Christmas Trip - Part 2 - Idaho!

After spending a week in Vancouver we rented a van and drove to Idaho. The roads were perfect, not an icy spot in sight. We then spent our final week of vacation in Nampa. The kids got to have a second Christmas opening gifts from their Grandma & Grandpa Hughes (below).

And of course they spent plenty of time with their cousins. Passion, Taylor & Katelyn spent at least a month before Christmas planning the concert below. They wrote their own songs and created their own choreography and performed them for everyone. It was very cute. I have video of it but I will just post a picture for now.

When the younger cousins saw the girls perform, they decided they wanted to put on a show too. I think they might be singing Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer here.

Then Wisdom and Emma sang Jingle Bells together. It was so cute! I especially enjoyed seeing these two play together. They became such good friends last summer when Jon & his family lived by us. These two just picked up where they left off as if no time had passed.

Then we had a nativity re-enactment. I think there might have been more than one Mary, Wisdom is Joseph and Uncle Jon was the donkey.

One of Passion's Christmas gifts was to get her ears pierced. She had been asking to have it done for more than a year. We told her she had to wait until she turned 10, and then surprised her with a gift card on Christmas morning. She was very excited. Her sister, Kindly was not! On the drive to Claire's I was getting a little nervous for her and kept asking Passion is she was sure she was ready to get holes in her ears. Every time I asked, Kindly would say, "No, she's not." When I asked Kindly if she would ever want to get her ears pierced she very resolutely said, "NO!" We'll see if she changes her turn in a few years! Below you can see Kindly nearby making sure her sister is okay.

Just after getting her ears pierced! So Brave!

One of the highlights of our trip was getting to meet this adorable guy below. My sister went in to labor on New Years Eve. We had been joking about her having a New Years baby but didn't really think she actually would. Baby Devin surprised us by being born just after 1 am on New Years Day! It turned out he was the first baby born in the whole valley. They got to be on two different news stations and in both valley newspapers.

 Fun Cousin Time!

I think one of the things I miss the most about not living near family is that my kids don't get to spend time with cousins. We packed the week full of fun times with cousins. The kids had so much fun together. Wisdom keeps asking when he gets to go to Lucy's house again. I wish I could tell him soon . . .
We also got to see and visit with many friends from our old ward and neighborhood. I don't have pictures of that but it was so good to see everyone. We sure miss our Caldwell life and friends. It was fun to pick up where we left off with many of them.
Overall (despite all the sickness) we had a wonderful time seeing so many dear family and friends. Until next time . . .