One Month

Brennan is one month old today. As cliche as it is to say, I can't believe he's been with us so long. On the other hand, I can't remember him not being part of our home.

Collin
Collin has become a great big brother. He loves to give Brennan kisses. Unfortunately, he gets very upset when I ask him to refrain from showing his love when he is running a fever or has a runny nose. He is very gentle, and oftentimes will ask to give Brennan his binky. When Brennan is crying, he'll say, "Uh oh baby. Baby binkie." He also knows that the baby will always be happier with some of "mama milk," and he is becoming more willing to share Mom when it means the baby will stop crying.

Brennan
Brennan is still a miracle sleeper. He is in a great routine now too. During the day, he eats every three hours. His feedings are also on hours which are multiples of three, which makes the teacher/planner in me so happy! After eating, he will stay awake for 30-60 minutes, and then nap until it is time to eat again. He only cries when he is hungry - at the 3 hour mark - and when he has gas (more on this to follow). At night, he nurses at 9pm and again around 3am. Yep, six hours of sleep for me! Instead of staying awake to play, he goes right back to sleep until 6am, and then we are up for the day. It is amazing. Of course, I am still napping each afternoon when both boys are sleeping, so that is keeping me far more sane then when Collin was a newborn.

Alright, now for more on this gas... My children seem to struggle with gas. Collin had problems burping, and he would fuss and fuss uncomfortably. Brennan struggles with the other end. In an attempt to approach this delicately, I'll say that he could definitely out "toot" any grown man, and he has some seriously explosive bowel movements.

I am certainly struggling with taking pictures of him. I took hundreds of pictures of Collin when he was a baby, but in typical mother-of-more mode, I have neglected the camera almost completely. I'm guessing that he is weighing in around 9 pounds, and he is losing all his black hair on the top of his head. Picture male-pattern baldness. He no longer fits in any of his newborn-sized clothes, which was a sad day to pack them all up. He still has his one elf ear and a seriously upturned nose. His eyes are more open and aware now, but they are still shaped like Ryan's.

And Me
My adjustment to having two kids has gone FAR more smoothly than I had planned. Of course, I had prepared for the absolute worst, so I guess that's not saying much. My mom did stay for a full two weeks though, so I was spoiled with lots of help for quite some time. By the time she left, I was getting a decent amount of sleep each night and had Brennan on a loose schedule. Now, two more weeks later, I'd say things are going rather smoothly. I wouldn't say we don't have hiccups, and I absolutely detest bed-time without help, but we are doing well.

Thanks for all your well-wishes. Happy Valentine's Day!

Blizzard 2011

I'd be remiss if I didn't record about Blizzard 2011...

Background

Before Brennan was born, Ryan asked if he could attend a recruiting career fair at Wisconsin on February 2nd. I wasn't a big fan, but he doesn't ask for much so I consented. Since my mom was arriving on the 27th, I figured she'd be here to help too. When he'd done these in the past, he left at 4am and returned around midnight. I knew it would be a long day for us both, but I figured we'd survive.

As the actual event arrived, things changed. Since Brennan was born early, my mom changed her flight and came early. She'd been here for two weeks and was more than ready to return to her own life, and therefore left on Saturday the 29th. That made Monday the 31st my first day alone with two kids.

Tuesday

With the blizzard forecast for Tuesday the 1st and Wednesday the 2nd, Ryan decided to pickup his rental car a day early and leave around noon on Tuesday. He thought the storm was supposed to hit late Tuesday afternoon. Knowing I was going to be alone and locked inside for the coming days, I took the boys to McDonald's for breakfast. Brennan was fussing when we pulled in the lot, so I went through the drive-thru and sat in the backseat with Collin while we ate our hashbrowns and burritos. Good times.

The snow and wind started at about noon. Ryan sped through the house throwing clothes in a bag, and as he kissed us goodbye, I started crying as the wind howled and the fireplace whistled. I vividly remember saying, "For the millionth time, I really don't think you should go."

