Christmas in Idaho

Finally I am getting around to posting about our trip to Idaho for Christmas. This is very late and I hope to do better about updating our blog in the future. Anyhow, here it is. Mostly pictures. 

Now that we live a little closer we decided to take the long drive and enjoy our cram packed car for 15 hours. The kids both did really well on the way there and did pretty good on the way back. I can't complain. I sat and crotched since Philip refused to let me help him drive. 

 This is why I love the Northwest and this isn't even the grandest. The scenery is super amazing through Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. Very nice and I wouldn't mind living there. We were fortunate to avoid snow for the most part. For this time of year we had great roads.

Brayden had his first ride in the cart. He was a bit wobbly, but I strapped him in good and he enjoyed the ride. 

I had promised to take Summer to visit Santa because she missed seeing him in Vancouver. On Christmas eve we found him at the mall visiting with the last few boys and girls who still needed to report to him. She was pretty excited to tell him how she really wanted a lump of coal and some foot pajamas. I think Brayden was just content to be held. 

A couple of weeks before Christmas my nephew got into a bad snowmobile accident. He was in the hospital over the Christmas holiday so we went to visit him on Christmas eve and bring him a little cheer. Poor guy he is going to be recovering for a very long time. We are just glad he is alive and that we could see him for a little bit. 

Christmas day we slept in until about 7:30 I think. Nothing like when I was little and we would set our clocks for 5:00am. I think there were even a few nights that I never even fell asleep because I was so excited. Either that or I was scared to death because my two older sisters told me Santa Clause was an axe murderer. I know they were very nice weren't they. Anyhow, we haven't got to the point where our kids are begging to wake up that early so we just let them sleep. 

It was no surprise when Brayden opened his first gifts that all he wanted to do was eat the paper. Here Summer is trying to prevent him from scarfing down the brightly colored paper. 

He enjoyed his new toys and especially likes this one my mom gave him that goes crazy with the shakes. It is like a hand held earthquake. 

Summer was beside herself when she got her feet pajamas from Santa, and real coal just like she wanted. She really did want coal. She kept asking me if I thought Santa would let her have a piece of coal not for being naughty, but just because. The only problem is that Santa didn't quite get the size right on the pjs and therefore we had to take them back and get different ones.

Summer watching Grandma open up a gift. 

Some of my nieces and nephews. I can't believe how old they are. It is so crazy to see them as teens and tweens. 

I remember when they were just babies. Shawnee use to pull my hair and I would freak. I also remember being a germaphobe. I wouldn't let my nieces and nephews touch me unless they washed their hands. I will say that was after taking a microbiology class, and thankfully that phase only lasted a couple of years. 

My cute nephew. I so wish I were closer to them so I could get to know these little ones more. He is so funny. 

More of my nephews. The one on the left is a little twerp. He can do something to irritate, and then give you this smile that makes you melt like butter. He is so cute and I love him. 

Hanging out with family.

My two sisters and my mom. Wish I could hang out with these girls more often. 

We really wanted to take the kids sledding because Summer has only been pulled on the ground in the past. She has never been real sledding down a hill/mountain. Since there was no snow in Rigby we had to drive to my sister's house near the mountains. She took time away from being at the hospital to take us. We are so glad she was willing too because it was so fun. 

 She had this sled that was perfect for Brayden. It had a strap to buckle him in. Philip took him down the hill a few times and he seemed to enjoy it so much that he fell asleep. 

 He must have been tired because I took him to the car where he stayed asleep for the rest of the time while we finished sledding. 

Summer loved going down the hill on the sled. She was lucky to have older cousins to entertain her the whole time. She was not a fan of walking back up the hill so after about 5 or 6 times down the hill she decided she was finished. She sat and ate packed dirty snow the rest of the time. 

Eating the snow.

Summer got the game Headbands for Christmas. We decided to break it out and make my mom play it with us. Usually she is not the game playing type. 

She loved it so much she laughed her self to a cry. It was hilarious. I am glad she had a lot of fun playing it. It made the game much more interesting. 

We had an awesome time and look forward to going back soon. We hope to go again in March for Summer's spring break. I hope it works out. It is always nice visiting with family and being in my home town for a bit. We really are happy to have had the opportunity to be there during Christmas.