The holidays started with a flight to Charlotte - Lucy traveled in comfort of course... We "checked" her as baggage & flew with Cooper. She seemed to do fine (as you can see she was pretty content in the crate). OK, OK, OF COURSE we did nothing of the sort... She simply climbed-in to Charlie's crate the night before we left & we thought it was a riot!
OK, on to the trip - on balance it was AWESOME trekking to NC for Christmas. The kids did wonderfully on the trip out there with the assistance of two DVD players, tons of snacks and tons of activities. They traveled in our laps as they were not 2 years old yet... (more on that later).
The kids adjusted really quickly to Grandma & Grandpa's house. They slept like champs, ate like champs and, generally, enjoyed the constant attention (funny how that works). Grandma and Grandpa were wonderful hosts as they had done a TON of special grocery shopping in advance (steel cut oats anyone?) and had prepared several things for the grown-ups to eat as well... It made for a wonderful transition & even included newly purchased & assembled cribs - no wonder Coops woke-up each day saying "Gan-ma?"... "Gan-pa?"!
Our days consisted of short (and cold) walks to the neighborhood playscape, saying "hi" to the snowman & deer outside, and periodic errands/kid events... We even got to take the kids to see a Berenstein Bear Orchestra (below) where they sang about "Olive the other reindeer" (CUTE). The animated bears captivated the kids for a while then our attention turned to the stairs ... up and down we went!
The bulk of our time was just hangin'... We read tons of books (below) and simply enjoyed quality time together. One night Jules and I had a delightful dinner (sans little ones) at Lauren & Tripps and way over-stayed our welcome... (We're certain they were saying "we probably ought to go ahead & go to be so these nice people can go home" but no matter - we're family...) Ahhh, being cousin Eddie!
Of course our time in Charlotte climaxed on Christmas Day as they Charlotte Zavodny grand-kids descended in their Spidey gear... It was awesome to see 5 little ones interact on such a fun day! We had a blast, ate too much, & prepared to head home the next day...
WHAT A NIGHTMARE OUR RETURN HOME WAS! For every one good travel experience I think you're destined to get 2 tough ones... Suffice it to say we got ours... Despite our carefully crafted breakfast/diaper/dressing/car travel/secuity-screening plans (all of which were executed to perfection I might add) we arrived at our gate to discover that we were the recipients of an overbooking on the flight & would be rescheduled... Yup, remember that mention of "under 2 years old means they can travel in your lap"? Well, that meant two things for us: 1. We couldn't "check-in" online the night before & 2. We got bumped as a consequence even though we arrived more than one hour ahead of time & were destined for a long trip later that day... Allow me to fast-forward through the blur (which included heading back to Grandma/Grandpa's eating a quick lunch from Chick-fil-A, "forcing" a quick nap on Cooper & Lucy and then doing it all over again...)
After a dismal 3-hour flight with frustrated, uncomfy kids ON OUR LAPS we landed... & DECIDED TO PUSH ON TO WACO DIRECTLY so that we could spend some time with Lauren Howard before she headed out the next morning... More Veggie-tales, bad eating, a broken DVD player, and poor singing on our part, and some "well-deserved crying" (from all of us I think) filled our trip up I-35 to Waco... We arrived a tired, hungry bunch and "did Christmas" with the Waco bunch.
After the travel hang-over wore off and we got a good couple of night's rest we headed back to Austin to tackle a short work week... Ahhhh, being rested for the week! =)
We each worked a few days and then prepared to head back up to Waco for some time with Margaret, John, Oliver, Granny & PaPaw.
If ever I was Clark W. Griswald it was on this trip... 4 adults, 3 children, 1 dog, 1 cat, 12 bags (including Christmas presents) & all kids' stuff loaded into ONE Ford Expedition with a packed-out, borrowed, luggage roof-rack on-top. All we needed was Aunt Edna on the roof! Well - we did make it safely to Waco and had a wonderful time including a trip to the zoo, to Ashley's shop, and more hanging time... Oh, of course we went to Uncle Dan's BBQ and had a great evening while Estelle kindly played the piano outside.
Our time in Waco finally came to an end and we took-off back to Austin without the Burks OR OUR CHILDREN... Margaret & John were to be in Waco for the next several weeks (during Dr. Burk's Christmas break & Margaret's maternity) & that meant that our nannies (uh, that's Granny & PaPaw as "pinch-hitters" until J quit) were required to be both hosts & nannies... A tough task! The next several weeks consisted of our going to work Monday - Thursday and darting up to Waco for a long weekend...
You know what - even re-capping the holidays makes me tired... but we wouldn't trade it for anything! Reminds me of a Toby Keith song - " Start livin' - that's the next thing on my list ". Despite the chaos, the time over the holidays with our kids (and extended family) beats any list we could have at work!
Oh, one last cool thing... Our kids made us some money (or enabled us to spend a little less) over the holidays... their "kiss" picture narrowly won a contest on our photographer's website http://www.photographinbloom.com/) and entitled us to a free framed print! Even cooler...
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