The family vacation, the whole story, well my part of the story

As you may or may not remember we went to NM to visit the family last week the week before last...I had a very busy week last week, I'll get to that later. I have finally gotten around to downloading and compiling the pictures...I made 1 LARGE slide show so be prepared! I guess you'd like to know how it went. Nate spent the entire time overtired. We might spend the next month recovering from that. An overtired almost 2 year old is a lot for the husband and I to handle much less the Grandparents! There were times when Nate was good, but generally he was running around trying to keep himself awake. I think it is safe to say despite this everyone had a good time. There is not much to do where my in-laws live, but they have dirt and sunny days and my MIL got the kids a blow-up pool. Needless to say they had a blast and I think want to go back just to do more digging!
So the plane rides, Nate is still under 2, so we were able to put him in our lap, sadly the flights were full so he couldn't get his own seat. This was difficult for all, I swear on our first leg (an almost 3 hour flight) he cried on the floor for 1 hour before conking out in my arms. Poor kid! By the time we got them to the in-laws and settled situated into the room they were sleeping in it was midnight our time! I spent most of that first night in with them because Nate was so over tired/not familiar with his surroundings he would just cry in his sleep and sometimes wake up. Needless to say, I was exhausted!
We spent our days hanging out usually around town, one day we went to 'Cruces and did a little shopping and playing at Chuck E Cheese. The kids loved it, but where exhausted. I just realized I don't have any pictures of that! I guess because last time I went with the kids and Mom so I let Eric and his Mom take the kids while I guarded the food and purses.
In more exciting news, the small town now has a movie theater/bowling alley/sports bar/black-light mini golf/arcade. Yes, in one seemingly tiny building, but didn't seem to bad once you got inside! The exciting news is that Eric and I went and saw 2 movies and played a round of black light mini golf. Next time we'll have to bowl, we didn't have time for that and a movie on the same night. It was fun for us.
My FIL has a routine, everyday he goes up to the "back 40" (they have 3 acres, which my MIL has landscaped) with the dog, Bisbee and feeds the birds and other wild life. Gwen went with him everyday and if he happened to leave without her, she cried! (She might have also been overtired!)
Then we had the flight home. Nate again terrible, and since we had a long taxi to the teriminal on the first flight and BOTH kids conked out. Sadly, not long enough to make enough of a difference for the next flight. Let's just say we are happy to have the kids back in their rooms. Without further adieu, the slide show...that I should have split into more than one and sadly some of them went in sideways, they don't normally do that. SORRY!

We're back, again

Wow! Am I happy to be back! This means I have no more trips on the horizon to worry about and the process to get the kids back on schedule for the short term, has begun. We all had a really good time, but taking my almost 2 year old anywhere is a challenge, must less taking him across 2 time zones and changing his sleeping arrangement. Needless to say, Nate was a little too much to handle! Gwen was a little sleep deprived also, but she totally had a wonderful time. She feed the birds with her Grandpop, played with "her" dog, Bisbee and went for wheel barrow rides with Grandmom. This is not to say that Nate didn't have a good time, he did, but he only had short spurts of happiness, the rest of the time he was tired. Eric and I also had a nice time, we got some "extra" sleep, went to the movies (TWICE) and got to spend some time with his parents, hanging out and having fun. I would show you pictures, but I am charging the camera battery and I need that to get the pictures off the camera, maybe tomorrow.
Today a friend of mine lost her battle with cancer. She was just a couple years older than me and her daughter was only 6 weeks older than Gwen. It is a sad day for all of us who knew her, she was a wonderful person who will be missed by everyone who knew her. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family.

Playing

The weather in NM was in the 70s, which was a nice change from the winter weather here. It is nice having family in the warmer climates so we get breaks from cold weather! In this series of pics Eric is playing with a nerf rocket that can become a dangerous weapon and stuck on roofs and such. Fortunately no one was hurt, but there were a couple of close calls!

I would like to say that here Gwen is saying where the rocket is going to go, but she is most likely telling us about the plane that is overhead. Gwen has become obsessed with the sound of a plane and even when we are in the house and there is a plane, if possible she will run to the window and point up and say something that is incoherent to us parents!

The flights!

