MO-snow...

Shortly after the New Year, the boys and I got to fly out to Missouri to visit CC & Poppy and meet up with Bev & Xander too. It was pretty exciting going to a new place, new house, new location. I was a little nervous that we were going to freeze though.

Notice their pink noses in the pictures above. We were as warm as we could possible get with our wardrobe and we were 'inside' the parking deck. GET US TO THE HEAT!!! ASAP!

Luckily, CC & Poppy were prepared :) For Christmas, they gave the boys some snow gear! They were super excited to get these outfits. And even more excited to see the SNOW! As we flew in, Joss announced to the whole plane that "The entire island is covered in snow!" We heard quite a few chuckles around us. I love hearing them say things like that... everything is just an island of some type :) 

And, out we went! It was so incredibly beautiful! Totally different scenery than I have seen in a long time, but it was stunning. Seeing it through the boys for the first time was magical all on its own.

Our little ninja Emit is in the red suit. And Awesome Jossome took to the snow like a pro. He still talks about his fast penguin sled. We were just watching the movie, Frozen, and he made reference to the penguin sled, so he definitely had fun. 

Emit always remembers face planting into the snow and all we could see was his little legs wiggling. We all get so tickled when we reminisce. 

CC took a turn sledding too, and nearly stopped mine and Bev's hearts in the process.

I'm pretty sure I was having just as much fun as my fellas. We couldn't stay out too long, but we lasted a while. It just got so cold. As Ace Ventura says, "It's in the Bone!!" So we headed in for some warm drinks, snuggles and thawing.  I think Xander was just about ready for a little nap here too. 

Then after we got warmed up, we bundled up and headed out again. it was supposed to (and did) warm up again the next day, so this was our best chance to enjoy the snow.

SO.MUCH.FUN!!!! 

Only thing missing was Daddy, I know he would have had a blast, although being the island boy he is, he may not have lasted too long ;)

They live in a cute neighborhood.

Bev let me use her snow pants for round 2 since Xander was napping. They worked much better than my jeans. CC & Poppy may need to stay somewhere that gets snow ;)

Snowball fights!

Watch out for yellow snow boys!

Then they all jumped in the indoor pool (tub) to really warm up after their long day. The Bubbles got a little out of control!

We had a short visit this time, so we had to squeeze a lot into a week's visit. Poppy met us for lunch at the bowling alley and the boys got to see real live soldiers for the first time :) They were in total awe!

You'll notice Emit's pouting below.... that was after I had scolded him for being super crazy and not listening. He was jumping around, doing all kinds of craziness. So I took a picture of the pout. Little did I know moments later, he would fall on top of the bowling ball and cut his chin really badly. I probably should have taken him in for stitches because it was so deep, but we kept it bandaged and it healed fine... but if they could only understand that the discipline is meant to protect them from stuff like that.... argh! I'm sure I 'always' listened like an angel when I was little and never ever disobeyed. {{cough cough, yeah right}}

Getting some sunshine, playing like Baby Dragons and Puppies. 

When we all meet up, at some point throughout out visit, someone or everyone gets sick it seems. This trip didn't disappoint. We all caught some kind of a flu bug again and it was pretty miserable again. At least the time it was passing through us. Luckily it didn't hit as hard as it did the year before when they came to us, but it is not fun by any means!

Makes hanging in there with all the energy pretty tricky and tiring! 

Xander had fun riding on the Gator with the 'big boys'.  He still likes to sit in the passenger seat and push the gas while someone else steers. Joss & Emit are doing their best Baby Dragon calls below :) 

I love all the TALL TREES! We just don't have many tall trees on the island. It blows my mind how big they are!

Exercising the Grands and Kids!

Play.Recover.Repeat

Our last night of fun was filled with Hot Potato. This is when I was out of it the most with the bug going around, so I remember much except that I just wanted to sleep. We flew home just in time for Daddy's birthday!