It had been 9 years since we spent Christmas in Utah- that is pre-Texas.
It was more than time for us to go. In 2015, I purposefully worked Christmas Eve so that I would not have to work it in 2016. Then, the hospital made some changes to the holiday scheduling policies. I was stressed and anxious that it would not work out but I went to my manager and plead my case and she made sure I was assigned the Thanksgiving rotation this year. I was thrilled.
Preparing, packing, and planning for a Christmas away from home was a bit of an undertaking. Who are we kidding it was a lot of work but I would do it again and hope to do it again soon.
First, was deciding when we would leave and how we would get there. This was where our first blessing came in to play. My dad was able to fly down on Tuesday night and then begin driving to Utah with us on Wednesday afternoon. It was a very brief stay at our house during which time our microwave broke and he went with me to get a new one. He is the best! Thanks Dad!
The kids were so excited to see Grandpa and they were really well behaved for him and me in the car. We made it to Amarillo the first day. We enjoyed dinner at McAllister's and then some good sleep at the hotel with a boys room and a girls room.
We ate an early breakfast the next morning so that we could hit the road before 7 and try to stay ahead of some storms in the forecast. The kids were troopers and there was not one complaint.
The scenery really was beautiful!
And there was a good deal of cooperation in the car, sharing things, passing things back and forth, taking turns picking the movie, playing travel bingo and the winners picked the restaurants for lunch and dinner.
Snow was our travel companion with some rain the whole day on Thursday. It was fun to see.
We literally hit a milestone while driving....55,555 miles on our Suburban. May it be blessed with many more miles!
We saw the sun for only a very short time but it was long enough for us to spy a rainbow!
My dad and I discussed the pros and cons of the available hamburger restaurants: fries, hamburgers, variety. In the end, Burger King one out! They do make a good hamburger and the fries are good especially when eaten with fry sauce!
It was a 15 hour day but we finally made it and the first thing they did was run into the snow, start shoveling it and Jon threw snowballs at most of us (which lead to the first of many lectures about proper snow etiquette ie don't throw snowballs at people who don't want to be hit or are busy unloading the car). For such a long drive they did amazingly well and I was so thankful to have my dad there to drive through the snow in Spanish Fork Canyon.
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