Rocky Mountain High

After being on the road all morning and having to deal with all the build-up, excitement and anxiousness of finally arriving and having everyone meet and hold Allen Jess for the first time... it was such a welcome relief, albeit an extremely exciting welcome relief, when we did finally pull up to the driveway and honked the horn to announce our arrival!

Our arrival was such a big event that the first person to greet us was actually the Mayor believe it or not! Naturally, Mandi was quite smitten over meeting her new Nephew! But it was rather chilly outside for lengthy meet & greets... even if it was the Mayor, so we went inside so that Sammy could have his turn and meet his new Cousin.

"Dude... how long was I out for? Where am I? It is freaking cold out there! And who is this crazy lady that's holding me???"

With Jason at work and Hampton in school, Mandi & Sammy were the only ones left at home to greet us that afternoon. The only 'humans' that is! The High-Ridge's three pets, Minou, Little Keadon, and Gabe, were there to happily say hello and get lots of love and pettings! Okay, so only Gabe was actually there to happily say hello... I'm sure the two cats could've cared less!

It had only been a little over three months since we last saw Sammy and his crazy family, but it was definitely good to see them all again!

Jei gladly gave up holding & feeding duties to the more experienced, while taking some time to relax and catch up on all things Meeker related.

We then moved the party downstairs...
when someone decided to poo their pants!

Although it was quite tempting to sit around and stare & play with Allen all afternoon, we had another little Cousin to pick up from school... so a quick diaper change and another layer of warm clothes was put on in preparation for the short stroll through town.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

It had definitely been a mild fall so far... occasional spots of snow & ice on the ground, but for the most part the streets and sidewalks were snow free and perfect for strolling!

Sammy led the way with Gabe in tow...

or was it, Gabe led the way with Sammy in tow?!

We felt bad putting Allen back into his car seat again and feared he would pitch a fit, not to mention freeze is little hiney off... but much to our surprise, he was comfortable, warm and eventually fell right back to sleep!

Pushing Allen Jess around in that big strolller looked like so much fun, Sammy actually wanted to give it a try... and did a very good job!

After picking up John Hampton from school and dragging him away from playing with his friends, we got home and reminded him of who we were...

...and introduced him to his almost two-month-old Cousin.

Jason finally made it home and joined in on all the fun!

With all the family now at home and everyone taking turns holding and loving on Allen, it was only a matter of time until sweet Gabe wanted to give Allen Jess some lovings too!  

Not so sure Allen was all that comfortable with dog breath and slober in the beginning...

But in the end, the two got along just fine!

Sammy made sure Aunt Gema's delicious cookies didn't go uneaten!

Thanks Aunt Gema!!! 

It definitely was a long day, ending with me ineviteably getting sick... but it felt so good to be in Meeker again and with my Sister's awesome family for the week! We don't have a lot planned, but with all of us together, I'm pretty sure that won't matter a whole lot... for there is never a shortage of fun when we all get together!

Road Trip!

Thanksgiving week couldn't come fast enough! Okay, so it wasn't one of those four month long waiting in crazy-anticipation periods between finding out you're going somewhere awesome and the day you actually get to go and enjoy it. This one was just a mere two weeks long... but those two weeks certainly felt like two months! I'm still kind of amazed at how everything just seemed to work out really. Moe-Joe and Dad-Oh had already planned to fly out to spend Thanksgiving with the "High-Ridges" in Colorado... and Jei & I certainly had no plans, so it was just a matter of me getting the time off from work. And as luck would have it... two weeks out and I got the word that I had gotten the time off that I requested and that meant only one thing: ROAD TRIP!

I suppose we had a little trepidation about driving our almost two-month-old 13 hours to northwest Colorado during arguably the busiest traveling week of the year amidst potentially some of the worst weather of the year... but if we really did, it sure didn't last very long... for we were way too excited and anxious to see our family and finally introduce Allen Jess to his Aunt Moo, Uncle Jason, Cousin Hamp, Cousin Sammy, Minou, Little Keadon, and of course Gabe!

So on an extraordinarily crummy and rainy Sunday afternoon, we threw all our luggage in the back of the truck and covered everything in plastic I luckily had lying around in the garage so that we wouldn't get into Colorado with a bunch of wet clothes!  We then buckled Allen Jess in, reset the tripometer, cranked up the tunes, and waved goodbye to rainy Southern California for the week! 

We knew Allen was a good traveler... but didn't think he'd be 13 hours in a car seat good! So with that in mind, in addition to the late start we got, we played it safe and decided to split the drive up. But even with the long six hour plus drive deep into the night, Allen Jess did amazingly well! Of course having Jei bouncing back & forth between the front and back seat making sure someone didn't throw a complete tantrum made all the difference in the world!

Las Vegas wasn't quite halfway, so we drove on by with sad puppy-dog faces imagining all the fun everyone else was having! The funny part about it though was that on our way back home a week later we actually did end up stopping and staying the night in Vegas! Unfortunately, we found ourselves in some strange bizzaro world that night... as we stayed in a Comfort Inn a block away from the strip, ate In-N-Out for dinner, and were in bed by nine O'clock!!! We naturally thought it was some really cruel nightmare or something... but then we looked up and saw the big bright blinking neon sign that read:

WELCOME TO PARENTHOOD! 

And then we both looked over at Allen, smiled and felt extremely blessed! ...and then we made sure to tell him that in 21 years he'll get to come back without his dorky parents and appreciate Vegas the right way; i.e. NOT in a Comfort Inn!!!

We were up super early the following morning... for the faster we got out on the road, the sooner we'd see Mandi & the Boyz! We weren't real sure how the little guy was going to handle being put back into his car seat and back into the truck so soon after coming out... but much to our relief, he was another fantastic traveler for the second half! 

Back on the road again... as we made our way across the beautiful state of Utah. Of course Allen Jess missed all the amazing mountains, rock formations and scenery along the way, for the poor thing just couldn't keep his eyes open long enough! 

A quick pit-stop in Grand Junction for some gas, food, a much needed diaper change and a good stretch... and then we were back on the road again for the last hour and a half leg before we got into...

Small, beautiful, quaint, and apparently historic... Meeker, Colorado!

A week long vacation... visiting family... spending Thanksgiving all together... so yeah, needless to say, it was a good time! So much so in fact... that a certain spoiled little baby boy wasn't too happy when we strapped him in his car seat again and told him that we actually had to leave and go back home!

But lucky for us he got over it rather quickly and decided to sleep it off!

But of course it wasn't all counting sheep and catching Z's on the road... there was some play time too!

Allen Jess's 'Face-Palm'!

"OMG... these two seriously cannot be my parents!"

...referring to Jei & I belting out Abba's 'Dancing Queen' 

as it played on the radio in the middle of nowhere Utah!

In the end, we managed to make the 26-plus hour, 1700 mile round trip excursion rather quite successfully... without having to stop in the middle of nowhere to calm a fussy baby, without running out of gas (which we almost did!), and without Jei wanting to strangle me and/or me wanting to strangle Jei!  I'm not so sure it could have worked out any better than it did to be honest... and we were both very proud of Allen Jess for being such a good traveler!  Heck, some of us even made it home with smiles on their face!