On 12/26, we took a drive down south to visit the grandparents.  We did not think about being the day after Christmas or being Sunday could be busy on the road, so we left the house a bit too late.  We hit the most congested traffic we ever encountered.  The drive was very slow, and the two times we stopped for food and bathroom break were met with tons of other commuters.  We ended up skipping food purchase in order to avoid further delay.  We were impressed that the boys and Buddy did not complain at all about this crazy long road trip.  Stuart was getting very tired and had to play music to stay awake.  After this brutally long 9 hours with no lunch, we made it to our destination. 

     After this eventful drive, it was nice to spend two full days with the grandparents. The grandparents prepared presents for us when we arrived, so we enjoyed the true boxing day at their house. We received some fun games too, i.e. Rubix race game and Mexican dominoes; we ended up spending lots of fun time playing them while we were there.  Connor showed his speedy ability and dominated us with the Rubix race.  Logan played Chess with Grandpa and they ended up being tied after two games.  Grandpa happily shared with us his hobby with the different string instruments; he also showed the boys his new scooter and let them have a ride.  Grandma made us a nice holiday dinner,  Stuart was able to help Grandma with a few projects in return to earn our keeps. It was wonderful spending these quality time with the grandparents and seeing them doing well.

    For this trip to SoCal, we rented a house to stay in.  This place was small but adequate.  The boys liked having a good spot for their computers for gaming.  However one unfortunate thing was the neighbor’s dog barked constantly and gave us an early wake up call every morning.  Overall it was nice to have a bigger space than a hotel room, and it was a bit easier for Buddy too. 

     We wrapped up this trip with a smooth drive home. Thus it was a successful trip seeing the grandparents.