Christmas 2013 - Texas Edition.

now with captions!

On the second day of Christmas (12/26), we loaded the girls into the car and began the long journey to..... TEXAS!!

Unlike the wise men, it did not take us twelve days to arrive at the place designated by the (lone) star, but it did take us two.  Which can be a journey when your traveling companions are a toddler and a baby, but, luckily, we have the best little travelers in the world so we just drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and after we went through the whirly swirly gumdrop forest we arrived in a faraway land called Ft. Worth, Texas.

One of my brothers lives outside of Ft. Worth, and my other brother (and his family) and my dad were all visiting for Christmas.  I'm a stickler about having Christmas at my own house, but we didn't want to miss out on the festivities, and wanted to give my family an opportunity to meet Caroline, so we came right AFTER Christmas.

Ellie had SO SO SO much fun running around with all of her cousins, and Caroline was sweet and cute and warm and cuddly - just what everyone wants a baby to be - so it was a great visit!  Here is a photo roundup of our long weekend in the Lone Star State.

Pete and Jenni have a bounce house - this was the default place for the kiddos to play.

Ellie wore Cloudy's old swim trunks for an impromptu dip in the hot tub.

They loved it!!  L-R: Jacob, Ben, Ellie, Ryan, Cloudy

Apparently Ellie got herself up there.  I'm glad I didn't see it happen.

Carter grandkids in front of the tree!

Obligatory family photo - with a frowny Cloudy.

So we ALL made frowny faces!

When it got cool outside, there were always Legos.

and light sabers.

Snuggles with Aunt Jenni

Uncle Pete stole her hairstyle!

Ben love!

One last pic with Granddad before we hit the road.

Thanks again for having us, Pete and Jenni!  Can't believe we all fit under one roof - good thing everything's bigger in Texas!!