A Texan Christmas

Really it should read, "A Family Christmas".  But it wasn't family from both sides, so I opted to be specific.  :)

We enjoyed our trip so much.  It was our first big road trip and although it was hard driving that far (18.5 hrs without potty breaks), we did it!  And we were still happy when we got home!  Though that swiftly left because we discovered upon entering our house that our heater was broken....  We went back out to the car to eat our KFC dinner.  After putting two space heaters in strategic places and turning the gas fireplace on, we raised the temperature in the house from 43 to 66 - after two days.  Yes, it took that long for the people to come fix the darn thing.  But that's another story.  It was good to go, it was good to get home.  Here are a few highlights:

 These beauties are exactly 6 months apart.  I'm so glad that Lissa will have a cousin closer to her age!

 Bundled up to go outside and explore the ranch.  I thought we would be walking around, but instead...

 Bekah drove the truck!  Patrick also got a chance, but somehow I missed that picture opportunity.  :(

 Visiting the cows.  The poor things thought we brought food.  They were super excited and then totally bummed. 

 We did a "treasure hunt" through Coleman to show the kids some of the things/places that were somewhat significant for their Daddy.  We visited some of the project sites that he worked on, places he worked, and our favorite was the school playground. 'Course, being out at the Ranch we had NO cell or internet reception, so Mikey took advantage of being in town to use his phone.  Oh, well.

 I love this picture despite being slightly washed out.  She has the spirit of a child inside of her.  She sure knows how to tease her children (who tease her right back).  And she also knows how to love deeply and trust.  I suppose we are all like that in different ways.  As we drove through the town she muttered so that only we could here, "Dang, there really isn't anything here!" We had a good laugh and wondered how long it had taken her to come to that conclusion.

 The kids at the playground.  All the play equipment was spaced well away from each other, so they got some good energy out as they ran from one to the other.

 

While there we had family pictures taken.  They turned out pretty well!!  They are harder to see because these are only proofs.  

The highlight of the trip was being with cousins, aunts and uncles.  How fun can deflating an air mattress be?  Apparently pretty fun!  They giggled through the whole thing!

 And poor uncle Scott just couldn't seem to get enough sleep! These were taken on separate occasions.