Our trip to Arizona

I had hoped to have this finished by now but I only have had time to start organizing my post. I was going to just make one super big post, but have since changed my mind because I would probably never finish it and some of you wouldn't read it. So this will be part one.

Trip details: Departure. We left at 2:00AM the Monday before Thanksgiving. We wanted to have a long first day of driving and then an easy day. Google put the trip at 28 hours but our trip time was 26 hours. We started with fog and drizzle for the first several hundred miles, and that makes night driving difficult. Our goal was to get a motel at Tucumcari, NM. Then when sunset hit us, we got fog and drizzle again and we had a long way to go on a two lane road across OK and TX panhandles – difficult again. We arrived safe and sound in Glendale, AZ early afternoon the next day.

Return. Our original plan was to leave Arizona on the Monday before Christmas and arrive home Tuesday night. But we altered our plans and left three days early, the Friday before, mainly because the house was getting crowded with Goodwin Christmas guests and Anna was there. So there was not any reason for us to stay, except to play with the kids. Had we left Kyle’s house on Monday morning as planned, we would have been caught in an early winter blizzard from central NM all the way to Missouri. Seven snow related deaths, 24 inches of snow in Las Vegas, NM, I-25 closed at Santa Fe to Raton, zero visibility at Guymon, OK, etc. A Texas couple and their young child got stuck in snow and when rescued two days later the Yucon SUV was completely covered with an additional four feet of snow on top of the car. We are sooooo thankful and grateful that we left when we did and avoided this bad weather. We had sunshine all the way home. We already miss all the Arizona Larsens and wish they were closer. EVERYONE, pray for the Target job in MPLS.

Our purpose for the visit was to be with Kyle and Tiffany at the end of her pregnancy and to take over household duties – Kyle was in finals week at school and Tiff was just days from delivering Amelia. We had lots of fun caring for the kids. They were supposed to not bother us (come into our room) until 6:30-7:00AM. But they couldn’t stop the temptation to come in at 5:30-6:00AM and one day at 5:10. Sometimes we shooed them away but most of the times we waved them in. We were already awake and on our laptops.

So during the time they came in and before breakfast, they watched movies. And this is how they watched them.

Charlie was really into "Pink, pause, Hefah" or Pink Panther. He asked to watch it every day, even though they had seen them before (there was like 24 on Hulu). Sometimes I had to tell him that the Pink Panther was sleeping or on vacation. Other times they watched PBSkids.org or Wild Kratts. I also created several JibJab videos featuring them and they wanted to watch them over and over again. The one that Erik loved the most was the Mexican, staring Mom and the song was Feliz Navidad. Charlie liked Penguin one staring him (Walking in a Winter Wonderland). So I hope that we did not spoil them too much with these activities.

Just love this one of Charlie. He was captivated by our "entertainment".

Erik wanted a Santa hat because one of his classmates had one. So we got him one too. He wore it to school for several days and even to the breakfast table. He has such a great smile and the best laugh ever. Breakfast started at 7:00AM.

Charlie usually had a combination of three cereals for breakfast. A couple of times Judy made scrambled eggs or french toast, which was gobbled up. Charlie has the cutest smile.

Ellie was always so sweet and helped with breakfast. She's a real super-trooper and loved to help with everything.

We made a great Thanksgiving dinner – turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and all the fixings. Mish and Kjersten were there and helped. We had so much food. I made Hot Fudge Sauce for dessert. Mmm mmm good.

Don't know what Ellie was doing. I guess she was just impatient and waiting for dinner.

I took on the responsibility to get Erik to and from pre-school in the afternoons.

Erik had to be signed in and out of school by only pre-approved people. I was put on the list right away.

Elisabeth took the bus to and from Kindergarten. The bus driver would not let her off the bus without seeing one of us at the door waving at the bus driver. Good precautions.