We had a pretty smooth drive to Idaho except for one small hiccup--we left one of our children at a gas station in Lovelock. Parents of the year! :) At least it was, Lizzie, our oldest and probably most cool-under-pressure child right now. So Joe had been driving but he was getting tired so we decided to stop and switch. The boys all got out to go to the bathroom and somehow when I was switching places or something, I missed the fact that Lizzie got out to go, too. She and Natalie had been silent on their kindles in the backseat. Joe and the boys got back and we just took off. Apparently Lizzie saw us driving away but she didn't quite believe it was us at first so she walked around to look. She said she had a moment of panic and then realized there was a family there that she could ask to borrow a phone from. Meanwhile, we are a few miles down the freeway when Natalie shouts, "Lizzie!!" I had a moment of my heart dropping, thinking somehow she was hurt or falling out of the car or something crazy. Then we realized what had happened, and only a few seconds later we get a call from her. We flip around, not even waiting for an exit, and drive back. The family who lent their phone drove off when we pulled up. They were waiting to make sure, I think. We were laughing but feeling so terrible. I guess Lizzie had even defending us, saying, "We have a lot of kids." We got back on the freeway and then realized we were about to pass the family. We weren't sure if we should try to talk to them--motion or roll down the window--but we felt so mortified that we just drove past. It was a funny moment. We did end up texting later to thank them and she was super cool about it, even saying that her little brother had been left at a gas station. We heard lots more stories like that from everyone we told about it--I guess it's pretty common. Luckily, the rest of the drive was fine and we all made it to Chris and Regina's house were we slept that night.
The kids were so excited to see their cousins. They had a blast playing with new Christmas presents, playing in the snow, and shooting BB guns.
Natalie made these funny little snowmen that they shot:
We did puzzles and had dinner with Tom and Shari and kids. It was so fun to spend time in their beautiful new house, too.
We also got to drop by Benji and Laura Lee's to have a quick celebration for Laura Lee's birthday. The kids loved playing with their blocks:
After a few days, Chris and Regina were leaving to go see Regina's family, and we left to go to Jon and Jaime's. Unfortunately, the first night we were there, Elizabeth woke up throwing up. That always seems to happen when we got to Utah. We thought about driving home but really didn't want to get back in the car again. Jon and Jaime talked us into sticking around and thankfully it ended up being OK. Nate did get sick the next morning but it was short-lived and they were both feeling better in a day or so. We kept them quarantined watching movies in a room.
I went with Jaime and the rest of the kids to go sledding. We went to church with Jon and Jaime on Sunday. They had a fun sacrament meeting where everyone could get up and say their favorite hymn and then we'd sing it. By Monday--New Year's Eve--the sick kids were doing better. Chris and Regina and kids arrived, along with Marsha, and then Rich and Toni and kids. Richard, Jaime and I took the kids back out to go sledding just in the backyard of one of their neighbor's houses.
The kids all had a blast! It was fun watching them team up to go down. Eli went down with me a few times, too.
The kids eating lunch:
We had a really delicious fondue dinner and dessert and then had so much fun playing games together. We played the name game as a group, then broke up into kids and adults and play a kind of speed pictionary, guys vs. girls. We won, of course, if you don't count the guys cheating. :) Midnight came fast, we were having so much fun, and we did sparklers and poppers and drank martinelli's. It was a super fun New Year's Eve! Definitely one we'll remember for a long time.
We slept in a bit but then we had to get ready to leave for home the next day so that Joe could be home to start his new job. More on that next year. Goodbye 2018!
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