Anyone recognize the Tree of Life? We've passed by it a million times, but this is the first time we've actually stopped at it. It was super windy and the start of the bad roads. Of course, the hotel we stayed in that night pretty much sucked, too. I let the Bubs choose the hotel this go around and we ended up staying at the Wyndham. Usually Wyndham hotels are fairly decent. This one? Not so much. As soon as we get to a hotel room, I immediately look around to make sure everything looks decent. First thing I noticed? The huge piece of hair stuck to the shower that was NOT ours!
Second thing I noticed? The nasty mold down the walls.
It was pretty nasty all around. I told the Bubs that if there was ANYTHING in the bed at all, we were totally leaving (we got in pretty late and the roads were horrible, otherwise we would have left right away). We pulled down the bedsheets and inspected EVERY inch of the bed. Lucky for us it looked clean, so we decided to stick it out for the night. Let's just say the shower the next day was the quickest one I've EVER taken in my life! Once we checked out, got some breakfast and got on the road, this is what we encountered:
You cant really tell, but traffic was backed up for hours (this was on the Nevada side before even starting Donner Pass). Luckily the day was beautiful and clear, so although I was ready to get out of the car (not the best at going on road trips - I hate being stuck in the car!) it was a nice drive with this occasionally thrown in
(don't worry, everyone was ok. I'm not sure how they got the car out, though). Once we got into California it was good until we hit traffic in Roseville. But, eventually we made it to the Bubs parents house and settled in to visit. We made it up Wednesday night to hang out with some friends we haven't seen for a while (thanks Donny & Mich for the yummy dinner and fun game night. Still not sure if I'm a die hard Killer Bunny fan, though!) Thursday morning was spent taking family pictures (which didn't turn out the best, but heck, now we have the memories, right?) Thursday afternoon was spent pigging out on yummy Thanksgiving food and then we celebrated an early Christmas that night. Every year for Christmas the siblings on the Bubs side rotate, so this year we had his sister Kiersten and her family. I made a birthday countdown and birthday wreath for the door (each family member has a little tag with their own name.
(sorry, it's kind of hard to see the pictures) and then some new name blocks for London and a blanket for Ashton (didn't get pictures of either). The Bubs mom got this cute little guy
(along with some other things) that can be used for both Thanksgiving and Christmas/January (one side is the snowman and the other is the turkey). There are wires that create feathers for the turkey (and arms for the snowman) that you can put pictures in. For the Bubs grandma I wanted to do something for her house. She moved into a new home a couple of years ago and has this huge space above the couch in her living room that's been driving me nuts for years! I was going to put vinyl up, but the walls have a bumpy texture so the vinyl won't stick very well. So, I made the following
and then another sign that has their last name and the year she and Grandpa were married. I then asked the Bubs aunt to send me some pictures she had of Grandma/Grandpa (thanks Ev!) and had them blown up and restored. Everything was hung up on the wall with the goal of having other family members send pictures so they can also be hung up. Sort of a family legacy that started with these two great people which will span generations. I'm not sure how everything turned out and didn't get a chance to take a picture (my cute bro-in-law had to hang the pictures for me after we left) but I'm hoping it turns our like I envisioned. I'm going to send out a copy of the family pictures we took while out there to hang up. We ended up leaving on Saturday and traveled the entire day on roads like this
but all in all it was a great trip and totally worth the drive. Hopefully, this post was worth the read as it was SUPER long! Sorry!