While Ryan drove to Wisconsin, everyone's husbands returned home early from work and enjoyed a spontaneous vacation. I fumed.

By 5pm on Tuesday, Ryan had called and he had safely arrived at his hotel. The evening news in Madison was reporting that the governor had declared a state of emergency and that driving was discouraged. The university had also canceled all evening classes and activities, but the career services were still certain the Fair would take place the next morning. I voiced my doubt.

Wednesday

When Wednesday morning arrived, and the university officially closed and canceled all classes. Career Services was forced to cancel the career fair, and Ryan and his co-worker were stranded at the hotel. Ryan had packed hurriedly and didn't throw in swim or exercise stuff, so he really had nothing to do. Poor soul. The snow and wind continued, and he was bored. The freeway between Madison and Peoria had been officially closed, so there was no way for him to get home either. I was feeling no pity.

By afternoon, Career Services announced they had rescheduled the fair for Thursday, and Ryan decided to stay. Why waste the trip by trying to come home?

Back at home, I was furious. Collin was restless, the snow was piling up, and I was going crazy trying to think of things to keep everyone happy. After my pleading, Ryan called our neighbor with a snowblower and let him know he was gone. He came over and spent at least an hour working on our driveway.

By noon, after 24 hours of storm, we'd accumulated 15 inches of snow with drifts up to three feet. They had predicted ice too, but thankfully it missed us. No one was going anywhere.

Here's Collin - note the pjs, crazy hair and window marker decor - with our 4-foot back porch drift.

Back in Madison, Ryan tackled the local streets and went to an old friends' house for chatting and dinner. Rough huh?

Meanwhile at home, a neighbor had brought us dinner. She had a baby in December, but ventured down the street, walking in a lone set of tire tracks, to deliver a casserole and chocolate chip cookies. The wife of the snowblower owner came over and played blocks with Collin while I showered. Then she held Brennan so I could eat dinner. She ended up staying for THREE hours. I couldn't have special-ordered better neighbors.

Thursday

In Madison, the career fair started at 11am but went slow. It picked up around 4pm, but Ryan decided to take off to try to get home. The freeway was now open, and he was able to travel at normal speeds for most of the trip. Despite almost running out of gas, he made it home at 7pm.

Back here, first thing in the morning I called the girl across the street - who has two girls exactly 6 months older than my two boys - who came over and played. The snow plow finally made it to our street at 10am, and all the husbands exited the neighborhood for work at once. Their two-day vacation had come to an end.

By dinnertime, I was done parenting. As soon as we were done eating, I started the bedtime routine with a shrieking Brennan on one knee and a whiny Collin on the other. So much for a peaceful story time. As I left Collin's room, I heard the door bell. It was one of the neighbors with "new" toys for Collin to play with. Not 30 seconds later, I heard the garage door, and Ryan was home!

Conclusion

Our neighbors are saints. I never could have survived without their help. It was my second, third and fourth days alone with two kids, and I did them as a single mother. I'd say I feel like I can tackle just about anything now!

And if you are wondering, Ryan did admit I was right - He never should have gone. He tried to redeem himself by building this sweet fort for Collin.

Due Date #2

Seeing as today is my due date, I thought I should do a post about Brennan's first week of life. I remember writing a post on my due date with Collin, and then this post a year later. I guess I place more value on the doctor's pregnancy-expiration-date than my children do.

Early

It is ironic to me that I wanted my first to be early (to avoid the Christmas craziness) and he came late, and I wanted my second to come late (so my mom could be here) and he came early. Oh, these boys are already giving me a run for my money!

My sister welcomed sweet little Brianna into her home on January 5th, so my mom headed to Utah to help her. To my great surprise, just hours after my call to them announcing Brennan's early arrival, my mom called to say she had changed her flight and would be at my house before Ryan needed to return to work. I protested, but she'd already made the changes.

