Words can't express how excited I was to travel back to Iowa to see my family for Christmas. We hadn't been back since June and we had lots of people to see and lots of stops to make! Ronnie loves to go too so it makes this trip tons of fun!
While packing for the trip, we practiced all of our new moves:
- Crawling
- Climbing (this one was very new)
- kisses
- babbling (sounds like he is talking in German)
- laughing (if I could insert a soundbit here I would -- this isn't your normal baby giggle)
- waving
- clapping
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| Gotta pack the hats for our trip to Iowa! |
I had to laugh because I have probably flown out of
the Tampa airport close to 60 times since I moved to Florida but I have
NEVER noticed the kid play area in the Delta Terminal. Funny how you don't pay attention to these things until you are scouting out for any available open area to put your kid down in to burn some energy. All I can say is
THANK YOU, TPA.
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| Killin' time at the airport! |
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| Sleepin' on daddy...of course mommy is awake! |
This was Drew's 4th trip in 9 months...
but the last 3 trips he was so little that he would just eat and then
sleep the entire flight. Not so much this time. The direct flight to
Minneapolis was 3 hours long. He slept for 18 minutes. We ate lots of
puffs, smiled and waved at lots of nice passengers, paced up and down
the aisle and read the same book over and over... it was a very long 3
hours :-)
Brad picked us up from the airport - this was Drew after about 5 minutes in the truck....
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| Can this child look ANY MORE LIKE HIS FATHER???!!! |
Let
the craziness begin!!!! I can't even explain in words how wonderful
this trip was. Whatever I write will not do it justice. We spend one
full week with my family and lots of precious time with the Webers.
Wendy is my very best friend and seeing our boys play together, watching
Drew learn from them, smile at them and interact with them as friends
just melted my heart. We have so many wonderful years to come - I just
hope I can cherish and remember as many moments as I can.
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| Luke: "Let's attack Uncle Ronnie!" |
Luke's nickname is the Luke-Dozer and I really didn't understand exactly how 'dozer' like he is until I saw this first hand! This kid rocks ruff and tuff! He plows through everything, dozes over toys, shoes, and even people! He might be big - but he is QUICK. I think Drew's mobility skills advanced by about 3 weeks in the 7 days we were there. Luke was 'showing him how it's done' and Drew just followed suit!
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| Look at those little faces. |
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| mom - if we get up before everyone else we can play with all the toys first! |
This was unplanned - but Drew and Ethan are wearing
matching shirts that say 'Best Buddies.' So precious. Drew really does
look up to him already. He loves watching Ethan and pays close
attention to what he is doing. I captured several good shots of him
looking at Ethan like this in awe... Love.
We
spent one night at the Weber's then off to Iowa!
Stop #1: Grandma
and Grandpa Hammers. It has been a very tough year for both of them
with Grandpa's heart condition and Grandma suffering from a stroke last
May. They are living at their house and grandpa is taking care of
grandma - he is such a hard worker. It was nice to stop and give them
both hugs and let them spend some time with their great-grand babies.
Stop #2: Great Grandma Butcher's! This is always
so much fun. Grandma amazes me and inspires me every time I am around
her. She is like an angel living here on earth with us. I want to be
like her when I grow up :-) She had lots of fun with these little guys
and Ethan. Drew proudly showed off one of his new holiday tricks (clapping) - which Great Grandma loved!
Stop
#3: Grandma Lori's! Yep. This is what we walked in to. I guess 4
children and their spouses and 5 grand children will do this to you! I love coming home for Christmas - there is nothing like it. Mom
always has the Christmas music on, holiday candles burning and yummy
snacks waiting for us when we get there. No place like home for the
holidays.
Once
thing I also love is that Grandma Lori makes her house so fun for all
the kids. She has toys, movies, games and lots of love to go all
around. Reminds me of when we were kids -- our house was always the
'hang out' house... some things never change.
One of
here additions in the past few months was this cool tunnel and tent!
Drew loved to crawl down it and then sit in the tent and kick his feet
together. Loved the sounds it made!
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| PEEK-A-BOO! |
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| TGFT (THANK GOD FOR TUPPERWARE) This cupboard kept these babies busy several times on this trip! |
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| Luke-dozer and Drew bellied up for breakfast. |
Even though this is a crazy hectic trip visiting
family -- I always try my best to see my friends when I am back..
Ronnie, Drew and I drove over to Moville to see Becks, Bernie their clan
of 3 and friends Toni, Drew and their little girls. Always so fun
to hang out and enjoy the parenthood chapter of our life we are in!
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| Ok -- I thought Grandma's tent was cool... but a bouncy house??!! Is this heaven? No - it's Iowa! |
Sunday night Ben, Bri, Beau, Andrew, Melissa and
Kelby came up to mom's for homemade pizza and to watch the ISU b-ball
game. Madness, cousin madness.
