Three Men and a Lady: Over the river and through the woods...

Our plan to leave for Virginia was almost thwarted by a stomach bug. The stomach bug that seemed to plague our families throughout the entire Christmas vacation to Virginia.

Kemper had a half day of school and our plan was to hit the road as soon as he got off the bus. We saved some packing since we knew we would have that morning to finish up and load the car before he got home. Kemper woke us up pretty early that morning when he came down with a stomach bug. Plan B...pack up as planned and play it by ear. We should know by now that plan A usually doesn't pan out and to always have a plan B. We did manage to pull out of the driveway around lunchtime and made it to VA without any major mishaps. Kemper was a bit puny but overall fine after that morning.

At a rest stop...Hudson had no interest in the chair that was his size....

It's taken us 4 years (really...I'm not sure why we didn't figure this out sooner) to realize that the drive goes much better if we plan it so that part of it is after Hudson's bedtime. We leave right after lunch, stop for dinner and then change Hudson into pajamas and he'll usually conk out for the rest of the ride. Hooray!! Kemper fights it and usually doesn't fall asleep in the car but he's such a great traveler that it's not a big deal. We made it to Pops and MeMe's house around 11pm. Hudson went right to bed and Kemper shortly thereafter.

Kemper got stuck with the small chair since Hudson wanted the big chair. Such a good big brother.

We visited with Grandma Rita and Grandpa Phil after everyone got a good night of sleep. Christmas fell during the early part of our visit so it felt like we were off and running with no downtime (as usual). It was great to see everyone but it's always hard being out of our own environment with little ones.

Having fun on a ride at Chuck E Cheese

Before the Christmas festivities began, we took a trip to Chuck E Cheese with some church friends. I think we figured that Kemper had already had the stomach bug and we'd all been exposed so we weren't terribly worried about picking something up. The boys had a blast and it was great catching up with friends that we don't get to see very often.