El Paso Trip: December 10, 2009

I've already written about my travel time from Grand Rapids to Detroit to El Paso in a previous post, so I won't repeat myself here. The above picture was taken on our approach to Dallas/Ft. Worth, which by the way, is just about the most immense airport I have ever been in! And of course, I arrived at Gate A-11 and had to be to Gate D-17 (almost the farthest possible gate away!) for the departure to El Paso in 45 minutes time. Thankfully, there was a cool rail system that got me to that next gate with time to spare!
This is my first look at both Matthew and the newest member of their family, Sophie. Matthew has just stepped off his Pre-K bus and was greeted with many hugs and kisses ...

About 45 minutes later, we picked up Chris and Emma from the bus stop and went back to the house and played with all kinds of things I had crammed into my carry-on suitcase. We had so much fun!
Since I had shipped all of the Christmas presents in a box a week before I arrived, we decided to open everything up the very first night I was there. I had tied a little puppet for each of the kiddos on one of their gifts ... I paid $2 for them at Michaels ... a very well-spent $2. I think of everything I picked out for the kids, these were their favorite!
This is Christopher ready to open up one of his Transformers ...
I'm pretty sure Emma's set of doll stencils (made by Melissa and Doug) are in this package. This is such a cool toy! It gives you several very nicely made plastic (and sturdy) stencils of a little girl with three different faces you can choose, as well as three separate clothing stencils with various outfits that you can trace onto your "doll" as well as various ways to decorate the clothing with heart patterns, or stars or whatever. Endless creative possibilities ... and Emma just loves stuff like this!
Here is Matthew with Big Brown Bear, his hand puppet. Matthew was very taken with it!
And this is Diana opening up her gift from Bath & Body Works ... I did so much shopping at that store for the girls in our family! The sales ladies know me BY NAME! :)
I also got Emma this "I want to know about JESUS" book ... because she does! She wants to know EVERYTHING about Him! :) I also got her a jewelry kit, and a little storage case for all of the pretty sparkly stones and string, which she liked very much.
But Christopher LOVED his Transformers! This is one happy little face!
Diana and the boys went out for a little while in the evening to the Mother and Son dance over at the school. Emma, Jesse and I stayed home. Emma and I made a little necklace for Sophie that had the letters of her name on it. We also did some doll stencil pictures together that turned out beautifully, but I neglected to take any pictures of them!

The boys came home in time for a bedtime story, everyone got tucked in, and Jesse drove me over to the Annex for the night. I had a great first day in El Paso, with two more to look forward to.

After looking through all of my pictures from the trip, I now realize I do not have one single picture of Jesse to show you! Usually, Grandpa Jones is taking pictures as I am taking pictures and between the two of us, we usually cover the bases. So I feel badly that I neglected taking pictures of Jesse! Actually, I had a hard time remembering to take pictures at all because I was enjoying playing with the kids so much.

But how is Jesse doing? His knee is recovering well. He seems in good spirits. We had a really nice visit together, with some nice talks. I am so thankful I got to make this trip, see him again, and celebrate an early Christmas together ...