Christmas Road Trip

We just got back from our Christmas trip to Kentucky. I was pretty nervous about driving all that way with a 10-month-old, but both kids were amazing road trippers.

We got up in the middle of the night and left at 2:30AM. I'm pretty sure this (the waking up in the middle of the night) was Maddy's favorite part of the road trip. She even slept in her "adventure clothes" to save time. We mistakenly thought that the kids would go back to sleep for the beginning of the drive, but the novelty of being up at that hour was just too exciting to sleep through! We made awesome time though, making it all the way to Pennsylvania before breakfast and to Maryland before we stopped for lunch.

Since we had made such good progress in the morning, we had time to stop and explore Fort Frederick State Park in Maryland.

This was a spontaneous decision to pull off the highway and we're so glad we did. The day was amazingly warm for December (60 degrees!) and it was such a treat to be outside.

Maddy loved having a chance to stretch her legs and run around.

We were all thrilled to spend some time outside, exploring the old barracks.

That night, we spent the night in West Virgina. Maddy has become a huge fan of hotels, especially the swimming pools....I think that's the main reason she's so patient on these long drives!

On Christmas Eve, we continued our tradition of meeting up with some of my college friends lunch (and to trash some unlucky person's home...Regina this year). Maddy had a great time testing out a new ride.

On Christmas morning, the early birds got up and took some photos in their Christmas pajamas before all the festivities began.

After breakfast, we opened presents. Again, Audrey just enjoyed the paper and ribbons and the chaos!

And then she made the rounds, taking photos with Aunt Katie...

...and Uncle Patrick,

...and Uncle Charlie.

After presents, it was time for the traditional Christmas Day trip out to the hollow. It was a beautiful day!

Maddy especially enjoyed the Bear Hollow petting zoo.

Then it was time to get home and clean up for dinner with Great-Grandma Fields.

Audrey enjoyed spending time with Great Uncle Dick (I let her believe he was wearing a red sweater for Christmas...I couldn't break it to her that he's a Louisville fan)...

...and Grandfather.

After dinner, she had some after dinner conversation with her great-grandmothers and Sister Joseph Angela.

We had another Christmas celebration to attend the next day at Great Grandmother Johnson's house. Maddy had a blast playing with her young cousins. She was so excited to be playing "war" AND to be on the bad guy side. Who knew she was such a rebel!

She even had to spend some time in "jail" with cousin Calvin (who did a really nice job of keep Maddy from getting completely run over by the bigger kids!)

Too soon, it was time to load in the car and head home again. The kids were pretty great on the road trip home too. I feel so lucky to have kids that travel so well.

Maddy says, "We can't wait to come visit Kentucky again!"