Extended Holidays in South Carolina

We flew out on Christmas Day.  Yes, we had a 12 day old baby.  I may be crazy, but I was much more worried about my very active almost 2 year old than the sleeping infant.

I was a little nervous about getting to the airport as it was a very white Christmas and the drive took a little longer than I'd been expecting, but thankfully we made it and had time to do a bathroom/diaper stop before we got on the plane.  Dramamine has made a big difference in our travels.  The flights there went great- the kids were great, we made it on time, there were enough empty seats that Matthew and Ben both had their own seats, it went really well.

The plan was to stay from Dec 25th to Jan 4th, the norm, but then I was reminded that Jared had a convention in Vegas a week after we got back and then he would also have a scout campout that weekend.  After having so much help with my kids, a newborn, a cold, and a lack of sleep from partying too much with family, coming back to Utah just to be left home by myself in a record breaking snow year sounded pretty miserable.  So.... after an emotional breakdown we switched our tickets.  Jared ended up staying until  Jan 8th and came home and worked a week, then went to Vegas, then camping, and then he came back to SC on the 23rd to bring us back to Utah on the 24th.  

The kids and I had a great time and enjoyed the exciting snowfall (3 in) in South Carolina and by the end of the same week we enjoyed near 80 degree weather.  It was also great to get some one-on-one grandma and grandpa time.  I suspect they were somewhat relieved to have their house back to themselves, but we had a great time.  I particularly enjoyed time to just hold my new baby. Grandpa would take the kids out to play and grandma would be taking care of dinner and I could just rock my baby and not feel pulled in ten different directions.  It was a sweet treat. 

I really feel like spending January in South Carolina has done wonders for helping the winter not feel so long and was great with a new baby.  A new tradition for Christmas and new babies, perhaps??

Here's some of the photo evidence of how much fun we had...   (not necessarily in chronological order- I'm pulling from too many different sources)

Ban called them ducks... oops. 12/26/16

Another round of Christmas presents 12/26/16

zip-lining 12/28/16

"The tunnel" 12/28/16

The "whanana" aka- wagon. 12/28/16

Decorating cookies 12/29/16

Watch yo Mouth. 12/30/16

Happy New Year!!

1/1/17

Painting 1/11/17

Swinging 1/11/17

Checking out ducks at Furman University. 1/12/17

Ben LOVED pulling this thing around. Made for slow going, but he was happy.

Greenville Zoo 1/13/17

I spy.... Ben!  1/17/17

Playing at the park. 1/18/17

1/22/17

Ben (20 mo) & Baylor (14 mo) 1/3/17

Caroline & Corbin (3 1/2 ) 1/3/17

Sweet smiles! 12/27/16

Airplane park 12/??/16

Ben had an okay time, but was content to hang out inside. 

Snow day!!  Jared busted out the old snowsuit from the attic.
So fun to share the snowy hill in the backyard with my kiddos.  1/7/17

Lap full of love- Ben would very sweetly rest his hand on Matthew's back.  1/8/17

Baby Matthew was a favorite and had fun meeting his cousins, aunts, and uncles...

With Grandpa Leckie

Cousin Jeffrey

Cousin Brian

Cousin Kate

Aunt Geri

Aunt Emily

Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of him with EVERYone who held him.