Snow!

Last Saturday, we took a long day trip up to the mountains of Northern Arizona near the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We left at 3:30 am for the 250 mile drive (my sister and Tom camped overnight, but Mr. J was not successful in talking me in to doing that with 3 kids....). We stopped at Cracker Barrel in St. George, UT at 5:30 for a nummy breakfast and got to our meeting spot around 9 ish. There we had a camp fire, the kids played in the snow and Mr. J and Tom cut down poles (for a bunkbed for the girls) and a Christmas tree for Deanna and Tom. We enjoyed eating "Bobbie" sandwiches from leftover turkey, dressing and cranberry sauce (our new favorite... we got the idea from a great sandwich shop here called Capriotti's). Also, Deanna and I entertained the kids and tried to keep them from getting too cold (I changed outfits many times). After lunch, it was naptime, so we strapped all the kids in the van and her and I sat in the front to listen to Christmas carols on the van radio and play rummy. However, our Christmas carol listening only lasted 10 minutes because the battery died on the van, and we had to wait for Tom and Mr. J to return with the rover to give us a jump. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful and sunny, even though it was only 30 degrees out, so we stayed plenty warm and the kids took good naps. We left the mountains around 330ish and still had enough sunlight to see the Grand Canyon from afar as we drove through Fredonia back to St. George. We stopped at Cracker Barrel again on the way home (it's a pretty delicious place, and that is the closest one to Vegas) with Deanna and Tom. All in all it was a great day. I almost wasn't going to go and was going to stay home with the kids, because I thought it was going to be too much work, but thankfully I realized I was going to miss out on some great memories if I passed this up.. and we had an awesome time!

The snowy trees

Miss M posing

Miss 0's cold hands

Mr. T reading, he loves books! Especially ones that have cars or animals in them. He likes to make the noises.

Tom roastin a brat

Deanna had perfect timing in capturing this picture. This was the exact moment after Miss M asked if we had any marshmallows to roast and I told her no, that I had forgotten them. Pure disgust.

The girls getting ready for naptime in the van.
Me and Deanna playing rummy and draining the battery on the van, fun times! Tom finally getting the chainsaw fired up to go cut down their tree.
The tree he cut down for them, after they beautifully decorated it!