new car + road trip 2of4!!!

we got to raleigh, nc at about 1:30am. at this point we'd been up for like 20 hours. we were staying at my friend jessi's house who i love so much!!!!!!!!!! we met when jon and her boyfriend at the time were in bootcamp and we've keep in touch ever since. she has visited us a few times because she is a flight attendant and can do things like that. i'd never been out to see her, so we planned our trip so that we could stop at her place. when we got there, she had a pilot friend sleeping on the couch and one in her room and had a blow up bed for us on the floor. by the time the pilots left at 6am, jon and i were sleeping on the hard ground with no air left in the mattress. i quickly got into bed with jessi while jon slept on the couch. 

 i know these are horrible out-the-window pictures, but raleigh is so cute!! who knew???? also, how dare you have such green grass in the dead of winter!!

 as you can see, we went to the flying biscuit cafe in the morning. i love being with jessi, she has such a positive outlook on life and she is theeee funniest! she is not lds and she grew up in nauvoo, a mormon town. she very kindly told us that we are her favorite mormon couple (eye roll). she followed up by saying, "no, i know a lot of mormon couples! i see them every once in awhile. when they ask me how i'm doing i say "good. still drinkin' and swearin'."" my goodness does that woman have a mouth on her, but it makes her that much funnier. i really did not want to say goodbye to her, but we had a long day ahead of us...

 here she blows!!! isn't it so cute!!! we stopped to get gas at this teeny tiny gas station where everyone knew each other but us. this is when i started to drive for the first time. it is such a smooth ride and gets up to 83 miles per hour quick! so quick that i didn't even see that cop with his radar! needless to say, that 45 minutes was the only time i drove the whole road trip and yeah. i do have a north carolina speeding ticket i still need to pay off.

our friend aaron is from asheville, NC so we decided to stop in and see his stomping grounds! it reminded me a lot of park city, ut with all the cute little shops and sub zero temperatures. he was so excited to see pictures we sent him. it was fun but would have been much better if he and ashton were there to show us around. we got four little meatballs from the mellow mushroom. (turns out we have one of these in san antonio too!)

 our next stop was the tomato head in knoxville, tn!!!!!! i can not explain to you how cold it was here. it was very difficult for me to pull my pants down (tmi?) to use the restroom and this is why:

ice. along the walls and floor in the bathroom.

knoxville was really cute, i'm glad we stopped there for a couple hours. the square was dead because the weather was so bad. while we were driving, we were getting text messages from family asking how we were doing because that part of the nation was experiencing arctic chills. there were signs all over telling people to stop driving and stay inside. luckily, all was well for us although we were very, very cold.

next stop, nashville!!

guesswhatigotanewcar. 1of4

as much as i loveeeeee my nissan altima, jon has been encouraging me to entertain the thought of replacing it with something a bit newer and more reliable. over thanksgiving, jon was perusing his land cruiser forum and came upon a 2010 toyota camry xle with 28,000 miles located in Virginia. he talked to the owner for a few weeks before we decided that we wanted to fly to va and get that car! (shalon from SNL) while we were in utah, we went to the bank and got everything finalized so that we could make the big purchase. we got back from UT on thursday and left sunday morning at 6am. we flew from san antonio to atlanta then from there to dayton ohio and finally from dayton to baltimore, md. 

 jon thought these m&n's were the funniest.

 the owner picked us up from the airport and drove us to his apartment in virginia. we passed the DC temple on the way! he was a really nice guy with an even nicer car. he had taken very good care of it, it is honestly like new. this is us excited about our new purchase and heading into DC!
(sun roof!)

 DC is my favorite place in america and also where we spent our 'honeymoon' when jon got back from deployment. our capital has a special place in our heart so we were sad to only be passing through. jon dropped me off at the lincoln memorial and drove around (we couldn't find parking and didn't have license plates). it was nice to be there for a few minutes, even in the dreary weather.

we got to go see these two cuties!! they are living the life in alexandria while melanie goes to GW and stephanie is a nanny. they made us an awesome dinner complete with dessert. it was so fun seeing them and catching up, i wish we could have stayed longer. stephanie, being the sweetie that she is, prepared us a road trip bag of goodies. she knew that we didn't bring anything for our road trip since we flew. it was complete with veggies, crackers, fruit, water and sweets. she is so thoughtful and motherly (always).

almost immediately after we left them, we realized that we forgot to get a picture! they sent us the one of the two of them and we sent this. good enough, haha!

