New Year, New Baby, Girls' Trip to Salt Lake

It was well worth the winter trip up to Salt Lake to meet the little Sloan dude:

I cannot say how much we instantly fell in love with him.  He is such a dreamy baby and so stinkin' cute (let's face it, few babies ARE actually CUTE.)  Harriet would have held him for the entire time we were there if she could have.  She has been talking about seeing him since the day we found out Jessica was pregnant and continues to talk about him daily since we left.  It is really too bad she can't be a big sister.  She would make an excellent big sister.

 Grace maintains her strict "no baby holding" policy she has kept since she was one year old when she threw her new baby doll from Santa over her shoulder and never touched it again.

 I had to wait a day to hold him since I had just been so sick (this also happened when I went to meet baby Kate.)  I was still a little sick when we got there and I wanted to be super sure I was well so that I could snuggle him up to my face and kiss him and touch him.  Good job, Jessica and Nick, on making such an adorable kid!!

 Whoa, Aunt Shell must have been really sick.  She doesn't look so hot.

aaannndd... the only cousin picture we took.  totally blurry.  totally full of rug-rats.  

(wait, there's one more, but Kate, Harriet, and Sloan won't look at the camera.)

So, since baby Sloan really didn't want us holding him for 7 straight days, we did have to find a few other things to do.  With the FA-REEEZZZZZING temps in Salt Lake and the icky air inversion, we mostly limited ourselves to inside activities.  However, Grace and Harriet could NOT resist the amazing fluffy snow they found in Aunt Lissie's back yard.  We do not get snow like this in Albuquerque and they were mesmerized.  (Even in New England where we got a lot of snow, it was never fluffy and sparkly and dazzling.)  Grace could swear she could see the patterns of the individual snow crystals.

 So pretty much every single day, no matter how cold, Grace would gear up and head outside for at least a few minutes of "going snowing."  She tried to soak in as much as she could.  I am really going to cry when she grows up and moves to Alaska where her soul belongs.

The cousins decided to make real "snow cones" out of ice cream cones and fresh snow.  I warned them to watch out for the yellow snow (one cousin may be known to pee in the yard, as well as neighborhood cats.)  No one wants a lemon snow cone from the yard.  

We celebrated the heck out of the New Year.  It's Grandma Pearlie's birthday on New Year's Eve.  We went over to blow out candles with her and have a piece of birthday cake in the afternoon.  It's pretty cool that the kids can get to know their great-grandmas.

Grace had fun with Grandma's player piano.  

Then, Uncle Randy never disappoints with his awesome firework shows.

you have to bundle up to enjoy New Year's fireworks in SLC.

Throw in Grandma Debbie and Aunt Lis and their good food, we were set for a great night in - waiting for Taylor Swift to take the stage on TV.  She was such a tease, she didn't play until midnight.  The kids went to bed at 11:40 and missed her.  Although, Grace was watching her clock on her ipod in bed and at midnight I heard her weakly call out "appy nw yr" from her bed.  Funny kid.

My mom had a pretty New Year's Day brunch.  I miss my mom's table during the holidays.  Something about the way your mom cooks and decorates and sets the table always feels just right, doesn't it?

Aunt Em and Grandma pulled out the gingerbread sleighs to make.  It has become a tradition to make something gingerbread with Grandma during the holidays.

Then, Grandpa Lyle invited us over to his house.  The kids don't get to play here much because he is hardly ever home and often just comes to see us at Aunt Lissie's.  But, it is a fun treat when it happens.

The girls both got to spend some one-on-one time with Grandma.  Grace really wanted to go to the special Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit.  She saw a billboard for it on the way into town and instantly started asking to go.  It turns out Grandma wanted to go too, so I took the two of them down to The Leonardo museum in the old Salt Lake Library.  No photos were allowed inside and it was too cold to stand around outside taking pics, so we took one when we got home.  It was truly an amazing exhibit and a rare chance to get to see some of Leonardo's inventions and paintings up close.  Grace constantly amazes me.  One of the installments was a military bridge that Da Vinci had invented for soldiers to make a quick bridge with nearby trees - no hardware or carpentry needed.  Totally ingenious.  There were supplies to try to recreate it, so Grace sat down on the museum floor and made the whole bridge.  Such a cool kid.

Harriet chose to take Grandma to the Utah Museum of Natural History.  Why didn't I take pictures there?  Who knows.  But, I didn't.  That is one of our new favorite places to visit when we go to Salt Lake and we love taking Grandma with us.

We spent the rest of the trip just trying to visit and hang out with family and a few friends as much as possible.  One of the girls' favorite things is to go visit Aunt Jess's dog Dante.  I never get over how big he is.  He is a very cool dog with a great personality too.  

Soaking up more Sloan time.

Oh, whew, here I am looking a little less like a dead corpse while holding the baby.  

 Grace would like to take the dog home.  Harriet would like to take the baby home.  I love them both, but I'm also happy to let Jessica raise them and just visit sometimes.

Grace and Sean are rarely seen without electronics in hand.  They get along so well and will play for hours together.  I'm so glad that even though my kids don't really have cousins their exact ages, they get along with all of their cousins really well and have a great time.

Salt Lake, you treated us well once again.  We love our trips to Salt Lake and can't wait for the next one.  Although, I think I will wait until summer for the next one.  You can keep your cold and inversions and snowbanks.  

We are very much looking forward to having baby Sloan, Aunt Jess, and Grandma visit us at our house next month!  Thank you so much for planning the trip so we don't have to wait too long to see the little guy again.