My flight was delayed, my bags were the last one off the plane, the shuttle was nowhere to be found, and I hit traffic on 540, which never happens. By the time I made it home I had about four seconds to throw my bags inside, grab a uniform, and make it to my early morning Tuesday meeting.
Naturally, Seth had chosen this as the first time since we moved in to lock this house with a key, and I didn't have one. He was in North Dakota with the kids. The pinpad wouldn't override the deadbolt, and every window I tried was locked, including the ones on the second floor.
Vacation was definitely over.
I eventually abandoned ship, went to work looking and smelling exactly like I had just taken the redeye from Vegas, and called our realtor to beg her to unlock the door while I was gone. I got a text from Missy that said she too had arrived home to disaster: the necessity of shoveling her car out of snowbanks coupled with having dropped her keys in one. So I guess it could've been worse.
Luckily, a couple days with the Walters fam- even in my least favorite place- had been exactly what the doctor ordered.
"Walters Christmas" commenced immediately upon our arrival
and the holiday spirit stuck around for the next 4.5 days. (This is how Ford ["Christmas boy"] took his naps.)
F+F love traveling in general (even though a suddenly-sick Ford threw up all over me minutes after this photo was taken, before we even took off),
but trips to see their "puzzins" (cousins) are their absolute favorite. Bonus if it's somewhere you can swim in December
and you get story time with Ana & Ata
and Missy time.
This hilarious get-together also involved these bizarre masks, for some reason
Hawaiian dresses,
and more makeovers than I could count. (Ford was a real sport about this one after Natalie told him she was making him look "like a football player!")
No Vegas trip is complete for the Walters family without a hike at
Red Rock, and "puzzin" rock scrambling did not disappoint.
(Ford came for the snacks.)
We also bit the bullet and took the kids to the Strip to see the Christmas decorations, and it was a total blast. Vegas is surprisingly kid-friendly if you go early enough, and I always forget how groovy the dancing fountains are at the Bellagio,
not to mention their stunning Conservatory Christmas display.
The kids loved trekking down Las Vegas Blvd. and staring at the lights and the sights and the...
sigh. M&M store. (Lisa hacked Vegas and brought Wal Mart M&Ms for a treat afterwards, and Missy and I enjoyed a real "proud sister-in-law" moment over this bit of ingenuity.)
And Finley's dream came true when she and Tyler got to become real, live Vegas performers at the New York New York Christmas show.
Seth joined the fun in time for this super relaxing wake-up
and the marquee event, Ben's graduation from
Weapons School.
We couldn't have been more proud, my "Twitch" in the above photo notwithstanding,
made even more so when we found out he was the honor grad!
The rest of our early Christmas weekend was a blur of PJ time and hide and seek,
hikes with Mom,
"we miss you!!!" calls to Peru,
and lots and lots of park time in warm, sunny West Coast weather.
And before we hit the airport, we made the eleventh-hour discovery of one more tree, and the world's largest observation wheel (our new favorite thing in Vegas.) (It had a BAR.)
There are always lots of great photos from cousin get-togethers, but this may be my favorite, an adorable reminder to stop & smell the roses (or at least a family member's armpit) before boarding flights and barreling toward the holiday weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment