all sorts of new things

This vacation was full of stuff we'd never done before. We had a nice holiday and visit with my mom, it was nice to get away from the cold for a while, but good to get back to our own beds and routines. So here's the rundown of our vacation.

We slept on the floor in SeaTac airport

We slept on cots in Chicago O'Hare airport

We flew first class - we got on the flight on stand-by since our flights kept
getting cancelled

Our luggage didn't make it on the flight, it was delivered at 3:30am Dec. 26 (even though we hadn't showered in 3 days as soon as my mom picked us up we had to make a shopping trip to Target for necessities & gifts for the kids)

We went to Pinehurst to see their huge Gingerbread village

We went to the North Carolina Zoo

There are stables at the community where my mom lives and kids were able to get horseback riding lessons and it wasn't just the riding, they had to take care of the horse & tack before and after riding)

Ashley got her ears pierced (I don't have a memory of getting mine done, so I tried to prepare her as much as I could & she did so awesome, she did not cry or anything)

The flight from Raleigh to Chicago was not bad until the pilot said that we were going to be a little later coming in than scheduled because they had to slow down due to maintenance issues (say WHAT?)

We got to Anchorage fine and while waiting for the shuttle from to the hotel it felt like I was going to have icicles hanging out of my nose, because it was -13 degrees! Honestly it was not as cold as I figured below zero temps would be, but not something I care to experience on a regular basis.

We did lots of other regular stuff - tons of shopping & eating!(I had so much Starbucks while we were there, had to get my fill), watching movies, just enjoying the sun & warmth.