Well, we just barely made it out of here because of a crazy amount of snow that was sent our way. This picture is of Jeff being pushed up the un-plowed street to our house on his way home from work. After loading the van, we gingerly trekked across the state to Ann Arbor to spend an early Christmas with Jeff's parents.
Snuggling grandma and her new doll.
Julia wasn't too into the unwrapping thing, but once she got someone to do it for her, she thought the stuff inside was pretty cool.
After a couple days, we then made our journey south to Charleston. When we left Ann Arbor, it was 4 degrees. It didn't get to 10 until we were past Cincinnati and by the time we made it to our stop for the night in Knoxville, a temp of 26 felt balmy. The kids are hotel junkies, with a pool, in bedroom TV, and free breakfast being their only judging criteria.
After a shorter second day's drive...We made it!!! And guess what...we broke from freezing temps and were finally able to run around outside in the beautiful sunshine. It was great to all gather in the same backyard!
While visiting, we checked out my brother, Jim's, place of work...the Air Force Base. We even got to take a look inside his office...the cockpit of this here aircraft (a C-17) he flies.
You can fit several large families inside one of these quite easily!
This is where you can catch some shut eye on a long trip in the plane. My girls found it pretty cozy. (and, yes, it was cold that morning...but after this, we shoved our coats in a closet for good)
Christmas Day arrived and it was a sight to behold when all the presents for 8 kids were under the tree. They must've been mighty good this year!!!
It was slightly chaotic getting the job of unwrapping done. But once it was, the kids all enjoyed tinkering with toys the rest of the day, while the grown ups enjoyed some yummy food. Laser tag was a fave toy for kids and grown ups...
We also participated in our fair share of Nerf wars. It might be time for the girls to get some ammo in the house!
My brothers (Jim and Michael).
Sarah got a scooter for Christmas and was actually able to use it right away! We weren't sad in the slightest bit to miss out on the second and third foot of snow that hit Grand Rapids while we were gone. (and were shocked to see it all melted by the time we got home!).
We really enjoyed seeing the sights around Charleston. We went to Poe's Tavern on Sullivan's Island and loved the great burgers there.
Later on that day, we went to downtown Charleston to walk around and find some dinner. The city is just breathtaking. The beauty of it blended with the history is just amazing. We loved it (this picture does not do it justice, but you can enjoy just looking at us!).
The three amigos...these girls were a rare sighting during our week as they are just a flutter of activity glued together.
We celebrated my parent's 40th anniversary during our stay. The kids all helped with the banner.
Time to go. We were again packed to the ceiling for our 15 hour trip home. We took two days and stopped in my old Kentucky home for a night. Lauren wailed at every border crossing that we were getting further away from her cousins.
The return trip was a little tougher on Julia, who was only happy when there was candy in her cup and her video playing. This picture serves as proof that M&Ms do not just melt in your mouth (but they do make grouchy babies very happy).
We joked along our sunshiny drive from Lexington to home that we would be kissing sunshine goodbye as soon as we got closer to home (west Michigan is notoriously cloudy in the winter). It wasn't even funny as we crossed the Michigan border, looked up and saw a wall of dark clouds.
It's good to be home...but we'll sure miss y'all down south.
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1 comments:
It was a wonderful week together in Charleston.
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