Trippin'

As you all know already, we took a quick trip down to welcome our newest grandbaby to the family over Christmas. It was a splendid trip! I've decided that I love road trips and being able to see new territory. I was finally able to see the cool and quite amazing straight up and down mountains? of Arizona and Southern Utah. I know that I drove through Arizona to go visit Duane in Tuscon years and years ago (can we think back to 'pregnant with Brandi' days???) but I must have blocked out the scenery. It's kinda like eating broccoli when you're a kid...you don't appreciate it until you're older and wiser. Anyway, for me, the trip was absolutely a blast.
There were MANY other highlights of the trip other than the scenery. On our trip down we got a call from Josh and Mindy. They were in Virginia spending the holidays with Mindy's family. Josh told us that as soon as we got to Dillon's that we had to get onto the internet so that he could show us some pictures that he's put up in Picasa. He said that they had been the lucky winners of tickets to the David Letterman show and had been able to take a trip to New York City with Mindy's father. I'd never been to NYC so I was excited to see the pictures that he wanted to share with us. So, as soon as we had hugged the grandbabies, Valerie and Dillon, we cranked up the laptop and gave Josh a call. He wanted to be on the phone when we logged on so that he could explain the photos. I should have been a tich suspicious at that point but I was just psyked that he got to go to NY!
Finally all was set and we opened Picasa. We were all huddled around the computer waiting for pictures of Will Smith (the guest on David Letterman) when, what to our wondering eyes we saw, but a tiny pink stick being held in Mindy's hands! It was a pregnancy stick with a positive!!!! Of course my shreaks of joy could not be contained as Valerie joined right in. I was afraid that we had woke up London with our squeels but she survived the ordeal just fine. For some reason I had been thinking quite a lot about Josh and Mindy having their first baby and had even figured it up in my mind as to the best time for such a thing to proceed. Mindy will graduate from BYU-I in July so I thought that it would be perfect timing any time now and when it actually came to be, we were all thrilled. They are rather sneaky little stinkers.
Another highlight of our trip was Christmas morning. Before Sydney even thought about going downstairs to check and see what Santa had left her, she came into our room and sat on our bed right next to me. Then she snuggled right up close and said in her sweet little soft voice, "I love you Grammy G." Those words still echo in my mind and I miss her terribly. I can't wait to go visit them the end of the month so that I can squeeze her tight.
Christmas day Dillon and Val put on a delectable spread for us of baked ham, scrumptious mashed potatoes (total yum!), and green bean casserole. Sydney and I worked hard decorating a gingerbread house with Sydney needing to taste all of the candies first. It was great to be able to hang out at their house for the day and just play and enjoy our time with them. London loves to be held so we did as much of that as possible. She is a sweet little baby. Sydney is growing up so quickly and she is becoming such a sweet little girl. Three year olds are so fun!
Our trip home included a trip up to Provo so that we could check out some pickups that Duane had been eyeballing online--and to stop and see our other kids. Zachary was in the bathroom being changed by Paul when we got there and he didn't seem to like it very much according to the squeeling coming from that general direction. When Zachary heard my voice, he got quiet and listened for a second before protesting even harder at having to lay still. I walked into the hallway and Paul set him down and Zachary ran straight into my arms. Ohhh...there is nothing like a hug from a grandbaby. I do love this time of life.