Our trip to PA

Wow. What a trip. We had a great time in Pennsylvania and Sophia even got to wake up to snow flurries one morning. It was cold, but bearable.

We got off to a late start on Tuesday because Sophia's dance class was getting their pictures taken in their Nutcracker costumes. The dance instructor told me that Sophia did not smile for any of her individual shots. She said they got some very serious artistic shots. We'll see on the 10th when the proofs are ready. I got a few cute shots of her before the photo shoot began. I got a few good shots of Sophia and Haley hugging each other. Take a look.

After the shoot we drove straight to Grancy and Big Daddy's house for a quick overnight stay. We barely got to see them because we arrived late and headed out again fairly early on Wednesday morning.

We arrived in PA in the late afternoon. Sophia and Lilly were both anxious to get out of their car seats and run around in the house. Lilly especially enjoyed exploring Nana and Poppy's house and playing with all of Nana's toys for the very first time.

On Thanksgiving day we celebrated Thanksgiving by indulging in a wonderful meal and then opening Christmas presents. The kids couldn't have been more excited. Again, Lilly got to open presents for the first time and loved it. She didn't need any instruction, she just saw Sophia and then dove right into her presents in the same fashion.

Sophia was really beside herself when she opened up with Wonder Pets Fly Boat. She's been wanting it for a few months now. Nana was the "big winner" this season. Sophia also loved her princess costume and set of Disney princess dolls...all 6 or 7 of them! (Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Pocahontas, Ariel, and the new princess whose name eludes me right now.) She also got a white princess horse. Right now she's absolutely obsessed with princess. Her favorite is Snow White and the 7 dwarfs. Santa is going to bring her the movie.

My mom and I braved the crowds on Black Friday and went to Kohl's and Target. We were in and out in less than 2 hours and even made it home with enough time to get back into bed and catch an hour of sleep. We had fun. . . or at least I did. My mom spent most of her time in line for me.

The rest of Friday was spent visiting family. First we went to visit my cousins and their kids. All of the kids are getting so big. They all played individually, but in the same room. Maybe next year they'll want to play together. Here they are in order from youngest to oldest. (Kale, Lillian, Morgan, Riley, Sophia and Cole). Kale and Morgan and brother and sister and Riley and Cole are brother and sister.

In the afternoon we visited my grandmother. Well, my brother and I visited with her while my mom played with the kids.

My mom was prepared. She had a craft for Sophia to do (with help from Mom and Nana). When we were finished our snow cottage looked really good. I was impressed with our ability to "figure it out" without any directions.

On Saturday Sophia got to decorate cookies with Nana, Poppy and Uncly Danny. She loved dumping the sprinkles on the icing, but even more so she loved showing off her creative decorating talents. I think she ate a total of one cookie even though she took bites out of three of them. Lilly, of course, finished all of the cookies she was given. . .probably 5 of them. She routinely out-eats Sophia.

Poppy and Nana had fun playing with Lilly and she fully warmed up to them by the time it was time for us to pack up and go home.

Lilly and Sophia shared a room and Lilly's crib was near the light switch. Since light switches are one of her new interests she got a kick out of turning the light on in the dark. Once she even woke up her sister in the middle of the night. Lilly woke up extra early two mornings in a row so Will carried her into our bed to sleep with us. We haven't done that since she was an infant. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing her tiny little breaths and feeling her warm body next to me.

We left on Sunday and headed back to stay with Grancy and Big Daddy. It took us over 7 hours to arrive. Not a fun trip because Sadie had rolled around in something really stinky and her stench was permeating the minivan. YUCK!

We arrived at Grancy's house in time for dinner with Rob and Christina and then we headed over to their place for a look at what they've done to it while Grancy put Sophia to bed for us.

We finally arrived home on Monday to five loads of dirty laundry and a full week ahead of us. Sadie got a bath that night and STILL smells good five days later. We're all glad to be home, but wouldn't have missed out on our chance to visit our family in PA.

Take a look at all the photos.