And of course it goes without saying that I am so glad she has been here this week. The switch from one to two is going well, but the restricted driving and lifting is so much easier with a helper. Not to mention, Grandma makes a great partner for Collin to play blocks, chauffeur us all around, rock the baby and cook us delicious meals! Thanks for coming Mom, and thanks for sparing her Kim!

Labor/Delivery (with my apologies to my dad and brothers)

I never blogged about my delivery of Collin, but Brennan's is so bizarre I feel the need to share. Feel free to skip this section if you don't care or may get squeamish.

I was feeling a little "funny" when Ryan left for Scouts last Wednesday evening around 6:15. I mentioned it to him, but he doesn't even remember. Then I started having strange lower back pain when I was putting Collin to bed around 7pm. It seemed to come and go, and I noticed it was happening every 20-25 minutes or so. When Ryan got home around 8pm, I got in the shower to see if the back pain would subside. At 9pm, we decided to try to get some rest in case we ended up being up all night. But by 9:15, I was in the bathroom sick with back pain every 10 minutes or so. I woke up Ryan at 10pm and told him I thought we should go to the hospital. As Ryan finished packing a bag for Collin and I topped my bag off with toiletries, I was having strong I-can't-talk-through-this contractions every 10-15 minutes, and ouch-this-hurts back pain every 2-5 minutes. A little before 11pm, I put on my shoes and Ryan and I sat at the kitchen table trying to decide if we should call the neighbor to come and sleep at our place with Collin. We re-read the paper from the doctor's office at least 5 times (recommending going to the hospital when the wow-this-hurts-I'm gonna-die contractions are 4-5 minutes apart) and finally decided at 11:15 that even though my contractions were too far apart that the baby was probably coming at some point in the night, and we might as well get our friend over and get my epidural. Laura came right over and shoo-ed us out the door.

The contractions continued with light lower back pain every 2-4 minutes, and strong abdomen contractions every 7-10 minutes. At the hospital, they hooked the monitors around my waist and started monitoring me and the baby at 11:58pm. I was dilated to a 5. This was the same point I was at when I was admitted with Collin, so we started calculating when I'd deliver and if we needed to call someone to snag Collin when he woke up. Boy were we wrong!

The story gets blurry for me around here. I know they called the doctor when we first arrived, but he knew he had plenty of time. I remember "wetting myself" (my water broke) and the nurse checking me and saying I was a 7. I know then she called the doctor again and told him to hurry. I also remember repeatedly asking when I was going to get my epidural. I know she told me at some point that I probably wasn't going to get one. I also remember saying, "Uh, aren't I supposed to tell you when I feel the urge to push?" And her reply was, "Wait, no! Don't push! I haven't delivered a baby in a long time!"

Somewhere in the midst of this, the anesthesiologist arrived, and they rolled me on my side. Unfortunately no matter how many times you tell a woman in natural labor "not to push," push she does. I had two contractions on my side (with my legs being squeezed together by the nurse, ladies!) with Brennan's head crowning each time. You can only imagine. I remember begging to roll onto my back and push him out. And that I did.

Brennan was born at 12:48am -- 50 minutes after I was hooked up to the belly monitors, and 5 hours after a very generous use of the word "contractions" began. Yes, our little BMW entered the world fast!

The doctor, who claims he was probably in the elevator when I delivered, arrived in time to delivered the placenta. Likewise, my epidural kicked in for the after-birth and stitch-up. Brennan's hand was up next to his face when he "slid out" thus the stitching. The doctor said it was a good thing he didn't get a shoulder stuck. That would have been fun for the nurse!

Brennan's eyes were swollen all three days in the hospital, but he started opening them more and more by Sunday. Apparently quick labors are rough on the baby too!I know you are probably wondering why I still got an epidural. 1 - I was in no condition to make the decision. 2 - No one seemed to realize he was coming so fast. 3 - The nurse was inexperienced, and my doctor was MIA.

Honestly, hindsight is 20/20, and we all now know I would have been far more comfortable without it. And now I can say I know what a natural birth feels like, though I have no desire to repeat it!

