Merry Christmas!

It has been one busy Christmas time for our little family. We left on Saturday (Dec 22) morning around 10am to begin our drive to San Antonio...and then decided to just keep driving. We completed the drive in 22 STRAIGHT hours and arrived at my parents house around 8 am Sunday morning...right in time for sacrament meeting. We quickly dressed and made it there only 5 minutes late. We ended up not staying the entire time because Tyson was basically asleep and Carter was completely out of control. We came home and SLEPT. The kids were actually AMAZING during the ride. We were so blessed with good conditions and very patient kids. It was fun to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with siblings, grandparents, and cousins, and our kids were overly spoiled. Carter just wanted to spend the whole day opening presents....he still has some things to learn...and some toys to give away when we get home. I have many pictures to post...maybe tomorrow I'll start going through them. Yesterday, Ty and I took Carter, Taylee, and Janessa's daughter Grace to The Wild Animal Ranch in New Braunfels. I'd been before (during the summer with Carter...see archives from July 2007), but Tyson never had. He had a great time...but the kids screamed. Carter remembered his mom flipping out about her hand in a buffalo's mouth from the last time we went, so he covered his eyes as soon as we pulled in the park. Grace was fine until a ram kept getting a little close to her window. Tyson had the zebras sticking their heads all the way in the car to get more food...he loved feeding them all. Taylee was basically oblivious to it all. We took a picture of her with the zebra literally right next to her elbow and she just sat staring at the camera. While using the restrooms at the animal ranch, I saw a brochure for a children's museum 30 minutes up the road, so we decided to take the kids there too. It was such a fun place! For a children's museum, it was really clean and organized. The kids just ran from place to place, sitting in and touching everything. The best part was a "traveling" exhibit the museum had for a month...life-like dinosaurs. They moved, made noises, ate, had baby dinosaurs cracking out of eggs, etc. It was so cool. Carter, however, thought they were way too real and flipped out. It's been a fun trip and a welcome break. Pictures to come...