January 14, 2015

• There and Back Again - Part 1

  We always know that we will be doing a lot of traveling between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day every year, but some years we do a lot more traveling than others. This was one of those years that included thousands of miles and not just hundreds. We began our long journey in Pennsylvania with Dean's entire family. We enjoyed the evening together and I even played (and won) a game of ping pong.

  

  The boys were all happy that they received some money but when I went to put it in my wallet, my wallet was not in my purse. I went through all the suitcases and the van, but there was no wallet. To make a long story short, instead of leaving for New Mexico from Pennsylvania, we drove home, and I found my wallet on the counter where it had fallen out of my purse as I was putting things in it for the trip. As we drove home, I kept checking the weather forecast on my phone and discovered that snow was predicted right along our path for the first part of the trip, but that it hadn't started yet. We decided to leave right away instead of waiting until morning so that we could miss the snow.

  JJ crawled into the back seat and slept until we got to Western Tennessee, but Jeremy and Justin were determined that they were going to stay awake until we got to Tennessee (five hours). They did and were still going strong when we left Virginia behind. They did finally fall asleep and then all three boys woke when we stopped for breakfast.

  Our time in New Mexico wasn't full to the brim and we enjoyed just being with family.

  

  The older boys were more than glad for time with cousins.

  

  Joseph loved playing with my great-nieces.

  

  The evening that we were all together, we opened gifts and I wanted to read one of the books that I had given. I began reading to one niece and the next thing I knew all the nephews were gathered around. Yes, including the daddies of the nieces.

  

  My favorite gift was an old photo of my grandfather.

  

  We measured all the kids that are still growing. Each year we check to see who has grown the most and this time, it was one of the little girls. I failed to take pictures of mom with her grandchildren until the last evening and then the group was incomplete.

  

  After we left mom's home for our trip home, we saw several hot air balloons. I snapped a quick picture with my phone since I had packed my camera away for the day.
  

  As we traveled south through New Mexico, we talked about our time together and about the times that we had shared. New Mexico isn't just some state way out west, it's the home of many that I love and a place that I intend to visit again.

  • 10:02 pm
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