Sleep
Brennan is a sleeper. He sleeps... all the time. The first 5 days I woke him every 1-1/2 hours during the daytime and every 3 hours during the night to nurse him. I had to use all sorts of strategies to try to wake him and then keep him awake. As of Tuesday's doctor's appointment (where he was almost back to birth-weight), I was cleared to no longer wake him to feed him, but he is waking on his own every 3 hours or so. He still falls asleep as soon as he starts to eat though. I change his diaper between sides and that wakes him up again. It is blissful to have such a content and sleepy baby. Jaundice
I was super panicked about jaundice (remember?), so I had the nurses scanning his forehead more often than usual. He tested in the low-intermediate range and had one heel prick before we were discharged. He had two more forehead scans Monday and Tuesday (thank goodness my mom was here to drive us all to the doctor's office), and he was officially cleared Tuesday. He still looks a little orange but nothing his little body can't handle. Whew.

Collin

Collin hates doctors' offices and hospitals. He was begging Ryan to take him home each day as they pulled into the parking lot to visit us, and the one hour we got him to stay was a struggle.

Each time Ryan brought Collin to the hospital he'd take him to see the birds and fish. Apparently on the same floor as Mother & Baby there was an aviary and aquarium of some sort. I'll never know since I never visited it... One time they came we decided I would take Collin to see the birds and fish, and Ryan would stay in the room with Brennan. As Collin and I headed out of the wing holding hands, a nurse came running up behind us, pointing at me and telling me to come back. I guess I had to be in a wheelchair. As I told Collin we needed to turn around, he got all sad (do you blame him?). I tried tugging on his hand to get him back in the wing, but he wouldn't budge. Of course, I then bent over to pick him up and was immediately reprimanded by said nurse. I turned to the nurse and said, "I'm not going to be able to get him back inside. You'll have to pick him up." She took one step toward him, and Collin really lost it - screaming and tears and everything. So the nurse headed back to her station and called my room. Ryan put the baby in the baby bed and headed down the hall to get Collin, and I headed to the room. We were all of three doors apart, and another nurse said, "Where's your baby!?" I said, "He's in the room." In astonishment, she replied, "You can't leave him in the room alone!!!" Yeah, it was a comedy of errors. I felt like begging to just go home...

In general, Collin has been completely disinterested in Brennan, hardly even acknowledging him and openly refusing to kiss or hug him. Then today... My mom and Ryan overheard him say as he walked by the bouncy chair, "Hi Brennan." And when asked, he gave Brennan a kiss on the cheek. We're making progress. Unfortunately, he also started pushing the bouncy chair just before bed tonight and almost spilled him out onto the floor. I knew it was better if he just ignored him...

Conclusion
Alright. I'm tired. My blog will surely be neglected in the coming weeks or even months. Sorry guys - sleep takes priority. Enjoy winter, and we'll talk in the spring.

Announcing Brennan Michael...

Our little Brennan Michael decided to begin life by living up to his initials.

Our BMW came fast! In fact, he joined us an entire week before his due date,

and he beat the doctor to the delivery! (50 minutes after we checked in at the hospital, and just less than 5 hours after the first possible contraction.)

He weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces, and he was 19 inches long. He's perfect. More details (and pictures) to come...

Gratitude Thought

President Thomas S. Monson at General Conference...

"This is a wonderful time to be on the earth. While there is much that is wrong in the world today, there are many things that are right and good. There are marriages that make it, parents who love their children and sacrifice for them, friends who care about us and help us, teachers who teach. Our lives are blessed in countless ways."

The news and our conversations are full of all that is wrong on the world. Indeed, we are truly surrounded with evil and wickedness, but to forget the love and service that also surrounds us is to forget the Savior's love.

President Monson continues,

"...those things which provide deep and lasting happiness and gratitude are the things which money cannot buy: our families, the gospel, good friends, our health, our abilities, the love we receive from those around us."

With Christmas and its purchases in our recent memories, we must remember that life is really about what money can't buy. Time with family is definitely sacred to me. I hope we each remember to look for the good around us, and be grateful for all those many gifts we receive for which money could never provide.

