Of sunshine, snow and family

It's hard to believe we're flying home tomorrow. The week literally flew by...starting with our flights over from Seattle last Tuesday.

One of the greatest joys was that Thomas was able to meet his great grandpa on the outside of the womb...the last time we were here, I never dreamed this would be possible. Thomas's great grandpa, still on hospice, was able to hold him in his arms. And lest Thomas's great grandma feel slighted that she wasn't mentioned, she got to hold him too. :)

Since Thomas's mommy was more focused on making sure he had 21 outfits for his 6 days here, she forgot both extra diapers and the camera cord...so you get no photos of this meeting until we're home. :) You'll have to settle for a pic of the Wee Ski sleeping in his sling, on our first flight here. See that thumb? It's now made its way into his mouth.

I think Thomas and I have done more in the last six days than we've done since he was born.

• We visited Ames - introducing the Wee Ski to his great grandma's sister and her family (Pat and Johnny, and their daughter Paula) and had dinner at Hickory Park with his papa's cousin Jana and her family, who came down from Clarion, Iowa.
• We took Great Grandpa and Great Grandma out for lunch -- Great Grandpa's first outing (except for one haircut) since October, when he went to the emergency room when I was in St. Louis. That day, the temperature hit nearly 75° and it was perfect for Grandpa to be out and about. Grandma, Mom and I took Thomas to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, and got some great photos of the three of them (and even the four of us!).
• Had my first trip to both Baby Boomers (home of the famous chocolate chip cookies that the Obamas loved: you can order them here.) and Gong Fu Tea (a fabulous little loose tea shop that provided one of the gifts for the VIPs at the Oscars).
• We had some great visits with my own cousins, Tara and Tiffany, my aunts Darcy and Deanne, and uncle Jim. Tiff's family joined us, as well as my cousin Justin's girlfriend, Megan. Mom flew out a seafood dinner from Metropolitan Market: with crab and clams from the northwest.
• Thomas has had the luxury of barely napping in a crib since he got here -- moving from tired arms to waiting arms throughout the family. He will definitely sleep well when he gets home! My aunt Darcy thought ahead and delivered her pack & play to the house a few weeks ago, so Thomas has had a place that's just like home to sleep.

We haven't had much downtime, but we've loved spending time with our extended family. It's been so much fun to introduce Thomas to them in person! :)

We've definitely missed Jonathan - it's the first time we've both been away from him. Technology's been great - I've taken photos of Thomas with my BlackBerry and emailed or texted them to Jonathan so he could see how we were doing. I opened my BlackBerry this morning to find an image of the farm from Jonathan, covered in snow this morning. We had snow here as well, falling as we left Mass today.

Today, Thomas is 2 months old. It feels like Thomas has grown this week -- stretching out and becoming this long little child who is almost out of newborn diapers and just entering the 0-3 clothing world.

We fly home tomorrow and Thomas is scheduled for his two month checkup on Tuesday.

Then we'll rest and recover...from our vacation. :)