Utah Trip Part I: Easton Family Christmas Party

Early, early (we're talking 5:30 am) on Monday the 20th found us on our way to the Nashville airport to catch our 7 am flight to SLC with one big bag to be checked and 5 carry-ons...the cheapest, but not the easiest, way to pack for a family of four for 10 days. We were hopeful that all our stuff would get us to Utah and home plus all of the kids' Christmas presents (mind you we had sent all of the gifts back earlier with Dave when he flew out earlier that month!). We only had to find a new home in our already-stuffed-to-the-brims carry-ons for 14 extra pounds. Oops. After that initial excitement, we boarded our plane in hopes that the girls would sleep and we'd have a peaceful flight. (Looking back we were doing a LOT of wishful thinking...) In the first hour of the flight Ruby blew out of her diaper, so Rob went to change all her clothes in the lavatory. Upon his return to our set of seats, Grace blew out of her diaper, so Rob went to change her. Upon his return this second time, Grace spilled a cup of Coke all over herself and pretty much everything else. Rob took one more trip to the lavatory to do some cleaning. Poor guy! (In my defense I was stuck at the window seat and it would have been much more work to get me out to do one of those trips.) We weren't excited for the next two hours, but apparently we'd gotten all the excitement out of our systems and had a fairly peaceful ride, except for asking Grace not to kick or touch the seat in front of her in any way since we weren't getting very good vibes from that direction. Hey, we tried. Unfortunately (for all of us) no one slept, so upon our arrival in Utah, we were all exhausted.
That night was the Easton Family Christmas Party with Rob's mom's family. We were pretty tired from our trip, so I didn't take many pictures. Sorry. But you can take my word for it that it was really fun and delicious. We had the traditional breakfast feast and played Don't Forget the Lyrics courtesy of Kim and Cary and family.

More highlights included:

Grace and Henry finding their long-lost cousin love for each other. Grace wanted to hold hands all night. He didn't so much.

Aunt Leslie showering the only two girls (plus Ruby, but she's a little small still) with attention. Those poor girls have so many boys to fight for attention. Lucy and Grace loved having cousin time too!

Leslie getting mauled by the kids. (What a good sport!)

Grace being very cute in a Santa hat and enjoying so much attention from cousins who are so much cooler and more fun than her mom and dad.

And Annette almost serenading the room with R-E-S-P-E-C-T, from the tabletop. Rob picked her up and put her there, but at the last moment she chickened out :)

Stay tuned for more Utah fun! I'm trying to get caught up...slowly but surely....