Family Reunion

Since my sweet girl is, sadly, down for the count with yet another abdominal migraine cycle and I'm up with her suctioning a lot, I thought I'd use the time to do a little holiday catch-up on the blog.

For Thanksgiving, we took a road trip (a total of 18 hours in the car with traffic... the kids were better behaved than their parents!) to Arizona to visit my brother and his family. I couldn't post (or I guess I should say, "didn't want to post") pictures of the trip because I wanted to make photo books as Christmas presents. Now that the holidays are over, some of the amazing shots taken of our little family reunion need to have their glory here on the blog!

"The Men" captured as we walked through downtown Prescott
We had such a great time with them, and despite the fact that the dry, cold air wreaked havoc on Gracie's trach, she traveled like a champ (and was still wanting to be naked in the below freezing nights!). It was great fun seeing all four of the kids together, especially my nephew, Jackson (20 mos at the time), with Preston. They were adorable to watch - - Preston thinking he was "all that" as the older cousin and Jack looking admiringly at him. The trip was a long time coming - - we hadn't seen each other since Jack was about ten weeks old - - and I can't wait until we can visit again, soon! My dream would be for us to end up living near each other so that the kids can grow up together and pictures like these would be a regular occurrence.

My brother teased that I was like a tourist, clicking away the entire time. Now, though, I think he's super grateful I was stalking everyone like the paparazzi! I can't post them all, there are too many, but here are just some of my many favorites!

My brother, Brian, with my nephew, Jack, and me with my kids.
(My niece, Makenzie, was home that day with my sister-in-law's mom.)

Such a nice looking group of men, if I do say so!

Gracie loving on my adorable niece, Makenzie.
Gracie used to play with Preston just like that for hours on end!

Boys and Sticks... the perfect combination!


My gorgeous sister-in-law, Vanessa, with sweet Miss Mak

The kids having a blast playing in the leaves that were piled high in a courtyard outside a cafe (where I happened to have the best latte in my life!)