White Christmas in MN

After a shuttle ride from uncle Aaron to the airport (Thanks, Aaron!) we flew out of PDX at 3:00 on Sunday afternoon. Luckily, Ben's nap coincided with the flight time - he slept most of the flight, while Andy and I got to watch a movie on our new little DVD player. We got in to MN, picked up a rental car, found some fast-food dinner and were on our way "up north". Ben fell asleep pretty quickly, and we got to grandma and grandpa's (a 3 1/2 hour drive) at about 1:15AM. Ben woke up as I carried him inside so he got to play for an hour with the train table that grandpa had made and set up for him, then he went back to bed.

At that point there was very little snow, but the next day, we suited Ben up in a borrowed snow suit, and headed out to play in the snow.

We ended up getting a ton more snow in the next few days - maybe about a foot and a half or so, which made for lots of shoveling and blowing but also some fun playing inside (decorating cookies)...

Mid-way thru cookie decorating, Ben discovered that he could lick up the extra sprinkles... We had a crazy-hyper baby that night!

Don't these 2 shirts just scream "Minnesotan"?

Winter Wonderland?

Uncle Brent and Aunt Patti arrived on Wednesday with their 3 month old baby, Nicholas. What fun to finally meet my baby nephew. He is a happy little guy who really likes his food - check out the cheeks on this kid! So cute!

Poor Nick was overdue for a nap...

After a big meal on Christmas Eve, we opened gifts - my goodness, we all got some very nice things... Ben had a blast carrying the gifts to the living room, and ripping open packages, and helping Nick open his gifts, too.
We headed back to Mpls to get together for "Stokes Year's Eve" on Sunday with my girlfriends from college - fun times! I don't have any pictures of the event, but we had a blast catching up with my good friends and watching the kids go crazy with all of the toys and open space in the basement.

All in all a great visit. Ben had fun and was very well-behaved and adaptable the entire trip. He also had a "language explosion" while we were there. Here is a partial list of some of the new words:

ham: ahhh-mm

snow: snow

gas: gassss

hummingbird: said one time very clearly

up: up

down: down

pie: pa-eeeeeee?

Patti: Pa-teeee

The flight back also went OK - Ben watched a little Madagascar on the DVD player, took an hour nap, and played nicely with some books and snuggled with mom and dad. Another shuttle ride from Andy's dad (thanks, Tom!) and we were back home!

In the airport, Ben liked pointing out all of the "owie chairs" (wheelchairs) that were strewn about the concourses. (I called them 'chairs for people who have owies on their legs' in the Portland airport, and Ben remembered this upon our return to the airport - and said "owie" or "owie sair" each time we saw one - this kid is quick!)

We still have some belated Christmas celebrations left to do with Andy's family over the next 2 weekends - looking forward to seeing everyone!