A Review of Christmas Past

2003
Ryan and I were married two days after Christmas. It was a busy, overshadowed Christmas. Who cares about Christmas when there's a wedding to finalize?

2004
Upon arrival at the Columbus airport on December 23rd, we learned the power was out at my parents' house. It came back on 4 days later. It was a cold, hungry Christmas.

2005
We drove from Provo to Boise to spend Christmas with Ryan's family. It was my first Christmas away from home, and despite everyone's valiant efforts to make me feel at home, loved, welcomed and comfortable, I spent most of Christmas Eve and Day crying.

2006
My dad got a new job December 15th in St Louis, so we returned to Columbus for our last Christmas "at home." Each child was assigned to go through all their childhood belongings and clean out. Anything we wanted, we took with us. Everything else went to Goodwill. It was a sad farewell to the only house I ever remembered living in.

2007
We booked a flight to Portland for Christmas Day - in September - and received an automated voicemail on Christmas Eve informing us that our flight had been canceled and we'd been automatically rebooked for the 26th. Ryan spent 24 hours on the phone with non-English speaking customer service reps (think "Outsourced") striving to rebook us.

2008
Collin was admitted (at 4 days old) to the hospital pediatric unit for 25 hours of blue-light incubating. The staff was awful, the nurses were worse, and the doctors... you can't imagine.

2009
We had just finished remodeling our dining room, and our entire house was caked in an inch of dust. I finally put up our Christmas tree on the 23rd, but we left town on the 24th to head to my parents' place. Ryan had a little stomach bug too, but it wasn't too bad. This was our best Christmas by far.

2010
See "Billiards & Barfing" post. 'Nuf said.

Better luck next year?

Billiards & Barfing

(title courtesy of my brothers)

Barfing
Unfortunately, our Christmas story this year would be incomplete without a little recap of our stomache bug. Collin got real sick Wednesday morning (luckily not on his birthday), and after four hours of cleaning up puke, I was exhausted. But he took a good nap and seemed to be better, so we headed to St Louis on Thursday morning. I can't remember the details, but he threw up several more times while we were there, including once after a 48-hour respite at the dinner table with everyone present.

To make matters worse, Ryan and I both woke up ill on Christmas morning. Ryan seemed to get a milder form and rebounded rather quickly, but 36-week-pregnant me is still feeling ill effects almost a week later. I am so glad my mom was around to help with everything; I know I couldn't have taken care of Ryan, Collin and myself. It was awful, to say the least. I think this picture of Collin says it all. He spent the better part of a week in his pajamas. When both pairs were in the washer, he was in his swishy running pants. We spent a lot of time just laying around with bowls nearby. We were one tired, sick bunch. Luckily, it looks like we managed to keep the germs to our little family, and hopefully no one else will find whatever horrible thing Collin brought home.

Christmas
Christmas Eve was pretty mellow. Our family tradition is to listen to "The Tape" - now on CD - which tells "The True Story of Christmas." We turn off all the lights, light a fire, and sit around the Christmas tree and listen to the biblical account of Jesus' birth. I remember doing this each year for as long as I can remember.

Here are Collin and I listening. Can you tell I still felt well? After putting Collin to bed, we had appetizers, another family tradition. Little did we know it'd be our "last meal."

Despite the germs, Santa still braved the storm to visit us Christmas Eve. Collin received a tool bench and tools from Santa, a matchbox car parking garage set from Ryan and I, lots of fun stuff including a car beanbag chair from his 'Nello grandparents, and MegaBloks with a Caterpillar dump truck from his Nana & Papa Williams. It was quite the haul. Sadly, Collin was only awake 5 hours all of Christmas Day (Grandma woke him at 11am, napped him at 1:30, and put him to bed at 6pm), and I was far from interested in snapping photos of him playing. Hence, this blog has a vast shortage of photos. Sorry. He really did like his gifts, and he's still enjoying his "new toys" here at home.

