I've been planning to fly home and surprise my sister for a little over a month now. She had her sweet baby boy, Kolbe, in early September and I've been dying to be home since! I decided (with a little prompting from Dan and my Mom) to brave flying alone with Evelyn now that she is mobile and head home this past weekend. Dan was going to be super busy at work because it was Homecoming weekend, so I figured we weren't going to be seeing much of him anyway. It became even more exciting as the weekend grew closer because there was SNOW in the forecast!!
My Mom sent this the morning of the day we left...a little dusting just waiting for me!
Dan dropped us off at the airport after work that day - just in time for an airport dinner as we waiting for our flight.
She thought it was pretty sweet to be able to eat and walk around
Burning off some energy before we got on the plane by taking some laps with the stroller!
We completely lucked out on our first flight and have an entire row to ourselves! She had to sit on my lap for take off and landing, but was able to sit in her own seat for the rest of the flight (this one is only an hour).
She loved playing with the seat belt and her laptop...
...and looking out the window
We changed into pajamas in Houston for our longer flight to Denver. This one took off a little after her normal bedtime, so I was hopeful we would have a good flight and she would sleep. We lucked out again on this flight and had an empty seat next to us again. It ended up being great because when she fell asleep I didn't have to worry about her feet hitting someone next to us.
Watching a movie for the first part of the flight
She had a rough few minutes as we transitioned from movie to sleeping - but then slept the last hour and a half of the flight. Unfortunately I wasn't able to sleep because I kept feeling like I was dropping her!
We landed in Denver to this!!! SNOW!!! And lots of it!!!
It was perfect, peaceful, blissful, middle of the night snow. It took us a while to get home to Wray (my Mom came to pick us up). Normally the drive is a little over 2 hours, but that night it took a while longer because we couldn't drive over 40 mph for about half the trip with the snow. Unfortunately, Evelyn decided 11pm-2am was a good time to be awake on the road. Too much excitement, I guess!
We got to Wray around 2am and Evelyn finally fell asleep once she was in a crib. She slept in a little, then we went over to my sister's house for the big surprise!
We let ourselves in the house with my Mom's key and were greeted by my two nieces with confused looks on their faces and my sister saying, "what are you doing, dude?" Surprise! :-) We then called my brother-in-law and told him their laundry room was backing up again to get him to the house. He came home and Evelyn was playing in the room with Katie and Heidi (my nieces). It took him a minute, but he finally figured out it was her - then I came around the corner to say hi! So much fun to pull off big surprises!
"Baby Ko" and Evelyn calls him...such a sweetheart!
We had lunch at my favorite restaurant in Wray - La Familia.
La Familia is a "Mexican" restaurant that I grew up with. It's one of those places that you probably had to grow up with to really like. It was supposed to close in September, but fortunately someone else bought it so it's still open. Yay!
We came home to take naps and make cookies. While Heidi and Evelyn napped, Ben was still at school, so Katie and I made pumpkin snicker doodles and caramel apple cider cookies. Yum!
Kolbe Joshua just hanging out!
Katie and I making our cookies
Cousin shot!
Me with my nieces and nephews!
Kolbe taking a nap...sweet boy
Evelyn liked climbing into Kolbe's bouncy seat
Friday night we bundled up to go to a football game at my high school. Evelyn wasn't too sure of all of these cold weather clothes...hats, coats, mittens, boots, socks...
But she sure looks cute!
Saturday we got up and made French Toast for breakfast. We then headed up to the nursing home to visit my Grandma. (Side note: Please pray for her! She fell the morning that I left - she broke her hip in two places and hit her head.)
Evelyn liked the rocking chair in the lobby
Us with Grandma Uni
It was so good to see her in good spirits and looking so healthy. She has had some down times in recent years, so it was wonderful to see her so happy. I'm hoping she can weather this hip injury well and be back to her spunky self soon!
Grandma Uni gave them each some candy for Halloween...Evelyn's first sucker.
Mom of the year that I am, I forgot to let her eat it after lunch (Mom, it's still in your purple coat pocket!)
After naps, we had fun afternoon of playing. It was our last day in Colorado (it was a quick trip!). The kids all wore their matching Chattanooga Choo-Choo shirts that Grammie and Grandad got for them on their trip to Tennessee a few weeks ago.
Playing some cards and eating a snack
And Evelyn thought Grammie's wall needed some color (all down the wall - purple crayon)
I learned that the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser's take crayon off of walls really easily. :-) And because it's fall in Colorado it was a perfect afternoon to play outside!
The girls did some dancing...
And laughing...
Evelyn has started covering her mouth when she laughs. I don't know where she got it from, but it's really cute. It's even cuter because my Grammie (who Evelyn is named after) used to do this with the back of her hand to her mouth. Sometimes I think my Grammie is talking to Evelyn, teaching her some tricks on being Evelyn. Makes me smile.
Playing with some balls
Working on some ball handling skills...
I'm just going to take a little break, guys...
Our trip back on Sunday was a little rougher than the trip out. I think it was partially because I was exhausted (she didn't sleep particularly well when we were home), so my patience was thin. She was over tired as well, so it made for a bad combination. But we made it home - in one piece - and ready for Daddy!
