better post "thankful" before Christmas arrives

Thanksgiving service at Mars Hill Church Bellevue - Nolan barfed on Dad and then yelled at our photographer!

Our family is beyond thankful every day of the year, but especially so on Thursday, November 24th!  We have a roof over our heads, eat plentiful food everyday, Mark is gainfully employed, our families are healthy, our friends are wonderful and ..... there is a new little person at the dinner table!  Thanksgiving was sweet and surreal and definitely memorable for us this year.  Check out our lil' feast for three:

baby's first road trip!

It's fair to say that my relationship with Mark started with several road trips: 

1) I was abandoned in Snoqualmie Pass and initially met Mark when I needed a ride home from a camping trip.  We will address the lasting trauma and drag Dave Klann thru the mud in a later post.

2) I met Mark's family (before we started dating) whilst trying to hitch a ride on a subsequent camping trip.  There was a lot of beer and off-roading prior to any introductions.  We should check in with my sister-in-law to see if enough time has passed for us all to laugh about it ......

3) Mark and I drove all over Washington, Idaho and B.C. while we were dating.  Usually we were headed to some kind of party or wedding or camp out or function that involved craziness and general mayhem.

So last weekend we took another kind of road trip.  Twelve years later it was still just as crazy ... cuz we took a 2 month-old baby with us!  Nolan was great in the car and we had a wonderful time in Winthrop on the eastern side of the state.  Check-out our little traveler taking his first road trip:

ready to hit the road with Daddy!

passed out in the hotel after the long drive

snow suit ... check!

taking our baby to a bar for dinner ... CHECK!

hanging out with Daddy

Nolan was REALLY into the live music

flannel-lined jeans, thermal shirt, snow boots and hat!

brunch on the Methow river

he was SUCH a good baby the entire trip

Nolan goes RETRO

My lil' guy is VERY fashion forward ... this season he is ALL ABOUT vintage!



Here he is at the hospital - wearing the very same jammers that I wore home from the hospital!



And here is jamming out in another set of Mama's jammers!

Okay, same jammers and enjoying Mama's baby quilt!

Mama's hat and baby-blanket as we head out on a walk!

I won't bore you with too much more, other than to say that he is also using all of the receiving blankets saved and carefully stored since my infancy.  They are super soft and have the cutest patterns and designs on them:

 

Thank you to Nana-Pam Ashcom for so lovingly and diligently preserving these things from my childhood.  Sharing them with my son is REALLY special!

Compare and Contrast

The worlds sweetest baby at 3 days old.

Aaaaaand in the same outfit at 6 weeks, 3 days old ....

He's so smiley .... and big!

The folks at Gap Kids made a really cute outfit, too bad my kid is growing out of it!!!!

insert "sad face" here .....     :(

Family Field Trip

This year for my birthday we took a family field trip instead of throwing a party or going out to dinner.

Here we are at Pike Place Market!

Daddy got to rawk the Bjorn for the first time and did a great job.

Of course, Nolan makes it pretty easy because he LUVS the Bjorn!



And look - we were able to show our little Lobster what REAL lobster looks like!

Lunch and a cocktail at the Athenian ... yum

Then we went shopping for Market Spice Tea and seasonal flowers and finally brought home fresh cheese and risotto take make our own gourmet dinner - don't know about you, but I call that a pretty good day!