An unexpected New Year's Eve

December 31, 2014
After visiting with family for Christmas we drove home and the very next morning we took off to Phoenix for Ben's soccer girls tournament. We had a lot of fun in the warmer weather. I also got to go shopping and use my Christmas money to buy me some new clothes! We were pretty spoiled with a two room hotel. It was nice because Jo got to sleep in her own room and was able to get some rest.

The hotel we stayed at actually had a pretty nice continental breakfast and Jocee got to enjoy some scrambled eggs in her pack 'n play.
However, we all know what happens when you give a baby a bowl of eggs.

They end up everywhere!

We bought Jo some sunglasses while we were down there. She got to wear them for a brief time, however, she definitely did not need them for the ride home. We saw on the news there was a severe winter storm warning that expected to hit Northern Arizona. Ben talked with Athletic director and the Principal and they told him just to push through. We were nervous and Ben convinced them that if the weather was bad we could stop off in Camp Verde about an hour north of where we were staying in Pheonix.

     We were so glad we reserved a room in Camp Verde (otherwise we could not have gotten one) because it normally would take us a little over an hour to get there and it took us almost three! We came to a stand still on the freeway due to snow build up and an accident just 7 miles shy of our exit. Parts of I40 were shut down for a good part of the day due to dozens of reported collision and impassable conditions due to snow and ice build up. We waited out the rest of the storm and were able to travel back safely the next morning.
      Flagstaff continued to get snow approximately 12 inches from this storm and our little town received 2.5 inches. Page had to lay down cinders and everyone was talking about how rare that is. One person stated that in the 20 years she has lived here she has never seen that much snow.
We had fun spending our New Year's Eve with the soccer girls. We had a small party and played games until ten o'clock. Then everyone went to their rooms and Ben and I were able to see the ball drop. Unfortunately for Jo, who we had been trying to get to bed since ten, fell asleep just minutes before we rang in the New Year.