Sally's Journey to Buffalo

Once upon a time, a pretty little baby named Sally boarded a plane to journey across the country to meet her Auntie Natalie (and surprise her for her 35th birthday!).

Actually, Sally's journey started a few hours before she boarded the plane--it started when she and her mother left their comfortable home in Twin Falls, Idaho and drove three hours across the barren wasteland of southern Idaho so they could catch their plane in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Honestly, whose idea was it to move to a small town without a major airport??)

Our cute little heroine didn't mind the drive too much--she only cried a little--and she was thrilled when her mother stopped in the middle of nowhere to feed her a bottle and give her a turn behind the wheel.  (The driving age in Idaho is much lower than it is in other parts of the nation.)

After their road trip, Sally's mother was exhausted--so Sal promised to be good on the flight.  She kept her promise, but she was just so excited that she couldn't stop wiggling!  Mommy and Baby did a lot of bouncing, juggling, walking, patty-cake, and playing with toys as they flew across the country.  It was exhausting.  Thankfully, Sally finally napped a little.

They stopped briefly in Minneapolis--but the stop was so brief that they had to sprint across the airport and didn't have time to stop for dinner or a diaper change.  Sally was so hungry that she decided to eat her foot.

Needless to say, when they finally arrived in Buffalo, they both rejoiced.

And Sally did a little yoga to loosen up after her tiring day of being crammed in airplane seats.

Eleven hours of traveling were all made worth it when they saw the look on Auntie Natalie's face.  SURPRISE!  We are here to celebrate your birthday with you, Auntie Natalie!  They spent a fabulous birthday weekend with her, going out for a girls' lunch, getting pedicures, and shopping for Christmas presents for friends and family.  

Sally also got to meet many other very important people, such as her Uncle Adrian (who sponsored their surprise visit--thank you, Adrian!) and her other "aunties," including Laney, Deborah, Sherry, Danielle, Kristen, Julie, and Melissa.  (I'm sad we didn't get photos with all of them.  How could I have forgotten to take a quick photo with my former work colleagues at the Cheesecake Factory?)

Sally wished she could have met even more people whom her mama loves in Buffalo, but it was a very short trip!  Next time!!

The journey home was much easier than the way there because the Daytons were actually headed to Utah on the same flight so they could celebrate Christmas with their families.  Having a few more helping hands on the way home made things much more manageable and fun for Mama.

Sally's only regret was that she didn't come home from Buffalo with an awesome track suit to match the Dayton boys (who, by the way, clearly got their love of track suits from Rachel).

All in all, it was a fabulous trip to the Buff, and Sally was truly a trooper.  She was so good, in fact, that this airplane journey might not be her last.

The end.

Give Thanks

We spent the week of Thanksgiving in Denver with my family.  It was amazing--so fun to be all together and to show off our chubby little Sally (whom we were all tempted to gobble up instead of the turkey).  She did great on her first flight, met her great grandparents, her cousins, and her uncles for the first time, and was fawned over by her aunts and Bapa.

We were both a little scared for how the flight would go, but she did great

Noah played so well with my nephew Callum--they played from sun up until sun down, and they even had a sleepover in the basement one night (Noah's first sleepover ever).  

I think Luke wants in on the action 

We decorated for Christmas--twice!  We helped my dad put up his tree and all of his decor and we helped my grandparents set up their tree.  Noah loved it.

It was also great to spend time with my darling niece and nephews--I may be biased, but I think we have the cutest children in all the world.

On Thanksgiving Day, we of course had a feast with the extended family.  My brother-in-law made an amazing dinner (he loves cooking gourmet meals), my sister made divine homemade pies (mmmm...baby), and I set the table (quite the contribution).  So fun to be with family, even if the little kids are so noisy and crazy!

Overall, it was a completely perfect week in Denver, and on the way home, we stopped in Salt Lake to visit Noah's birth parents and their families.  As always, it was such a fun gathering.  Noah even got to meet his biological great great grandma (yes, double great!), and she gave him a model car that belonged to his biological great grandpa.  Open adoption is such a blessing.

 

 We have so much to be grateful for.  I love our little family, I love our extended family, and I love our adoption family.  I've said it a million times, and I will say it again: Life is so good!

Road Trippin'

In the past few months we've gotten adventurous and gone on a couple of short family road trips (and by "road trips," we are talking 3-4 hours away maximum, but that is plenty with two little ones!).

We spent the first weekend of October in Utah, staying with Ryan's older brother Derek and his cute little family.  We love them.  We spent crisp mornings in their hot tub, went for a gorgeous autumn hike and chair lift ride in the Utah mountains, and watched our church's biannual General Conference broadcast together.  General Conference is always such an uplifting weekend anyway because of the outstanding sermons given, and it's even better when you can watch it with family!

Can you find the cute little boy?

Sally and Derek dozed off during Conference, but Alli is wide awake

We also got to eat at the Nielsons' favorite stop on the trip from Idaho to Utah: Maddox in Brigham City, Utah.  Sally was tempted to try their yummy fried chicken, but we didn't let her!

A few weeks later, we went on a getaway to Boise with our kiddos and had so much fun playing in the beautiful leaves, shopping at the Farmers' Market, going to the aquarium, going out to breakfast to get our favorite pancakes, and of course, hitting the mall so we could do some decent shopping.  (Twin Falls doesn't have much in our tiny mall.)

Fun with photo props at the aquarium

I'm not sure if going to Pocatello qualifies as a "road trip" (it's only two hours away), but we made a couple of trips there as well to be at special events with Ryan's family.  The highlights were the baby blessing of our niece Lucy and the second birthday of our niece Kate.  We love these beautiful girls, and it's so fun to be within driving distance of Ryan's family...now if only mine were a little closer too. :(

Cousin besties--six weeks apart

A word about Nielson family road trips: We have a small car and large carseats.  In fact, my bum does not fit in the tiny space between the kids' car seats, so I cannot get back there to help with the kids or feed the baby a bottle if she is crying.  Fortunately, my husband's bum is significantly smaller than mine (this used to be a sore point for me, but I'm over it), so he is often relegated to the backseat, stuck between two needy kids.  He has a surprisingly good attitude about it:

I have two New Year's Resolutions: 1. Buy a mini van! 2. Slim down my backside! (Though I guess if we are getting a mini van, I'm off the hook on that one...bring on the fried chicken!)