It's Christmas Time!

We were so excited to be able to go to Utah for Christmas! It was so much fun and the kids had a blast seeing grandparents and all their aunts, uncles and cousins. 

Here are a few pictures we took of Christmas before we actually headed to Utah... mostly of decorating the Christmas tree and putting up Christmas decorations.

Garrett's "cheese" face. This is literally
what he does when you tell him to smile and
say "cheese". Haha! He is so goofy :)

This arrived on our doorstep before we headed to Utah. It was a present from Zach! He sent us a swing set! He had our name for Christmas this year and he went all out. A huge thanks to Uncle Zach!!

The kids were obviously really excited!

In the car... headed to Utah!!! And gas was so cheap so that was good for the med school budget we are on. Haha.

Visiting Santa at the Provo Mall. Kimbri was all about it but Garrett was terrified! He did great and loved sitting on Santa's lap at our Ward Christmas Party but he wanted absolutely nothing to do with Santa this time around. He was clinging onto me for dear life!

Trying to get a picture of the 5 grandkids :)

Kimbri and Luke getting a back scratch from
Grandma Tammy.

The presents were soooo tempting for Kimbri.

What Santa brought!

Kimbri's stash.

Garrett's gifts from Santa.

Rick's gift from my parents. A hot cocoa machine!

Leaving out cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer.

Kimbri woke up Christmas morning needing
a breathing treatment. Poor girl! But it helped
a ton and she was good to go after that!

Our "White Christmas" wish came true!

Christmas morning!!!

Kimbri chillin' with Uncle Enoch on his
huge, awesome new bean bag.

These Arizona kids got to see the snow! And Kimbri had a blast in it! Garrett, on the other hand, wasn't so sure.

Mommy & Garrett getting a sled ride :)

Riding the hippo around the mall:

Hangin' out at Grandma and Grandpa Haycock's house:

Cambria playing with the old kitchen set from when we were kids.

Hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa Stone's house:

Seeing the Festival of Lights at Canyon View Park. This park always brings back memories of the day the Rick proposed to me :)

On our way home, just after driving through Las Vegas and heading into Arizona, it started to snow. WHAT?!?! Yes, it's true. It was snowing!! The roads were amazing and super clear all through Utah and we didn't even think to check the road conditions in Arizona. Why would we? Well, it was a mess. Our trip home ended up being suuuuuuper miserable!

So, the roads started out like this. Not too bad if you know how to drive in snowy weather. But obviously these Arizonans didn't know how to do that. We saw SO many cars who had slid off the road!

Then the roads covered in snow, combined with the wind, got real bad. 

Then when it came for us to exit onto the highway that we needed to get on, it got soooooo backed up because of the bad weather and road conditions. It took us 2 hours to go just a few miles. We approached the exit and realized we were getting pretty low on gas. Well, in normal traffic it wouldn't have been a problem to get to the next gas station but in this traffic we were really nervous to run out of gas in the middle of nowhere. So we had to decide to turn around and drive another couple hours to go the few miles back up the road to get gas and put us back nearly 4 hours or more, or to just keep going.

We hesitantly decided to keep going... I'm glad we did in the end but it was a super stressful decision. We made it to a gas station just in time and it was INSANE. Everyone and their dog needed gas because of the crazy amounts of traffic. The line to get gas and go to the bathroom was a nightmare. 

Finally, we got back on the road. The roads started to improve drastically but it was still weirdly cold for Arizona. 

As we approached Wickenburg it was about 11pm (and we still had another hour and a half till getting home) so we decided to stop for some food at McDonald's. And you would know, even with it being 11 at night, that McDonalds was PACKED! Probably because everyone got stuck in the same storm. Anyway, we originally had planned on being home by the time we needed dinner, but that obviously didn't happen. So we decided to make one more potty break out of it and get a couple things off the dollar menu.

This is when even more craziness happened. 

I got out and took Kimbri in to go to the bathroom while Rick changed Garrett's diaper on the front seat of the car. The keys were in the car since Rick was staying out there with Garrett. He got Garrett out of the car, changed his diaper, put him back in his car seat, shut Garrett's door and went to get back in the from seat and the doors had somehow all locked! I came back out of McDonalds with Kimbri and found Rick in a state of panic, saying that the doors locked on him and Garrett was now locked inside. Ohhhhh boy. And of course you would know both our cell phones were in the car too. 

A group of teenagers passed us on the sidewalk and I asked if we could use one of their phones and they literally just looked at us and kept walking. I almost broke down in tears. Then an older couple pulled in an got out of their car and asked if we needed help and they so kindly let us use their phone! 

We tried calling our roadside assistance but the call kept dropping... probably because Wickenburg is in the middle of nowhere. Haha. We didn't know what else to do besides call 911. So that's what we did. They had some cops get to us within about 5 minutes to assess the situation I guess. That 5 minutes seemed like an eternity. I sang songs to Garrett through the window and played peek-a-boo with him, doing everything I could to keep him happy and to not make him worry. 

Well the cops didn't have the right tools to manage a break in so they call the fire department. A few minutes later a big ol' fire truck pulls into the parking lot of McDonalds. We had caused quite the scene with two big police trucks and a fire truck. They asked if Garrett was old enough to unbuckle himself and hit the unlock button. Ummm... no! He wasn't even 2 yet! So they asked him through the window if he could reach the unlock button and push it up. He threw his blanket to the side and tried so hard to reach it! When he couldn't, I think it must've frustrated and scared him because he burst into tears. He probably could tell by that point that something was wrong.

The firemen then got to work on sliding their tools through the window to try and pick the lock. Again, it seemed like another eternity until they finally got it open. They kept getting their tool in but couldn't coordinate it to pull the lock up. I was starting to get upset because Garrett was so scared and I couldn't make him stay happy any longer. 

They finally got it and I was so grateful! We whisked Garrett out of his seat and just gave him a big hug. As soon as we got him out he calmed down and thought it was awesome to see the fire truck. He is so into fire trucks (he even got one from Santa just the week before)! 

The policemen brought a bag over to the kids (Kimbri was so calm and patient through the whole ordeal) and they let both Kimbri and Garrett pick out 2 Beanie Babies each for being "so brave", they said. It was so kind and thoughtful of them to give those to them. They were very excited about them. 

By the time we got the kids loaded back into the car, buckled and situated with their food it was midnight...  Oh and did I mention that it was New Years Eve??

Yeah, so we rang in the New Year by pulling out of the McDonald's parking lot and driving the rest of the way home to Gilbert, AZ. 

All I have to say about it is that I was SO glad to be home by the end of that day and night. And I didn't want to get back in the car for a looooong time! But I was so very grateful for a safe arrival back home and that we were able to go to UT and spend so much time with our family :)