Thanksgiving Travels and Unravels.

Our flight out here was the Best. Flight. Ever.
We woke up at the way too early hour of 1.45 a.m. so that we would be able to get to the airport by 4.00 a.m., two hours before our flight took off, so as to avoid narrowly missing our flight like we have done more times than I'd like to admit.
We get to the airport at 4.00 and sit around and wait because apparently the ticketing counters don't open until 4.30. As we are checking in, the little kiosk informs us that our flight is overbooked and would be consider taking another flight with compensation? We say no and proceed to go to our gate. When we get there, the attendant at the counter informs us that he will give a $200 voucher to someone who will take another flight. We pass because we didn't want to miss Thanksgiving with my family. Then he bumps it up to $250, and we see what we can do.
He tells us that we can get a flight that leaves in 40 minutes and will get us there in Utah at 10:44. I'm thinking he's talking about PM not AM and freak out a little when he informs me that it is actually AM because that would get us there an hour and 16 minutes earlier than if we stuck with our original flight.
So we take it and that's a cool $500 worth of vouchers in our pocket for a later trip. Hoorah!! Then we go to our next gate and they give us seats in the emergency row. Seeing as how we have a baby with us and people under 15 aren't allowed to sit there, we get bumped up to first class to our flight to Atlanta. I must admit, I am a gigantic fan of first class.
Then from Atlanta to Salt Lake City we were on a huge plane that had two seats on the left, an aisle, three seats in the middle, an aisle and then two seats on the right. We had two of the three seats in the middle, and there was not another person to sit with us so we had room for Aiden to crawl around and be crazy which was fantastic because from Atlanta to Salt Lake City is a four hour flight. It's also nice not being cramped next to a perfect stranger when you are trying to nurse a child that refuses to have a blanket over his head. There were also a lot of other babies on that flight so we weren't the only annoying ones that had a baby and also seated right behind us were four missionaries coming home from their missions and they kept Aiden entertained part of the time.
When we got in, Dennie picked us up and we went to his house to drop off our stuff, and then off to Tracy's to have Thanksgiving Dinner, which was fantastic. Everyone was there, including my brother, John, who came up from New Mexico for the weekend.
Then when it was all said and done, we went back to Dennie's for a much-deserved night's rest. At that point, we had been up for almost 24 hours and I was absolutely feeling it.

P.S. Happy Birthday (yesterday), Jacob!!

All Packed Up and Ready to Go!

Okay, so not really. I just got our luggage out and immediately Aiden was in it, crawling around. So not to miss an opportunity procrastinating the ever dreaded packing, I started taking pictures.

I have most everything out and ready to go as far as non-clothing items go, and as far as clothing items go, they are all in a giant, dirty laundry pile in front of the washer waiting to be washed and then packed so we have nice, clean clothes for when we go out.
I have, however, put up our Christmas tree with the help of Aiden! I normally am not one to put it up this early (only because my mom wouldn't let me put it up before Thanksgiving Dinner, and I held to that "tradition" after I moved out) but I figured since we would be gone Thanksgiving, I'd put it up before. Anyways, it gives me an excuse next year to put it up before, saying that's just what I did this year. I can conveniently forget that us being out of town was the reason for doing so.

Aiden is Ten Months Old!

There's not a lot of new stuff on the Aiden front. He has a few new quirks that are adorable. When you pick him up, he will pat you on the back, and he loves to give Zelda hugs. They will be wrestling and being crazy and then Aiden will stop and give her a giant hug. He is so sweet!

His food palette has absolutely broadened and he eats most everything right off of my plate, which I must say, is fantastic. So much easier than trying to feed myself while feeding him pureed vegetables from a jar. He has also moved from playing in the dog water (mainly because it is always up and hiding from him) to the dog food. He has his first taste of it the other day, and now everytime we are in the kitchen, that is the first thing he checks. If there isn't any food in it, he will sit there and play in the empty bowl while smacking his lips. He's a gross boy.

We are very excited to go out to Utah to visit and cannot wait for the next week to go by. I have taken to counting down the hours because it's easy to figure out how far away you are from Noon exactly on Thanksgiving day, which is when we are supposed to land in Utah. I'm a little bit excited to see my family and show off my little boy.

Also, I am going to try to send out Christmas letters this year, so I may be asking for some addresses. I'm not sure which ones I have and which ones I don't.

Two Weeks to Turkey Day!!

I always know time is getting nearer to a Utah trip when I walk around the house and mentally check things that I will need to pack, and I am so happy to say that time has begun. I am absolutely excited that it's only two weeks away!
On one hand the time seems to have gone by so slowly, but on the other it's gone really fast. Like this past week, when I think of nights that I put Aiden to bed by myself because Thomas is working, it seems forever, but then when I think of the last blog I posted, it went by fast. I'm hoping the next two weeks go by fast and then the following two go by slowly.
But enough of my rambling on. There's no news on my end of the spectrum, Aiden is still into everything and he thinks he's pretty funny most of the time. He just goes around laughing. Not sure at what, but he thinks something is funny. Thomas is a hunting fool. He has gone out twice this week, but I'm sorry to say with no results. Both times it was close though. Saturday morning he went out with his cousin and there was a big buck right behind them scraping the ground and whatnot but it never came near enough to shoot, and Thursday morning, he was sitting in his little blind (a camoflauge hide out that he made), and he saw two doe about six feet away from him. Well, he couldn't shoot them because it's not doe season until next week so he shifted a little so he could get a better shot if a buck came around, which was likely because it's mating season right now, and when he shifted, his foot caught the back pack at his feet, and he heard a giant snort and off the buck ran. Apparently it was right behind him close enough that he could have reached out and touched it and if he had sat still for a few more minutes at the most, it would have come around to where he could have gotten it. He came home all forlorn and resolved to go out and put up the tree stand we bought. It's encouraging though and I look forward to having some deer meat in my freezer.
That's all I have for now. Maybe something real will happen in my life and I can post a blog that is just about my adventure.
But don't wait up for that one.

Just pictures of Aiden.

These are just pictures. I don't have any stories to go along with them, but they are cute. Maybe this with make amends for the posts sans pictures.

Helping Momma cook. Kind of.

Helping Momma with the laundry.

If only he knew how to fold...

Talking on the phone to no one. Just listening to the dial tone.

Yelling at himself in the mirror.

He makes funny faces.

"Talking" to Aunt Brenna on Facebook.

Licking Momma's popcicle. When I first offered it to him, he dug his teeth into it and took a big bite, but then scrunched up his face and shook his head and from then on out, he would just lick it with the very tip of his tongue.

"Whoa! Did you see that?!" Aiden watching Baby Einstein, learning about world animals.

He really, really loves Cheerios.

Aiden stuffing his face while wearing his Jack-o-Lantern bib that his Nana made for him.