Washington- First Plane Trip

Waiting for the plane.

First flight. Looked like this the whole time.

Entertaining himself waaaay too late at night in Spokane airport.

Enjoying his first hotel stay at Benny's Colville Inn, in Colville, WA..

Cousins and grandma.

Second and third plane flights on the way home.

Probably the only time E has ever been asleep coming off of the plane.

Our trip to Washington was for a sad reason - we lost Ray's grandmother, an amazing woman who really enjoyed life. I am glad, though, that we got all of Ray's family in one place and they got to see the boys, and the boys got to meet their new cousin a week earlier than planned - since the planned meeting was cancelled due to illness. It was a beautiful send off and a good honor to a life well lived. In a week to be thankful, I am thankful for the time we got.

Wood Park

Those of you from LJ will remember the big wood park that was near our house.

Sadly, it has suffered the fate of many a wooden playground.

It is now plastic. Smaller. Less original.

However, E and Ray still had fun.

First Visit

We made it to see my parents last weekend (sorry, the Minnesota trip is coming, but a lot more difficult this time around - see: two kids, me going back to work sooner, etc. - but it is coming).

Anyway, it was great to get T to see one set of grandparents.




He's very excited about it, as you can see.

Patience

All of my brother's family love E and are great with them. However, my niece has a near-infinite reserve of patience and wonder that makes her particularly good entertainment (and me over-inclined to abuse her as a babysitter).

Consider the game of leaf races.



Endless. But pretty from a distance, no?

LJ Thanksgiving 2011

Many Thanksgiving traditions were observed this year.
For example: the cheesy dinnertime photo.

See also: lacking at least one pilot.
[Edited to add: STEVE! I just noticed. Bad Steve. (but funny)]
And then: Baby Nine Ball.

It got a little more cut throat this year.


And a lot less random. I had to put an end to TELLING the baby which balls to move.

Good thing one of the family was willing to let E work out the tension!

A Vegas Wedding.. in Three Parts: Part 3: Dinner and Going Home

After the gorgeous wedding and a recovery nap, we were ready for dinner. We were also late for dinner, but apparently we hung out in the monorail station long enough for a fashion shoot. Which explains why we were really late for dinner..



We did eventually make it to dinner... click on through for more...

A Las Vegas Wedding... in Three Parts: Part 2: The Wedding

As I mentioned, we got to go to Vegas to see Ray's brother Steve get married.

After our tour on the Strip came the rehearsal dinner, but I have no pictures because E was strangely exhausted and twerplike. Huh.

Anyway, the next day we cleaned ourselves up (after a quick dip in the pool for E's sake) to watch the nuptials.
As clean as we get!

Actual wedding pictures if you click through to the full post....

Family

As I mentioned, much of the Baumgartner clan got together for Steve and Missy's anniversary (Mike, you were missed!). Getting my family together is always good camera fodder, even beyond my nephew's photobombing skills. Speaking of, Ray has some of his own:

The rest of the family cleans up pretty well...



Some are better behaved than others. No comment on my own.

It was nice to see (almost) everyone in one place! Steve and Missy, I'm working on a book and a CD. Soon.

Many Celebrations

My brother and sister-in-law had a special celebration at the church to celebrate their 20th anniversary. I'll skip the details here, as I feel like those are theirs, but I know several people are waiting for me to get pictures together. So.. guys. I got the pictures edited. Here are a few glimpses of the ceremony.





Congratulations on 20 years and best wishes for many, many more!

Dear (Oh Dear)...

Dear Mom (and Dad, but it was totally Mom's idea)-
Thank you for the food processor. It makes it really really fun to shred zucchini.
Perhaps too much fun. You just put the zucchini in the top and WHOOP it's gone. I had to do it a second time. Four cups of shredded zucchini.

On that note, thanks for teaching me to always have lots of staples in my pantry.

And thanks to both my mother and my mother-in-law for supplying us with lots of bakeware.
(This loses something in scale...that would be two loaves of zucchini bread (well, one and nine-tenths loaves) PLUS an 9x13 pan. I needed one loaf for the block party this weekend so, yeah, too much fun.)

And mom: thanks for the cinnamon chips. I probably should stop making bread for today, but... soon.

I'm going to go eat some zucchini bread now. And look for some other reason to shred vegetables.

Love,
Laura

PS- The recipe is a 1996 Cooking Light recipe that I can't find online but will email at request. It's yummy and makes two loaves (if you don't have a zucchini-shredding fetish and double the recipe), one of which can be frozen. If you don't eat the first one before they cool.

Choo-choo

My mother knows the way to E's heart.

The Happiest Place on Earth

(no, not Disney)
But pretty darn close for some of us.
This picture kills me. He's getting so big. (That's Ray and E on the right side of the stairs.)

Not pictured: the moose Tiff bought E, which he still loves (it was on his "hug list" at bedtime tonight, actually) and I do too, since it lives in an apron from the baby shower along with some other stuffed animals and looks super cute. Yes, that needs a visual, but E is asleep and I can't sneak into his room. Maybe later. Thank you, Tiff.

Anyway, yes, I got to hit IKEA. And I didn't quite get everything I "needed", so Ray got sent back on a long layover. His father was kind enough to model for the "is this it?" text message....
Donut says yes, thank you, it is. And he and Marco love their new cat bed. We won't tell them what it used to be.

(Denver IKEA now has blue and yellow sides and a big sign. Getting closer!)

Eamontropism

A few images from the Grunzinger's visit.