A long drive to see loved ones

The Mills family got together in Cody, WY a few days after Christmas.  So, we loaded the van and drove the 12+ hours to spend time with the crazy bunch.  We stayed the night in Missoula the first night, making the trip seem much easier to handle.  The boys travel pretty good, but Braden gets bored and doesn't want to watch shows or do anything but complain.  He got a bit car sick for a minute and threw up all over himself and the carseat about 1 1/2 hours before Missoula, so that was a fun adventure.  There were lots of windy and windy (as in lots of sharp corners) type roads, so I can really blame him, but yuck!  We of course enjoyed the swimming pool at the hotel though.  

The next day we continued east and as a tender mercy were able to make it to Cody, WY with no icy roads to deal with.  We had such a wonderful time with cousins.  The home we stayed in was beautiful and each family had their own room, with a huge family room for the kids to spend their time in downstairs and a nice living room and kitchen for the adults to chat in.  A group went to the Buffalo Bill Museum one afternoon, and Tanner said it was pretty cool cuz there were lots of guns.  We went to the LDS church and saw the murals of the pioneers on the walls and learned a little history about the area.  Then each family broke off and did their own thing.  We went to visit Lindsay Stephens and her cute kids that live in Cody, and then had lunch at a yummy restaurant.  Dave had fish tacos and said they were so good he would come back to to Cody just for the tacos.  We then went to a miniatures museum and learned the history of the indians in a display of little figurines.  There were probably thousands of these little men, like the ones on Night at the Museum but of course not alive.  There were also train tracks and trains that moved.  It was very cool.  We of course had Christmas together multiple times as the kids opened presents from Grandpa and Grandma one morning, then that night opened presents from other cousins, and then later the adults had a white elephant gift exchange.  We all laughed and had a fun time with each other.  Dave and his I-pad were a real hit, and it is possible that this will be the only reason we get invited again.  :)  One of the white elephant gifts was a book called Awkward Family Photos.  We all laughed at the poses and faces in the book.  But, here, as I post these pics, I look at the "family" photos here and we really could have our own book.  I took lots of pics, and each one someone is looking away (grandpa) talking (Russell) or has their eyes closed (Marjie).  Braden was real happy to be in the one picture, and we thought an adult picture would be easy because we can all look at the camera and smile, right?  Wow, maybe not!

For the white elephant exchange I ended up with the "family photos" book, and Dave got and eye-pad.  :)



Tanner and Flynt



Mandy and Ivan drove home with us, and then stayed in the hotel with us in Missoula on the way home.  The boys were excited to have Emma and Levi to swim with and play with, and I was grateful to have them for company and it seems safer to know that there is someone you know that will stop if you need help.  Thankfully we didn't!  We spend New Year's Eve in the hotel, and even though we were too tired to make it to midnight, it was a fun night.

We got home on  Sunday afternoon.  Again, good roads, and it seemed to be faster coming home than getting there.  Before bed we had a little "bubbly" and blow horns and kissed Happy New Years.  It was so fun to do with our little boys!