home sweet home

We made it back to Toledo today in record time! Our flight was completely flawless. Zeb was a gem. We landed AHEAD of schedule. Our baggage was the FIRST off the luggage carousel. Basically it was a miracle.

As soon as we walked into our building, Zeb was ecstatic. Besides searching in every room and asking for daysa (my little sis)- he seems to be so excited to be back! I miss family terribly already but I cannot wait to sleep in my own bed.

Tonight for New year's eve we plan on putting Zeb to bed and sitting in front of a good movie with some good food. Nothing sounds more appealing right now. I highly doubt that we'll make it to midnight though.

I really want to get at least some of the pictures from our Christmas vacation posted- seeing as how this blog is our family journal. You'll all have to bear with me as I rehash the past week of our lives.

One of my favorite Christmas activities was the Provo River Christmas Cruise. This year's event did not disappoint (thanks mum and dad!!). We rode a rickety bucket of death freezing cold floating raft down a small section of the provo river that was decorated with Christmas lights. I know that this is a terrible picture- but it was the best I could get. The best part of the "cruise" was the approach of Santa on a canoe! He handed out candy and lots of "ho-ho-hos".

Even the little kiddos (including metta, daysa, kate, and penny) loved it.


















It was a little chilly and very snowy- but we were prepared! I cannot believe the amount of snow that Utah got! My parent's house was INSANE. I loved it. Afterwards we partied at brick oven with the cousin's discount :) Thanks mills! My favorite picture of the night is this one of little Hank and Daysa. Check her out in the background. Really cute, Days!

It seems when I've got the most going on in life- I take the fewest pictures! I finally got a camera cord- and now can get some pictures onto the bloggy blog.

The past few days have been fun and adventure filled. What's a Christmas break without at least a little bit of choas, right? I'll have to just post a start of our adventures because all of it will take some time.The few days before Christmas were spent last minute shopping and doing family stuff!

Zeb got his first four wheeling/sledding experience with Kent's family and seemed to have mixed emotions. It was chilly- but buckets of fun! Zeb enjoyed being on the four wheelers more than being pulled behind. I can't believe how much snow is here in Utah! The first four days we were here it never stopped snowing. I am in complete holiday heaven. Zeb can't stop pointing and yelling "snow! snow! snow!".

It has been so much fun for zeb to spend time with his cousins and get to know them better. He really didn't care too much the last times we've been here but now he's in heaven with all of the friends. I have a zillion more cousin pictures to post- but they'll have to wait. I do love this picture of Zeb and his cousin Krystal though- I think they have the same little nose.

utah sweet utah

What an airplane trip from HELL! Our luck definitely did NOT improve with airplanes and airports. All seemed well with only a 15 minute delay until our plane "broke" and we had to switch. It all went downhill from there. The new plane we were supposed to get on couldn't pull into the terminal because the snow banks were too high. Once that problem was solved and we finally boarded (now 90 minutes late) we settled into our seats only to find out that our cargo door was still open?! and to make matters infinitely worse -due to the ridiculously bad wind chill (-25ish)- a majority of the detroit airport workers went home?!?!?! there were only a few employees to service the thirty planes that needed to takeoff and land. We waited ON THE PLANE for almost four hours before moving. I CANNOT believe that Zeb did as well as he did. He was happy and pleasant and running up and down the aisle. The plane crew was really nice and let us move around and whatnot. I was afraid of getting deep vein thrombosis or something ridiculous- plus I was getting more and more uncomfortable every minute sitting there so I tried to walk around a lot.
After the INSANE 5 and a half hour delay we finally took off. The plane ride was diabolical. We took off at midnight and landed at almost four am Toledo time. Zeb slept almost the entire plane ride- but I cannot say the same for Kent or me. We had one minor catastrophe during the flight. Zeb slept on Kent's lap (no room on mine) and so I had the drinks on my tray. Kent grabbed his drink from my tray and didn't get a good enough grasp. It dropped upside down directly onto Zeb's sleeping head. He FREAKED- as would I if freezing cold Ocean Spray cran-apple juice with ice was poured on my sleeping head and down my ears and shirt. I think he inhaled some of it too. I couldn't stop giggling (that's what I do at HIGHLY inappropriate times and when I am really tired). Thank heavens he was calmed quickly.

