Vacation!

After a very interesting start (trudging out to the train station with two suitcases, a carry-on duffle, an umbrella stroller and a baby single-handedly) at the beginning of a snowstorm, in Chicago we made it safely to New Mexico last Friday night. Yeay, vacation!

Our first bit of fun was a double date to go see Avatar with (Grant's brother) Seth and Kristina. Unfortunately, Kendra was really rattled by being in a totally new and huge house and doesn't do super well with babysitters, anyway (the flip side of being a stay-at-home Mom, I reckon). Lucky for us, Simeon was there!

She cried until he started playing with her and was fine as long as he was around.

On Monday we headed out to Arizona so that I could meet myself some Richardsons! Turns out, there's a whole lot of them...I'm seriously going to need some more time to get to know them all. But I did have the opportunity to talk to a few of them...
There just wasn't enough time to eat, talk and take lots and lots of pictures. But Kendra managed to charm plenty of her extended family members.

Arizona was awesome for many reasons. Sunny, cloudless skies and my daughter having bare legs, citrus trees, cacti all around, a few minutes to stroll those beautiful temple grounds in Mesa, and two of my favorite people whom I happen to have never met.

First there was Danielle, Grant's cousin and my brotha-from-anotha-motha (only y'know, not a guy) sort of e-pal. And she's only more my hero now that the baby bump she's sporting is Number 4 in five years.

I also got to meet Grant's namesake and grandfather. This was a real treat for me. He's had such an amazing life and he's a sweet, wonderful man. He adored Kendra and she took to him pretty well, too.

We stayed with Grant's sister, Lybi while we were there which was lots of fun, too. The last night we were there, Lybi gave me a piano lesson, which meant that Grant was somewhere taking lots of picture of her boys like this:

These guys totally rock!

A few miles outside of town on the way home, I started feeling kind of weird. By the end of the evening, I was in misery and spent most of the night on the couch outside the bathroom for fear of not making it there in time. Archie and I brought home the stomach flu, which I still haven't completely warded off. But Archie recovered much more quickly and was able to take Grant out for some good father-son bonding.

They brought back the box they used for their target practice, and let me tell you, it was good and dead after they got done with it.

But alas, all good things must come to an end, and unfortunately all too soon it came time for us to return to Chicago. Grant's parents were nice enough to let us do some shopping at the Family Meat Locker (their deep freeze) and we brought home a suitcase full of selections from last year's cow.

Apparently, the baby is pretty excited for roasts, steaks and hamburger too.

The whole trip we kept thinking to ourselves how nice it would be to move out West. The climate, the proximity to (more) family, the small-town life. Oh, we can dream. For now we're grateful we have such a happy life together in Chicago, even if it's a barren desolate wasteland of cold.

Only 5 more weeks of winter left, right?