Wednesday, November 30
Immediately after evening church we drove to Kansas City to spend the night with Robert's mom. This was our first attempt of night driving with Sarah, and it went really well. She pretty much slept the whole three hours. When we got to KC Sarah woke up and played with Serina and snacked a bit for about an hour, but then she went back to sleep and still slept well, thankfully. Sarah is becoming quite fond of Serina and Mark's dog, Moose, and has even learned how to say his name. We enjoyed a hot breakfast in the morning and hit the road.
Thursday, December 1
This was our big driving day. In theory, the drive should have been about nine hours. With stops it ended up taking about 10.5 hours, but with the time change to Mountain Time, it was like 9.5 hours had elapsed. I have to give extreme thanks to Robert. He drove all but about an hour of this entire road trip. I was working on a large computer project for our church's Christmas present adoption program, so I wasn't exactly slacking, but Robert did such a great job driving. I started out in the front and moved to the back with Sarah after our first break. This turned out to be her hardest leg of the trip. Apparently, she didn't want me back there intruding on her personal time. She kept pushing my arm away from her and didn't want me trying to play with her. It actually turned out well for both of us because I was able to spend the rest of the trip up front working on my computer project, and Sarah was content to play be herself. She's done plenty of big road trips, but this was her first one since she became mobile, so I had been kind of curious how it would go, but her attention span is also lengthening, and she really enjoyed playing with things for long spurts of time. She read a Real Simple magazine for half and hour and colored with a pad of paper and pen for an hour and a half. She napped twice for about an hour each. The rest of the time she just did random stuff like playing with stuffed animals and her xylophone, having some quiet time, and snacking.
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| Peanut Butter and Jelly "hat" |
We got to Pam and Nelson's house right at dinner time and enjoyed some supper and a tour of their beautiful house. They had a great setup for us in their basement, and Sarah did so great having a real crib in her own bedroom She had great nights' sleep the whole time, which really made the vacation enjoyable. There's nothing worse than rough nights away from home to make a vacation stink! After Sarah went to bed we enjoyed flipping through old scrapbooks and showing Robert some pictures he'd never seen. Anybody else agree with me that Sarah looks a bit like me?
Friday, December 2
We started off our morning getting a quick tour of Colorado State University (didn't get out of the car) looking around in a cute bookstore and toy store downtown while Sarah napped in the car with Pam. She's always extra cute when she's first waking up!
Next we hit up the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery. It was so fun! We loved the music section the most, and Sarah really stayed entertained for two hours. It's a really cool place!
I think this is the afternoon that we went fabric shopping at JoAnn's. We got fabric to make a Christmas tree skirt and a princess dress for Sarah. Pam is such a creative person, and it's a lot of fun to work on projects with her!
We had dinner at Nordy's, and it was delicious! Robert said he had the best buffalo wings of his life, and I really liked my grown up macaroni and cheese with pulled pork and fried jalapeno straws. Sarah did really well! She had one little meltdown, but otherwise she enjoyed looking at two elementary aged kids who were making faces at her, and she colored some with the crayons that were provided.
Saturday, December 3
Robert, Sarah, and I had never been to Wyoming, so when we realized that Pam and Nelson live less than an hour away we knew we wanted to make a day trip up there. I'm glad that we went, and I'd say that three hours we spent there was enough. :) We went to the Cheyenne Depot Museum, The Wrangler western store, and a little bakery. It was a fun and very cold day.
Once we got back we joined back up with Pam and went to a little winter wonderland, and Sarah got to meet Mrs. Claus. She also got to ride her first little grocery store horse, and it was a hit!
Sunday, December 4
We were able to go to Pam and Nelson's church and got a little tour of the student area. The children sang a few special Christmas songs, and it was wild to imagine Sarah doing something like that in just a couple of years!
We took a little drive up the mountains after church and enjoyed the views. I wish Sarah would wear a hat and gloves so she wouldn't get so cold. Maybe next year?
Pam and Nelson graciously watched Sarah for a few hours so we could go out. We got coffee and pedicures. Yes, that's right! It was so relaxing and nice to just chat. Sarah helped Pam cook baked ziti for dinner, and it was delicious! Sarah ate a lot, and we did too.
Sarah enjoyed some glue stick work and lots of stickers. She used to only want to put stickers on herself and other people because she could pull them off and re-stick them, but this was her first time to be okay with putting them on paper and leaving them. She's growing up! :)
Monday, December 5
We hit the road right after breakfast and drove, drove, drove. We contacted Robert's grandparents and were able to meet up with them for dinner at The Cozy Inn which is a family favorite. We got back to Kansas City around 8:00 and spent the night with Mark and Serina again. Sarah enjoyed playing with some of Robert's old Hot Wheels and reptile toys.
Tuesday, December 6
We were able to see Robert's sister, her husband, and their six week old daughter, Sadie. Sarah enjoyed Sadie and quickly moved to Aunt Bethany's bagel. :) It's incredible to see the difference between a 6 week old and 16 month old. Hard to believe that was Sarah 15 months ago!
We made another stop in Bolivar to see my parents and Memaw and Pepaw, and then we finally got back to our house around 6:00. We had such a great trip and came back feeling refreshed.
