Home From Fairbanks

We are home from Fairbanks!! It is nice to be in a place where I can communicate again.

We had a really nice time staying with Roger and Barb. They so generously offered their house, and as we were saying our good-byes, Barb admonished Nick never to stay at the office again, rather to stay with them whether I am with him or not! I got to spend some time with my cousins Brenda and Sarah and their families. I only got to see Brenda and her boys Tony and Jacob for a few minutes on Tuesday evening...but hopefully next time we go up, we will be able to stay for the weekend and have more time to see her.

I did get to spend quite a bit of time with Sarah and her boys; Xavier, Xander, and Xaniel. (Their dad calls them his 'X-men'!) Xavier is six months older than Joey, so they had fun playing together, and Xaniel is only four days older than Baby Nick! Poor Sarah, she has one in between, too! And they keep her running. We were outside Thursday night, and Sarah would no more than sit down to take one bite of her dinner, when she would have to jump up, exclaiming, "I'm missing one (or two)."

They were so excited to have us, they think we should move up to Fairbanks so we can be close all the time. As much as I would like to see them more often, the next move we make will hopefully be closer to Oregon. (At least to a place where I can jump in the car and drive home every couple weeks or so.)

I took lots of pictures I will share with you when I am able. When we got home, we had a nasty surprise in that our computer won't turn on. I know Nick turned it off while we were gone, so how something broke on it I will never know. Hopefully he will be able to fix the problem quickly (and for no money) so that I am able to put all my pictures and videos on to share. Most of the pictures are of the kids on the trampoline, because that is where they spent a good portion of their waking hours. They loved it. Actually, I should say that Baby Nick loved the trampoline, and Bubba loved it as long as he was the only one on it, with the exception of Baby Nick. Joey did not like the sensation of being bounced around by somebody else, so he would stay off the trampoline if there were others on it.

There is much more to tell, but it is way too late and I have a busy day tomorrow. We have to get the house back in order after coming back from vacation, get all the birthday stuff together (pick up the cake, get the rest of the presents, wrap the presents), and then celebrate my son's third birthday. I still can't believe it. Both Nick and I agree that we have seen a marked difference in the way Joey acts from last week. It's as if he went to sleep one night a toddler and woke up the next morning a big boy. It's not in any major difference, but in the small things, like his facial expressions, or his phrases, or his grasping of a concept. The dawning of a new phase in his life. I wonder where this ride will take us?