Christmas 2009

So this year we decided to take a family trip to Georgia and also go visit my brother, Nathan, in Charleston, South Carolina. The trip was very short but packed with activity.

We left Tuesday night with my parents. The flight was at 5:30 and we got to the airport around 3:30. First we tried parking in remote parking south. PACKED FULL. Then we tried parking in remote north. FULL. Now we're running out of time. The guy at the remote north gave us this coupon for the parking across from the gates for $10/day. Right after we went through the tolltag lane, we look down at the coupon and it says "EXCLUDES TOLLTAG". So we start getting pissed and frustrated. Then we get to the terminal to go through security. We had about 18 pieces of luggage (not really) plus the stroller. My parents go through first, leaving us to go by ourselves. Security is yelling at us to hurry up but Vincent can only load the dinky gray trays fast enough while I hold the baby. It was STRESS-full. Then we debated giving the baby Benadryl while we waited for our plane. Well, he fell asleep so we went with no. Bad mistake. After boarding the plane, Tristan wakes up and screams bloody murder. I mean, I haven't heard that kid scream so loud EVER. Passengers were looking at us and I now understand when I looked at people with babies in the past that they can do NOTHING. So I cram Benadryl down his throat with him screaming and after about 10 minutes, he finally passed out. When the stewardess came to offer drinks she gave me a rum and coke and said "This is on us--you deserve it." And you can you bet that I downed that drink fast.

When we landed it was about 10 o'clock and we just headed for the hotel. Tristan was super upset to not be in his crib and made sure we all knew. Needless to say, it was a long trip to the hotel. The next morning we woke up, ate, and headed to Charleston, which is about 5 hours away from Peachtree City. But when there are 8 people in a van, it seems longer. Everyone was already in Georgia waiting for us so we all drove to Charleston together. We got there and Nate and his fiancé had dinner waiting on us. It was delish. We stayed the night at another hotel, got up in the morning and went to visit the plane that Nate flies- C-17. It was pretty schweet. After that we had lunch and then started the drive back to Peachtree City. Tristan was terrible again. He hates not sleeping in his crib. He's okay with naps but not okay with sleeping for the night in his car seat.

After that we were in Peachtree until we left on Sunday. We had our immediate family Christmas on Christmas. And we went to see Avatar in 3D. 1 word- AWESOME. It was a little long but really, really cool. I loved it. Then on Saturday we had the extended family Christmas. It was great. We got to see our cousins Chelsea and Ivey and we had a blast with them. Too bad they live in Georgia and hardly ever come to Texas :( Sunday we left but this time we had Galen and Naomi flying back with us so it was great because we had extra help. I gave Benadryl to Tristan this time before the flight and he was out for most of the time. He woke up for a little bit, cried, and then went back to sleep.

So, all in all, fun trip but got very stressful at points. Here are a TON of pictures and a few videos. Enjoy.

Uncle Nate at his base

Walking to Nate's plane, the C-17

Flying the plane with Uncle Nate

Paw Paw exploring the pilot's quarters

David acting like a prisoner and Vincent treating him like one

Ready to go home

Tristan with my grandpa, Poppy

Tristan with Uncle Galen

Bath time

Almost everyone in the family has a stolen street sign and now Poppy gets one :)

This is the original Chick-Fil-A. It was called "The Dwarf House"

Chilling in Poppy's chair, eating some rice cakes, looking ghetto-fabulous

Galen, with us, in Avatar with the cool 3D glasses on

Getting ready for family Christmas time

Family Christmas

My little snowman

4 generations of Masdons: Poppy & Gumma, Paw-Paw, Me, and Tristan

This is Tristan eating ice cream-- he loves it but he has to adjust to the coldness of it first. In that adjustment, he makes some funny faces, which my family loves!

This is my brother David talking dumb, which is unusual because he NEVERS does (sarcasm). We were just sitting around talking about terrorists and David made up a hick character talking about terrorists (or terrorizers, in his words)

This is Tamarah and Poppy trying to get Tristan to climb up and walk- not too exciting but a glimpse on his newly developed climbing skills

This is a video of my dad getting Tristan to laugh. They are talking about David's car and calling it a POS (piece of shi**). Tristan's giggle is pretty funny.