Billiards
My parents have grown concerned that their house will become boring to visit, so this Christmas Santa brought them a new pool table. Until recently, they've had the missionaries living in their basement, so this area has never really been used. Now we can have hours of fun down there! Don't let my mom fool you; she creamed them all in a game the first night we were there. It was sweet. The table also came with a table tennis cover, so we can play ping-pong too. Ryan was in heaven.

I hope you all had a merry Christmas. Enjoy the new year!

Two Years

Well, it has come - Collin's 2nd birthday. I can't hardly believe it. He is definitely acting more and more like a preschooler though, so I guess I can't say it has come as a complete surprise.

Doesn't he look all ready to head to school? One hand in his pocket and the other on the lunch box. Sweet.

Last Sunday he wanted Ryan to pull a chair over to the counter for him to see, like he does when I cook. He said, "I want watch Dada cut apples." Yeah, I'd call that one good sentence. He starts lots of sentences with "I want," "I like," "I watch," etc. It is so nice for him to actually be able to tell me what he wants instead of whining (though we do still get a lot of that) or grunting (a little bit of that sneaks its way in when he's tired too). Everywhere we go complete strangers comment on how chatty he is. My favorite was the saleslady at the JC Penney in Seattle, "Wow, he talks a lot. Does he say anything?" So I guess his pronounciation could use some work, but I understand most everything.

He loves all forms of transportation (hence his room decor): trains, cars, trucks, buses, bulldozers, diggers, "dump cars," etc. I thought this would be a good place to insert a picture of the collage Ryan made for his room. It's opposite the road wall we painted. Cool huh?

He also likes anything his mom or dad has - mechanic/woodworking tools and kitchen gadgets. I guess that should give you some hints about his Christmas and birthday gifts...

We had a little get-together at our house on Saturday night. He was sooo excited. He kept saying, "Collin, birthday, cupcake" all day. I rented two movies from the library - Thomas the Train and Elmo birthday movies. He quickly learned about blowing out candles. But I guess I forgot to tell him to wait to blow until after the song is finished.


(Pardon the sideways video; I don't know how to flip it.) After Ryan relit them twice during the song, the other kids were so cute to help him out, "NOW you blow out the candles."

I think the opening of presents was good practice for Saturday.
I think it may quite possibly take all day to get everything open on Christmas though. But he'll be the only child there, so I guess we'll have nothing better to do. He was so excited to play with everything... except for the dinosaurs that were in this box - he climbed into my lap cuddling, and said, "All done dinosaurs." Yep, still a bit of a wuss. (Though today it was the first toy he wanted to show to his friends who came over to play, so I guess he's over the initial shock.)

Happy Birthday, Big Boy! We love you.

Yuki

Collin loves snow, particularly snowmen. Here he is not particularly well-clad during our snow-in in Seattle.

Since Collin was quite young, he and Ryan have looked at pictures in a Japanese cartoon book and learned new words.

- "go" is the number five

- "ame" is rain

- "neko" is cat

- "inu" is dog

- "waki" is armpit

- "ashi" is foot

- "naka" is belly

But his all-time favorite Japanese word is yuki. Apparently yuki means snow, but Collin also uses it for snowmen.

He loves snowmen books.

He loves to build snowmen. (Yes, our decor needs some work.)

He loves snowmen images on the computer - where he readily points out the yuki's carrot nose, coal eyes, and color of "necklace."

He loves snowmen tearing and pasting from the ads we get in the mail.

He loves his "yuki bus" full of snowmen Christmas decorations.

He loves his snowmen stuffed animals - who must need a snack occasionally.Collin loves to color yuki.

And he loves to "push yuki" with Dad too.

We got a good amount last weekend, and he's been in heaven since! If only I enjoyed it as much as he does...

Pregnancy Pics

Here are some pics of me with Pregnancy #2...

at 29 weeks

at 33 weeks

And for a little comparison, here I am at 38 weeks with my first pregnancy.

