Over the river and through the wood to grandmothers (and grandfathers) house we go!

Ara Belle and I took our first flight to Idaho last week. She did great on the way there, she ate when we first boarded and pretty much slept the whole way. When we landed Grammy was there to greet us. It was so nice to be home. I was getting homesick and really missed my family. We were able to spend lots of time with Grammy and cousin Byron. I think Ara and Byron are going to have so much fun together in the future. They are starting to notice eachother more and more. They both are SO cute.
It is a lot colder in Idaho than in Oregon, I forgot what it was like to run in such cold weather. Brought me back to running the dreaded "mile" for softball. Ha. When we had to run one mile in under 8:30 for softball tryouts and it was usually snowing and freezing out, literally. It seemed so difficult and daunting to run one mile in high school. What a whimp. I just missed the snow, infact it started snowing on the runway when we were leaving. I guess they had 3" on Friday.
We left on Thursday and Ara was really bothered when we were landing. :-/ I think her ears really, really hurt her. My mom had said that landing close to sea level is the worst for ears popping and because Portland is so close to sea level, there you go. I was told to nurse or give a pacifier durning landing and takeoff so they have something to suck and their ears pop. Which I did, but it didnt help.
So long story short, I had the screaming crying baby when we were landing. And there was NOTHING I could do but pray! I was just praying over and over that her pain would go away and she'd stop crying. Suddenly about 5 minutes before we landed she stopped crying and fell asleep. Thank God! There is nothing worse than knowing your baby is in pain and you cant do anything to help. AND feeling like you're annoying everylast person on the plane and everyone wants to punch you and your baby. Luckily everyone around me was really nice and understanding.
Traveling with a little one is different and a little more work, especially when youre by yourself. But ultimately worth every moment to visit family!

Betty the Bear, from our trip to Build a Bear. 

Best buds!

"Hey, lets try to crawl!"

"Ara, com over here!"

All smiles

We went shopping for Christmas outfits so that my parents could take their Christmas card picture. So cute!

NOT happy. No more paparazzi!

Drooling is one of my favorite activities. 

Hanging out with Grandpa at the cabin our our carhartts

Grandma's little cupcake :-)