Home For The Holidays

Getting to go home for the holidays is one of the most exciting things about living away from your family. Although you miss them on a day-to-day basis, the time spent away makes the time you do get to spend with them that much more meaningful. This year we got to spend Thanksgiving with my family. Jeff and I started alternating spending Thanksgiving with each others families four years ago. We can't believe it has been that long! We headed to Oregon on Wednesday and from the second we stepped outside the Portland Airport we knew we were "home." The cool brisk air felt amazing and Jeff laughed at me because I was the only person in Oregon that night wearing a t-shirt (it was 80 in Southern California when we left!). We also realized during the travels to Oregon that we actually spend more time in the car than we do on a plane. It is a two hour drive from our house to LAX (should only take 45 minutes but with traffic...yuck), then it is a two hour drive from PDX to Warrenton. That drive should actually take two hours! But all those hours are worth it!

We got to Warrenton and the relaxing began. We spent nearly all of our time on Thursday and Friday cooking, eating, and playing with the nieces and nephews. Those little guys are what you really miss when you are away from home. I loved every second of spending time with those kids! I taught my 12 year old niece, Riley, to do a volleyball role (that is her in the picture above, I remember the day she was born, how quickly they grow up!), I got to do boy stuff with Ryder like swing him in the blanket, shoot guns and do tricks on the skate board...yes and he is only 2, and I got to curl my niece Jezalynn's hair and paint her toe nails, also only 2 (that is the two of them kissing in the picture on the right - adorbale). It's amazing that even at 2 the little ones are all boy and all girl. Except for when Ryder wears around Jezalynn's little plastic dress up high heels. Then we kind of worry about him! My nephew Devon was also a kick to be around. He just turned 1 and started walking recently. Poor guy has bruises all over him from toppling over, but he is a trooper (that is him in the picture to the right).

The best part about being around all those nieces and nephews was seeing my husband interact with them. There is just something attractive to a woman about watching a man play with kids. Jeff is great with them. It was the sweetest thing when he sat down with Jez and Ryder and drew them pictures and read to them. I had never seen them have that long of an attention span. The other strange part about being around little ones now that I am married is thinking that my husband and I could have kids anytime we wanted. Not that we want them anytime soon (espeically after spending 4 days with the nieces and nephews - great form of birth control) but now that we are married we could! Spending time with family and dreaming about someday watching our family expand by having kids of our own is defnitely something I love about my Life As A Wife.