hillyeah: Christmas 2013

Warning: This post quickly grew to outrageous proportions. So, if you don't want to read it all, here is the Reader's Digest version. We took a rode trip, in the snow, over the mountains to Washington. We had to take an overnight detour in Oregon where Hailey threw up in our hotel room. We finished the drive the next day and surprised Rara Hill (she didn't know we were coming.) We spent our week relaxing, playing games (Five Crowns anyone?), putting together puzzles, and visiting with friends and family. It was great. And good. It was grood. (Kyle and I recently rewatched some Teen Girl Squad.)

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We had a nice relaxing Christmas this year. Just what we need. Months earlier, Kyle and I decided we would make the drive to Washington to spend a week with Kyle's family for Christmas. We chose to keep it mostly secret. The secret slowly leaked to family members, but we were still able to contain it from his mom. It was so fun to be able to surprise her with a Christmas visit. All of Kyle's siblings were there this year. We hadn't been to Washington for Chrismas in 2 years.

Of course the day we decided to travel it snowed. Not in Utah, but once we hit Mountain Home, ID it started to come down. By Boise we were driving about 20-25 mph. We talked about stopping in Nampa at Kyle's grandpa's house, but we were determined to get as far as we possibly could, so we kept pressing on. We had Kyle's sister Chelsie watching the road conditions online for us, giving us updates as she saw them. Of course just after we passed Nampa, Chelsie called to tell us that the pass through the Blue Mountains in Oregon had been closed at Le Grande. Since we wouldn't be making it out of Oregon that night we chose to stop in Ontario, OR. I found a Holiday Inn Express on our GPS, called and made a quick reservation.

We had been in the hotel room for maybe 30 minutes, maybe, when Hailey walked into the bathroom, walked back out of the bathroom and then threw up on the carpeted floor of the hotel room. Kyle quickly grabbed her and rushed her into the bathroom. Of course the majority of it ended up on the floor and all over her clothes, instead of in the toilet. I walked into the bathroom and a sad, puke covered Hailey said, "Mom, I spit up." We stripped her down and put her in the shower. Then we set to work cleaning up the mess. And the stench... I had the pleasant task of taking her puke covered clothes down to the lobby to ask for air freshener and change for a few dollar bills so I could do laundry. We chose to leave our bags in the car because they were completely buried in the back of the trunk. So Hailey ended up sleeping in her underwear while her clothes dried. I had told Hailey I would share the bed with her. She was on her own after that fiasco. She slept with a garbage can next to her. Luckily she only threw up that one time.

Hailey pre "spit up".

The next day we ate a quick breakfast and hopped back on the road. As we neared Le Grande we passed a a couple miles long line of semi-trucks pulled over chaining their tires. So many semi-trucks. And we just kept on going. And this is where I had a panic attack. And Kyle couldn't figure out why. I got through it, and we trudged on. Turns out the roads in the Blues really weren't all that terrible. The worst of it was at Le Grande. We hit patches of snow, and patches of rain. Back and forth it would go. By the time we hit Cabbage Hill, making the dramatic decent into Pendleton, the roads were perfectly clear and it was smooth sailing from there!

When we arrived in Kennewick we were so excited to surprise Kyle's mom, and she wasn't home! Oh well, she was still super surprised when she came pulling in and saw our car parked in the driveway. Tears flowed. It was all worth it. :)

cousin Kaylee with Papa Hill

That week in Kennewick was fabulous. It was so nice to relax and enjoy time with family and friends from far away. Kyle and I were able to leave the girls quite a few times so we could go out and meet up with multiple groups of friends. The girls went shopping and the boys went and saw The Hobbit. We played many, many games of Five Crowns, a few games of Telestrations, and of course Phase 10. Kyle spent a lot of time putting together puzzles, Hailey watched movies galore, and Keira chased the cat. Keira was obsessed with Mosley. All day long she looked for him or asked for someone to help her find him. She was constantly meowing, "meow, meow". Every morning, the first thing she wanted to do was find Mosley. He batted at her a couple of times, she cried, got over it and went back for more.