Christmas Trip 2016 - Part One

Our drive to Oregon was thankfully uneventful.  The roads were pretty bad the first 2 hours and temperatures dipped to nearly 20 below zero.  There was a section of really dense fog too.  The boys discovered and loved the french toast dippers from Burger King (don't tell them they come with syrup, that was a no go in the car).  We stopped at a Costco for lunch, gas, and envelopes for our Christmas cards that I hadn't picked up when I got our cards.  It was in a busy retail area and wasn't the best idea the week before Christmas, but it worked out, just slower than we like our stops to be.  We decided to go through the middle or Oregon instead of the gorge...both roads were said to be bad.  We were pleasantly surprised at how good the roads were in Eastern Oregon.  We got dinner in Bend and prepared to go over a very snowy pass, thinking we would probably have to chain up.  We were very surprised at the lack of cars on the pass (you would have thought it was the middle of the night, not just early evening).  We didn't have to chain up and the snow was beautiful.  The kids were able to play with their grandparents while we unpacked and then we put them to bed.

Sunday we went to church and then spent the rest of the day relaxing.  Elliott got a good nap, the other boys played with all Grandma's toys, I worked on Christmas cards.  In the evening we drove through the Pastega family lights and some other Christmas lights.  

 Monday we went over to Jim's parents.  One of the reasons we were nervous about the roads in Oregon is that the valley had gotten snow a few days before and it had stayed cold.  A little elevation made a huge difference as the hill we go over to get to Jim's parents was a frozen and slushy mess.  We even had a little trouble getting up their driveway.  We enjoyed a little playing indoors before heading out to do some sledding.  Emmett and Ezra had fun sledding "traditionally" and using the sleds as snowboards, impressing us with their balance.  Elliott loved playing in the snow and did a little sledding at the end.

Monday afternoon we went back to my parents' and Elliott took his nap.  Ezra and I went to mail our Christmas cards and did some shopping at Trader Joes.