Yes, I am in for a rude awakening. It seems that I'm already as big as I ever got... and I have 6 weeks to go!

Car Room

Introducing Collin's Car Room

He loves it,

and so do we!

Thanksgiving in Washington

Though this is a long-belated post, I wanted to document our trip to visit the Williams-side of the family the last week or so.

Traveling
We started our trip Friday night (the 19th) and drove to St Louis and stayed with my parents. We watched football on Saturday with them before they dropped us at the airport. They are always so good to keep our car (free parking!) while we are gone.

Our first flight was pretty uneventful, and Collin even got his own seat. The second flight was a little more traumatic - sitting on the tarmac for almost an hour with Collin chanting "apple juice" and "up in the skies" while waiting for the fog to lift and for the plane to be de-iced was a bit rough. But Collin did finally curl up with Ry (it was 2am our time) and fall asleep towards the end.

Our return trip was about the same - one flight with Collin in his own seat and one flight in Daddy's lap. Unfortunately, Collin didn't fall asleep until we were waiting in baggage claim for his carseat. Oh well.

I'd say all in all, he was quite a good little trooper. He did have some issues with kicking the seat in front of him, and we did get some dirty looks despite our best efforts. It was our last flight with him flying free (which can also can be read as 'our last flight with him without his own seat'), and he was so flexible with all the rules and such. I was so proud of him.

Side Story: I'd like to make a little plug for Frontier airlines. I hate flying - I hate TSA; I hate all the lines; I hate the waiting and delays; I hate the rude passengers; I hate the rude airline employees; I hate the '3-ounces in a ziplock' rules; I hate the metal detectors, body scans and patdowns... Should I go on? I haven't been happy with an airline in at least 10 years.

But Frontier shocked me this time. First, they filled Collin's sippy with apple juice, which was far more than I expected - he wasn't a paying passenger, and it held far more than the little cup they handed to Ryan or me. But the REALLY awesome thing is that we each (yes, each of the 3 of us) got at least one warm chocolate chip cookie on each flight. Yeah - not only did they not skip the pretzels/trail mix/peanuts crap, but they gave us ooey, gooey chocolatey cookies. Oh, and they were FREE. They didn't nickel and dime us with paying for our drink (Direct Air to Myrtle Beach) or for a stupid bag of chips. So, FLY FRONTIER!

Seattle
On Monday morning Ryan's parents both had to work, so we rented a car and drove to Seattle to see his sister's new place. Unfortunately, the weather was far from cooperative. Apparently it never snows in Washington (not a flake all of last winter), but each time we travel there the snows seems to follow us! A curse. In fact, they got a good six inches in Vancouver and Seattle, and we drove through it all.

You see, in places that don't get snow, they don't own snow plows. Additionally, the drivers DON'T HAVE A CLUE what to do on snowy/icy roads, and both of these conditions add up to a total disaster. It was a stressful drive up there, and it really wasn't much better two days later when we returned. But we were safe and we didn't crash the car, so I guess I shouldn't complain.

The saddest part is that we were pretty much snowed in at her house the whole time we were there, and we didn't get to do any tourist-y things. I guess there's always next time. On the other hand, it was nice to get to actually see all the remodeling that we had heard so much about. It is a great house.

Other than getting to see Megan's "new" (80-year old home that they totally gutted and remodeled in the last 8 months) house, the main highlight of the Seattle part of our trip - for me! - was getting to see my good friend from back in my BYU days. We did Elementary Education together, and then taught 6th grade together (different schools though) our first year out. She was pregnant with her first that year (now he's a kindergartener!), and I continued teaching several more years, but we've kept in touch via blogs, email and Christmas cards over the last 6 years. Anyway, she now has 3 kids and stays home with them in a suburb of Seattle, and we popped over to her place Wednesday morning before heading back down to Vancouver. It was great to see her and her adorable kids. Miss you, Melissa!


