Trip to Grandparents

Well once again I have gotten behind on blogs. I mean to keep up with it, really I do, but then somehow the time disappears and... oh well. Needless to say, we have been very busy, although some of our projects I'll keep secret until we are further along with them.

A couple of weeks ago we went to visit Abe's parents. Emily, his sister, is off to Oxford University for a couple of years, so we converged at Jim and Vickie's to steal a quick visit.

The bulldozer was supposed to be arriving at our place around that time, so we didn't stay long. In hindsight, we should have gone for longer as it didn't come when it was supposed to, or even close. The quick turnaround was very hard on the kids (12 hour trip each way) and us.

Nevertheless we had a great time. Leo especially LOVED the extra attention. It's hard being the only one for three years and then having a little brother arrive on the scene to share (or steal) the limelight. He got to feed and ride a calf, ride a horse, ride a trike, ride a wagon, ride his Auntie Em. He really loves it there.

Nico also had a good time. I was a little worried that he might not be happy being passed around, as he has gone through a stage of not really wanting to be held by people other than us. But my concern was needless. He was charmed by them all and charmed them in turn.

We tried to go swimming, but the outing was cut very short by lightening on the horizon - the lifeguard at the swimming pool and river area kicked us out of the water, so we went to the park instead.

Leo was very sad leaving, but it had a little payoff in that we got to visit Uncle Augie on our way home. Again, an overly short visit, but better than nothing.

If you want to see more photos, they are in the folder August '11.

Emily's wedding

On 22nd January, Abe's youngest sister, Emily, got married to Roeland. We drove to Tucson for the wedding.

The journey there went really smoothly, but left us all pretty tired. We'd planned to break the 12 hour drive into two days, but Leo was so good that we just kept on driving. I was pretty sore - I guess I'm not used to sitting down for so long - but arriving at our destination more than made up for any discomfort felt.

It was great to see everyone and we all had a fun weekend. There were a few problems with the hotel that hosted guests and events, but luckily the Connally crowd are not easily deterred from having a good time.

The wedding was beautiful, with a lovely outdoor setting and stunning bride. Abe and his uncle Bart performed the ceremony jointly- how often do you hear the words "I married my sister today, and so did my uncle."?

I wish we had gotten more photos. But somehow we didn't get around to it, what with being tired from the trip, managing Leo and his wayward sibling, and enjoying the festivities.

The highlights for Leo were playing with his cousin, Arlo (especially when Arlo played some tunes on the piano), and borrowing his uncle Bart's Ipad. There were of course other great times, like pretend farting with his grandpa at everyone who went by, but those are more commonplace events.

Congratulations Emily and Roeland, and thank you for putting on a great weekend.

After the wedding, we went to spend a few days relaxing with Jim and Vickie before heading home. Leo was amazed to find out that Santa had come to their house as well and left him something there. This Santa dude is pretty impressive.

For more photos, click here.