Colorado Trip 2014

Ok, I am so behind and just not doing well with blogging these days.  So I am just going to do a quick recap of our Christmas season.

We went to Colorado on December 18.  It was cold, but not much snow at first.  We had an absolute blast just hanging out around Nate's parents house with his brothers, their wives, and all of their kids.  Quinn had fun with her cousins, but after a few days of being away from home and being the biggest kid around...she started to become quite a little bully.  It was so hard for Nate and me to watch because, although she is never the best at sharing, she was really acting out more than we had ever seen her before.  Other than her attitude though, it really went great.  It snowed on our second to last day there and she stood at the window for hours (while she was supposed to be napping) just watching the snow.  I kept going in to try and get her to lay down and she would say, "Mom, I need to see this snow." Haha, how could I say no to that?  Harper was so good the whole time, so mellow and calm and just loved watching everyone and playing with new things.

Even though we left on the 23rd, we had Christmas with Nate's family before we left so that we could all be together.  We were so spoiled, especially the girls.  They loved all of the presents and had a blast playing with all of their new toys.

The girls did great on the flights both ways, Quinn was so excited to get on the "purple plane"!  We are so glad we made the trip out and got to see everyone and spend time with that side of our family.

She wanted to look just like the sign in the bottom right corner.

Stephenson Reunion 2014

Now that my family is growing and starting our own families and getting real jobs and everything, it gets harder and harder to get all of us together at the same time.  But we scheduled a trip up to a cabin in Mammoth Creek a few months ago, and we made sure it happened!  We all arrived at separate times, but once we were all there it was an absolute blast.  It was a beautiful cabin, with plenty of room for all of us and all of our kiddos.  Most of us had our own bedrooms with our kids in a separate one, and there were bathrooms for all of us.  There was plenty of space for the kids to play inside, and of course the deck and the yard were perfect for them to play as well.

We spent our time riding ATVs, playing games nonstop, eating junk food, and just watching the kids play together.  We roasted s'mores a few nights and Quinn could not have cared less about them.  She just wanted to eat the chocolate and marshmallows by themselves.  Harper, on the other hand, was reaching and trying so hard to get a taste of the s'mores.  It was so cute.

The weather was beautiful and we couldn't have asked for a better time.  Quinn and Harper had a blast with their cousins, and they were both so well behaved!  They did great on the drive there and they both slept great for naps and night time the whole trip.  Quinn did figure out that she could easily climb out of the pack N play, so we had a long talk about her sleeping in mommy's bed.  She got out a few times, but eventually saw the gate outside of the door and climbed quietly back into bed and fell asleep!  We were so proud of her!  Then when Nate and I would go to bed we would move her into her pack N play.  It was so cute that when she woke up in the morning she would quietly climb out and come into our room. (She did go back into her crib though when we got home...not ready for that transition yet) One night when we went to move her, we found her on the floor in the corner and we were busting up!  She is too funny.

We couldn't have asked for a better trip.  We missed my brother, Connor, but we are definitely hoping to make this a yearly occurrence so he will be there with us in a few years!

Our Trip Back East

At the beginning of March, we took a family trip back East to Maryland and New Jersey.  The main point of the trip was to see my grandparents, but we also wanted to see the rest of my mom's family that I hadn't seen most of in 7 years!  We also of course planned some fun events and some things with friends that we have out there.  Here is kind of a long post about everything we did there!

We took a red eye flight out Monday night.  It left at 10:45 (didn't actually leave until about 11:20).  That flight was hands down the worst part of the trip.  My mom and I sat in the row with Quinn and Harper, while Nate and my dad were a few rows up.  The girls were actually great.  Quinn only slept about 2 hours, but she was good while she was awake, and Harper slept a lot but we were holding her the whole time since she didn't have her own seat.  So with that being said, I think we each got about an hour of sleep on the plane and when we landed, it was 6:30am Tuesday morning and the day had to get going.  Needless to say, we were exhausted that day and barely functioning.  We went straight to my grandma and grandpas house though.  It was so great to see them and have them spend time with Quinn and Harper and really get to know their little personalities.  We hung out there all day, taking on and off naps throughout the day.  Nate left to go to a Georgetown/Creighton basketball game with his friend though.  We all slept great that night.

The next day (Wednesday) we did some sightseeing of where I was born and grew up until I was ten years old in Westminster, MD.  It was fun seeing my old house and school and showing Nate around to everywhere.  We then went back to my grandparents for a few hours and then my dad, my uncle, Nate, Harper, and I went into DC for the Wizards vs. Jazz game.  Nate had gotten hooked up with tickets in a suite for us!  We walked in and it was the best view and so great to have so much space, especially with Harper.  So we sat down and then someone in the suite turned around and I realized that it was Chris B. from The Bachelorette! Hah, I was dying.  Nate became "friends" with him throughout the game and they even exchanged numbers at the end.  But it was a fun game and a fun experience.

Thursday we woke up and went up to Gettysburg.  We did the car tour, because it was free and we had a limited amount of time and we had both of the girls.  But it was so fun!  I was our tour guide and would give directions and read out the description of each sight we passed.  We learned a lot and it was really cool to see all of the sights there.  Then we went to my grandparents for a little bit until my parents brought us to a friends house that night.  Some of our friends from Provo just recently moved about 30 minutes away from my grandparents, so we had to see them while we were there!  It was so fun staying with them for a night, having Quinn and their little boy play, and then staying up half the night playing card games with each other!  It was really great to see them.

After leaving their house the next day, we picked up Wawa hoagies and brought them back for dinner with my grandparents.  Then all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins in the area came over and we spent the night chatting and laughing with all of them!  This was the only night that Harper got a little fussy, but Quinn was amazing!  We were partying until about 11:00 and she was as happy as could be, playing with all of my cousins kids and whoever was willing.

The next morning we got up and started driving north.  We stopped at my dad's brother's house to visit and then continued on to my mom's brother who couldn't make it down for the get together.  We ended up visiting almost all day, and it was so fun again for Quinn to play with my cousin's kids.  By the time we got to our hotel in Mt. Laurel, NJ we were pooped.  We stayed in that night and just went to bed pretty early.

Sunday we got to go to church in our old ward, Moorestown Ward.  We saw SO many old friends and it was so much fun to catch up with everyone.  We then did some sightseeing around Mt.Laurel to my old house and school there and then we headed to a family friend's house for dinner and games.  We got back to the hotel and one of my friends came by for a few hours to visit us there, which was so nice of her.

Monday morning we woke up and headed back down to Baltimore.  We spent the day walking around the Inner Harbor, having lunch at Phillips, and seeing Camden Yards.  It was beautiful and luckily, we had great weather!  We then caught our flight that night and the girls were great!  Quinn slept almost the whole time and we landed at about 10:00 so we were able to come home and go straight back to bed until morning.

Overall, the girls were AMAZING.  They dealt with the time change both ways just fine.  They slept great everywhere we went.  Quinn took naps and slept at four different places, and in the hotel we didn't have a pack n play so we moved furniture around to trap her in and she did so good going to bed and sleeping still!  Harper slept in a suitcase at the hotel and couldn't have been happier about it.  We spend hours in the car driving and they both handled it so well.  I really couldn't ask for two more well behaved girls.  We are so blessed.

It was such a great experience to see and visit with so much family that week and to have them all meet Nate, Quinn and Harper and get to know them.  I am so glad we went!