This year, we ventured out to Jordan's mom's house in Folsom, CA for Christmas. It was such a nice break! My sister and her family live about 35 minutes away, so it's always nice to get to see them too.
Owen all packed and ready to go!
The drive started out nice. Owen actually took a nap in the car (which is rare) and we took a few goods stops to get us through. Plus, we left late enough, that he ended up falling asleep for the night (sorta) in the car so that gave us a few great hours. We knew that we would hit snow when we had to over Donner Pass. We went back and forth on whether or not we should just keep driving (since it was supposed to snow allllll night) or to stop in Reno for the night so we could drive in the snow during the day. We decided that it would be better to just stop for the night to rest since we didn't know how bad the snow would be and driving in the day is always better.
Owen promptly woke up as soon as we stopped and was WIDE AWAKE and ready to party! He then gifted us by waking up at 6 am the next morning ready to party again. At least we were able to get an early start... We were quite surprised as we went outside and found that it had snowed a ton in Reno. There was not a flake of snow in sight the night before, so we knew we were in for it... Jordan will say that I am the worst backseat driver alive (which may or may not be true), I call it being cautious. The roads were awful and I kept wanting him to slow down or pull over to put the chains on. Just as the roads were starting to get really bad, we were heading down a hill and turned a corner and all of the sudden, traffic was stopped. We unfortunately could not stop in time and got in a minor accident. Of course, this was where the highway patrol decided it was a good place for everyone to install chains. Probably not the best set up since we saw 2-3 other accidents right there (you can see another accident in the pic below)
It really was pretty minor and you can't even really tell in this picture. We weren't going fast at all, but we did manage to break our mirror off and damage every single plate on the side of our car. We were lucky that it was so minor, but still no fun.
After the chain stop, the roads continued to get worse and worse. It was a complete white out! We couldn't see a thing and if we didn't have a car to follow, we would have been completely lost. Luckily these cars stayed on the roads because it was so bad at some points, if they had gone off a cliff, we probably would have followed right behind them. It was awful because there was no where you could stop and pull off the road to wait it out since it was coming down so hard, but we also couldn't see. I was white knuckling it the entire time. They were closing the freeway in numerous spots and I'm pretty sure that we were just barely ahead all of the closures.
I call this photo the beautiful disaster. This was actually when the roads were pretty clear. The normal 2 hour drive took us over 5. Not to sound dramatic or anything, but I seriously feel lucky that we made it alive! It was so scary and I vow here to never ever ever do that drive again in the winter! (I also said that the last time we drove it in the winter)
We finally made it and the partying began! Jack and Owen playing on the kindle
That night, we went out with Jordan's family and my sister and brother in law to celebrate Jordan's birthday
My niece Hallie came over with her siblings to babysit. Owen avoided all naps that day and woke up at 6, so he was pretty tired. I don't even remember that last time he fell asleep on someone's lap. Maybe when he was like 4 months old?
Burying himself in the presents.
Christmas Sunday. Which also sums out our life at church these days.
On Christmas Eve, we had a great dinner with all of Jordan's family. Owen was in heaven getting to sit at the kid table with his cousins. That was all fun and games until he started throwing food at his cousins and yanking off the table runner (taking their plates of food with it)
Drowning away his sorrows at the adult table
Next up, we visited Jordan's Grandma Lewis and met up with his cousins who I had never met before.
Owen apparently had Christmas jitters because he woke up early again to celebrate! I'm afraid the years of me sleeping in on Christmas are gone for the next 20+ years.
We started out with toys from Santa. Of course, he was gifted a ball. He always plays with this spikey one at Target, so we figured it was a safe bet.
I must hold all of my toys at once.
This is his throwing face. I'm not sure if it's so serious because he is just trying to concentrate really hard on his skillz or if he is giving you a good warning you he is about to throw it at you (I get this same face when he throws food at my face as well).
Great throw to dad
This ghetto car was also a hit. It plays "Pump, pump the jam, pump it up"... you know the one. So luckily I get to hear that over and over again.
The Patricks arrived and the gift opening began. Owen had plenty of helpers to open his presents.
That afternoon, we headed over to my sister's house to spend the day and dinner with them. Somehow, I only got videos of them, and no actual pictures. Just know that a lot of Just Dance was played. I also loved this seat arrangement that Nick "fashioned" together. Yes, that is Nick's belt strapping him to the chair.
My little Mozart
We were there for 9 days although it somehow still felt like we didn't have time to do all that we wanted to do. Here are a bunch of other random photos from the trip:
Couldn't get enough of dad. He loved having him around 24/7. Again, like I didn't even exist. I thought boys were supposed to love their moms!
Probably my favorite pic of the whole trip. This is when we were driving to the Morton's house. Owen was watching the Lion King on the DVD player and was apparently not that happy about it.
Sneaking a sip of dad's soda.
Fishy faces on grandma's door.
