Happy Holidays everyone!

Here is a shot of Ben, Andy and I after a breeze-y time getting through airport security at PDX on Christmas Eve (finally leaving after a 4 day delay because of the horrible weather in Portland). The "family-friendly" TSA personnel were so nice and laid back and friendly, even offering to take our picture to document Ben's first airport experience (outside of my tummy, that is...). Ben slept about 2 hours of the 3 hour flight like a trooper, then we played a bit and fed him some squash and cereal for entertainment. No angry looks were shot our way, that's for sure. It was nice not being "that baby" on the plane.


Grandpa Ron met us at the airport and chauffeured us for the 3 hour drive to Little Boy Lake in -15F degree weather arriving at 1:30AM. The northern part of MN had about as much snow on the ground as Newberg did when we left. Grandma was sure happy to see us! We awoke Christmas morning got to introduce my brother and sister-in-law to their nephew, Ben. How fun!


Grandma and her "little elves" had borrowed all of the baby items that a little 7 month old baby could dream of, so we were set up pretty nice - a high chair, 2 excersaucers, crib, and boxes of toys, etc.
We hung out at the cabin on Christmas Day - browsing food all day long, and began opening gifts after a great homemade dinner of ham and potatoes. Ben received so many nice things from G and G and B and P, and he got so tired from opening gifts on Christmas Day, that he had to continue the gift opening the next afternoon... thank you again for the wonderful toys, books and clothes! We ate lots of good food, and had a lot of fun watching our family interact with Ben. It was very hard to leave after such a short visit.


Here is Ben spending some quality time with Grandma Jan during meal time (nice view out the deck doors, huh?)

We got to spend 2 days back in Mpls visiting with my old college friends. My 4 girlfriends, their husbands and our collective pile of 9 kids got together for a great time on Sunday. Danielle posted a picture of the whole group (minus poor Henry, who was already in bed) on her blog. It is always so great to catch up with "my girls" and see how fast their kiddos have grown! Thanks to Hope and Chad for the deluxe accomodations!

For the late night (9:45PM) return trip, Ben slept on the plane (the whole 3.5 hour trip and all of the way to baggage claim). After catching a shuttle to our park-n-fly hotel parking spot, we had to remove the chains from my Jeep at 1:00 in the morning, and made it home, sweet home at about 2:30AM.

We will soon be getting together with Andy's side of the family for the holidays. Can't wait to see everyone!

Wishing a happy, healthy new year to all of my readers! Andy, Ben and I are so thankful to have such wonderful friends and family surrounding us. For us, 2008 was a great year filled with all of the joys that a new baby can bring, along with some scary moments from grandpa, but all in all, it was a very good year. Can't wait to see what 2009 has in store for us!