Family Vacation Day 1

Our first day of vacation was interesting... We got up at 3am, and put the kids in the car at 3:30 - and off we went. We were expecting them to fall asleep pretty quickly, but they were way too excited. They didn't sleep at all that morning. (in fact they didn't sleep at all on the drive until we were almost there, and I made them close their eyes for 10 minutes by bribing them with the promise of a treat...and it worked. Abby only slept an hour, Eric two... I thought they'd sleep a lot longer for sure)We got to my brother's home at about 8am. They fed us a wonderful breakfast and gave us a chance to stretch our legs and such.

Then we were off again...driving, driving, driving!
We stopped again for lunch at Kingman. Wendy's was delicious! We ate at a park so the kids could run around a little.
Andrew was such a trooper- he just kept going and going and going.
Chris did 2/3 of the 12 hour driving... He is such an awesome driver.
We did have one saving grace on the ride- presents from Grandma and Grandpa - and boy did they work like a charm! The kids got to open one every so often...when they were good. And they really looked forward to that - so they were extra good! Andrew seriously played with this one for like an hour!
We made it to Arizona about 5pm. We checked into our hotel then we went to my brother's house. It was my nephew's b-day... 11/11/11... how cool is that? We also celebrated my brothers birthday - he's old :) - (I can say that because I'm the youngest...) We had dinner at my brothers and saw all the cool things my nephew's make. I wish I would have taken a picture of the fork and spoon heart my nephew created - seriously so awesome! These kids are super talented.
After dinner we went and had some ice cream at cold stone. It's so amazing to be with family that I don't get to see very often. I love how comfortable it is to be around family - even when you haven't seen them in a long time, it doesn't seem to matter - it's just natural and I love it!