This is what leaving on Christmas Day for a 10 day trip to Cali looks like the day you come home. I wish I could capture just how droopy our tree is. #andthatmess #ikindajustwanttothrowupmyhandsandliveinit
Prepare yourself for a few #latergrams from our trip to Cali over break. I don't like to insta when I am away from home. A highlight of the trip was getting to see my sweet Grammy! Never was there a more loving example of service.
We also got to pop in on Grand Dad and Grandma, who graciously let us stay and cooked us an awesome waffle breakfast in the morning. I love these two!
Other highlights included cousin cuddles and aunt visits.
Ron and I were able to visit the Sand Diego temple as well! So beautiful! I'm so grateful for my eternal family!
Aunt Alisa made these amazing mermaid tails! They are awesome and the girls haven't stopped "Ah-ah-ah-ing" like Ariel since.
Our sweet Devynee is having eye surgery today to help correct her eyes crossing. She was a trooper and very happy about everything except for the blue hat.
Surgery over and we are home! Everything went perfect. Despite her face in this photo, Devynee has been doing great. Such a brave girl!
This dolly will be 3 months old this week (THREE months!) and I know that these snuggles will get more and more rare. Enjoying them while I can.
I feel like I owe it to my posterity to document this gas price. This is without any gas rewards or discount of any kind.
The good news? The world is my oyster. The bad news? Only Brynlee gets to come with if I have to flee the country quickly. #nursingbabyproblems #cantaffordpassportsforeverybody
This makes me so excited! The first CD I ever purchased was Garth and I've never looked back.
Photographic evidence of why Brynlee spends most of her day in her bassinet. #somuchlove #alittletoomuchsometimes
Brynlee continues to grow! On January 15th, she turned 3 months old. (and was feeling a little somber about it, apparently)
At three months, Brynlee continues to sleep through the night. She sleeps in her bassinet in the hall at night and in the bassinet in the front room during the day. Noises don't seem to bother her at all. Brynlee is starting to fight putting herself to sleep for naps and prefers to go to sleep in the car seat or the swing. Most of the time this work just fine, as we are on the move a lot, but I know this is a problem I will have to solve in the future.
Overall, she is a chill, go with the flow baby, but likes to be entertained (she is pretty used to at least one sibling talking to her at all times). She loves to be in her swing, I think because it gives her a vantage point for the entire living room and all that is going on.
When we went for Devynee's quarterly eye check up in December, the doctor decided that the crossing of her eyes was no longer being controlled by her glasses alone. He said that it was time to do surgery on her eyes.
We knew this was a possibility from the beginning and while it would aid the correction of her eyes crossing, it would not speed up any of her treatment over time.
It was an outpatient surgery that was done at a facility in Fort Collins. We had to be there at 6:30 a.m. on January 8th. My mom was kind enough to come over Wednesday night and sleep over so she could get Easton to school and Kendree to preschool while we took Devynee and Brynlee with us.
We left very early because the roads were a little iffy and we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time. Devynee was thrilled with her new unicorn pajamas she got just for the occasion (she had to have comfortable clothes with out feet attached and all of her regular pajamas are footie pajamas). She was acting a little loopy and tired before we went back to the prep room.
In the prepping area. She was not excited to wear the hat. They ended up having to just put it on her after she was out.
They put her under and the surgery was only about 30 minutes long. They called us back as soon as she was starting to wake up and she was totally inconsolable. The kind nurses took Brynlee off our hands (literally, she was passed from nurse to nurse to nurse for about an hour or more and they all loved it) so we could focus on Devynee.
Here's a video Ronnie took of her waking up.
After the initial freaking out, Devynee did great. She was tired and snuggly all day, but otherwise was acting pretty normal.
She got to ride out of the facility on my lap in a wheelchair and had some pretty sweet shades.
We got home and snuggled the day away.
For 2-3 weeks her eyes were VERY red. Like, everything that is white was the color of a cherry. It was strange to see, but when she started to wear her glasses again (a day or so after the surgery) you didn't notice as much unless you were looking for it.
We are so grateful for modern medicine and how blessed we are to live in a time when they have the knowledge to help her and in a way that is so quick and non-evasive.
Going forward, she will have to continue to wear glasses until she is 12-14 years old, but after that she should be glasses free until she grows to need them again later on (like we all do).
A few days before Christmas, Ron and I decided we would surprise his family and drive to California (every one was going to be in town except for us). The plan was to have Christmas morning at our house, get the car ready to go, drive to my mom and dad's house and spend the day with them and then leave from Laramie to drive to California that evening. Drive through the night and just play it by ear as we see how far we got down the road.
Weather changed those plans. We determined that if we went to Laramie, we wouldn't be able to get home or go to California so we decided to watch the weather and leave from Cheyenne and go down I-70 that evening, and not see my family for a few days.
Weather changed those plans. We then decided that we needed to get out of town ASAP if it was going to happen. Snow was coming down and it was just a matter of time until the roads closed. We loaded the car as quickly as possible and hoped to beat the storm by getting ahead of it a little bit south on the 70.
Weather changed those plans. As we drove south, the 70 was looking worse and worse, so we decided to hit the 40 and head across there.
Weather changed those plans. The 40 was yucky as well, so we ended up driving down to the 10 and going across to California. It added an additional 5+ hours onto the trip and if we would have known that it is what we would have had to do ahead of time, we probably would have just stayed home.
The kids were AMAZING travelers. I am not kidding. We were in the car for 26 hours straight (with limited bathroom and food breaks) and they were awesome. Very minimal problems. Especially considering we didn't tell them where we were going for the first 16 hours of the trip.
We arrived at Ron's parent's house at about 5:00 p.m. on December 26th. We videoed our entrance.
Before we left the house, I took a few quick pictures so I could send text messages to Ron's family as appropriate.
This was my view looking back. My dad always considers it a successful packing job if you can see out the back window, so Ron did good!
We got a few shots of all of the grandkids while we were all there!
One day, Ronnie's parents watched the kids and Ron and I went to San Diego. I have been to the outside of this temple before, but never inside so it was wonderful to do a session.
Proof that Ronnie and I are HORRIBLE at selfies.
One of many nursing/bathroom/food stops on the way to California. The kids were very impressed with this cactus.
Snuggles with Grandpa (she is not asleep, as it seems).
Cuddles with cousin Tessa (and a little tablet watching mixed in).
Siblings getting along. With electronics.
Aunt Toni and Brynlee
Aunt Sandy, Kendree and Brynlee. We got to see lots of extended family. It was wonderful.
Aunt Katie and Brynlee
Uncle Jeff and Brynlee
Brooke and Brynlee
All the little girls loved their Brook-ie!
On our way back to Cheyenne, the weather was a little more favorable and we were able to take the normal way home. Up I-15. We stopped to have dinner with Aunt Kari at Inn N Out.
We stayed the night with Grand Dad and Great-Grandma and took the opportunity for a few pictures.
And of course we stopped to see Grammy as well!
Weather got in our way again, but luckily we made it all the way to Laramie this time. We spent one last night at Grandma and Grandpa's and then packed up the car for the final 45 mile stretch to make it home. We were packed to the gills.
When we made it home the tree was very, very droopy.
And my living room looked like Christmas had exploded (because it had).
Because of the weather delay, we got home at about 10:45 a.m. and had church at 1:00 p.m. Needless to say, we dropped everything and just got ready. This is what I had waiting for me when we got home from church. I hate nothing as much as I hate unpacking.
The aftermath of the droopy tree...
Even with all of the weather issues and extra days in the car, and clean up afterward, it was great to see everyone. We had a great trip and always are happy to find an excuse to travel to California.
