I'm dreaming of green lawns on a Phoenix Christmas

I was able to take some vacation over the Christmas holiday, so we packed up and headed to Phoenix.  When I saw the going rate for airfare, and thought about all the extra baggage fees for all the crap we'd have to travel with, (not to mention the TSA viewing my, uh, baggage on the full body scan), I decided we should drive.  I did manage to save a grundle of $, but I think flying would have somehow been easier.  Tommy was able to make it about 6 hours total drive time before completely melting down and screaming his lungs out.  After construction/traffic/fuel/baby feeding delays, we slid into Page after 9.5 hours (you do the math...).  Oh, and we took our dog Mario too.  (if you're dog people, this is hilarious).

We visited with Grandma, and Tommy's clone, Grandpa.

Spent some time with our cousins Josh & Samantha, and their parents.

Met my folk's new dog Lucky - he's a really funny dog.

Lucky & Mario ended up being thick as thieves.

We all swapped some germs.

Received some great gifts - I sure hope these stretch or I'll have to give them to Tommy...

We visited Zoo Lights - thanks Doug!

Josh & Samantha taming the lion.

Tommy took his first carousel ride.  Just like his dad, he seemed more interested in the whirling universal joints and cams overhead than anything else...

Grandma & Grandpa had some portraits done.

We also celebrated Josh's birthday, and visited the Addinks, but neglected to get any photos.

On the return trip we intended to stay in Cedar City overnight, but due to a road closure we ended up in Beaver, Utah at the Quality Inn.  (Don't let the name fool you).  The guy at the desk wanted me to know all the guestrooms had been remodeled this year.  While I couldn't detect any signs of remodeling inside the room, there were piles of sinks, old carpet, glass, broken furniture, and toilets right outside the window.  I wish I had snapped a photo, but the camera was packed away in the trunk and it was about 2 degrees outside.  We celebrated New Year's Eve at the local "Family Restaurant".  I was actually shocked - it turned out to be pretty darn good with lots of scratch-made dishes.  The place was packed with locals, and they asked me if we had reservations when we walked in the door - wow.  Check out their cute website.

We finally made it home mid-day on Saturday.  While we really enjoyed the trip, Tommy didn't sleep down there and we're exhausted.  He had his 6 month checkup yesterday - got more immunizations and discovered he's got dual ear infections (so he didn't sleep at all last night either).  Please be praying that Tommy can get back into a routine quickly, and we can start having some of those 5-6 hour stretches of sleep!