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We flew up to Spokane last weekend to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with the Hornors. This was the first time that we flew anywhere with the boys. Wow. Those of you that have traveled with children know what I mean by that. The Alaska Airline people were really great and the boys were as good as can be expected, but it was still really hard. We had to carry around with us three carry-ons (one a diaper bag) a car seat to put in the seat we bought for the boys, two strollers, and two babies. They needed to be fed and changed and entertained. And we get to do that all again on Tuesday when we head home.

Once we got here everything was great. We are having a wonderful time staying with Susan and Rick, and we got to spend time with Rachel’s siblings Gwen and her fiance David, Sara, Alex, and Neil and his wife Tiffany and their 3 month old daughter Nadia. We also saw many of the Hornor family friends including, but not limited to, the ever popular Judy Potter, the Kendalls (happy 70th birthday to Jay!) and Bob and Claire. From the previous generation, Rick’s twin brother Randy (yes it’s Rick’s and Randy’s fault that we have twins) and Randy’s wife Sherry visited and I think that today we’re going to see Rick’s brother Greig and his wife Annie. Thanksgiving dinner was delicious thanks to Susan, Rachel and Tiffany who are all amazing cooks, although I will never understand green bean casserole. Also, I think Rick’s OCD deserves a special thanks for keeping everything so clean and tidy.

The unfortunate part of the visit is that Noah got a bad cold and subsequently gave it to Rachel and me. This is the first time either one of them got sick and as you can imagine, we had no idea what we were doing. Poor Noah was so miserable. He’s used to sleeping with a pacifier, but he couldn’t breathe with one, so he had a really hard time sleeping. We took turns sleeping with him upright on the sofa during the first night. On the second night he did better and Susan held him all night and the two of them slept pretty well all cuddled up. Last night Noah slept in his pack-n-play and amazingly slept through the night. He’s still not feeling well, but he’s much much better.

Rachel and I are exhausted and not feeling well ourselves. Still, we went on Friday to see The Lion King at the Spokane Opera House and it was undoubtedly the most amazing show I’ve ever seen. We both loved it and we’re so grateful to Susan and Rick for taking care of Jesse and ill Noah while we were living it up. They have been so generous, loving and caring that we feel overwhelmed by it.

So it’s been a great visit so far. And as a reward for your reading this long ramble, Jesse, who miraculously has not caught this cold from all of us, is going to make you laugh.