Valley Christmas

The Thursday before Christmas we loaded up the truck SUPER early and headed way down south to the Valley.  This was a first for us, every year since we've been engaged we've flown because #1 it was cheap #2 it was a 45 min flight and #3 once Hannah was here we didn't want to drive 6+ hours in the car with a baby.  It's always gone smoothly minus when Hannah was an infant and we spent 6 hours in the airport waiting on our delayed flight.  That was rough.  So anyways, this year the flights were NOT cheap since we were buying three for the first time and we decided to drive.  I.  Was.  Prepared.  I spent a few months before the trip checking out the $1 section at Target and getting little things here and there to keep Hannah occupied for the drive.  We decided to get on the road at 4:30am so that Hannah would (hopefully) sleep for the first few hours of the drive.  Google maps said our trip would be 7 hours long. 

Check out the bin of activities I had for the car ride!  I had it all organized under her feet so I could reach everything easily.  I brought some new books, movies, stickers, toys, crayons, etc and added a few of her favorites.  Everything that was small was grouped into ziplocks so I could find it easily. 

Hannah was so excited we were going to go see all the Townsends!  She wanted me to pack her in our suitcase!

I found this pic from 2012 with her doing the same thing.  :)  Look how little she was!  And bald.

I took this picture after she woke up on the road.  Too bright Mommy! 

Our plan ROCKED!!!  We made it in six hours and only stopped once for breakfast!  Hannah was absolutely perfect!!  She only slept for about 1.5 hours and then just quietly sat there until the sun came up (and Mommy woke up).  Then we got breakfast which she was clearly happy about as seen below and watched a few movies and we were there!  I didn't even have to get into her tub of stuff I brought except to grab DVDs. 

Once we got to the condo and got changed we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house and met Papa and CiCi there.  It was so nice because we got there a day ahead of most of the family so we got to spend a lot of time just hanging out with G&G. 

Hannah handed Austin her Rapunzel doll and wanted him to braid her hair.

So he did!  I was so impressed that he did that, mainly because it looked good!  Who knew?!  He loves his little girl big time.

Taking the baby doll for a ride around G&G's house.

She had the run of the place, she was ok with that!  :)

Friday evening we headed over to Paul and Nancy's house to just hang out and visit.  I took like three pictures so I stole a few from Elizabeth. 

Me with my sweet girl

Gracie and Libby were so excited to see Hannah!

As you can see from Hannah's face, she felt the same!  They were so cute and just ran and ran all over the backyard!

Saturday morning we let Hannah open presents at the condo.  She was pretty much in heaven.

Then we headed back over to G&G's house for more play time!

Hannah loves Libby.  :)  These two are almost a year apart, Hannah's bday is 8/11/2011 and Libby's is 8/12/2010.  They LOVE playing together! 

She also loves wearing a barn as a hat....

and as a glove?

Cousin pile!  Elise and Taylor are granddaughters but so far all of the great grandkids are all girls!  There are five little girls running/crawling around the place.  The cousins need to get working on some boys apparently!  Girls are awesome. :)

Playing the piano.  Check out all those curls!  It was SO WINDY when we were there!  Like 35mph winds blowing any and everything from Mexico to the Valley.  Yuck. 

Here is a pic from last year of Hannah and Grandma playing the piano together.  :)  Much less hair!

Hannah and Aubrey had the best time playing their "music".  Hannah even tried out playing with her elbows instead.

Two little cuties

This was hilarious.  Aubrey was playing and Hannah turned around and was "air playing" to the sound of Aubrey's music.

Really.  This was the best picture we got of these five.  Hannah....don't even know what to say.  Haha.

Townsend family picture!  We're missing a few but almost everyone was there this year.

Hannah was pretty much over it all by the end of the night.  She was falling asleep in Elizabeth's arms. 

OUT!

We woke up around 3:45am on Sunday and were on the road by 4ish and had a perfect ride back!  We got home around 10am and only had to stop once again for breakfast.  Hannah and I both slept the first three hours and watched movies the rest of the time.  It's a good thing too because we went home and unpacked, got dressed and then headed over to my parents for Christmas round 2!

We had a great time with the Townsend's and were so impressed with our awesome little traveler!