December - Road Trip...and Christmas!!

The first 2 weeks of December were spent in the abnormal, new normal. Lots of family time at home, with only occasional and always outside and socially distanced visits with friends.  Fortunately, we didn't get too sick of each other!

Katy's work cancelled their usual Winter gala and scheduled a zoom meeting run by a bartender who taught the eager employees how to mix drink  (guess who got to taste the results!)

The COVID-19 "Surge" finally settled into a steady, busy rate of daily admissions, discharges and -unfortunately - deaths, and winter really felt like it was settling in. 

Fortunately, the holidays came quickly, and brought with them cute kids in matching PJs and lots of holiday lights. 

For the second part of December, we took an incredible road trip to Tulsa to visit Giggy and Keggy for Christmas.  

For our first day, we drove to Bakersfield and did not do too many stops. The next day, however, we decided to detour onto a short part of Route 66 and stumbled upon the Amboy Crater.  Auggie loved scaling the big lava formations, and everyone enjoyed collecting interesting volcanic rocks.  Time (and little feet) did not allow for us to walk all the way to the crater this time, but we hope to return one day soon. 

Day Two continued into Arizona, where we stayed at a lovely hotel in Flagstaff, which was decorated beautifully for the holidays, but filled with travelers who did not seem to care for mask wearing or social distancing, so we mainly hid in our rooms. 

The next morning, we stopped by the Petrified Forest National Park visitor center.  We didn't have time to visit the park, but managed to explore the gift store and (again) make plans to return in the near future!

That day, we drove through all of beautiful New Mexico, arriving in Amarillo, Texas for the night. 

The next day, we had a 4 hour drive to Giggy and Keggy's house!  Everyone was excited!

When we got to their grandparents' house, the kids settled in quickly, enjoying the weather outside and lots of loving attention. 

We spent the next few days relaxing and visiting the local elementary school to play on its playground. We even managed to find a used bike for Auggie to practice riding around on.  Having grown up on a steep hill, he had never experienced riding his bike out of his house to a new destination. He loved it! Daniel's brother Josef and sister-in-law Stephanie joined us from Boston.  We had a full and happy house. 

Christmas Day was as joyful as anticipated.  Over the last few months, Auggie had become increasingly addicted to all things football and for Christmas this year, he received a regulation size football and football gloves.  Fortunately, uncle Josef took him outside to play before burst with glee.  

Ella was initially most thrilled with her lollipop, but later discovered that the many toys she received were pretty fun, too. 

There were many gleeful smiles and happy cuddles. Our time there ended far too quickly. 

On our return trip home, we decided to drive longer distances and stop at more destinations.  The kids were now used to long hours in their car seats and we were excited about exploring some sites along the way. 

Driving through Texas, we stopped at Cadillac Ranch, on our way to Albuquerque.  Ella was not thrilled with ever present odor of fresh spray paint or the presence of other people. 

We left Albuquerque in such good time, that we decided to do a spontaneous trip to the Grand Canyon.  Auggie had been learning about this incredible place at school and we were hoping to surprise him with a last minute visit.  Unfortunately, we happened to be driving through Arizone during a small winter storm.  As we passed Flagstaff, it began to snow.  As we neared the Grand Canyon, we realized that the poor visibility would leave most of the Grand Canyon to the imagination.  As a consolation, we were able to pull off to the side of the road and let both kids enjoy the snow for a few minutes.   

Ella had mixed feelings...

As we descended from the mountain, we were found ourselves in a completely different environment: open sky, crisp air, beautiful long sunset shadows.  We pulled over on cattle land somewhere between Selingman and Kingman and had a refreshing walk among the desert grasses, scrubs and cacti. 

That night, we stayed in Needles, California, one of the few places on our road trip that we hope not to have to return to. So we took off early again and decided to explore the Mohave dessert before returning home.   Our first stop was at the Kelso dunes.  Auggie had a great time running on and jumping into the large piles of sand.  Ella was a bit more cautious and preferred to keep near the car.   

From Kelso, we drove north towards Highway 15.  Along the way, we saw many Joshua Trees and stumbled upon a long (bumpy) dirt road (alongside old volcano cones) that eventually lead to the Lava Tube Trailhead. From here, we had a brief hike to an underground lava tube.  This part required a descent down a steep staircase that Ella was not willing to do, so Agnieszka and Auggie were the only ones who had a chance to explore these.  We climbed down steep stairs, crawled under low lying boulders and then found ourselves in a large cavern made from a hallowed out lava tube. 

After this exciting adventure, we drove home in one long stretch. It was nice to be home, but we had definitely caught the travelling bug!