The perfect weekend!

I have so many things I should be doing right now (!) but as Claire catches up on her zzz's, I thought I would take a minute to blog about our road trip to Sacramento:

Simply put: we had the best time! It was a quick trip in honor of Grandma Janet meeting her first great-grandchild and to introduce Claire to the fabulous people I so lovingly refer to as the Kessler clan. Kevin and I felt nothing but welcomed and loved the entire time. I am so lucky that Kevin's family accepts me like a part of the family - they are so fun to be around! We were blessed by special treatment, like handing Claire off after her morning feeding to her Grandma K and Great-Grandma J while we rushed back to bed for a couple hours of blissful, uninterrupted sleep and pumping bottles so other family members could feed her while we ate a meal together (it's been a while!) and caught up on our Mario Bros. (Did I mention Kevin's grandma has the original Nintendo with the original Mario Bros and it still works!!)

I can't remember when Kevin and I laughed quite as much as we did this weekend. It was a big party in celebration of family. And party we did! Claire is still making up for the change in her schedule. That little girl was having so much fun, she just didn't want to go to sleep. We tried to sneak in a couple naps here and there but she wanted to soak up as much time with her family as possible. If she wasn't kicking around on her play mat, she was in someone's lap just being loved on. The smiles on her face were priceless! It really was one of those perfect weekends filled with great company, interesting conversations (to say the least!), food in abundance and the best part... an open schedule. People have asked what we did while we were there - to be honest, not much of anything. And I wouldn't have had it any other way. Besides Grandma K taking me out on a little shopping spree for Claire Bear, taking Claire on a couple walks to soak up some Vitamin D, and a big family dinner at Cattlemen's on our last night, we pretty much stayed home and visited. It was nice to relax and not worry about an agenda. Kevin and I definitely needed this trip and it came at the right time.

Claire experienced a couple firsts on this trip:
1) Her first road trip (she did great!)
2) Her first bath in a sink
3) Her first time in the sun
4) Her first time sleeping somewhere other than her bassinet
5) Her first time in the grass (she didn't like it on her feet)
6) Her first time at In-N-Out

Here she is enjoying her first sink bath at the hotel

It's ridiculous how much this girl loves tv :)

Just relaxing at Great-Grandma J's house

Being loved on by Great Auntie Trish

Our last dinner

Feed me, Uncle Keith!!

Enjoying her first In-N-Out experience :)

Now, as we transition back to the reality of Oregon weather in March, we will remember the couple days spent in the morning sun picking oranges from Grandma J's tree, making fresh orange juice, having Mario Bros wars, sitting on the back patio in the sun and visiting with those we love. Sacramento, thanks for being so good to us! We will be back soon.