Home for Christmas! What an absolute blast and as Josh kept randomly saying while driving around Utah, "It's all surreal to actually be here."
Before leaving, we started having some car trouble with Josh's car, and made the last minute decision to just rent a car. Sounds easy, right? 😂 There were ZERO rental cars within 2 hours from our house. And when I say zero cars, I'm talking trucks, vans, Tesla's (haha), also. No one had ANYTHING.
We wanted to get on the road and give ourselves a head start by staying the night with my brother and his family that live near St. Louis. Doing this would ensure we wouldn't have to drive the full 24 hrs in one go ... it would be more like 19-ish.
So we packed our bags (and Coda!) into our big truck, drove to Missouri to spend the night, and picked up a rental car in St. Charles. We figured if we were going to have to drive 2+ hrs to get a rental, it might as well be towards Utah!
Turns out, the car we got was even bigger than we asked for, so Coda got the entire hatchback to herself. She's literally an absolute champ on these long drives and would've done well anywhere, but I was grateful she had lots of room to stretch out in the back.
Hazel learned her car-champ ways from Coda, I suppose, because she also is amazing (though more demanding of which song she'd like next). If she wasn't sleeping, she was eating. And when she wasn't doing either, we were singing. And oh BOY did we sing. 😂 She will grow up knowing all the Christmas songs whether she likes it or not.
Much of our conversation on the way involved pulling the trigger on getting a puppy, something Josh has been talking about since we moved. The timing seemed right, we found the perfect dog, a little Bernese Mountain Dog/Golden Retriever. We picked up "Dolly" at the gas station near Provo Canyon and continued to the Hooker's house.
Christmas spent with family was wonderful. Lots of fun, laughter, and late-nights as holidays should be. When the time came to go home, it shocked both Josh and I how fast it went.
We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather; on our drive to Utah it was perfect, in Utah it was perfect, and driving from it was perfect. I-80 was definitely a mess over Christmas, but we had sunny skies and clear roads the entire time we were on them. Such a blessing.
The drive home was just what you would expect it to be ... a toddler, a full-size dog and a puppy isn't enough. We added Josh's cat, Figaro, to the mix! We had originally left the black cat in Utah because we didn't think he'd appreciate the long haul to Indiana, as well as leaving his other cat friend, Grey. But, a few months after arriving in Indiana we found out from a horse physic who came to our house (ever had one over?? They're fascinating!) that Figaro thought we didn't like him and that's why we left him. He said he was so sad and didn't want to go through the drive, but wanted to be wherever Josh was.
Well, we couldn't argue with that, so Josh just said aloud upon leaving, "Now, Figaro, here's your chance to come with us. Be where we can easily find you and we'll bring you home." Sure enough, as we were loading things in the car, the big black cat came and sat on the porch. Wowza.
So, to wrap it all up like the little Christmas present it should be, Hazel got a puppy for Christmas, and Josh got the only other male companion for the Hooker Homestead. 😂
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