Winter Vacation

Because my husband is amazing, and because my husband loves us, and because my husband willingly sacrifices for his family, he flew the kids and I to Michigan to spend a week with my parents while he was out of the country on business for a couple of weeks. 

We had THE best time.

Partly because flying less than two hours instead of driving over 13 hours is a game changer.

Partly because we enjoyed some winter - a little bit of snow, sledding, and ice skating.

Partly because an early Christmas with my family was special.

And partly because going back home and seeing the old familiar is a wonderful thing.

My mom wasted no time and put us all to work frosting and decorating sugar cookies. And by frosting I mean globbing. And my decorating I mean dumping. But calories and sugar don't count at Grandma's house, especially at Christmas.

We didn't have a lot of snow to work with, but we made the most of the couple of inches and went sledding. Surprisingly, we glided well and sailed down the hills relatively fast. If you ask my kids, this was their favorite day of our week in Michigan.

Another day and another hill for more sledding...

Hot-tubbing in the snow! Two hours to "swim" in the pool and have contests for who could sit on a snow-covered rock the longest before jumping back in the hot water. Micah holds the record for sitting out the longest, and I hold the record for willingly doing it for one short minute just to say I did it.

Wanna know the perfect way to end the perfect winter day? Roasting hot dogs and hobo pies over the fire for dinner.

We made plenty of time for games, games, and games, and also spent an afternoon at the local planetarium and museum.

Because we were in town, my mom organized an early family Christmas - a wonderful ham dinner, gifts, and time with family.

One evening after dinner out with extended family, my dad drove us through an amazing light display. It was a fun hour of ooo-ing and aah-ing while enjoying Christmas cookies.

Remember the cookies we frosted and decorated? (Ahem) Those were gone by day five and it was time to make more. Apparently Grandpa and Grandma have different rules about acceptable cookie quantities throughout the day than mean old me does.

I'm so thankful for time with my Grandma while we were visiting! She showed her true colors as a card shark, which my boys thought was hysterical, and she was able to wish an early happy birthday to Jaxton and Micah.

Because we'd had such a dull and uneventful week (!!), we opted to try ice skating on our last day. My kids have never skated and I haven't skated since college, as was made more than obvious as soon as each of us stepped foot on the ice. When we arrived we had the rink to ourselves, which was a good thing since our frequent falls and tumbles sent us sprawling everywhere.

And just like that, eight days was over! We came, we laughed and played, and we left.

Sigh.

It really was THE best week.

I'm thankful for so much: parents who love and support us, extended family who made time to see us, and a hard-working husband who made our winter vacation possible.

(For the record, Annalyse fell off the fence immediately after I took this picture and she proceeded to sit on the sidewalk and cry. Because we can never go anywhere or do anything without at least one catastrophe.)