Break...the END!!!!

Our last treat in TX was to go and visit with my dear friend Kerstin, who just had her third baby a few weeks before Christmas. I was spoiled with getting to hold Luke the entire time we were there. Makes a person baby hungry!!!! (Notice the sweatshirt? EEEKKK!!!!!)

After the long drive back to TX, we got to stay in AZ for another week before coming home. We thought it would be a fantastic idea to give Wes and Mary's kids some fun Christmas presents. Dave picked out these nasty teeth for Steele. Turns out that Mia is deathly afraid of this look and was panicking. Big time. Now we know for the future I suppose.

On New Year's Eve, we went to the Mesa Temple Lights, and it was the perfect way to end the year. It was beautiful and peaceful, and it was a nice chilly evening that made us grateful again that we are a family.

With all our bags packed to the limit, we headed out of the PHX airport on the 5th to make the long trek back to St. Kitts. Mia was again the best little traveler. She did amazing the whole way. Can't complain one bit.

We overnighted in Miami and decided to stay at the airport hotel this time. I highly recommend that idea. After having to overnight 5 times in the last 3 months previous to this epiphany, not having to shuttle and deal with crappy hotels was awesome. We just came out of the terminal, found the elevator, and zip! We were in our hotel for the night. Quiet, dark, awesome. I was very impressed! I changed Mia's diaper and went to throw it away in the bathroom, came out, and this is how I found her.

Our last night of "free" A/C and maximum chill. It was excellent.
I went down to get us some drinks and the hotel is right next to the American counters. I thought I'd ask one of the ladies what time she thought we should be down in the morning to check in, and she asked where we were going. I said, "We're on the 11:00 flight to St. Kitts." She not-so-nicely-replied, "Well, you better plan on staying in Miami for a few days. Montserrat (an island 65 miles south of us) is erupting and today's flights had major problems and had to come back. They won't fly when there's ash in the air because it does major damage to the planes. And American is not paying for hotels because it's weather related. You better call the 1-800 number and find out what's going on." Well thanks lady for the throw up of information. So after a long night of [me] worrying (Dave was in total chill mode), and a morning of crazy Miami airport shenanigans (including almost-lost Dave backpack with laptop, Nikon camera, video camera, and well, a lot of mu-la-la), I was just hoping that we could get back to St. Kitts.

We were the lucky flight of the week , and we got in with no problems, and no problems with customs.

Just a teeny problem with Dave's wallet getting stolen as we got off the plane, and the old alternator problem with our van that ended up costing us some of that mu-la-la, patience, and sanity. We settled back into reality pretty quick!