Final segment: Our visit to PA and our trip home

So tonight I'm going to finally finish up blogging about our visit to PA, it's about time I guess!

THURSDAY January 2nd I was woken up by Carly because we needed to leave in about fifteen minutes to go to Linda Smith's house for our annual Christmas brunch.  I left David and the girls sleeping in bed and quickly put some clothes on and drove with Carly to her house.  Linda made a delicious brunch of quiche, blueberry french toast, and different sides.

All of us at brunch, minus Mimi

Now everyone with Mimi, minus Carly

After brunch we went to Grandma's where Grandma and Grandpa had been watching the Brusts and Clark and David had gone for lunch with Haley and Emy.  They were downstairs in the basement watching a movie together.  We stayed and hung out for a while and then headed home for naps.  While the girls napped, David and I ran out to the outlets to do some tax free shopping.  We finished and drove home just as the snow started to fall.  It continued to fall through the evening as we hung out and played games and there was quite a bit of snow when we woke up on Friday morning.

On Friday David decided to shadow Pops to see what a normal 8 - 5 job looked like.  Well, he soon learned that Pop's works starts well before eight.  I think Dave was up at 6 to shovel snow with Caleb around town.  After shoveling for several hours, they came back for breakfast and then headed out to finish shoveling.  When they were finished David came home and changed his clothes and then finished his shadowing at the office.  I spent the day with the girls at home.  They played with their cousins and took good naps.  I was going to bundle them up and send them outside but I decided to wait and let them go on Saturday because the temperatures were going to be much warmer.  Grandma and Grandpa came by in the afternoon and visited for a bit and in the evening we played games until late.  Aunt Rin and Uncle Daniel even stayed the night because it was so cold and the roads were still pretty bad!

Pops reading books to the grandkids

It looks like they want to read another one

We took a photo of all the cousins

From top to bottom and left to right: Kelsey, Haley, Calla. Second row is Clark and Jay and third row is Maya, Ellie, and a grouchy Emy

Emy never did shape up

David gave some horsey rides

Jay, Haley, Kelsey, and Calla

SATURDAY we were planning on heading out after lunch so we spent the morning playing in the snow.  The Brusts actually headed out mid morning so we said our goodbyes and then bundled up and headed outside.  David had brought snow stuff along so he was all prepared and Aunt Kimi brought a bunch of Ellie's snow stuff over to Mimi's house so the girls were nice and warm.  Mimi and Pop's back yard has a slight slope so David got out the sled and they went down a bunch of times, the girls loved it.    

Getting ready to go down

First just Daddy and Haley went down, you can see Emily in the background struggling to walk over

Ready to go down the hill

Walking back up

David sent the girls down by themselves a couples times

David ordered some pizza from Giovanni's for our lunch before we headed out.  We invited everyone who could come to eat with us.  Grandma and Grandpa came and Aunt Rin and Uncle Daniel stuck around a little longer to share it with us.  After lunch we packed up the van, said our sad goodbyes (especially to Aunt Rin and Uncle Daniel) and then headed out.

Uncle Daniel and Aunt Rin with the girls

Grandma and Emily

 

Ellie and Emy getting in some last minute playtime

This big stroller box was a hit

The girls fell asleep in the van while we were still on the PA turnpike so that was awesome.  I don't remember how long they slept but it was a pretty uneventful trip.  We stayed the night in Chattanooga Tennessee, we got there at maybe ten thirty.  On Sunday morning we slept in and then had breakfast at the hotel and then headed out for the rest of our trip.  From what I remember, the girls did pretty well on the ride home.  We ate at a KFC for lunch (first time we've done that I think) and they both took good naps.  The only incident was while we were driving through Monroe, Louisiana.  It is the hometown of the Duck Dynasty show.  Anyways, as we were driving, something hit Emily's side door mirror and the whole thing cracked into a million pieces.  The window stayed intact, it was just all cracked everywhere.  Emily didn't seem to notice anything even though it made a pretty loud sound.  Monroe is only about two and a half hours out so we decided to just keep driving and hope for the best.  That ended up working out because the window stayed up and it wasn't a problem.  We arrived in Longview at about 6:30 and decided to go to Jalapeno Tree for dinner because we didn't really have anything to eat at the house.  Also, the girls were really filthy and I just wanted to put them in the bathtub.  So we ate at Jalapeno Tree and then went home and put the girls in the bathtub and then put them right to bed.  It worked out because then we ate our Jalapeno Tree leftovers for lunch the next day.  I am going to try and do a month in review hopefully tomorrow so we can be all caught up!