Worth it all...

I must admit that leaving Greg back in Montana this fall was difficult! As Christmas rolled around, we enjoyed shopping for gifts for him on the road, and were careful to mail our packages to him in plenty of time to reach his house for Christmas. But, the thought of him being alone on Christmas really stunk! He planned on spending the day with Gramma and Grampa, and that helped, but it was still hard to imagine him waking up and opening his gifts by himself. He has always been surrounded by family for the holidays, and we have such fun celebrations all together. The thought of him being alone when he is used to having 10 siblings around was a bit of a downer; after all, sometimes, quiet IS bad. Apparently the same thought had occurred to some of the kids too, because it came out (through tears) that some of them were pretty bothered by the thought of Greg spending Christmas morning alone.

Now, we are not, contrary to our lifestyle, super rash people. Though we are not great planners, and tend to schedule our day that morning, we do have a general idea of at least what state we are going to be in and whether we are planning a big outing or not.

But, sometimes, you just have to let it go and go with your instincts.

Our instincts were telling ALL of us that we needed to spend Christmas with our Greg. Never mind that we are in Phoenix and he is in Montana. Never mind that we can't fly him down since he has to work the next 4 days, including Christmas, or that it is Thursday night and it takes 2 full days of driving to get to Montana.

So, at 7PM, Thursday night, we decided that we would hit the road (after a lengthy 15 min. discussion), minus the truck and 5er, and surprise Greg for Christmas.

We were on the road at 8, which is not bad considering that we were packing for 12, including Christmas gifts. look - even though you can't see all of them through the mountains of 'stuff', they were all smiling - even after a straight 15 hours on the road! We threw everything in the van so quickly that Beth and I got to MT in sandals and flip flops! LOL!

It took us 20 hours of driving - we had never done an all nighter before!

We realized that we had not missed Montana winter road conditions a bit...

we pulled into my sister's house around 6pm on Christmas Eve.

12 of us.

Unannounced.

hehehe!

And it's not MY fault that she didn't know that we were coming!!!

I tried to call her, but they were at their cabin celebrating Christmas with extended family (no cell coverage). And I did leave her a message, but she never bothers to check them. So, it wasn't my fault that they didn't know - I tried to warn them!

Actually, I think that I know my sis pretty well, and she would have been horrified if we had stayed at a hotel. So, we made ourselves right at home in their house. And we all had a great time when they finally showed up! Thanks to us, the cousins (their kids) stayed up way too late to get up refreshed for their 6 am flight to CA, but we slept in just fine and made up for the lousy night of sleep that most of us had in the van the night before. (And no, we didn't drive them out, they were already leaving! LOL!) :)

Greg still didn't know that we were here, and Gayle (my sis) called him and asked him to go pick up some gifts at her house Christmas morning. We hid the van, hid ourselves, and (gently) surprised him (we didn't want to get shot or anything! LOL!) when he came in her house to pick up the gifts that we had mailed to him through her. It was the best surprise ever!

What may look like utter chaos to you, is beautiful to me - and this is what OUR Christmases are supposed to look like...
with lots of exuberant voices talking to each other all at once. And intermingled in there, a voice that has not resonated through our household for a month; it was missed.

I had talked to Greg on the phone Christmas Eve, and told him that he should just take his gifts to Gramma and Grampas to open, knowing that he would come to Gayle's first (then he could open gifts with us)! It was the best fun!

Molly took her favored spot right back up where they had left off...

We had not seen him in his work uniform yet! Pretty handsome huh? ;)

What a trip - a trashed van, an outrageous (but totally worth it) fuel bill, and 20 hours of driving that included - playing musical carseats so little bottoms didn't get sore, eating crackers and cheese in the van because the only thing around was a convenience store, and (kind of) sleeping while sitting up. I suppose that some would think it's a little crazy for just a few hours with a loved one when a call would have been so much easier, but every one of us agree that it was absolutely worth it all!!!

I want to look back on my life and know that I invested everything I could into my family. I want to look back without regrets that I didn't take the opportunities given me to invest in relationships. I want to look back and reminisce with the kids, who will undoubtedly (many times over) say, 'remember the time that we just threw a bunch of clothes and the presents in the van and drove all night to spend Christmas all together?'

And until Greg has some sweet little wife to take care of him, and until they want to begin making their own traditions, and so that he doesn't have to wake up alone on Christmas morning...I'm thinking that this may be a new tradition for us (the coming back, not the driving all night!).

But, shhhh!...don't tell Greg - we want to surprise him again next year! ;)

Tonto National Forest...

Tuesday we took a drive thru the Tonto National Forest. We followed Vaughn's cousin (actually his cousin's son and his family) over the twisty road, and got to see some really neat country. Though I still have a hard time not laughing every time I see a National Forest sign out here - to us a national forest is miles and miles of dense trees and mountains. Here, it is a bit different...
it is miles and miles of shrubs and cactus!

Our destination was Tortilla Flats, AZ. Population 6...

it is a little touristy spot

known for a few unique characteristics. One of those being the fact that you can get

Prickley Pear Ice Cream!

