Out on the Open Road!

This Christmas Season we headed to the Sacramento area to join in on the Haymore Christmas Party that is thrown every year the Saturday before Christmas. I've never been to one so I looked forward to be in on their traditions but also more importantly, be with Family. I'm so blessed marrying into this amazing family.
Matt took more time off so we can be up there longer and it made it so nice because we didn't drive all night which causes us to be tired and turn around 2 days later and do the same. This time we were able to break up the trip by stopping off in Vegas to get a great night sleep and get in at a decent time. In Vegas we got to see Aunt Mary and Uncle Ron. We miss seeing them so it was an added bonus.
Alex was in heaven being with his Papa. Alex was his shadow this entire trip.


Alex also loved being with Aunt Laura.

Laura wanted more kisses but he said no!

He gave in eventually :).

Our first stop in California was visiting Grandpa Thompson. We stayed there for two days. While there, we visited the State Park Railtown in Jamestown.


This park has preserved much of the Sierra Railway and it houses famous trains in different movies like this one:



If you can't guess where you've seen it, its the train that's on Back to the Future Part III. We got to take the Self Tour instead of having a Guided Tour. I think it was better because we got to go on the train. I don't think we can do that on the Guided Tour :).

Other movies filmed here are: Petticoat Junction, The Wild, Wild West, High Noon, The Virginian, and Unforgiven.
Here are other fun photos from the Park.







Grandpa Thompson told us we needed to visit a street that had a train that went around the neighborhood driven by Rudolph, carrying Santa. There was also a live Santa that the boys got to talk too. The boys loved it and Matt and I thought it was really cool! It was hard to capture how cool it was on camera. Sorry for the bad pictures.



Laura had her 26th birthday there. We celebrated as a family before the trip but we still did some celebrating the day of. I went shopping with her in the morning and we all went to lunch together. Alex loved the slurpees! If he's happy, we're all happy!



Before the Christmas Party we had a little scare. Grandpa Thompson is ok but he decided it was time to get a new car so he ran his 18 year old car into the back of a semi ;). He's now a proud new owner of 2012 Honda Civic.

The Christmas party was so much fun! It started at noon and lasted till late in the evening. There was a lot of food and we had so much fun visiting and playing games. Santa even came to visit!
Evan saying it's his turn to sit on Santa's lap. He asked for a truck again.


Alex of course. I'm hoping he will like to sit on Santa's lap next year.

All the Women got to sit on his lap too. There was some fun wants like new cars, TV's and a diamond ring. I asked for Slippers :). I really want them!
Evan had fun playing with his Cousin Erin who we stayed with the remaining time. He constantly asks to play with her. We enjoyed spending our time with Uncle Ethan, Aunt Becky and their other kids. We always look forward to staying with them. Even though we got to stay longer, it still was too short. Family is the greatest!