Trip to Washington!

That's right, I'm the "sister" that takes a ton of pictures, this post only has roughly around 175 pics compared to my 600 I have ;) I think every picture shows something different. Plus I'm not much of a writer, so most of my posts will be pictures.

Anyways, my sister Melanie told my mom about a play her twin girls were participating in this year, "Annie". She just mentioned it in one of there conversations not expecting anyone to make the effort to go, Melanie was just updating my mother on what's been going on lately. Once the performance dates were set, my parents looked at there work schedule and were able to arrange the time off from work to go. It was going to be a short trip so they were just planning to go themselves. My sister Emily and I were told they were going and that it would be a short trip to not try to come just because it isn't fair to Braxton to be stuck in a car that long. So I never looked into going, but Emily did and was able to switch her schedule around to go. Well a week before there trip, I was eager to go, I needed to get away and have a mini vacation for myself. Than what really convinced me to go was when I heard that my Aunt Bethie would be there as well. I instantly jumped all over it and changed my work schedule. After rearranging my work schedule, I thought that I could just fly there and surprise everyone but  looked at the costs of flights and just got depressed. I didn't expect them to be that expensive. So in the middle of the night I texted my mom asking her if she was awake, which she wasn't but now was cause I woke her. Whoops! :) I told her about what I was trying to do and asked if I could go with them instead of fly. I told her I would bring tons of toys, books, and some of his favorite shows like signing time and baby einstein to keep him occupied. My parents were a little reluctant but with Braxton already being such a good baby it was easy to convince them that he'd be fine for such a long distance. So there you have it, we went to Washington! Once again, poor Jackson had to stay home and work though. His schedule isn't as flexible as mine. And as stated above, there are A LOT of pictures so I'm just going to let the pictures tell about our trip.

We left for Washington on November 15th. Emily and I like to drive in the night so after much talk, we convinced my parents that it would be best to leave at 12AM on the 15th. So Emily and I left Utah on the evening of Em's birthday the 14th and headed to Idaho. We made great time and got there at 10:00PM. Which gave us two hours to get everything packed and ready to go in my parents van. We left around 12:30 AM with Emily driving first. Braxton of course did awesome, he slept practically the whole trip. And anytime he did wake up, it was for a quick diaper change. We fed him while driving and had plenty of toys to keep him occupied. He did great as I knew he would. The nice thing about leaving around 12:30AM we showed up to my sisters house around 1:00PM which gave us an extra half a day to spend up there.

This is the first Rest Area that Braxton woke up for, (yes those are the bathrooms behind them, it was a great picture though!) and he was of course as happy as ever after being in a car all night.

Time for breakfast!

We made it! When arriving to my sisters house, the plan was to have Emily, Braxton, and I hang out in the car for about 5 min while my parents go in first. My twin nieces had no idea that we were coming just because if the weather would have been bad that weekend, we didn't want to disappoint them by not coming after-all. So here we sit in the van waiting for our turn to go in.

My turn, SURPRISE!! I of course was more focused at taking pictures of there faces the whole time.

Five minutes later, Emily knocked at the door. By this time Kadie said to my mom before opening the door, "I think it's Aunt Lou (aka Emily)!"

Just hanging out, relaxing from our long trip. I'll admit, I was pretty tired once we got there.

I decided to give Melanie and her family there Christmas gift from us early since I was already there...

... plus I figured she didn't want to deal with all the pieces and work it takes to set up the game I got them, "Mouse Trap"! It's a classic!

Thanks mom for helping me out with the rule book and setting up the game!

The finished product!

Later that night, Aunt Lou painted the girls toe nails. 

Rylee was the lucky one who was able to get her fingernails painted while her twin sisters couldn't because they are orphans in the play. Orphans don't have colored nail polish on.

While the girls were getting there nails painted. Melanie took my dad up on the opportunity while he was there to have him hang up some Christmas lights. Melanie got a new outside decoration from a garage sale a while back that makes the Christmas lights turn on and off in rhythm with Christmas music. Pretty neat gadget.