Prickley Pear are a type of cactus. We have them back home, and they have A LOT of them around here.

I expected the ice cream to be a pale green color, and not have a lot of flavor. But, they make the ice cream out of the fruit of the prickley pear. It is dried and chopped before being made into ice cream. The ice cream is a deep pink, and tastes a little like a strawberry/raspberry/cranberry cross.

Not everyone liked it though - I think that Thomas, Joel, and I were the only ones that ordered it. Everyone else chickened out and ordered blah things like mint chocolate chip.

Molly liked it though!

she is turning into quite a character! LOL!

We like little old mining towns.

One of Tortilla Flats claims to fame is that the restaurant/saloon here is wall-papered with money. Real Money. When tourists come visit, they often sign or decorate a one dollar bill and staple it to the wall of the restaurant. It is estimated that there is half a million dollars papering the saloon. It is interesting in a wierd touristy sort of way.

It burnt down once, in the 80s, and has since been repapered by generous tourists.

The drive is a scenic one, but not one that you want to go on if you are prone to carsickness.

It was a nice drive. Afterwards, we stopped at Costco (of course), then headed home to hang out with the family.

Wednesday we stuck close to home and did some laundry.

And today, we all went to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Great movie, I must say!

We don't go to the movies very often at all. Mostly because there is very little worth watching, but also because it is a bit expensive for us all to go. $35 for popcorn and soda, and $68 for tickets (and that is at matinee price!).

We are off on a new adventure. Can't tell you what it is yet, but let's just say that I have a very loving, patient, and accommodating husband. This current adventure totally blows the budget, and we will be eating mac n' cheese for the rest of the winter, but it will be totally worth it! :) I'll post some priceless (to me) pics later! ;)

Casa Grande Ruins...

Yesterday morning we headed over to the...

Located in Coolidge, AZ.

They have the only Jr. Ranger program, for hundreds of miles, that we have not done yet, so we HAD to earn those badges while we are in the area.

Being parked for the summer must have put me all out of practice for playing the tourist! You know that I have this thing for watching the movies whenever we visit historic sites - and this time, I totally forgot about the movie! We ended up doing the whole thing backwards because we had to go to the other end of the museum to get the Jr. Ranger booklets. Since we were at the end of the museum, and they were calling for the next tour, we did the tour first. In hindsight, we should have done the tour very last. Anyway, this is what Casa Grande (the great house), thought to have been completed in 1350AD, looks like now... last used by the Hohokum Indians in 1400AD, it is pretty incredible that it has withstood the elements for so long.

The great house was 4 stories tall, and 60 feet wide. Built from a layer of subsoil, found about 10 feet below the desert, called caliche (cuh-LEE-chee), the great house was constructed in 24 inch layers. Caliche is very heavy, and when mixed with water to create a workable clay-like substance, could only be built up to about 24-26 inches before it would start oozing out at the base. You can see the building layers in the walls, they are defined by cracks that have developed over time. This site was designated as the countries first archaeological reserve in 1892, and the canopy was erected in 1932 to protect the site. The kids completed their Jr. Ranger booklets, and earned their first National Park badges of the year (traveling year that is:) When I took this picture, I remarked how it seemed that more of the kids did the program, and that we must be missing someone. I was holding Peanut at the time, and she put her sweet little hands on my cheeks, turned my face towards hers, and with a very concerned look said, "we ARE missing someone -we are Missing GREG!" And we are. we are enjoying the beautiful weather... and being able to stop and smell the roses (or ocotillo blooms :) in December! and the girls have begun the Christmas Countdown, and are constantly reminding us how many days there are until Christmas - just in case we forget! We are loving being able to reconnect with our Arizona family, and we are meeting lots of relatives that Vaughn either has never met or hasn't seen for years and years. Emma and Savannah have found some really great, bestest-friend cousins (they are probably like 3rd cousins 11 times removed or something!LOL!), and have loving having new playmates.

Today we are off to check out prickley pear (cactus) ice cream.?. We'll let you know how it is :)

Take a Hike...

Yesterday it rained lightly all day, and then it rained some more last night. This morning we woke to the most beautiful fog... It doesn't seem to happen here often, and when it does, it is limited to a small area. The plants and rocks were covered with moisture, and the water droplets on the cactus spines and spider webs glistened in the sun...

Vaughn, Daniel, and Joel decided to hike the front of the mountain - it was so beautiful in the fog...

the hike is a great one for the younger boys; they enjoy the challenge of the cables...

they made it almost to the saddle between peaks

the view was worth the climb....

as the fog burned off, the day warmed, and the sun shone down, the boys drank in God's beautiful creation... Arizona's stark beauty is certainly different than what we are used to seeing in Montana, yet we have grown to love this area also...
my little hikers coming off the mountain...

even the kids are glad to be back where we are surrounded with saguaros instead of pines...

and while we may be taking it easy until after Christmas, we are having fun planning all sorts of new adventures! Maybe even more hiking like the guys did today, but I doubt that anywhere else will top the many fond memories that we have made at Picacho Peak!