What Have I Been Waiting For?

I don't know why it has taken me so long to sit down and write about our Christmas vacation. The first week after getting home I was busy unpacking, washing clothes, and getting back to our normal lives. Last week I was really busy, but really I think it is because there is so much to tell, I knew it would take too long so I just didn't do it. However, my lack of writing has made some worry about us so I decided I really should write even if it is just a little bit at a time.

Let's go back to Dec 17th and 18th. We heard about Seattle and the whole west coast getting hit with major snow storms. Even southern California had snow. Parts of I-5 were closed, so we didn't know how we were going to drive all the way to WA. We figured it would be just as bad if not worse going through UT and ID so we just decided to go for it. We left Friday the 19th about 5:30pm. The plan was to drive straight through. All went very well until we were only four hours outside of Seattle. There we hit snow. It just kept getting worse and worse until we didn't know what we were going to do. We could pull over and get a hotel and possibly get snowed in there or keep going. Since we were so close we decided to keep going. It was very surreal. The freeway was ski slope- no lanes just a wide open expanse with trees along the side. People weaving in and out some fast and some slow and sometimes crashing into each other or off to the side. To make a terribly long drive not repeat itself, we made it to Paul's parents house around 9pm- 27 1/2 hours after starting just before the snow storm of the century dumped on WA. Really the drive was pretty good despite Lily, Spencer, and myself being sick, Lily throwing up twice, and of course, the snow. I've blocked most of it out, but those are the parts I remember.

This is 18 hours into the trip. Everybody looks pretty good, but Lily is a bit zoned out from her sedative that we gave her to try to get her to sleep during the night.

This is one of the hundred times Spencer sang the ABCs on the trip.

This picture is just shortly after it started snowing. It is beautiful.