Our Trip West

We had such an amazing trip out west! Being home and with all our family made me ache to be back closer to them. I forget how much I love and miss them all until I get to spend time with them.

William was champ of a traveler. He was great on the long flights and a perfect road trip baby as well. I love this kid! His schedule got a little whacked out and we had a couple rough nights while we were traveling, but considering his environment was constantly changing he did great.

Our first stop was Seattle for my brother-in-laws wedding, William's blessing and visiting my family. The wedding was beautiful, even though it turned out to be on a rainy cold Seattle day. William looked so dapper in his black slacks, white button up and red bow tie. I love dressing this kid up! The reception was fabulous and it was so fun to visit with the all our Skidmore family.

William's blessing was great as well. It was so wonderful to have almost all of our family there. We were originally planning on blessing William in Virginia, in which case just our parents would have attended, but it was great to have nearly all our siblings there to at the blessing and luncheon. Also, with some more male relatives there our blessing circle wasn't so pathetic. 

After the blessing Greg returned to Virginia and William and I spent a couple more days at home. It was fun to visit with my younger siblings and catch up with a couple friends from home I hadn't seen in while. Next my mom, Emily, William and I headed off for a road trip to Idaho and Utah. 

First, we got to visit my grandparents at their farm in Idaho, which is something I didn't think I'd get to do again after moving out east. It was hard to see my grandpa in such a changed state. He hardly resembles the man I grew up knowing. Yet, he's still there, even if it's just glimmers of how he used to be. I'm so glad that I got to see him again. 

After a couple days on the farm we headed further south to Utah to visit my sister-in-law, nieces and new nephew. It was bitter sweet visiting my sister-in-law, nieces and new nephew. We took grandkid pictures and it was so fun to see the 4 of them together. Baby David is only 3 days younger than William, but 2 lbs smaller so we started calling William a moose, because compared to David he's huge! My nieces are beautiful, sweet and spunky as ever. It was fun to spend time with them and get to see their developing personalities. 

Our main reason for trekking down to Utah was for Baby David's blessing. It was right that we were there, but it was such a hard day. It was just heartbreaking to know that James should have been there blessing his son. I was a mess - we all were. Still it was good to be there as a family, celebrating David's birth and blessing.

When it came time to head back to Virginia I was not ready to go. I wanted to spend more time with my family, especially since our visits are limited these days. The fact that it was 100 degrees and there was no power at home in Virginia was not that appealing either. I almost changed my flight and headed back home to WA with my parents, but in the end sensibility won out and I flew home as planned. I guess the fates rewarded me for making a sensible choice because 20 minutes before we arrived home our power turned back on. :-)

We've been home for a couple weeks now, but on Wednesday we get to to Florida for a Skidmore family reunion. William will be one well traveled baby by the end of this summer. We're so excited we get to spend another couple days with family!