With our Christmas celebration essentially over on Christmas morning, we immediately switched gears and started the "Allie Birthday Celebration". Allie's birthday was on the 27th and we left Arizona the morning of the 26th, so we celebrated her birthday Christmas night. We had cake, her twin cousins came over, the adults sat on the couches like bumps on logs, it was great. Here she is with her cake...
My parents bought her a dress-up ballerina dress and some ballet slippers. She loves her dress. She wears it whenever she can, she's wearing it now as I type this post. Here she is in her new outfit....
Here she is dancing. Her center of gravity seems a bit off or she's doing the "hokey pokey"... I don't remember which it is...
During the visit to Arizona, her twin cousins were intrigued with the classic Christmas cartoon "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". Allie joined them on the couch to watch too....
The next morning we were off. I was not mentally up to driving straight through and wanted to visit my sister in Tulsa, Oklahoma so we drove to Tulsa (starting at 9am in Arizona, arriving at 3:30am in Oklahoma). There was some bad snow in New Mexico that slowed us a little, but there were no major delays.It was nice to arrive in Tulsa and stretch out in a bed but there were some terrible thunder storms that night that woke me up a few times. When I mentioned them to my sister, I was surprised by how nonchalant she was. She said they "were nothing, no big deal"(!). I guess that's why it's called tornado alley over there.
We spent Allie's birthday at Tam's and the kids had a blast with their cousins. Allie got to dress up and play with Claire who was a perfect hostess, and the big guys got to play with Gilbert, Parker, Abby, and saw Abby's cute puppy (Louise) who was brand new to the family. Tam was nice enough to make another cake for Allie and even indulged her requests (must say "Allie Bear on the cake and have butterflies"). Allie piled up some more gifts at Tam's adding a doll stroller from us and Tam gave her a barbie-sized doll that sang a "High School Musical" song....really loudly. Here's a picture of Allie with her special cake...
Perhaps her favorite gift was a hand-me-down winter hat she received from Claire. She loves to wear it....
Near the end of the visit, the boys had made up a pokemon game that could include four players and they seemed to be having a great time with Gil. Because everyone was having such a nice visit, it was a tough decision to leave that night at 10pm. After calculating our route, we realized that we would be driving through the night no matter what, and it's better to get the night driving over with than to have it looming at the end. Bob also rested a bit during the day and was willing to do a back-to-back driving shift... I couln't refuse that! Here are the kids conked out in the back....
We made it home on Sunday at 3pm. I'd never been so happy to come home to a partially cleaned home. I honestly don't remember what happened in the days to follow. It was a bit of a blur....Many, many thanks to my parents and my sister who accomodated our family of seven (that's no easy task!) and their willingness to make my little girl's day(s) so very special. Love you guys!!!
1 comment:
That sounds like a REALLY great trip! It must have been so fun for your kids to see all of their cousins. It definitely looks exhausting, though!
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