Christmas Vacation! Washtington DC & the Epic Plane Ride

To say that we were excited to leave Coudersport and spend Winter break in Laguna Hills for 7 weeks is the understatement of the century. We were so super dee duper ecstatic! I mean, who gets 7 weeks off from work and school to spend in paradise with your family- with nothing to do but be together and have fun??

We left the morning after Tanner's last final (which, by the way, he aced- as he has all his exams) and drove to Washington DC.

We sang Christmas Carols and laughed the whole way! It was the best 5 and a half hour drive ever!

When we got to Josi's house we had dinner and then bundled up and drove to the White House to check out the First Christmas Tree of America!

The tree was no nearly as impressive as we thought it would be. It did NOT compare to the tree at Fashion Island but it was still pretty cool to see it. There were hoards of people and so we didn't get a chance to get up close and see the train set up around the tree. Parker was pretty disappointed  But we made it up to him by getting some ice cream on the way home. :-)

Josi and sweet baby James in front of the tree! 

Merry Christmas Obama Family!

The next morning we left bright and early for the airport. My good friend Amy (we grew up in the same ward and when her parents moved we bought their house... so, we're tight.) drove us to the airport and "car-sat" for us while we were gone. 

We were totally blessed with buddy passes provided by our pilot friend and got round trip tickets on Virgin America from Dulles to LAX for $175 for all 3 of us! We would not have afforded it otherwise and still can't get over Marshall's tremendous generosity. Here we are extremely excited to board the plane!

Woo hoo! Thank you Captain Hamilton! Virgin America rocks!!!!

The flight was pretty relaxed and the plane not very full so they let Parker sit in the captains chair and push buttons and such before take off. He was super stoked and totally in awe. He kept telling everyone, "My friend Heidi's Dad flies this plane!"As it turned out, the plane had some technical problems after that and we were delayed about an hour- not like we cared! Nothing could have put a damper on our spirits! But we hope it wasn't Parker who was responsible for the malfunctions....

5 hours later we were in California and hugging on my Mom and brother! What a way to start the Christmas season!!!