For the first time ever we took the girls on a real road trip! We left at 4:30 in the morning on Saturday to head to Arizona for the week. Bill and I were bit nervous about how the girls would do on the road but I’m happy to say they did far better than we had imagined. And, in retrospect, it was less stressful and more fun than flying. Robin got pretty upset just before lunch but other than that they were happy (Lilly was especially happy since we bought her a DVD player). The girls had their first visit to McDonald’s, where they both ate pb&j that I made them, lol. We had dinner at Cracker Barrel and arrived at 8:30pm.

The girls had so much fun playing with Leela and Tevin this year. Leela and Lilly played hide and seek, played in their tent, made art projects together, etc, and Robin followed them around much of the time. It was wonderful to see them all together. Highlights of the trip include our annual trip to the ‘club’ for dinner, siblings night out, meeting up with Scott, Baree, and Mira in Phoenix, and visiting the Wild Animal Park with Mark, Tevin, and Grandma. It’s amazing to see my niece and nephew change and grow. Leela is all grown up and learning to read, and Tevin is sweet as can be and entirely obsessed with animals (future world class veterinarian or marine biologist).

We headed for home early Monday morning and the trip home was just about as uneventful as our trip out there. We had planned to leave at 4:30 but were slightly delayed after Lilly spiked a 102 fever Sunday evening. We watched her closely and she woke up after her fever broke early in the morning and seemed to be in good enough shape to return home, which she was. We made it home by 9:15 but the whole house was asleep before the ball dropped at midnight. Long day!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

For the complete set of photos, click here.