The finished product for now!

The next morning, Auntie Bethie showed up (my mom's sister)! She brought Braxton's baby gift and other gifts for the girls.

Thanx Aunt Bethie for Braxton's gifts, he loves them, especially the bath toys! We were in need of some bath toys!

The girls than got to open up there gift from my mom and dad.

Christmas Ornaments! My parents give all the grandkids a new Christmas ornament for the tree every year. This year the girls have really liked the movie "How To Train A Dragon" and picked out which dragons were there favorite from the movie. So my mom found small figurines of there favorite dragon and made an ornament out of it for them. They loved them! We found them several times throughout the weekend just playing with there ornaments around the house.

We than went out to get some frozen yogurt! Yum!

Finally, time for the play "Annie" to start! The whole reason we made the quick trip up there! Pre-show pictures of the girls in there orphan outfits!

There was a wall of posts about every cast member, thought I'd take a picture of it and share what it had to say.

Waiting to go into the Auditorium!

Trying out Bethie's new gift to Braxton while waiting for the show to start. You put food in the container and squeeze it out onto the spoon. It worked swell!! :) Thanx Aunt Bethie!

I zoomed in and cropped some of the pictures a bit to show a close up of the girls. Kadie in a blue dress with a green jacket and Ella in a yellow dress with a white jacket.

Just had to add, Braxton did so good during the whole performance. In fact he watched the whole first half while falling asleep during the second! The play was almost a full 3 hours! We were expecting him to maybe be fussy and not want to just sit there the whole time, but he did so Awesome! Even the people in front of us afterwards said that they never heard a peep out of him and were quite impressed! My amazing baby! :)

Quick Intermission!

The play is over. They did so good! It was fun to watch and I'm glad we were able to go and see it! I was so happy I was able to watch the whole thing, I was a little worried at first if I would have to stand outside with Braxton or not, but like I said earlier, never had to.

This is a picture of the girls with a friend of there's that came to watch them.

The girls opening up there gift from Grandma and Grandpa Hawkins after the play along with the flowers they got from them.

Grandma and Grandpa Hawkins got them new winter hats and gloves along with other little goodies! Super cute!

Home now and just hanging out!

The girls playing with there dragon ornaments.

Aunt Bethie reading them a bedtime story.

After the kiddos went to bed, all of us girls went to Walmart, and I honestly don't remember why we went but I do remember the massage chair Emily and Beth tried out. Had to take some pictures of their experience! Aunt Beth is so fun! So glad you were able to come up from Oregon!

Sunday morning!

Aunt Lou and Kadie making birthday cakes.

Playing with the "moon" dough Aunt Bethie gave the girls, it was a fun type of dough that is supposably never drys out.

Watching a christmas movie! "Arthur Christmas"

Happy Birthday Troy and Emily!

Emily and Troy opening up a few birthday gifts.

After opening up gifts, Aunt Bethie had to head back to Oregon. I surprisingly didn't get any pictures of her departure! So sad! We're so glad we got to see you Aunt Beth! And I'm glad you got to meet Braxton! Thanx for the awesome gift and all your love! Miss you tonz!

Bedtime story Sunday night!

Up bright and early Monday morning, getting ready to go. It was sad to say goodbye, but so glad we were all able to make the trip up there! Love and miss you lots!

Braxton enjoying signing time on the way home.

At a rest stop taking a quick break from the car seat. He did pretty good for the most part on the way home. Better than most kiddos that have to spend that long in a car seat.

Braxton enjoying the front seat at a rest stop on our way home to Utah from Idaho.

It was a great short trip. I'm so grateful I was able to go with my parents and sister and so very grateful that they were nice enough to take Braxton and I! I'm so blessed to have a great baby that could tolerate the car for that long and sit through a 3 hour production. So blessed to have Jackson approve of me to go on such a long trip with our baby at the last minute. So much to be grateful for this year and these are just a few of the many things. Thanx Melanie for letting us crazies come up for the weekend to see you guys. It was great to see you and your family! Your girls did great!