What to do?

Doug just left with Andrew and Jacob for Young Mens. Danny is sleeping and I don't know what to do with myself. Do I clean the kitchen...NO.? I'm sure I could find a toilet to clean with 2 little boy’s potty trained...but no. I decide to sit down and finally do my journal entry about Christmas vacation. I also would be eating something chocolate, but thanks to my new year’s resolution, I have to pass on that.

On Wednesday, December 17th we woke up at 2:30 am to start the LONG drive to Utah. I had planned for this day for a long time and was so excited to get on our way. We were very blessed with great weather all the way. We had many potty breaks and thought we would stop in Cheyenne WY. Once we got to Cheyenne we decided to just keep going.
We ended up being in the van for 21 1/2 hours. Not something I want to do very often, but the boys did really well. Danny cried when we put him in his seat the next day, but Andrew and Jacob did really good. In Cheyenne we called Doug's parents and told them we were stopping, so when Doug walked in their room at 11:30 pm they were a little scared.
It was nice to have Thursday to recover from our drive before all the family fun began.
On Friday, Doug’s niece, Jessica got married in the Logan temple. It was a beautiful event except for the huge snow storm that day. It was wonderful to be in the temple with Doug’s family members. The last time we were together in the temple was when we got married...so it has been a little while.
The boys had a lot of fun at the reception eating cheese cake and dancing.
Saturday, was the Hobbs' family Christmas party. Every year Doug's parents buy dollar gifts and then do a pass the present game. This is a highlight event for our children. They love to see what they will get each year. Last year Andrew got a thermometer to put outside. This year he got a truck. Surprisingly he would have been very happy with a thermometer again.
Sunday, was a wonderful day as we were able to attend the blessing of Don's little girl.
Monday & Tuesday we relaxed and were able to visit with Doug's parents.
Our stay in Logan was filled with some really wonderful events. It is always fun to be with all the cousins. The boys loved that Sandy and her family stayed at Grandma's so that they could play with them all weekend. Andrew is already looking forward to camping in the summer with Emily.
Wednesday we drove to Cedar City to be with my family. I was so excited to see my whole family for the first time in 2 years. Unfortunatly Karen and her family were unable to get out of Portland because of the weather. I hope that we will be able to see each other soon!
That day was Christmas Eve. My mom had made sugar cookies for the kids to decorate that afternoon. Then that night we had our big turkey dinner. We tried to read the Christmas story, but it was a little bit of a disaster. My how my family has changed in the last 2 years. We have a lot more kids. When we were together before there was 6 kids with 3 of them being babies. Now there are 6 noise kids and 1 baby. Things were a lot louder, but fun to be together.
Thursday, Christmas morning, Jared woke up first at 6:00 am. I was up with Danny so we waited until 7:00 am and then got everybody up. It was fun to open Christmas and the boys loved the toys they got. That afternoon we drove to St. George to spend some time down in a condo.
Friday, my parents were brave and watched all the kids so the adults could go to the temple. After naps we went to the indoor pool. There was a water slide that Andrew and Jacob loved going down. The first time Jacob whet down I asked him if he liked it, he said yes. Do you want to go down again, NO.? After watching all the kids go down he was ready to try again and loved it.
That night my Aunt Kathy, Uncle Brian, Aunt Erroleen and her family came to visit. It was great to see family that I haven’t seen in a really long time.
Saturday, we headed back to Cedar to relax and get ready to head back to Minnesota.
Sunday, we started the drive back. We went through Denver which was BEAUTIFUL. I loved that part of the drive. We decided to break up the drive and get a hotel for the night.
Monday, we got up to find that we had a flat tire. What a pain! I stayed in the hotel room with the boys and Doug took care of the tire. We got on our way a little latter than we had planned, but we got home around 10:00 pm.
It was a great trip home. We learned that we could drive that far and survive. I don't want to be in the van that long for a while, but it was worth it to see our family. Love ya Family!