The trip started with a marathon all-nighter of packing and getting ready to go (babies need SO much stuff!), so by the time we were taking off from Portland I had been awake for over 24 hours, and it was only 6:30! It was a long day :) I couldn't have done it without Alex driving us up to the airport (after only 2 hours of sleep himself) and Jenaye flying with us. She helped me get through security and every step of the way with all my stuff!
The first picture is just showing what an angel Olivia is to fly with. She just sleeps, and doesn't seem to have any trouble with the elevation change!
We got to Utah on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving and two days before Tasha's wedding. In the afternoon, we walked around Temple Square "meeting" all the missionaries (OK we were looking for my cousin Nikki, who was assigned there before she went to Poland0. We finally saw her and all the walking around and waiting was SO worth it! It was great to see her, and we really did have a nice chat. After we got back to my Aunt Dalita's we spent some time getting ready for Thanksgiving-for-60 the next afternoon. After we got started (but not even close to finished), we were able to go see Tasha's dress - absolutely beautiful! - and we met her in-laws. We then went back to Dalita's to keep cooking and catching up...all my sisters were there so it was a blast!
After a couple hours sleep (not nearly enough, but we were having too much fun), we woke up on Thanksgiving! I took a few first Thanksgiving pictures.
Caption: If you don't stop taking pictures of me I'll sock you...Thanksgiving was so fun! Almost all of my mom's family was there and Olivia had a good time meeting all of her "cousins" (Amber's 4 kids are her only first cousins, but I have a hard time figuring out relationships, so everyone is a cousin). We also presented my Grandparents with their 50th anniversary present, a book of the whole family that Amber put together. It was amazing, and I've looked through it dozens of times since then.
Friday was Tasha's wedding. In the morning we went to the temple (yes I took Olivia to the temple in her sleeper...but wrapped in a beautiful blanket!) and saw Ben and Tash right after they were married, then we got ready for the reception. Somewhere in this timeline we had dipped about 1000 bananas in chocolate and nuts, but I'm really not sure when...the days all blur together (between Tuesday and Saturday I had a total of 15 hours of sleep...not enough for me!).
These are a couple getting ready pics, thanks Amber for letting me borrow a beautiful dress for Olivia to wear (the bloomers were adorably big). I just realized this, but Olivia had tight fists pretty solidly for the first 3 months of her life!
At the reception we tried to get some cousin pictures...it was a little bit of a struggle, but this one turned out pretty well! Elli's fascination with Olivia was so cute, she was just always around, smiling, talking, and playing with her. My favorite moment was when I was sitting in a chair holding Olivia, and Elli stood right next to me, just talking to her. At one point, Olivia and Elli locked eyes, and Elli's whole face lit up as she exclaimed "she just looked at me! Oh, she loves me!" From then on, she grabbed a chair, and moved it around to wherever Olivia was looking, and would put herself in the perfect spot so that Olivia was "looking" at her. As Olivia's eyes wandered, Elli just moved, never frustrated, as fast as she could to keep up with Olivia's gaze.
This is the only picture I have of my siblings holding Olivia. They all did, and it was so fun letting her meet them all! But like I've said before, I'm a horrible picture-taker, so I just have the one picture with Auntie Em :)
The next morning we headed back home. Again I had help in the airport from Emily, who was flying out at a similar time. I'm so grateful for all the help while I was in Utah, I truly couldn't have done it without my mom, sisters, aunts, grandma...pretty much everyone! I never realized how hard it is to travel with a baby, and I was struggling without Alex there to run my errands!
Lastly...just a feet picture from the day after we got back. I've struggled since she was born to get good feet pictures (I love baby feet), but they're always moving!
Next up, December! We're getting caught up, slowly but surely!
