Baltimore for Christmas

A week before Christmas we all piled into our minivan and drove to Iowa. It took 18 hours or so. We had a DVD player for the twins and so it really wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. Stephen complained a bit and Thomas cried a bit more than that, but not nearly as much as previous times. I think that the DVD player was what made the difference. I tried to do other activities with them, but it was hard in the car. Crayons ended up going flying, Stephen kept grabbing whatever the twins next to him had, and we had a dog in the car, a very large dog who took up a lot of room and made it difficult to move. Charlie (the dog) was pretty good though and slept most of the time.

In Davenport, Iowa we stayed with our friends, the Shulcas. We met Will and Sam Shulca when we were living in Wymount (BYU student family housing). Sam and I have been close friends ever since. It was so nice catching up with them and taking a break from our trip. After 24 hours or so we left and made the 14 hour trip to Baltimore. Well, it took longer because we stopped for bathroom breaks. We ended up getting to Baltimore about 1am.

Sam as baby Jesus

We spent much of the first week there with Rob's family, primarily with his mom and sister and her kids. We also saw his grandmothers, his father, and his brothers. We had a big Christmas party too, which was fun.


Christmas was wonderful. On Christmas eve we read from Luke 2 and had the kids dress up. Seth was Joseph, Mary was Mary, Sam was baby Jesus, and my boys were animals, but my boys removed their costumes before we got to take any pictures. We opened presents with Greg's family, spent some time with Rob's family, and then went back to Greg's house where Kristin and I made the Christmas dinner.

Hesian underwear...a long standing joke among the Burgoyne kids

My two little elves on Christmas morning

Thomas at the Science Center

A couple days after Christmas we went to the Science Museum with Ray (Kristin's father) and he treated us to lunch, which was wonderful. We watched a 3D IMAX movie on butterflies which was fantastic. The twins enjoyed it too (although they only kept their 3D glasses on half the time). Luke kept trying to touch the butterflies, because it looked so real.

Stephen at the Science Center

The twins walking the streets of Baltimore

Then last Friday we decided it was time to head back to Utah. Rob drove the 36 hours (including a few bathroom breaks, a stop at a Chinese buffet, and two detours due to incorrect directions) straight. Although it was a wonderful trip, it felt so great to be home.