TRAVEL LOG (aka: I'm too old for this..........)

...too old for travel in general it seems. It makes me cranky and tired. Even when it is for one night. But I must say, it was all worth it to watch my kids play in the snow for a few hours (and do a little playing myself). We drove up to Flagstaff with Ghee and Aunt Sarah to celebrate New Year's Eve and enjoy the 2 feet of snow that still covered the ground.

Here are my backseat drivers (minus the biggest one- Nathan). They were awesome. And I mean awesome (in the most sarcastic sense of the word). I don't know how I ever would have pulled into a parking spot or managed to avoid rear-ending all those cars if they had not been there to keep me in line. I just had to give them some props.

We had a good drive. There were definitely some fights and screaming from the "way back," but G-Mommy's awesome Christmas gift of a dual screened DVD player (which Ghee thanks her for) kept it to a minimum. We had to make a trip to Wal-Mart before we could even get out of Phoenix so that I wouldn't be forced to play in the snow in flip-flops. We enjoyed the scenery and fast food stops along the way. We even stopped at a McDonald's that had leather club chairs and a flat screen T.V. And can I just take a moment to complain about public restrooms? I DESPISE having to rest my sweet bum upon a toilet seat that has been recently warmed by someone else's bum. Who's bum? What did they do on that toilet? What did they last eat? Who were they last with? I just can't handle it. But back to the drive....I especially enjoyed the stretch where I was stuck behind a semi emitting a strange odor that I quickly identified as hydrogen peroxide poured over sweaty feet.

We stayed at the Quality Inn. It was high class! We read reviews before we picked it and laughed at the things people complained about. What picky little terds. But then we got there and apparently the laugh was on us. It had the appearance of cleanliness, for sure. And that special smell that you can only experience at the old folks home. Like death covered by pine cleaner. Add a little bit of stale cigarette smoke and you can feel what I felt....or smelt. Seriously- it wasn't that bad. Although there was dried up spaghetti under our dresser. Lots of it. Bizarre.

So- we made it to Flagstaff safely and stopped at 4 different gas stations/stores to find sleds. We bundled up and made it to the snow park!!!!! We had too much fun to describe so I will let the insane amount of pictures do the talking.

Since this is how our snow experience began, I will start you out with a killer wipeout. Who doesn't love a good wipeout, right? This is me and Owen. He didn't think it was as funny as I did, but he recovered quickly. I'm pretty sure I had a serious butt injury.

Daddy and the kiddos stop to pose.

Aunt Sarah's action shot (doesn't this look like an American Eagle ad?).

Collapsed at the bottom of the hill.

Daddy catching some air. I would just like to say that I did this first before anyone else was brave enough to try. Admittedly, I probably started a little too high and caused my second injury of the trip- a swollen neck and sore tongue (which I bit as I hit the ground). But was it worth it? Did I do it again? Oh yes.

Our brave little slope shredder

Ghee watched and worried from a distance

Little snow bunny

The fam

Sarah and Lindsey warm up in the car after Day 1 of snow fun

On Day two we went to a different park that was WAY more crowded. There were about 300 people there. Lots of crashing into each other and people getting injured. Owen got to the point that he would just walk over to a hill and throw himself down onto his sled without even looking to see if anyone was in the way. He would hit people on the way down and then get hit at the bottom of the hill and he would just stand up and keep going. It was hilarious. Hazel kept saying "I want to go down a teeny hill where ice won't hit me in the face," so we just started calling all the hills teeny hills and she was satisfied.

Daddy takes Hazel down a "teeny" hill

Mom and the kiddos going for a ride

Can you tell what Sarah is?

Me and Aunt Sarah. Did I mention that I love her and want her to come live with us?

Trekking uphill for the 10,000,000,000th time


Owen waiting in line

Hazel standing amidst all the popped floats and looking precious as ever

Speaking of popped innertubes, Daddy managed to rip a big hole in ours on the biggest slope (again....was it worth it? yes). Hazel quickly realized that it was now the perfect "sled" for her. It made for a gentle ride. Not too fast, and easy to drag back up the hill. I wonder how many times she said "Again!"

Me and Hazel

Brother and sister resting at the bottom of the hill.

Nathan, Ghee and Sarah went to the town square at midnight to watch the pinecone drop. It was super crowded with 20 somethings gettin crazy. Oh how glad I am that I stayed at the hotel with the kids and went to bed at 11:00! Happy New Year!

Here's one snapshot of our relaxing scenic drive home. This might have been my favorite part because I slept through most of it.

I am just reminded of this morning when I woke up and couldn't move my swollen and bruised neck. I jumped in the shower (imagining a scalding, massaging shower to heal my wounds) and the shower head fell off. So instead I attempted to rinse myself with the water that gushed out of the hole in the wall. Like I said...I am too old for traveling.