Merry Christmas from the desert!!
The recap continues! This Christmas we traveled to Lake Havasu City, AZ, home of the London Bridge and Christmas Cacti.
(The above is not actually Ma and Bruce's home; their neighbor outdid them.)
Our journey started out smoothly. At Reagan, we had to haul our luggage and 2 carseats quite a long way, but still got to checkin in plenty of time. It was there that I got a nifty tip from the Southwest counter agent: Our flight was out of Baltimore, not DC.
GAAAAHHHH!!! Luggage! Toddlers! Back to the parking garage! Can we make it???
You can imagine. For the record, as the family travel planner, the mistake was all mine. And for the record, Tom was gracious about it.
Long story short, en route to Baltimore I was able to transfer us to a flight leaving 4 hrs later, with no change fees. Thank you, Southwest Airlines! And what's 4 additional hours to a 10 hour journey, anyway?
Arrived at BWI with plenty of time.
We split up for part of our Baltimore chill time. Peter and Daddy on the iPad, while Anna and I rode lots of moving sidewalks
Lunching
Anna wanted to wear a backpack like everyone else around. This brown plastic one worked just fine.
"Look! Maybe THAT'S our plane!"
Finally, we boarded. Anna was my row buddy. Here she is making one last call on Mr. Bacon.
I didn't take a lot of pics on the plane. Probably because it was mostly a painful trip. Sadly, excruciatingly, his girl did NOT enjoy her first airplane ride. Though it was right at nap time when we boarded, she slept about 20 minutes of the whole 5.5 hour flight.
And the rest looked pretty much like this. Oh my. I'd brought lots of tricks, but she was a tough audience.
Meanwhile, up in first class the row in front of us:
This happy little boy had a nice trip. So did his chaperone.
I thought it would never come, but we finally landed in Vegas. Here's Anna restoring her nerves the Vegas way.
We got a quick late night dinner in Vegas before our 3-hour drive to Lake Havasu City. It was also memorable. Anna screamed bloody murder most of the way. Undocumented was the midnight stop at the abandoned desert gas station walking around holding her in the desert night air, trying to shush/calm/reset our poor frazzled girl. Didn't work. But Peter, unperturbed, slept the whole time. Ah, memories.
We made it to LHC in the wee hours. The four of us crashed together in our room and, mercifully, all slept straight through and woke up on AZ time.
Here's what Ma and Bruce's 'hood looked like the next morning.
It was unseasonably cool there. Still, this wasn't too shabby for Christmastime.
Grandma and her grandkiddos at the end of our first full day, the 23rd. Tomorrow, the CA contingent would descend.
Christmas Eve morning: Anna exploring the foreign landscape
Cousins!! They came Christmas Eve and were the favorite plaything of my kids. I was pretty glad to see them, myself!
Grampa and Anna becoming acquainted in person. Can't do this over Skype.
Man, I miss these guys!!!
Christmas Eve PJ Portraits
Testing the gravity in AZ
The Martin Bros
My contrary children, and the best we could get from each of them for the cousin group photo
Present time
Lots of interest in Jon's new toy
Kate's tireless child-humoring
Peter and these lovely ladies.
Snacks and conversation with Grampa
Jon's first ever apple pie. Poor deprived kid.
Not many pics taken of these guys, but here they are cleaning up after us all, side by side. In the years I've known them, I have many times observed/enjoyed them serving together in the kitchen, cooking, cleaning, whatever, sometimes sharing a joke. May their unity only grow sweeter and stronger in the decades to come! We love you, S&K!
Jon rocking an online game
And suddenly, here we were at our last meal all together: Red Robin. How the time flies with these folks:
[But I decided to recall the aforementioned and otherwise great candid table shot since everyone in it was chewing and/or looking surprised. Or at their food. Or at the ceiling. You're welcome.]
Instead, here's a Red Robin shot we can all enjoy.
Thanks for how you love our kids, Aunt Kosal and Uncle Steve!
And these beautiful grown-up kids!
Bri, Jon, and Kate, we love you so much and love who you're becoming!
Well, the next morning, we hit the road. What we'd passed through several days earlier in the screaming, hysterical dark of night now proved a beautiful and exciting and somewhat more peaceful drive.
It was really extraordinary. The pics don't do it justice. What is it about standing before something so immense--even dangerous--that fills us with exhilaration? I propose this: that feeling small by comparison, powerless but caught up in something great, experiencing AWE, is simply what we're made for.
Here we are, us four Martins, far from home (but not really, right?)
Get those wiggles out!
Finally, 5 minutes from the airport, this happened...
No pics from the return flight which, except that it was in fact the one we had planned to take, was painfully, loudly, naplessly similar to the one out here. So I'll quit while I'm ahead and just leave us with these sleeping angel faces instead.
