Thanksgiving in Arizona

This year for Thanksgiving we spent it with my family down in Arizona. I was super anxious to get down there and have a week to spend time with my family, and to mostly be able to spend time with Andrew while he had a little break from homework. Friday night before Thanksgiving we loaded the car up with a little bit of stuff for me and andrew, a little bit for jason and francisca, and a ton for colby (can't believe such a little guy demands so much room!), and the 5 of us headed out on our 15 hour journey to beautiful sunny, hot arizona (only it was kinda cold). we made it a night trip so that colby would sleep most of the way. he was such a little angel! i'm so impressed with how good he was for being in a carseat for so long. the only time we struggled a little with him was when we were only 15 miles away and he woke up hungry, i didn't want to stop to feed him so we tried to distract him, and it worked for the most part!

Arizona was full of family, hiking thunderbird mountain, FOOD, shopping, card games, and SUNSHINE! We even got our family pictures taken. it was such a great week! i loved being able to actually spend time with my hubby. we held thanksgiving day at my parents house and there were 36 people there! CRAZY! so exciting though. my only regret is only having one slice of pumpkin pie :( we had so much food that i forgot to eat more! at least there's always christmas!

on the flip side of our wonderful vacation...there was colby. he was sooo entertaining during the day. and then there was the dreaded night. he was sleeping in the same room as me and andrew, and apparently he didn't want to let us forget that he was there. he was waking up every 1 1/2 to 2 hours just SCREAMING and the only way to calm him down was to feed him (which he wasn't even really hungry). i was so confused and getting sooo incredibly emotional from the lack of sleep. we were giving him a binky for his naps because i didn't want anyone to have to deal with the crying during the naptimes, so i was worried he was completely hooked on that, but in the back of my mind i was thinking maybe he just knew we were in the room with him and wanted attention. after a sleepless week, i found out why he was such a pill! little man has a tooth! it popped up on friday when we were headed back home! i can't believe it! (and i'm sooo glad there was a reason for his sleepless nights). apparently diarrhea is a symptom of teething - do you have any idea how fun that is to deal while in a car when he blows through his diaper?

on our way home we were going to make another night trip saturday night, but we heard there was supposed to be a storm on sunday in utah and idaho, so we left at about 10:00 on saturday morning and i was worried colby wouldn't do so great during the day. WRONG! he was even better! he didn't even cry when he was getting tired, he would just close his eyes and fall asleep. he was sooo good and that made me soo happy because i have always struggled with getting him to sleep. on our way home we wanted to see the hoover dam, but they built a new bridge that had the walls too high to see the dam, and we looked at the exit and saw an endless line of cars that would take hours to get through so we skipped it (sorry jason and francisca - we'll see it another day!) we were driving up to salt lake city and staying there saturday night and i was so excited! i've never seen the christmas lights at temple square! we were cutting in close though! they turn the lights off at 10:00 and guess what! we got there at 10:00 - so we saw them close the gates! (we'll have to do that another day too). but we saw the city lights and they were so pretty! Andrew's parents were on their way back from spending thanksgiving in colorado and stopped in salt lake that night too, so we were even able to see them and andrews neice and nephew, Daniel and Alli. they were sooo cute with Colby. Everything he did just cracked them up and they'd fall on the bed laughing. we woke up to lots of snow and we went to breakfast with andrews parents the next day (yes it was sunday....i payed for that later). and then we headed out (dan and britt also stayed in the same hotel so we were all able to caravan). the roads were HORRIBLE! i was scared for colby's life, not to mention i wasn't feeling well (probably from lack of sleep) and i just wanted to get home. once we got home it hit. yes, i was going to pay for going out to eat on sunday. i couldn't unpack, i could hardly hold colby. all i could do was lay on the couch and run for the bathroom. i couldn't keep my food down! poor andrew had to deal with colby while trying to get his homework done because i couldn't take care of him. it was so nice though! i went to bed at 9:00 dreading the night (i was thinking colby was going to keep waking up like he did in arizona). he only woke up once in the middle of the night to eat, and then he slept the rest of the night! oh i am one happy mom! plus i'm feeling much better, so i'm hoping it was that belgian waffle i had. i really really don't want to get colby and andrew sick.

chillin in the carseat

after one of his explosive diaper changes, Colby drove over to the dumpster

Aunty Kami with colby and a cute hat

4 Generation picture

Papa reading to Colby