we left their place and headed for Quantico, VA to see jon's gunny. it was nice to be on a marine corps base again, it felt like home and quantico is so cute and homey. it was fun seeing him and his family and hearing about what their plans are. their place was not our last stop of the night although it was already 9pm. we left quantico and headed for raleigh, NC!!!!

white christmas.

it is so sad. i wrote a big long post about our christmas in utah and it didn't save. 

our streak from June to December is the longest i've ever gone without going home. needless to say, i was very ready to be surrounded by family in a winter wonderland. 

it was funny when my FIL pulled the car up, saw our bags, put the car away and got the truck instead. also, these may not look that stuffed but you should have SEEN them on the way back to texas!

and salt lake definitely delivered. the sight we arrived to was white, white, white snow! the temperatures were very cold, which meant the snow stayed for quite a few days. we loved it!

my granny was the queen at making candy. its been our family tradition to take it and cookies out on plates to all of our neighbors. this year, lizzie and i put in joint effort and made fudge, caramel and divinity. the fudge and caramel took a couple tries but were da bombbb. the divinity could have used a little work, but that's what next year is for!

another fun and stressful christmas tradition of ours is getting a live tree on christmas eve and decorating it that night. it is my assumption that the tradition started on accident when my parents forgot to get a real tree until the night before christmas. the tradition stuck and although it is stressful every year, we hate change enough to keep it around!!!

christmas at the robinson's was so fun. our family is getting bigger which means christmas morning is lasting longer. we all take turns opening presents while everyone watches, it's the only way. casper's reactions won because every gift he opened he hugged to his chest. 

(even the sensible gifts of clothing jon and i gave him)

we spent the afternoon at jon's moms with her and alex. we opened gifts, had a delicious christmas lunch and watched the grinch. it was much more mellow than it was at my dads house, it was a nice change of pace. 

(i don't know if i meant to do this, but here i am awkwardly showing off my new watch with my spirit friend in the lower right corner)

christmas was so fun! i love being surrounded by family, especially since they all love christmas as much as i do! lizzie was born on the 25th, so we all have a special place in our hearts for christmas for that reason as well. 

speaking of the birthday girl, she worked on Elf while she was in utah and got jon and i tickets! it was sooo cute and funny and better than i expected! we were so proud of lizzie and i told her that i didn't even notice the spotlight which meant she did an awesome job not wiggling it around!!

jon, alex and i took the babies up to listen to the message at the Christus.
afterwards, i asked audrey (4.5 y/o) if she understood. she said "i want to hug him."

every year, my dad and i work on a christmas puzzle. the last couple years he has used his own photographs to make a puzzle. they have been very challenging which is fun for me but not for him! we completed this one successfully, much to his surprise!

on NYE, we got dolled up and went out for a nice dinner at Trio. it was fun to be there with both sides of our family. that's where we had our wedding dinner!

after dinner we went to camille's and played games! our family is made up of gamers, so it was fun as per usual. also, jon won. we went back to my dads to ring in the new year over some doctor mario. it ended badly and my dad took the game away from us. i hope new years eve wasn't a premonition to 2014, haha. 

a couple days before we left we got to see this cutie!!!!!!!! we have missed her so much since leaving california and i'm so grateful we're both from utah so we can have run-ins like this! she didn't make much of an effort to get a seat on the plane (stand-by) so that she could meet us for breakfast. she is the sweetest, most encouraging and genuine human being i know (not to mention fashionable). we are both so grateful for her friendship. 

our last night there was filled with KARAOKE! everyone sang, laughed and cheered! it was the best night filled with good music and fun people. i won't ever forget alex singing (and dancing) to Wicked's "Popular". you guys, it was the best. the man (16) has no shame.

our week and a half there went by way too quickly, as it usually does. again, we were not able to spend enough time with our families or see all the friends that we wanted to. it is difficult to live far away but  holidays and visits so much fun!!!!
not pictured: girls night with jessie and lyndsi, with baby bentley. breakfast at blue plate diner with amanda, isaac, and emma (along with baby boy). a museum trip to the BYU museum of art with Kim and Alex to see the Karl Bloch exhibit (amazing). snow man making (rebuilding) with my dad and lizzie. spending time with mike and kim and learning that they are EXPECTING!!! going to the gym together almost every morning for free.99 at 24, but don't tell them we said that. catching up with addie, travis, aftynn and baby girl! and did i mention girls night with my bff's who i miss everyday? the trip was much needed, it really boosted my spirits to see my sisters and friends. i feel like i can handle (and enjoy, duh) the next six months in texas before i see them again…