WINTER TRIP HOME, FINAL POST!

LET THE PARTY BEGIN!! The kids decorated their graham cracker houses - did a mighty fine job I might add. And straight from the mouth of Marcus, "worked darn hard..."

 Brian lost interested pretty quick, but for the few minutes he worked on it he had fun...

And then there were the masterpieces, the mansions, and the little cottage that was obviously already within the limits of the new subdivision and unwilling to move or be torn down...haha.

 Brent won the "Living in Bliss" award. Thayne was the grand prize winner - $25 gift card. Yes...we mean business. :)

It wouldn't be a Rigby Christmas Party without a visit from Santa Claus. The kids were almost shy around him, all speculating whether it was the REAL Santa or one of his helpers. And they all asked him for what we expected.

 Thayne and Angel

We had so many activities planned for the day. We decorated the houses, Santa came to visit, had a soup lunch with lots of left overs - it was potpouri lunch. Then the dads took the kids outside to play, after warming up it was time for the program-mom and dad prepared wonderful stories about Christ, we watched The Nativity, the Rigby Family DVD, put together family puzzles, had the house lighting presentation, the Grand winners of the Gingerbread houses were revealed, taco dinner, and then we all settled down for the night.

 Brian's snowman

 Marcus's masterpiece

 The two most wonderful people in the WORLD!!!

 And the greatest, most musically talented grandmother in the world.

The party went off without a hitch...it was great. My mother always plans everything to the hilt and I love her for it. All the effort, the time, the energy. Driving the hours was worth every single minute that we spent together with the Rigby and Bushman families.

On Saturday night about 9:00p we decided to check the road reports for our travels the next day. Snow, snow, and MORE snow....We had a small window in the forecast to get us to American Fork before the snow hit so we took it. Only as we got on the road it was most apparent that that window had already been missed. By about 2:00a we pulled into the Ruchti's driveway. And when we woke up to leave six hours later another four inches had fallen. It was hazardous most of the way to St. George. I mean, we saw some pretty crazy driving/wrecks. But for the most part people were being very safe on the roads.

Despite the hazardous driving conditions(this is near St. George so the roads were mostly cleared), it was a beautiful drive, a wonderful week with family, and a most memorable vacation. The kids took the long hours on the road quite well and were rewarded with a dollar.....okay, reading that back made me laugh- a DOLLAR for being good in the car for fifteen hours in one day. Well, they were happy about it.

Until next year....SAN DIEGO BABY!!!