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| Frank is always so good with the little ones! |
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| How we all got together for a picture (everyone looking except Drew) is beyond me! |
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| My workout for the morning. 25 lber in one arm and a 20lber in the other... |
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| Quick morning power nap with daddy before heading to the farm! |
Off to papas! On Monday dad took the day off of
work and we went out to spend the afternoon with him. Drew was showing
off all his tricks... jabbering, waving, clapping, crawling... Papa has a
way of getting these babies all wound up!
Donna,
Lucas and Kate were out there when we arrived. It was great to see
them and little Kate is such a doll! I was impressed with all of her
skills - she was running around, saying words and could even tell me
where her nose is!
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| Lukey - want to get in here too? I bet we could really shake things up. |
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| Beau was over for the afternoon too, while Bri worked. He is SO adorable and SO mild mannered. Love love love him. |
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| Is it time for chores yet? I've got my flannels on and ready to go! |
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| Just trying to climb the cabinets...don't worry about me... |
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| I love how they all do their own thing. It was exhausting just watching them - such busy little bees! |
One of my favorite memories of this trip was Ethan
pulling Drew around in the wagon behind the tractor. He was such a good
driver and loved taking the babies for rides. Brings tears to my eyes
thinking about how sweet these moments were.
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| Wait for me, guys! |
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| Luke doesn't miss a beat. This guys wanted in on the action too! |
We had a yummy meal at dad's -- beef of course!
This was Drew's first time eating steak! He gobbled it down (just like
everything else we put in front of him). What a little oinker!
This
picture doesn't really do this moment justice... but Drew finished
eating first so we put him in the bouncer (musical chairs with the high chairs). Slowly but surely all the
babies came over to play - the each wanted a piece of the fun!
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| Dads and little dudes. |
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| Tearing off the paper was fun for Drew... making sure he didn't put it in his mouth - not so fun! |
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| What a scene! It was special night with family and so thankful for the for all the love that was in this room! |
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| Babies are in bed - CHEERS! |
One of the many things Wendy and I have in common is
that we enjoy exercising. Soooo...Christmas Eve day we took a trip
down the the Holstein Rec Center and got our work-out on! Look at that
stride she has!
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| #dontkillmewendy |
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| Santa's Little Helper was a happy guy on Christmas Eve Day! |
Christmas Eve we were back up at mom's house. We
changed the schedule up a bit this year and decided to go to the 7pm
church service and eat dinner and open presents after church instead of
before and going to the mid-night service. Much better plan for the
babies :-)
Mom fixed a delicious meal and after opening presents we had fun hanging out together once the babies went to bed.. Ethan got to stay up though - I had fun playing one of grandma's new board games with him :-) Wish I had a picture of it! We were eating ice cream dessert together at 11pm!
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| Merry Christmas! |
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| Grandma Lori and an armful of grand-babies! |
This next photo doesn't do justice for what actually happened here... Luke-Dozer was in full effect and plowed in front of Drew. So what's a baby to do? Grab him by the pants and pull him outta the way! Luke's crack was out and Drew just kept pulling... priceless.
On Christmas Day we went back over to Great Grandma Butcher's. Grandma made a delicious meal and we spent some time with Aunt Renea and Uncle Steve, Rah-Rah and Uncle Harry, Great Grandma and Papa. These babies kept everyone busy!
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| Yep. This is the 3rd picture of Drew napping on daddy... hmmmm. |
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| What a picture! Little Grandma Betty has no fear when lugging around these big babies! |
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| Drew and Grandma playing catch! |
Drew started a new trick while in Iowa -- we call it 'Cyclones are Number 1'! He loves to raise his arm and point up with one little finger... of course Papa gets him to do it every time :-)
The day after Christmas we packed up (which took half a day to do) and headed back to Minnesota. The temp was in the mid-20s so we decided it would be fun to bundle the boys up and go sledding in the yard!
Of course Wendy has everything we needed -- even two snowsuits and two baby sleds!
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| Getting ready..... |
This might be my favorite picture of the entire trip. The thought bubbles that could describe these looks are endless.
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| Drew -- cheer up, man. This is gonna be fun. Your mom is gonna drag you all around the yard and you just get to sit here and relax... |
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| Aunt Wendy and Luke showing us how it's done! |
We had a great last night with the Webers. Ethan put on his new Chef coat and made us all a great taco dinner!
Back to Florida we go....
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| 'Well.. I thought about sleeping on this flight, but that would be boring...." |
No gonna lie - it was very sad leaving and saying 'see ya later' to everyone. But these trips remind me that I am blessed with a very awesome family and the importance of making sure Drew continues to have special bonds with his cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents that live up there. Already looking forward to 2014 and the fun family visits that await us!
