Overview of our 7 week VACATION

We had a really wonderful vacation. We left the day before Thanksgiving and drove from Cambridge to Louisville, Ky (about 18 hours) to spend a scrumptious Thanksgiving with the Porter's then Casey flew back to Cambridge and finished the semester. The kids and I took a quick trip to my sister Sarah's (3 hour drive) and spent some time with her WONDERFUL family. Then we drove back to Louisville (another 3 hours). Once school was out Casey flew back to Louisville and we spent a few days with my family before herding the clan to the airport and flying to Spokane, WA (2 flights and an unknown # of hours) to spend Christmas with the Elmer's. After a fantastic Christmas and New Years, we hopped on another plane and headed back for Louisville (2 more flights and another unknown # of hours) and stayed with the Porters for a few more days. Sarah and the cousins were supposed to come down and visit but we got a ton of snow so they couldn't come. We just couldn't leave with out seeing them so we loaded the trusty van and headed back to Lafayette (yet another 3 hour drive). We spent a few days visiting with them then sadly loaded the van one last time to head back to Cambridge (a final 18 hour drive). It really was a wonderful vacation and here are some of the highlights:

Porter's (Louisville, Ky)
Playing games (always a blast)
Thanksgiving
Memory Christmas (instead of buying gifts we think of a memory for each person. Then we read them together and usually we get some small memento to go along with the memory. It's very fun)
Group Low Carb Diet (we all decided we wanted to loose some weight over the holidays and started cutting carbs. It's amazing how well a group can do when they work together. There were 8 of us doing it and in about 2 weeks we had lost 30 some lbs.)
Impromptu talent show (always a hit)
Took Bennett and Miles to the ER. (Miles 2x)
Read Hunger Games and Catching fire (Casey and I are both hooked. This was quite the treat because I don't get much reading done at home, and I really love to read. Team Peeta all the way!)


Harward's (West Lafayette, In)
Monkey Joe's (see previous post)
Preschool with Landon and Addie (The kids got to go to preschool with their cousins and absolutely loved it. One of the days they had a field trip to a gymnastics studio where they got to swing from a rope into a foam pit. They had a great time)
Prepared for and attended the ward Christmas party (Sarah is the ward activity person so we got to plan like crazy)
Made AWARD WINNING macaroon cookies (yes we won the contest and the $100's cash + $100's in prizes)


Elmer's (Spokane, WA)
Couples movie night (we watched Sherlock Holmes, and it was so much fun to go out together)
Christmas morning, memory Christmas
Chopped Chef (This was a wicked fun cooking competition Jeff created. We had to cook different dished using surprise ingredients. Casey and I tied for 1st place with Dan and Angela and won $70 per couple!)
Family Pictures (see previous post)
Skiing (post to follow)
Rock Band (Poor Poppy never could master the Rock Band drums the way he has the actual drums)
More game playing (wits and wagers, snorta)
Daughter's in Law lunch with Peggy (it was really nice to get to know my sisters in law better, even if the owner did have to chase us down to pay our bill, oops)


Porter's (Louisville, Ky)
More game playing (Ticket to Ride, Stone Age, Wits and Wagers)
Chopped Chef (we had so much fun playing this at the Elmer's Casey wanted to try it with my family, and it was a BLAST!)
Watched Hanny on Americas Funniest Videos (three Thanksgivings ago we had refugee Thanksgiving, where we all piled into my tiny apartment in Philly, and while we were all together someone got the bright idea to play a game where you spin around a broomstick, drop the broomstick and try to jump over it. You get super dizzy, and we started recording people doing this. Hannah was the funniest by far. She totally fell straight into the wall. Brad sent it into AFV and it was selected to be on the air)
Played in the snow
Sledding (Possibly photos to follow IF I can get them off the wacked out memory card my hubby purchased)


Harward's (West Lafayette, In)
More game playing (Sarah stayed up late and played ticket to ride with us each night, and we even got Steve-o to play one night)
Lunch group
Casey's game night with the old Game Group (when we were in Lafayette Casey got together with a group of guys every Thursday to play various games. While we were visiting Sarah he sent out and emergency e-mail saying 'I'm only in town for 48 hours, anyone up for games?' Being the great friends they are they dropped what they were doing (one of the wives had just had a baby the past week) and met for some short notice gaming.)
Monkey Joe's (which was only cut short by Grant projectile vomiting all over the place)
Some of us got the stomach bug (the only people from my family to get it were Porter and Maya, Sarah's family was not so lucky. I think they all got it)