Turkey Day
Of course, a Thanksgiving trip wouldn't be complete without stuffing ourselves to the gills with delicious turkey, stuffing, potatoes, beans and corn, and warm rolls covered in homemade jams. We also had a table-full of homemade pies for dessert. Yum! Ryan's sister (plus husband and 3 kids) from Boise joined us, as well as Ryan's sister (plus husband and 2 kids) from Seattle. We also were able to have his parents (duh, it was their house), his grandma (who lives down the road but is in a different ward), and Ryan's aunt (plus her husband and two high-school aged kids) eat with us. It was all delicious, and we did indeed "stuff ourselves to the gills."

Cousins
There were a lot of kids around this trip. You can imagine the busy-ness and noise. Collin did much better than I thought he would, but as it inched towards naptime or bedtime each day, he would whine for "Nana's car" (interpretation: "Get me out of here!"). Since I was usually in need of a little break from the chaos too, we'd usually head downstairs to the tv room and sneak in a 30-minute Elmo movie. It seemed to do the trick to restart Collin, and he was usually rearing to head back up to the toys afterwards.

He was a little afraid of his youngest cousin (who turned one in August) who has learned how to fend for himself and often times takes the much bigger kids down by grabbing their shirts from behind and flinging them to the ground. You can imagine Collin's shock the first time that happened!

He did end up becoming quite the pal with his cousin who's about 6 months older than him. I think he really missed all of them after they all took off for home, and we still had another day left. The house was so quiet; he didn't know where they'd all gone!
One of the major benefits of us being the first to arrive and the last to leave is that we got Nana & Papa all to ourselves for one day on each side of the trip. Collin obviously doesn't get to see his Williams' grandparents much, and they really spoiled him with all the attention.
Black Friday
I'm not a Black Friday shopper. I know you've read about our Craig's List-ing, frugal crafting, garage sale-ing, trash digging, and Cat classify-ing, but no deal is good enough to get me out of my warm bed and fight mean-spirited crazies.

But I was going quite stir-crazy by Friday, so we headed to IKEA. It wasn't that busy (they weren't having any ridiculous sales) and since we don't have an IKEA close to us, we wanted to check out what they had. We were able to buy an extension pack for Collin's train set he got last year for Christmas (it was all that would fit in our luggage).

Our real goal though was really to scout the place out to see if it was worth taking the van up to Chicago one Saturday for furniture or something. All in all, it was just a way to get out and about.

Stardust Diner
Saturday morning we all went to Uncle Tracey's diner. He bought it a few years ago, and I just love the ambiance. It's the classic 1950's silver, railway car-looking building with advertisements for toothpaste and "Uncle Same Wants You" posters on the walls. I just love diners like that, and the fact that it's his uncle's makes it a 'must' for every trip.

If you live or travel to the Vancouver/Portland area, stop in - It's in Camas. Oh, and the food is delicious too!

Ohio State-Michigan Game
I was pretty sad when I found out we'd be watching our Big Game Thanksgiving weekend instead of the weekend before, but it turned out good in the end. Go Buckeyes! We even went and bought all the stuff to make Buckeyes and they were a real hit with the family, who'd never tasted homemade peanut butter cups. They had Ryan and I do all the work, but they helped with the consumption. I did have the one condition that each person swear their allegiance to my team before eating, but none of them seemed to mind.

Four-Wheeling
What would be a trip to Nana & Papa's without some time on the Four-Wheelers? It was cold and either rainy or snowing the whole time we were there, so the only adult brave enough to take the kiddos out was Papa. I also managed to pull a muscle in my belly the first day we were on the road (lugging luggage?), so I wasn't quite up to all the jostling they offer (I did survive the week by buying an expensive belly band). Collin was a little terrified at first, but I think he loved it still the same.

Conclusion
We had a great trip. Collin slept great (always a worry of mine when we are on the road in different places), and he was super flexible. It was great to see all the family, especially since it will be quite some time before we venture "up in the skies" with two children. Thanks for Nana & Papa, Megan & Chris, and Grandma & Grandpa for each hosting us for a night or two... or lots! We love you guys!