Christmas Vacation Part Two

Ok, when so after our visit with the Wiles side of the family was over, we climbed back into our beloved Expedition (stuffed so far past the gills that we had to buy a hitch carrier to get it all home) and hit the road or the second Saturday in a row. Just like our last trip home, we enjoyed the scenery as we drove down I-25 toward Las Cruces to spend a week with the Reynolds half of the family.



Stacey, Adam, Acey (our newest niece and Cameron's buddy) and Courtney came over that evening to open gifts with us. The only person missing was Eric but he showed up with his girlfriend on New Year's Day.



The next day we ate lunch and spent the afternoon with our old Life Group. It was great to see everyone again.

The whole family.

In addition to remote control cars, Kevin and Cameron got an R/C flying thingamajigger. I think it's called a Switchblade. It takes off like a helicopter then transforms and flies like a plane. Those required a trip to the park to play with. Acey also got an R/C car just like the boys so they played with those in the house seemingly non-stop.

A few days later, we got our second snow of our vacation!!! This picture isn't what you picture when you think of Las Cruces, is it?

Believe it or not, the boys didn't want to go play in the snow at first until I put the guilt trip on them. I finally got them outside with me and it's a good thing because the snow was PERFECT for snowballs and snowmen.



Cameron is pondering the consequences of targeting the camera with his next snowball.




We made our biggest snowman yet!




Can't have snow without dragging heads through it.




Kevin threw some snowballs at the tree and it looked a little like eyes and a nose so I did a little rearranging and added a mouth. I like it.

Of course, the next day the weather was back to normal and you'd never know it snowed. Well, the snow did hang around in the shade for a couple of days.


Taking advantage of the mostly nice weather by playing at the park.



The boys took the scooters and had a great time.



I like this side shot of Cade.



No idea what Kevin's doing.




Told you they were buddies.

On New Year's Eve, we drove off into the sunset, literally, to meet our friends in Deming for dinner and some glow golf. Beautiful sunset, beautiful full moon rising over the Organs (and a blue moon at that!), super clear sky. Nice drive but too bad we were driving.



The Hughes' have 3 kids about the same age as the boys. Despite rarely seeing each other they all get along great.

Dana probably would have done better if she had tried putting the right way and not backwards. That's Rick in the background. My best friend since 2nd grade!

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and our vacation flew by.

I believe this was taken on our last night. Pa and his little buddy playing trouble.

And then we somehow crammed everything, which was quite a bit more than we left AL with, into and on the back of the Expedition, pointed it East and stepped on the gas to begin our 3rd Saturday in a row on the road. Dana let us sleep in the day we left so we didn't leave until right at 5 am.

And dang Texas! We drove 12 hours, re-read that, 12 hours(!) and made it to Texarkana which is still in Texas! It's reason to celebrate when you get to a new state. Fortunately, just like our trip out, we had good weather on the way back and no problems to speak of. Well, except for Dana getting pulled over and almost arrested for suspected drunk driving. When I explained to the cop that's how she always drives and promised to drive the rest of the way myself, he let us go. Or maybe she got pulled over because the hitch carrier was blocking the license plate (just like the hundreds of other vehicles that had one). I can't remember which it was. Either way, she got off with just a warning.

It was a little harder to leave NM this time because we don't know when we'll be back. So I guess that means it's everyone else's turn to come visit us!