Okay, I'm back

It's been a while, I know. We did have a white Christmas in Utah. This was the view out our hotel window. We had a mountain view (which we saw one or two of the days we were there) but when it's snowing, you don't see any mountains. It was lovely weather and not at all cold. We did almost get snowed into our hotel one day, however.

It was a tough trip health-wise. Michael picked up some kind of bug and it really bothered him. And I, of course, always get headaches when I travel. But we tried our best to have fun with the kids. They really were on their best behavior and were as charming as they could possibly be. I don't post pictures of them here, but I don't think you can recognize this one from the photo. This was a very uncharacteristic moment during Christmas morning. The children were delighted with all their presents, they shared beautifully and they enjoyed every minute.

We got to take them out in twos to have an outing. That was really fun to spend time with them and be able to concentrate on them one on one.

Michael had always wanted to go to the Salt Flats at Bonneville so he did that one day. GL and I went to the mall and had a grand time at the play park inside. We had frozen yogurt and generally amused ourselves. We were really tickled at E, the youngest, who took off while we weren't paying attention. Of all the stores he could have headed for, he went straight for the shoes! Love it! Michael and I got to buy him a pair of shoes for Christmas. We know he will enjoy them!

The trip home was less fun. We got stranded in Philly of all places. We were hoping to get stranded in Las Vegas for a few days, but that was not to be. So just a thirty minute flight from home, we ended up in a terrible snow storm. Thanks to a savvy son and sons-in-law we managed to get a hotel room and make a decision about driving home. After our flight had been canceled the second day, we decided to rent a car and started the drive home at about midnight. We were supposed to get a Prius (which would have been cool) but look what we got instead! The trip home was nervewracking for us since we couldn't see the road conditions all that well and the wind was horrendous (which bothered this car almost none at all--but there were lots of big trucks on the road too), but the next day Michael got to drive this to work. I got to drive for a long while on the way home. My first time ever to drive the dream car of my youth. I was surprised that I loved the way it handled and that it was a really awesome automobile. Plus this model had all these cool blue lights everywhere in the interior. Reminded me of my son! Maybe when it gets too hard for me to fold up into my little Miata, we might want to get one of these!

All in all, it wasn't the most stress-free vacation, but GL and her husband, DS, graciously made things as nice as possible for us. And there were the children and all the excitement leading up to Christmas. Very nice.