So, as I mentioned yesterday Gwen was a perfect angel on the way to NM. Eric & I didn't get much sleep, finishing packing and stressing out about travel. We waited until the last minute to wake up Gwen. We didn't change her we just popped her in the car hoping she would go back to sleep. She of course did not. We get to the airport and are waiting for the bus and realize we forgot the carseat, just as the bus is coming and Eric has to run back to the car and get it. OOPS! Fortunately there were some nice people that helped me load up our stuff while Eric ran back to the car. Gwen didn't fuss on either flight, she chatted we walked the aisles and we had a long layover in Houston where she got out and ran around, generally had a good time. In the car on the ride to NM we got about 30 minutes from the house (we had been in the car for an 1.5hr) and she started to get crazy.
On the flight back, we didn't leave until about 3p EST, she took a nap in the car, which we thought was a good sign, but it wasn't! By this point Gwen was overtired and antsy, she was sitting on our laps and kept going back and forth between the 2 of us. She wanted to look at the people behind us and just acted crazy, fussing and tiring to all of us! As soon as we got into the car at 10ish she feel asleep. I kept telling Eric if we could just get her to sit still for 10 minutes she would fall asleep, but we just couldn't. She really enjoyed closing the window shade and then signing and saying open, so she could close it again. UGH! That was annoying, but it kept her relatively quiet and happy.

We're back!

I know you missed us! At some point I might give a more detailed visit description, but for now I will give you the highlights. We made it to NM in one trip...Gwen was a perfect angel on the flight to NM and the 2 hour car ride to his parents...despite being wide awake when we got her out of her crib at 5am. She only took a nap towards the end of the second flight, when she fell asleep on me, I had to carry her, sound asleep through the airport and she woke up right before we got to rental car and was awake the rest of the day. Gwen never adjusted to the time change so she was waking up at between 5-6:30am. She took a nap everyday and went to sleep without too much problem and seemed to really enjoy herself. I think these pictures really sum up her favorite aspect of the trip!
I don't think that poor dog will ever bee the same, he has probably never been abused as much as Gwen abused him, she never learned that petting is not the same as slapping! I am not going to talk about how terrible she was on the flights back. And, I guess fortunately, I wasn't able to watch the AU-UGA game. I caught some of it, but it seemed pretty terrible. But, despite all that we had a good time, we just wish Grandmom and Grandpop (& Bisbee) lived closer!

Pictures from NM

So, I have finally gotten a spare minute to post some pictures for my 2 loyal readers. Things are 'calm' here, they will probably be for a couple days until the next thing happens. I just have to say, Gwen and I have no plans for air travel for January or February, the pictures at the end of this post remind me why! So, here are the week in-review pictures from NM, minus the pictures of Bisbee and Gwen, since those are in a different post.
Gwen and Grandpa.

Gwen showing Grandma how far she can bend.
Gwen has a new interest in water bottles...I call her sticky fingers because at this point everything Eric and I have in our hands she wants in her hands and she can usually grab it, especially if you are not paying attention.

Gwen playing with 'Baby Tad'.

Gwen playing with her top.

So we hard a time getting Gwen smiling for this picture, Bisbee was in the area and he was so distracting. Grandpa was trying to tickle her, but she just wasn't going to smile!

HI!
Playing in the seat, waiting for us to take off!

Are we ever going to get off this plane Mom?

How much is that doggie in the window?

As I have mentioned before, Miss Gwen loves Doggies. Well, the in-laws have a dog, Bisbee and let me tell you they LOVED each other. Gwen would smile and squeal with delight whenever Bisbee was in eye view. Bisbee would sniff Gwen, he really wanted to lick her. If he was eating and heard Gwen crying he would stop eating and try to get to her to make sure he was ok. One time I was playing with her, rubbing my head on her belly (which for some reason always makes her giggle), he came over to check me as if to say, leave my baby alone! Here are the pictures of Bisbee and Gwen and anyone else who happened to be in the vicinity. Looking back now I realize I took far too many?

We're back!

Hallelujah! We didn't think we would make it out but we did! Our flight out of El Paso was canceled. They put us on a 4pm flight getting into Reagan at 12:30am. I begged the man, what can you do for me, I have a baby and I don't want to be getting back that late. Our original flight was at 12:50p. We had already been on the road since 9am. UGH! So he got us standby for the 2:25 flight and we got on...we were so excited! We flew to Houston and our flight was to leave at 7p. As you all might now, Houston was/is having pretty bad weather, and the plane had to be deiced, the pilot said it would be 5 minutes. 4 hours later we were finally in the air. By the time we got home it was 4:30am. When we were walking down to pick up the luggage we heard that the flight they had booked us on if we didn't got on the standby flight would have gotten in at 5am, which probably would have meant that we would have gotten stuck in rush hour traffic. So, in a couple days we will probably have updates on the trip, with pictures. We had a great time. Gwen was calm and didn't cry, better than Eric and I, I think.