We finally landed in SLC only to find out that our luggage had mysteriously disappeared. Imagine that. No freaking luggage. There were no Northwest agents available to make a claim either- and it has to be done AT THE AIRPORT upon arrival or else you can't make a claim. All of our christmas presents and Kent's clothes and my shoes were gone. After the most ridiculous wait we finally left the airport at six AM toledo time. Zeb was highly entertained by my dad and the escalators -thank heavens.
We made it home to sleep for a few hours and then I began the attempt to recover or at least locate our bag. Apparently it is very typical for airlines to HAVE NO FREAKING IDEA where bags are during holiday weeks. They told us there were hundreds of bags at the airport that we could come and look through- but that they didn't think ours were there. They weren't sure where they were though. We would just have to call the airport every time a Delta or Northwest flight came in from Detroit.
Our bags showed up at midnight that night on the front door. We will call it a Christmas miracle. At ten when we went to bed we called the airlines and they said they still had not located the bag.
While on the plane Kent and I decided to never travel again for Christmas- but now we are very happy to be here. I don't have my camera cord to upload pictures- but I'm borrowing one- so by tomorrow I should be back in blogging business.

Merry Christmas! Let's hope the trip home isn't quite so long and ridiculous.

ready or not- here we come!

Our flight leaves tomorrow after church! I'll probably not be blogging quite as regularly over the next ten days- but I'll give it my best shot.


Here's the rugrat in his "new" bed after his nap today. I think he really likes it. As long as we put him down with a book to read- he doesn't get out. He reads himself to sleep- or cuddles with his stuffed animals until he zonks. He is such a funny little guy.

Zeb HATES pink feather boas. Thank heavens.





Kent finished school today at noon and we've been celebrating ever since! We went and tried to get some Christmas shopping done- but really didn't accomplish much! We did spend a few hours at hobby lobby trying to get our pixie pal gift supplies. Making homemade gifts is a much harder task than it sounds. Hobby Lobby is where we found the pink feather boa.

Just getting out to Christmas shop was a bit of a feat this afternoon. Most of Toledo was shut down this morning due to an ice storm last night (no seminary AGAIN!) and our car was a large pod of ice. The picture to the left is solid ICE! Kent had to break it off in large sheets. Zeb and I sat inside while Kent chipped away at it. Last year the big ice storm broke off our door handle. This year we didn't sustain any damage (although the door handle still isn't fixed).
And here's our poor little tree in the front yard. Usually he isn't nearly as droopy. His branches do not touch the ground and he stands much taller.

Life has been pretty busy the past two days getting ready to head out and wrapping everything up! Kent has his MAJOR test tomorrow morning- and at noon he is a free man!! at least for the next few weeks :) We celebrated prematurely this evening by getting some delicious pizza. Today, randomly, we got a coupon in the mail for a free one. I love when stuff like that happens- and for some reason we seem to have great luck with it here in Toledo.

Here's a lovely little pic of Z at the ward Christmas party last weekend. He has been such a happy little rugrat lately. He has his terribly whiny moments but they are more than made up for with his infectious smile and laugh (although I may not make that same claim during his fits). I can't wait to get him to Utah to see family. Basically you'll all be obsessed.

We've got another giant storm headed our direction tonight! I love the fresh snow and the cold- but I am still worried about our flights on Sunday. Everybody pray for non flight delaying weather.

our first storm!!!!

The first big storm of the season also probably means no seminary tomorrow! It's always nice to have a surprise morning off. The schools around here all have "2 hour delays" the morning after big storms or on really foggy mornings. I'll have to check the internet early tomorrow to make sure- but I'm betting a delay is the case.

Zeb LOVES the snow. He watches it and laughs and smiles. He's so dang cute.

Let's hope the snow clears out before Sunday so that we don't have any crazy flight delays on our way home! We have had the WORST flight luck over the past year- and I was hoping these cheap direct flights had broken the bad trend.
This is Kent writing now - I thought as I left school today that some day I will be somewhere warm during Christmas time and there won't be any snow to scrape off my car windows!! It was kind of depressing. I loved walking out of the school after a long day of studying to snow whipping around the parking lot in the freezing Ohio air. I love this time of year - especially when it snows!!