are making pizza crusts on New Year's Eve-

And some chocolate cupcakes for our festivities-

All of us ready for a New Year's Eve bash! We rang in the New Year with the kids around 8:30 pm.  We did sparklers, horns, ate cupcakes and enjoyed the festivity of the evening. They loved it.

After the kids went to bed the party continued. Grandpa kept asking Grammy to dance....

We had fun listening to the oldies channel as we played Settlers. Grandpa Chuck even sang to us...

A random picture of the kids ride up and down the stairs...

New Year's Day brought our day to return to Kentucky. It is always hard to say goodbye but we were so grateful to spend time with everyone. 

We enjoyed a lunch at Chuck-a- Rama with my parents and Ben and Christine before heading to the airport.

Matthew's first time eating food at a restaurant was a success. Minus the HUGE mess he left under the high chair!

And off we go! We were thankful for a smooth flight home without delays. Notice the kids' party hats? They wore those All. The. Way. Home.

They got a traveler's checkers game set from Santa and were eager to try it out on the flight home.

We pulled into home around 1:15 AM completely tuckered out. For the first time ever after traveling, we were able to walk into a clean and functioning home and it felt wonderful to not have the weight of construction and sewer problems to face when we returned!

We didn't wake up until 11:00 AM the next day (we were all still on Utah time plus tuckered out from a lot of traveling). Heidi and Nathan were excited to see Santa had left a couple little things in the living room for them.

And the Cardona's had left us a new-to-us TV to upgrade from our little 13" black one. Kind of a fun surprise to find in our family room when we returned.